Shurin is a good song writer. It is a shame he did not have a successful career in music

this picture was taken by a student in the hesder yeshiva of Bet El. The student wrote that often guests come in to the yeshiva, and frequently the guests are former students. These two soldiers had been on duty in the area and at the end of their long day they came in to the yeshiva , in full gear, and sat down to learn - one of them even holding his radio device in case he would need to be ready to go at moment's notice...

the picture was publicized by Yedidya Meir in the Basheva newspaper, and then the rosh yeshiva of the hesder yeshva of Holon called him to tell him that these boys are from his yeshiva, but, he said, he is not calling to brag to show what he produced, as all the credit goes to the boys alone. The rosh yeshiva said it is important for everyone to know what type of people, what fruits are blossoming, the yeshivot hesder are producing...
posted by Yedidya Meir online

The fight against the Women of the Wall, and the Reform Movement, taking hold an official spot at the Kotel, as per the agreement recently arrived at, has just taken an interesting turn. The fight against them has received support from an unexpected source..

The Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, has condemned the government decision to establish the new prayer area. The Mufti called the decision  a "brutal attack" on the Waqf and is further testimony to the Israeli attack on Muslim holy sites in an attempt to Judaize Jerusalem.
source: Maariv

If anything might get the government and/or the Supreme Court justices to change their mind about this it is the possibility of upsetting the Muslims, specifically the Mufti who might then cause Jordan to getting involved...

It will probably come to nothing, but it is an interesting development.

One ironic point in all this is that the Mufti says this additional prayer complex along the wall is proof of an attempt to Judaize the area, while the Haredi opponents to the plan are saying it is an attempt to de-Judaize the area.

The following is an interesting development.

The talmidim of the Chevron Yeshiva have been unhappy with the kosher phone system. They say the system is easily hackable. To that end, it seems many of the students in the yeshiva, and even some of the rabbonim there, are using hacked kosher cellphones.

Therefore, the yeshiva has established some sort of committee of students that are working to develop an acceptable, alternate, kosher phone, that won't be hackable but will also allow more than just phone calls - it will allow use of the camera and the function of music player.

The boys have run into a bit of a snag, in that they have upset the people who run the kosher phone system, the committee of something or other, along with unnamed haredi educators. They are worried about this breach in their system that they say will weaken their strength, and will lead to other phones, that won't necessarily be authorized, getting into the system. They say letting this initiative succeed will be very dangerous and they must do everything possible to thwart it.

The additional problem they have is that this is coming out of Chevron Yeshiva. In the Haredi world, Chevron is one of the elite yeshivas. If they get away with it, it won't just remain a local allowance, but will quickly spread out of [their] control to other yeshivas and communities.
source: Kikar and Kikar

Basically, they successfully created a monopoly and are now worried that their monopoly might be cracking, and are therefore trying to protect it.

And, the askanim involved in the committee for kosher communication think they know better than the roshei yeshiva of Chevron Yeshiva, who are approving of this. Assuming they do everything by rabbinic decisions, they might want to consider finding a way to listen to the rosh yeshivas saying they allow their students to use this.

And, if the askanim say things like - "if a student wants a music player, let him buy a music player, and if he wants a camera, let him buy a camera, but why does he need it all in his phone? " - then I would like to know - if a student is going to have a music player and a camera, in addition to his phone, then what is the difference and why is it so bad to have the music player and the camera as part of the phone itself?

from a Haredi journalist..

התפללו לרפואת הגאון רבי אריה מלכיאל בן רישל, ראש ישיבת לייקווד שהחליק במהלך סקי בשווייץ ונפצע קלות. לרפואה שלמה בתוך שאר חולי ישראל.

— אברהם גרינצייג (@avigrin10) February 1, 2016

is it a joke or not? I don't know, though it does not sound like it.

I do know that you would never see an Israeli rosh yeshiva or gadol going skiing....

MK Miki Rosenthal (Hamachane Hatzioni) has proposed a law that would put an end to the phone spam we all get from non-profit organizations.

The law against spam, including phone spam, is already on the books prohibiting businesses fro spamming the public. A person spammed has the ability to sue said company for 1000nis per spam message (including phone calls).

Yet, non-profits were never included in this law. That leaves us open to the fairly regular phone calls we receive from organizations such as Mosdot Kever Rachel and Mekubalim of Rashbi and others asking for donations, using their proven methods to get people to give.

Rosenthal's proposal will take the same law that applies to businesses preventing them from spamming us, and applying it to these organizations as well. And, yes, if the law passes, you will be able to sue these organizations to the tune of 1000nis each time they call you.

This proposal has already been brought to the Knesset. In the previous government it passed its first reading, and now it is being brought for the final votes and, hopefully, passage into law.

I am curious if the religious/Haredi MKs will vote against the proposal in order to protect these organizations that are mostly "religious" in nature, or if they will vote in favor in order to protect the public from this spam. Let us not forget - it passed the first reading, but that was in the previous Knesset term that was Lapid's coalition, not Shas and UTJ (I leave Habayit Hayehudi out because they were in the last Knesset and were ok with it).

The news is reporting that Aryeh Deri left the Knesset yesterday, avoiding participation in a couple of votes important to Netanyahu, out of anger in response to a tweet put out by Netanyahu.

Netanyahu tweeted the government's accomplishment in bringing down the cost of public transportation.

Deri was upset that he was not given credit for this, and Netanyahu was seemingly taking the credit for himself.

Poor Deri. Netanyahu as Prime Minister was simply announcing a government accomplishment. He was not taking credit for himself, though he, as prime minister, does get overall credit for all the government's accomplishments, and gets blame for the government's failures. That is the way it works. Deri might have pushed for it as his agenda, but at the end of the day Netanyahu heads a government that had to do whatever necessary to pass it.

I am surprised Deri, a seasoned politician, can't handle such a minor annoyance - a tweet crediting the government and not him specifically.

Should Netanyahu have given Deri more credit in public for being behind the program? Perhaps. I am no expert in how such announcements must be formed, and who should be given credit at what point and when the credit should be more general. Even if Netanyahu should have given Deri specific credit for this, Deri gotnutty over what should have been a very minor annoyance - especially considering everything Deri has achieved in this government so far.

I always enjoy listening to Benny Rabinoviych...


Porush compares the decision to throwing treif to the dogs..

פרוש - רפורמים from Kooker on Vimeo.

I haven't heard anything about Glenn Beck in a long time, bu tit looks like he is planning on making aliyah soon (to avoid armageddon)...

I was relatively unimpressed with Netanyahu's statement, warning actually, at a conference with ambassadors yesterday.

Netanyahu warned:

If we are attacked from the tunnels in the Gaza Strip we will act with very great strength against Hamas, and with much greater strength even than that of Operation Protective Edge,

We have yet to deal that death blow to Hamas or Gaza. However badly we hit them in Operation Protective Edge, they don't seem to have been affected all that much. They are still living their lives, they are rebuilding their infrastructure, they seem relatively unintimidated by Israel, they are rebuilding their network of tunnels crossing Israel's border. They use the images of a destroyed Gaza to their benefit in fundraising and sympathy-raising, so it is to their benefit if Israel hits them hard.

So, threatening Hamas with a reminder of protective Edge, is not any great shakes. They lived through Protective Edge and that did not scare them enough to stop preparing for the next round.

The question is, what is Israel doing now to destroy the terror tunnels? Why does Hamas seem to continue to develop their tunnel network with the weather being their greatest impediment - where is Israel in this story? Why is Netanyahu's threat only "if we are attacked from the tunnels" - is he ok with the tunnels themselves, and the potential they hold, just not if they are actually put to use?

without taking away Obama's part in the strained relationship that seems to exist between Israel and the USA (on a political/diplomatic level) for a variety of reasons, from about 14:30 in the following clip Obama says, a few times, that we are all Jews, when talking about opposing anti-semitism.

I just wan to point out that Obama has been strongly chided online many times in the past for not openly standing with Israel, not having social campaigns supporting Israel in the face of terror, not speaking up [enough], and the like. And now, when he is talking about anti-semitism, and says "we are all Jews", he gets chided for being insincere, and how can he say that considering the Iran deal he brokered, and things like that..

Obama can't win if he doesn't say we are all Jews, and he can't win if he does say "we are all Jews". Je Suis Jews.

The touching song was Composed by Rabbi Eliezer Shlomo Schick (Mohorosh - Breslov) together with R' Shlomo Carlebach, now has a whole new taste,