MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ) has proposed a law that would grant the same discounted rates on public transportation for students to yeshiva bochurim.

Previously the Finance Minister was opposed to this, but it seems he has been persuaded to agree to let the law pass, so it is being raised now.

The point of the law is based on the recommendation by the Trachtenberg Committee to expand the maximum discounts (50%) to more sectors as a way of promoting the use of public transportation in line with criteria set by Bituach Leumi.
source: Kol Hai News

it is funny to me how everything needs to be voted on as a law. If they want to promote public transportation, or give benefits to specific communities, just set a table of discounts and let qualifying people apply. Declare it to be for a period of 2 years or 5 years or 6 months or whatever, and move ahead. The fact that a discount for a bus ride needs to go through the Knesset is just weird.

There are rumors swirling due to the legal problems that Aryeh Deri is facing. Some are reporting that the Shas rabbinic leaders are preparing for the worst and are looking for Deri's replacement and have even spoken to Eli Yishai about him possibly returning to the mantle of Shas leadership. Others are reporting that the Shas rabbis are denying any such moves and claim that Deri is the leader and there is no other.

I obviously have no personal knowledge of what the Shas leadership is or is not doing, and will not speculate as to what is actually happening.

I will just ask, why Eli Yishai? The same question could have, or should have, been asked a couple of years ago about Deri - why Aryeh Deri?

is there nobody else for Shas to turn to? is there nobody else they can groom for leadership of the party? Are they unable to find anyone capable besides for Deri and Yishai? Deri is an ex-con, and might be a future-con. Did they have to give him the reigns again? They skewered Eli Yishai in the past - do they have to go back to him now? Is there nobody else they can turn to? What happened to the promising young Ariel Attias - is he unavailable? Even if he isn't available or doesnt want the job - is there nobody else? Do we have to just go back to the same two people over and over again?

a pashkevil of sorts was distributed around some Haredi areas of Jerusalem that calls for Haredi draftees to the IDF to kill female soldiers, to kill anybody involved in recruiting or drafting in the army, to kill any commander, and even to kill oneself, as the din of "yaharog v'al yaavor" requires.


The pashkevil is not signed, and is not even designed like the normal pashkevil put out by the Haredim who normally do these things.

There are all sorts of theories and/or accusations out there, and I am not going to feign any guesses as to who is behind this, but I will just say it looks like it isn't the people who normally do these things, and it might very well just be one evil person.

I hope the police and army police investigate, find the guy and prosecute to the fullest for incitement and for any other law he might have transgressed in the process, but I would not give too much significance to the piece of trash who put out the piece of trash, as he does not seem to have the regular anti-Zionist and anti-IDF organizations behind him. What he did is evil, but he is just one idiot doing something idiotic - he surely has no/little public influence, considering the style of the pashkevil.

Yehuda Hayisraeli suffered a sever head injury in 2014 during Operation protective Edge in Gaza. After a year in a coman, he is now doing much better, but has to undergo extensive rehab and will remain handicapped, and will have a very long period of recovery.

His wife, Rivka, has decided to go for a divorce, and he granted it to her, and everybody seems to have been very amenable about it. the rabbonim helped and were accommodating, Rivka went about in a way to not hurt, or as little as possible, Yehuda and his family, and Yehuda and his family granted it without trouble.

I have seen a lot of judgement online about her decision. That is the nature of social media, and if one puts his or her life out there in public on social media, one is setting oneself up for that judgement. The judgement I saw was extreme to both ends, either in support of her decision (though less of this type) and critical of her decision (much more of this, from what I saw).

All I would say about this is that she was put into an impossible situation, and no matter how she would have decided to proceed, her future life was destined to be difficult with tremendously difficult decisions for such a young person, a relative newlywed, to make. Decisions she might not actually even have been capable of dealing with or making. I would not judge her. She is in a no-win situation and nobody out there can possibly know how difficult this decision was for her to make, nor how difficult it would have been for her for the rest of her life to make the opposite decision.

I don't wish upon anybody the need to make such a decision.

Heidi Moses, daughter of ultra-orthodox member of Knesset, Rabbi Menachem Eliezer Mozes and she broke free from the orthodox community at the age of 26. She is now involved as an activist and feminist in the Likud party, lobbying for the rights of women in orthodox communities, among many other things. We visited her hometown Bnei Brak, taking a trip down memory lane and discuss her childhood and upbringing and then made our way to Tel Aviv where she lives a secular life.