The Sderot Municipal FB account is asking of the Tel Aviv Municipal FB account: a little bit of noise and you got tense? you are invited to our bomb shelters - VIP guest service plus experienced hosts...


and of course the comments are great as well..

here's a great new music video, hot off the presses... great sounding song but even better message..

They proposed a very respectable job for me in the Israeli government.. I said to them, and I tell this to my students abroad, I do not need to be in the government, as truthfully, women rule the world anyway. I believe in all this feminine power.

  -- Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi

We sometimes think that only the Hassidic rebbes of old, of previous generations, could perform outright miracles, but today's rebbes are savvy and can work things behind the scenes, and maybe they are righteous and their tefillos might help in some situations, but not actually perform an outright miracle, today.

Well, Kikar brings us a modern-day Kiddush Levana miracle performed by a modern-day rebbe!

We here in Israel all know that this past weekend, including Shabbos, was pretty rainy, baruch hashem. With kiddush levana meant to be said on Motzei Shabbos, for those who did not already say it, a rainy and cloudy sky could be worrying, especially near the end of the kiddush levana period.

Rabbi Akiva Rabinowitz, the Admor of Porisov, told his hassidim out after the melave malka to go out and say the kiddush levana. Of course they went out, but found no visible moon due to the clouds. The hassidim went back in and told the rebbe they cannot say it because of the wintry weather causing the moon to not be visible. The rebbe repeated his instructions and told them to go out anyway.

With the hassidim chuckling at his attempts, the gabbai took a towel and started to make a wiping motion towards the sky, as if wiping away the clouds. The rebbe encouraged him to continue. The clouds then began to move and moments later the moon was visible! The hassidim said kiddush levana, and all was right again.

I actually witnessed this from afar. In my minyan for Motzei Shabbos maariv, some people had not said kiddush levana the previous week so they wanted to say it then. I stayed to help with the minyan, but unfortunately the moon was covered by clouds. The clouds looked like they were moving quickly, and every few moments we'd get a peek at the moon, but not enough to say kiddush levana. Sure enough, moments later, the clouds continued to move and there was a big gap in the cloud cover exposing the moon for a nice period of time, long enough to say kiddush levana, and the guys were able to happily say it! We were not in Jerusalem at the time, but the Porisov miracle helped my friends as well!

this has somehow become the hot topic of this election season...

All the right-wing parties talking about what they are going to do to limit the power of the Supreme Court because of its decision tonight to invalidate Dr Michael Ben Ari from running for Knesset - they have been in power ten consecutive years already regularly complaining about the SC - why haven't they done anything about it until now?

Any of the parties telling you that they will promote public transportation on Shabbat, don't believe them. It is all slogans. When they need the Haredim to form a coalition, they will forget all of that. Peres already said that for the Haredim he would even be prepared to wear a shtreimel. Don't vote for them..

  -- Moshe Abutbol, in an election panel in Beit Chashmonai

he happens to be 100% correct

Shishi Tarbut is, sort of, a spinoff of ShabbaTarbut which has been running for a long time in cities around the country. It is a cultural event where the host interviews politicians or other people in leadership positions and they discuss various issues of current events. Shishi Tarbut is a spinoff in the sense that some places wanted to be more inclusive and include the religiosu public, and religious politicians and other leaders who would not or could not participate on Shabbos, so they moved it to Friday.

Aliza Bloch brought Shishi Tarbut to Bet Shemesh, in her attempt to improve the level, and amount, of cultural events happening in the city.

I missed the first one a few weeks ago, but decided I wanted to go to the one scheduled for this past Friday, especially considering the powerhouse lineup. The event was scheduled for interviews with Moshe Gafni, Gideon Saar, Moshe Kachlon, and local city councilman Moshe Shitreet.

I was a little disappointed that the hall was relatively empty. I expected with such a lineup of interviews the place would be filled to capacity. It was only about 25%-30% full, and some people were coming and going. I get that it is a new event and many possibly do not yet know about it. Perhaps it needs to be marketed better.

Regarding the interviews, they were as interesting as expected. Moshe Gafni is extremely sharp and witty. Gideon Saar is very measured with his words, very thoughtful and stately. Moshe Kachlon is very down to earth and straightforward. Moshe Shitreet spoke about local affairs and is very open and thinks very broadly in scope. Aliza Bloch opened the event with an introduction, and all the interviewees mentioned during their talks about having met with her and working to improve Bet Shemesh and spoke, briefly, about specific issues they would be helping the city with in the future due to her efforts.







The plan is to have these regularly, though I do not know how frequently. It was mentioned that the next one will be in two weeks, but I originally thought this was mean to be once per month. I guess pay attention to the announcements around town...