The following was printed in a Jewish paper in Queens:


To be fair, in the Haredi community, public displays of affection and intimacy, including holding hands in public, between married men and women (yes, even to each other), are frowned upon and looked down upon. I do not know what type of community this is, so I do not know if this is normal for this community and the letter-writer is coming out of left field with an attitude taken from a different community or if this is the local norm and the paper is changing the standards, so I will not comment on it in that regard. While it seems fine to me, I am aware that community standards often dictate these things. My guess would be that the fact the newspaper printed it indicates it is pretty normal for that community. Jewish, frum Jewish, newspapers, are not known for their trailblazing approach on such things matters nowadays, so I would assume they are reflecting the locally accepted norms.

The only other thought I had about it is that the letter-writer might simply have been upset that the newspaper did not blur the face of the Rebbetzin or take her out completely, leaving him snuggling up in an awkward pose against nothing...



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Someone from a shul sent a question to Rav Bentzion Mutsafi asking that some in the shul, among the elders, the founders, want to say a special prayer for the welfare of PM Benjamin Netanyahu who is in a difficult situation politically and with the criminal investigations. The problem is that the younger members refuse to cooperate and allow the bracha to be made, so what should be done? Can a tefilla for Netanyahu's welfare be added or not?

Rav Mutsafi paskened that one can daven for the welfare of someone found in a difficult situation, someone being hounded, especially when all the Haredi institutions and rabbonim are connected to him. Those hounding Netanyahu are hounding the Torah and mitzvos, he added.
source: Kikar

The question is more really why we do not say such tefillos in the regular davening, for the welfare of the ministers and the State, let alone the IDF soldiers, on a regular basis, considering the mandate to do so in Chazal.

If you believe in Netanyahu's innocence, and that he is ultimately good because of all he has done for the Haredi community, I don't see why it is even a question.

the topics discussed in general are all interesting, including therapy in the frum community, shidduchim, politics, and more, but the main focus of this clip going around is regarding the topic at the 1 hour mark of womens faces being erased from publications...

cute

Amazon has basically come to Israel already. They are working with local sellers for distribution of local products through the Amazon site and have now also been running the free shipping promo from the USA to Israel on many items.

For the free shipping, you have to be buying qualifying items (many items qualify), purchase price over $49, and you will get the shipment to Israel free. It is advised to break up orders into multiple orders and keep your them under $75 each so as to avoid VAT charges  and import fees, but for some items you might find it worth paying the VAT but getting free shipping, such as on items you cannot find here, otherwise it is best to keep them generally under $75.

So, you can easily and cheaply buy now in Israel from Amazon.com.


And now Walmart is reportedly in the process of opening its first shop in Israel!

According to Calcalist, they have been working hard to get everything ready and are now at the stage of looking to hire cashiers in Jerusalem. Presumably, if it goes well, they would likely open shops elsewhere around Israel.

There soon wont be any need to look for someone traveling who can bring you something from the States. That is, except for Romanian salamis. But maybe we can get that sold here as well, somehow...

Many people seem to be upset with the State's Prosecutor office for deciding to indict Netanyahu on various crimes such as breach of trust and bribery. I am not sure why everyone gets so worked up when it is Netanyahu in the hot seat and all the little people who have been indicted over the years and convicted of crimes have no right to talk about how the system screwed them because that is undermining the justice system. Netanyahu and his cronies claim corruption, but are they also claiming that everyone currently in jail was railroaded and should be let out or only him? Do all his political backers fighting the injustice also say that the Prosecutors have railroaded everyone else, or is only Netanyahu being railroaded?

Kikar is reporting that Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef has paskened in his weekly Saturday night shiur that one who becomes a State witness to testify against someone else is an evil person and becomes passul from testifying in beis din or at weddings and such.

Rav Yosef says that people should be careful to only adjudicate their issues under the auspices of a beis din and not in secular courts. Besides for the other issues wrong with the secular courts, such as using relatives as witnesses which is no good and the judges not knowing the Shulchan Aruch or the halachos of testimony or court proceedings, they also use state witnesses, which is completely against halacha. If he was part of what happened, he too is a rasha and cannot be a witness.

The truth is, Rav Yosef is only talking about this now because of Netanyahu. He has said this before, as have other members of his family, and this statement is nothing new. In 2018 Rav Yitzchak Yosef himself spoke about judges and lawyers in the secular court system being invalid witnesses. In 2012 Rav Ovadia Yosef, his father, spoke about the same issue. In 2010 his brother Rav Avraham Yosef, then Chief Rabbi of Holon, spoke about this as well. The only difference is that now he singled out the state's witness rather than just talking about the judges and lawyers, but that is just another aspect of the process that he already invalidated.

Haaretz is reporting the the drafting of Haredi young men into the IDF dropped by 20% in 2018.

The article itself online is behind a paywall so here is an image of it that was posted online:



I would note that the article says this is the first time the number has dropped since the IDF started opening special Haredi units in 2007. I would also note that this is notable because many leaders of the Haredi community have said, and the general Haredi community has taken that as writ - I too believed it only based on what they said - that when Lapid was a minister in the government (2013-2015?) the numbers dropped because of him - because Lapid fought against the Haredi community even though he was couching his words in terms that made some people think he was trying to help the Haredi community - it generated a reaction among Haredim and they realized what was really going on and basically circled the wagons and reacted by drafting less, among other things.

So, first of all, that seems to be not true. I never knew that before, but if the numbers presented by Haaretz here are correct, the numbers never dropped until 2018.

And second of all, even if the Haaretz numbers are skewed and not accurate, the claim was always that it was because of Lapid that Haredi young men stopped drafting and caused a decline in the numbers. Now that the numbers dropped in 2018, with no Lapid in sight, with the Haredi parties full members of the government, with probably the most Haredi-friendly government in history, the numbers of Haredi young men drafting has dropped. So the claim of Lapid being at fault was likely almost always disingenuous and a deflection.

I do not know the reason for the decline in the draft percentage. The article doesn't say. There can be a number of causes and influences and it is probably not because of one specific reason, but it seems likely to me now that the reason for the previous decline, if it even happened, was probably not true either.

PM Netanyahu has a daughter from his first marriage. The daughter and her husband live in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. Noa Roath, his daughter, stays away from the limelight and they seem to have a mostly "distant" relationship. Anyways, her son, Bibi's grandson, is seen in this picture greeting shaking hands with the Satmar Rebbe as part of a ceremony of schoolchildren greeting him when he was here recently.

I had heard of this incident, as there was some buzz about it at the time, but only now saw the picture. The teacher or whoever that is seems extremely excited to present this child...