My car keeps shabbos! That is the new way I can describe my car.

"New?" you ask. What is the old?

The old description is "my car was drafted to the army". But that is for another post.

So what is this new thing about my car keeping shabbos?

Shas MK Yehuda Margi is proposing a new law that would require car owners to not use their car one day of each week and let it sit idle. The car owner would choose which day of the week the car would sit idle. The owner would register his car for the specific day, would stick a registration sticker on his windshield stating which day is his car's "day of rest" and life goes on.

Of course that means on that day the driver would not be allowed to drive his car. He would get a hefty fine if caught driving on his chosen day.

The idea of it is to cut down on energy waste, traffic accidents and air pollution.

The precedent for this is after the Yom Kippur war a similar system was instituted to save on fuel consumption, due to the energy crisis at the time.

So, if I had to choose a day, I would choose shabbos, Saturday, and then I could officially say, "My car keeps shabbos".

If they really want to give incentive for people to stop driving one day a week, he should give some sort of reduction in the car taxes. We find this commonly among insurance providers who offer a discount for people who do not drive on shabbos, because the car is off the road one day a week. We find it on cellphone deals, and in other service providing fields as well. A deduction in the taxes and registration fees would be a nice addition to this law.

Ynet has a video of a shocking traffic accident that happened yesterday. A driver on a motorcycle attempted to squeeze between two trucks.
What happened to him is what happens, or almost happens, in all the movies that include car chases and drag races. That is, he did not make it out from between the trucks and got smashed.

Moshe Yisraeli ended up laying in the street for a couple of minutes and bled to death.

The shocking part of it is not the dangerous way the victim was driving, trying to squeeze between two trucks. I have seen much worse driving on any given day. Just this past Sunday night on my way back from Bnei Brak I saw two crazy drivers in two separate incidents. One of them switched lanes at high speed squeezing between two cars in alternate lanes to get in and zip by. The second was a similar situation.

It seems like everybody is in a rush, which is the reason traffic kills more people than terrorism and war in Israel. Considering Israel is technically, and even literally, a war zone, and considering Israel is home to non-stop terrorism, that means the traffic situation is pretty bad.

So, Yisraeli's driving is not shocking. Nor is it shocking that the accident resulted in his death. When you play with fire, you might just get burned. When you try to squeeze in between two moving trucks in traffic, you might just get crushed.

What is shocking though is the lack of response and assistance by Joe Q. Israeli (no relation to Joe Settler).

In the video you can see (not really well, but you can see it) cars continuing on their way. Drivers avoid the guy laying in the street and drive around him and his moped.

While society in Israel is changing, and people are minding their own business more than they used to, it still is a very caring and sharing society. If you walk outside in the sun with a baby, Israelis will come out of the woodwork to tell you that you should cover your baby's head from the sun. If you fall down in the street, 5 or 6 Israelis will immediately run over to see if you need help. If you are at the window in the bank, the Israeli behind you will offer advice how to pay less bank fees, or where you can get a better rate on your mortgage.

It is surprising that nobody stopped within the first minute or so and jumped out to help the guy.

As Israel becomes more and more like a Western country (i.e. United States) (for example, in terms of full capitalism and privatization, etc) we find more and more that people are concerned with themselves. People are less concerned with what is going on around them than they used to be. I've got to get to work. I don't have time to stop and help. Don't inconvenience me. I am in a rush.

The sad result of copying the West is the deterioration of the concern we always had for others around us. Now we just don't want to be inconvenienced. (not that this happens in the US, just it is a result of our copying the US in other things)

Working in the public sector must be great! In general, the public sector has a reputation of the salaries being on the low end of average, but the benefits are supposed to be amazing. By "benefits", I refer to sick days, vacation days, bonuses, transportation expenses, maternity leave, etc.

Abraham Hisrchson, the Finance Minister, is under investigation for fraud, embezzlement of public funds, and other nefarious activities. The police have not been able to locate a goog explanation for the source of his money and he has, supposedly, not provided them with any good answers.

The police announced, it was reported in the newspapers, that they will be looking for the source of tremendous amounts of assets in Hirschson's name.
These assets include (but are not limited to):

• a house in Holland
• gas stations
• Swiss bank account
• plots of land allocated for building, in the Golan Heights and Zichron Yaakov
• house with land in Ramat Aviv

Hirschson has been a worker in the public sector for the past 40 years. The fact that he was able to accumulate such amazing wealth so as to be able to afford all that (and more), either says a lot for his actions, or a lot for salaries in the public sector.

Olmert has been under investigation for the selling of a number of houses at questionable prices that indicated possible fraud and breach of trust, with the possibility of bribery. Olmert, too, has been a public servant his entire career, and even more so, he is the son of a public servant as well. Where he got the money to purchase million dollar homes, and half million dollar homes, also raises questions.

A while back when Olmert was asked about all the great real-estate deals he has been a part of, his response was, "I have houses just like the average person. Doesn't everybody have property to sell?". I guess the salaries must be really high. He thinks the average Israeli owns similar properties.

Maybe I should move over to work in the public sector!

Sorry for not posting anything today (other than the HH link). I am felling kinda brain dead and lethargic after Lag B'Omer...

Barbaraposted HH #115 and did a great job. She is a new host for Haveil Havalim and came out with a bang. Head on over.

These are some of the things I wonder about on Lag B'Omer:

1. Do you ever stand around at the bonfire wondering what the point of it really is?
2. Why is it that only real Yerushalmim know how to celebrate Lag B'Omer around a bonfire while everyone else just looks at it not knowing what to do and feeling kinda silly?
3. When did Lag B'Omer become a campfire, where after a few minutes of dancing and singing offkey songs that are too long, all we are concerned about is roasting our marshmallows and hotdogs?
4. Where does all that wood suddenly come from? During the year I never see so much wood around the neighborhood..
5. Why do we already listen to music at night of Lag B'Omer when the halacha only eases up on the restrictions at earliest on Lag B'Omer day? Is it because the issur on music is not really so assur?
6. How am I supposed to go to so many events on Lag B'Omer? we have 2 weddings today, a school bonfire, work, and that is already after last night's bonfires.
7. Who cleans up all the ash and soot around the neighborhood from all the bonfires?
8. How come I never see kids shooting bows and arrows in the park? When I was a kid, nobody lit bonfires on Lag B'Omer but we shot bows and arrows in the park.
9. Where was everybody in shul today? I went to my regular morning minyan and there were about 12 people there! Did the rest all go to Meron?

Feel free to add your own in the comments. I might add some during the day as I think of them..

I have been thinking some more of the criticism levelled at Ehud Olmert since the release of the Winograd Report. I would like to clarify something and possibly disagree with what I think is being taken from this whole mess.

I think that the public is beginning to criticize the actual decision to go to war. Thinking back to the rally and some of the articles I have read, it seems to be that the public, or some of it at least, has turned the Winograd Commission's findings into a source of criticizing Olmert for everything.

From what I read of the Winograd Report, the criticism seemed to be of the decision making process and the lack of leadership. I do not think the decision to go to war was criticized. Rather, how that decision was made, and how the war was (mis)managed and the decision making process during the war was faulty.

The fact that we went to war seems to have been necessary and forced upon us. Israeli sovereign territory was attacked, on two fronts (Gaza and Lebanon borders). Israeli soldiers were attacked and abducted, on two fronts (Gaza and Lebanon borders).

That needed a response. No country can take that sitting down and act like nothing happened. Israel had to go to war. Ehud Olmert's decision to go to war, i think, was fine and necessary. That is the minimum a state is obligated to do in such a situation. The basic tenet of any government is to protect its citizens from foreign attack. Had the government stood down and not responded, that would have been even worse, and they would have forfeited their right to call themselves a government.

The problem is the process of making decisions was faulty. Olmert was rash. he was inexperienced and did not have the right advisers. He relied too much on Dan Halutz's opinion. Halutz refused to listen to anybody who said something other than what Halutz wanted to hear. Olmert made decisions without analyzing all options thoroughly. etc. etc. read the Winograd Report for all the things he did wrong.

The initial response, though, was basically correct.

The rally was great. I am happy I went. I got there a little early and walked around the grounds as it was beginning to fill up. I took pictures of a bunch of different signs, you can see some of them below (I tried to upload more but blogger was giving me problems with it..).

The rally had a distinct secular feel to it. I have been to a lot of hafganot over the nearly 17 years I have been in Israel. Rallies of all types supported by all sorts of groups. This was unique. Almsot all rallies are supported by a political party. Almost all rallies are sectarian, to a degree. Religious, settler, right-wing, left-wing, kach, whatever.

This rally was none of the above. The rally had no affiliation with any political party and no politician was invited to speak. The exception to that was the rally organizer who is a politician wannabe. He ran in the last national elections under a party (Tafnit) he had formed, but failed to win any seats in Knesset. He was the main organizer of the event, and while he is involved (sort of) in politics, he organized it as a reserve duty officer, not as a political representative,

The rally was completely mixed between religious and non-religious. I think the percentages of non-religious were greater than religious. I might be wrong, but that was the impression I had. Of all my friends who I asked if they would be going, not a single one told me yes. They all said it would be mostly non-religious, and they wanted to leave this one for them. They did not want it to seem like a settler protest, or anything similar. So a lot of people stayed away, and, I think, while it was very mixed, it was overall non-religious.

Everybody stood together with one goal. To tell Olmert he must resign. The speakers I heard were great (I left a little early, so I did not hear them all) and they gave over their messages clearly and strongly.

As I was walking around before it began, an older, secular fellow came over to me and said (in Hebrew), "I am surprised you are here." I looked at him and said, "Why are you surprised? I am part of the nation - one of the people. I am here for the same thing you are here for." He shook my hand and moved along. I later met some people from Ramat Aviv (a mostly secular elitist stronghold in Tel Aviv) who also expressed their happiness to see me, being I was clearly religious and probaly from the right-wing side of the political spectrum.

After all is said and done - I doubt lmert will resign because of this rally He will ignore it. He does not care what the people think. That is obvious. But I had to so my part, and I am happy I did.

I thought I had an easy solution.

What was the problem, you ask, that needed a solution? To go or not to go. Should I go to the big rally tonight or not. There are reasons for and against. I will get to that in a moment.

So, I thought I had nothing to worry about. I was supposed to be down south this evening near Arad. My brother is in the army and he is on an army base outside of Arad. His base is having Parent's Visiting Day this afternoon and I was going to go, because his (our) parents live in the United States and could not make it to the base.

He called me up this morning and said not to come. All the chayalim bodedim (lone soldiers) are being moved off the base to somewhere else (an undisclosed location). My guess is so they will not feel bad, and homesick, when they see everyone else's parents show up while theirs do not. So anyway, I have nothing to go for.

While that saved me the 2 hour drive and the hassle, even though I was looking forward to it, it created this other dilemma for me.

To go or not to go.

On the one hand, I believe Olmert needs to resign, and that is the purpose of the protest rally tonight. To let Olmert know the people want him to resign. I should join in.

On the other hand, it is probably a waste of time because politicians stopped paying attention to rallies a long time ago.

I have not found anybody who has said they are going. Some people say they are not going either because it is a waste of time, or for another reason. That is, they are concerned that it will look like an "Orange" event. They think that if too many right-wing protesters are there, it will look like a settler rally, similar to the Gush Katif rallies, and the whole public will turn against it, along with even greater chances of the politicians ignoring it. So they say it is better to not go and let it have the flavor of a more general, non-descript crowd.

Many people say they do not know if they will go or not. They will decide at the last minute.

Jameel has a similar dilemma

It is difficult to find the time to waste, and I do believe it will be a waste of time. Going to the rally means I will probably miss all of or at least most of my shiur tonight. it means not having the dinner time with the family. It means going shopping in the morning with the crowds instead of tonight.

I have plenty of reasons not to go, to consider it inconvenient.

But on the other hand, even if they ignore the public's outcry, we have to do our share. We cannot become complacent just because of them. that is what Olmert wants. He wants us to not show up. It means he will have less pressure. Sure, he might (probably) ignore us anyway, but it is the right thing to do.

After writing this little rant, I think I am going to go. I have to do my job and say what I believe in. If he ignores our call, we will have to find another way. But that does not relieve me of my obligation now.

Who read's your blog?

Well, it seems the Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Assistant Chairman of the Israel Police read mine!!

According to Israel National News (sorry, the article is in Hebrew - I could not find it on the English site), they have taken my recommendation to heart. Next time Lag B'Omer falls out on Saturday night, the Chief Rabbinate will not allow the lighting to take place Saturday night at all but only on Sunday so as to avoid chillul shabbos.

In addition, for this years problem, the police will not be setting up on shabbos but will be staying in Meron over shabbos and will be able to avoid chillul shabbos. So it looks like you can go to Meron and celebrate, if you so wish.

Thanks Zvi for sending me the article!

While the debate on making aliya and American Jewry that does not, continues to rage in the comments (if you missed it, you might want to check it out) of that post, something struck me tonight, on a different topic.

No, it was not a rock that struck me :-).

I was in the car tonight on the way home from Kiryat Sefer/Modiin and on the radio there is a fight going on between a talk show host and Reb Goldknopf, head of the Committee for the Holiness of Shabbos - famous from the fight with El Al a few months ago.

What were they fighting about? The details are kind of sketchy, so I do not want to get bogged down by them. I turned the radio on in the middle of the fight, so I did not get the details clear. It is the general issue I want to discuss.

This year, in just a few days, Lag B'Omer will fall out on Saturday night. In America I remember that on Lag B'Omer the school would take us to the park. We would go with some homemade bows and arrows. We would have a game of baseball. We would maybe barbecue some hot dogs. That was pretty much the extent of how we celebrated Lag B'Omer when I was growing up in a religious day school.

If you happen to be in Israel for Lag B'Omer you will experience a culture shock, (if you are one of the subjects of the post linked to above). The whole country pretty much goes up in flames. There is a bonfire in every neighborhood and by every shul. If you live in a religious neighborhood, you might have a bonfire every two feet or so! I never understood why, but the kids do not seem to want to get together and build bonfires together. Rather, each builds his own bonfire. They spend the weeks prior to Lag B'Omer searching for anything flammable and specifically any piece of wood they can find. I find it amazing that all this wood suddenly appears every year just in time to get burned up!

So, the whole country goes up in flames. The largest of the bonfires, and celebrations, is in Meron. Meron is the location of the grave site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It is his death on Lag B'Omer (supposedly) that we are "celebrating" with bonfires, along with the Torah that he revealed when he wrote the Zohar. Tens of thousands of people, and sometimes over a hundred thousand, go up to Meron every year to be by the celebrations at his grave site. I went for the first time 2 years ago. It was a real adventure!

Needless to say, it is a security nightmare.

The police have to prepare a lot to protect the crowd.

Back to the fight on the radio. This year Lag B'Omer falls out on Saturday night. That means the police will be making many of their preparations on Shabbos. Frum and traditional Jews, who care about the holiness of Shabbos, will be forcing the police to work on shabbos in order to protect them on their night-time adventure.

So the debate is going on how much time is needed to prepare for the event. If we say 4 hours (for example), that means whoever goes to Meron before 4 hours has passed from the time shabbos is over will have been part of the cause of chillul shabbos. The debate is going on how much time that is and at what time of Lag B'Omer will it be safe to go to Meron.

One respected Rabbi said people should not go at all to Meron this year, even on Sunday during the daytime hours. He said your presence in Meron at any time over Lag B'Omer will be causing the chillul shabbos. The debate on the radio between R' Goldknopf and the radio host was over a few hours. Goldknopf spoke to one police spokesperson who said they need x amount of time, and the radio guy spoke to someone else who said they need y amount of time (more than x was).

What I want to know is why not push off the Lag B'Omer celebrations, so as to avoid chillul shabbos. The Rabbinate pushed off Yom Ha'Atzmaut and Yom Ha'Zikaron to avoid chillul shabbos. When we have fast days falling out on shabbos or Friday we push them forward or back, so as not to fast on shabbos (other than Yom Kippur). When Purim falls out on shabbos we push part of it back to Thursday and part of it up to Sunday.

So why not push off Lag B'Omer celebrations to Monday?

Yes, I know Lag B'Omer is the 33rd day of the Omer, not the 34th. But so what? We would just be pushing off the celebrations. There is no mitzva d'oraisa to go to Meron and participate in a bonfire on the 33rd day of the Omer, so it should not be more important than Shabbos.

So what could possibly be wrong with pushing Lag B'Omer celebrations to Monday this year?

(and by the way, take this as a warning to plan ahead for next year. next year Lag B'Omer falls out on Friday, so the same issues will apply).

People have posted pictures of Olmert falling asleep from exhaustion at a press conference transferring the control of the Israel Police to its new chairman yesterday.

Jon Stewart has a different take on the situation. enjoy!

Yeshiva guys, video cameras and Rebbe Nachman just don't mix!





(hattip to Mystical Paths )

A readers (thanks whats!) sent me the following irnoic observation by email:

Israel’s sixtieth birthday is next year. I have saved newspapers and magazines from the fiftieth celebration. In 1998, Netanyahu was Prime Minister and Peres was traveling the world scheming to foil government foreign policy. Ehud Barak was campaigning to be the next Prime Minister and Olmert was facing corruption charges. In 2008, Netanyahu may well be Prime Minister and if so, Peres will be undermining his foreign policy abroad. Ehud Barak will be running for Prime Minister and Olmert will be facing corruption charges.

The rumor mill is churning. I have not been able to substantiate this rumor with any reliable source, but it is spreading nonetheless.

Rumor has it that Olmert is coming under tremendous pressure internally from MKs and Ministers from Kadima (even from among those who publicly have come out in support of him) to resign. they are concerned that he is bringing Kadima down with him. they feel Kadima can still be saved, but only if Olmert goes immediately. If he waits until August (when the final Winograd report will be released) to resign, they are worried the damage to Kadima will be irreparable.

So the rumor is that he is caving into the pressure and tonight or tomorrow will announce his resignation.
I have no idea if there is any basis for this rumor, but I wanted to share it with you.

And life goes on...
Olmert thinks this is the only way he can muster up support. The day after the Winograd Report, with the whole political spectrum calling for his resignation, and what is his first move? To announce his intentions to dismantle a settlement. He must figure that by doing so he can get the "esrog" treatment Sharon was given by the Left-wing politicians and media.

Fortunately it is too little too late. There is no way this little gesture to the Left will save him. He is trying though. Watch out, in case he does not resign or get bounced in the immediate future, for plans for a major disengagement (rather than just this little token one). he will need a major one to get the Left on his side.