This is what I did this Chol Ha'moed:

1. Running of the Zebras... this is similar to the annual Running of the Bulls festival, but not exactly the same. This entails going to the simchas beis ha'shoeva of Toldos Aharon and/or Toldos Avraham Yitzchak, both in the heart of Mea Shearim (I went to both). They dress in striped outer garb (hence the endearing term "zebras"). If you dance with them, the danger of being trampled is almost as bad as it is by the Running of the Bulls. I danced with them and lived to tell the tale..

2. Vasikin at the Kotel. I did this two different days. According to many opinions, other than the first day of sukkos where everybody everywhere has a mitzva d'oraisa to shake the lulav, on all other days it is only a mitzva d'rabbanan. By the Kotel however (actually by Har Habayit, but many include the whole Kotel area as part of this) there is a mitzva d'oraisa all 7 days to shake the lulav.

3. Har Habayit. I had an amazing trip up to Har Habayit. I was able to tour the area, and daven, with people such as Moshe Feiglin, Baruch Ben Yosef, Yehuda Glick, Rabbi Chaim Richman, Rav Yitzchak Levy, and others. We had a big group. A number of us, including myself, succeeded in doing "hishtachavaya", full prostration. We also were zocheh to have birkat kohanim and "aleinu" on the Eastern side just opposite the entrance of the "azarah". Here is a picture taken of the Birkat Kohanim.

4. Vasikin at the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Ha'Machpelah) in Hebron. My trip was not quite as exciting as Jameel's, but going to Hebron and davening at the holy site is always special.

5. Chavat Ha'Shabbos - this was a new thing. At Moshav Beit Meir somebody set up a display and demonstration of many of the more difficult melachot of shabbos. So my kids got to help shear a sheep, plow some land and plant seeds (they did it on a pile of pebbles because of shmitta), thresh and winnow, work a loom, and many more.

6. some other stuff such as national parks and the like..

7. and today my father in law will be making a siyum..

I heard two chumrohs this week, that are new, at least they are new to me. They are also exactly the opposite of each other.

1. A woman who says she cannot eat mezonons outside of the sukkah. I never heard that before and it is unusual because women have no obligation of eating in the sukka at all, so I am unaware of any basis for such a chumroh of her refraining from eating mezonos outside of the sukka..

and the exact opposite chumroh is:

2. A woman who refuses to eat anything inside the sukkah. She thought that because she has no mitzva of eating in the sukkah, it is really prohibited for her to eat in the sukkah, I guess because of "bal tosif". I do not know if she does other mitzvos she is not obligated in like shaking the lulav, hearing shofar, etc..

Being in the haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem always provide for good reading material - on the walls of the city. It is one of the best ways to keep up with the news and the rumors....

I wrote about this first sign previously, now I have the image itself....
The Badat'z had called for a cancellation of all open-air sinchas beis ha'shoeva parties and hakafos shniyos parties due to what they called a problem of tznius that results from these parties. Many places complied. One in particular, the hakafos shniyos in Kikar Shabbos led by Rabbi Menachem Porush, was debating how to respond and whether or not to cancel. This event had been requested to be held originally by the Brisker Rav and the Porush family has done so ever since (don't know exactly, but something like 50 years now..). According to this sign, they are thanking Rav Porush for coming to the decision to cancel. I had not heard he cancelled so I do not know if this is true or just trying to put pressure on him to cancel...

This one is stating that all movies are against the consent of the "gedolei yisroel". It says that there have been movies that were supposedly kosher and under supervision, but you should not believe them as all movies are prohibited. It also says where these movies are being shown. I am not sure why they did this - they are just telling people where to go watch them...
This one is about the ban on open-air simchas beis hashoevas. The Chabad yeshiva decided not to comply. Their reasoning was (as I understood it) that they are not under the authrity of the Badat'z and have no reason to listen to them, along with the fact that they say that they ensure such tznius issues do not exist at their events. They decided to go ahead and hold their open-air party. This sign is calling them out for not listening to the gedolim and doing something which was prohibited by the gedolim.It calls for people to go protest outside the party...

This sign is shmitta related. It states that the veggies (a specific brand) being sold as non-Jewish produce (read: Arab produce) is really from fields in Eretz Yisrael that are owned in partnership with Jews and therefore are prohibited to eat (because of the laws of shmitta). One who has used these veggies in cooking will need to kasher his dishes... The sign adds as a postscript that there are rumors of other such produce being sold as well and it is being checked out before any announcements are made...
This is just a general sign calling for the downfall of the evil Zionist regime..we declare Hashem as the King and separate ourselves from the Zionist control and those who rebel against the King. It declares its wish fr the downfall of the evil regime. It is signed by the Neturei Karta.

ARGHHHHH!!! We were at a farm today and saw:

An air raid siren just went off in Jerusalem where we have been staying for shabbos. The news has no reports of a war having begun so I have no idea why the siren went off.... Must have been a false alarm.

CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!

Playoffs! World Series! Here we come!

When a few Haredi Jews set up a modesty committee we criticize them for imposing their style on others. We criticize them for religious coercion and the like.

I wonder why we never hear criticism when others do it?

I know - some will say we do not expect better from them... That is not a good answer. We should be fighting for their rights as well. We should be concerned about their development of a free society.

I just completed the book "The Case for Democracy" by Natan Sharansky. It is an amazingly refreshing book with bits of history both from the USSR-US Cold War and over years of negotiations and relationships between Israel-Palestinians and the US.

His main theory is the need for a free society rather than a fear society.

The Palestinians are living in a fear society. The only way they will better their lives is by moving to a free society, with our support. If we continue with the attitude that that is who they are and the way they live, nothing will ever improve in their quality of life.

We need to urge them to improve themselves and create a free society where incidents like these become not acceptable and criticize-able.

Today 2 prominent people passed away.

One was Yisroel Segel. He died at the age of 63. He was a journalist and broadcaster. He headed the Israel Broadcasting Authority for a number of years as well. He was an accomplished author. He is the brother of HaRav Dan Segel of Yerushalayim who is one of the leading "Mashgichim" of this generation. The two brothers had a falling out many years ago when Yisroel chose to be not religious. They broke ties and never made nice. Yisroel over the years became not just secular, but virulently anti-religious.

YS recently suffered a coronary while driving on the Ayalon Highway and ended up in the hospital (both for the coronary and the subsequent accident). After being released, he recently went back in due to his deteriorating situation.

After he was released from the hospital the first time (from the coronary) he related that while in his coma he had gone up to heaven and met his father. He says they made peace with each other at this meeting..

The second death was of Rav Avraham Shapira at the age of 96. He had served as Chief Rabbi of Israel. Rav Shapiro was also head of Yeshivas Merkaz HaRav, the most prestigious yeshiva of the National Religious community, and was one of Religious Zionism's leaders. He was, by all accounts - even among the haredi public - a prestigious Rosh Yeshiva and a brilliant mind. He had corresponded extensively in halacha with the Chazon Ish.

Baruch Dayan Ha'emes.

In honor of Chol Ha'Moed Sukkos, here is a video of a simchas beis hashoeva. This is Shlomo Simcha (not my son) playing the music at a Simchas Beis Hashoeva in Arizona...

Some Erev Sukkos images...

This is the table of the guy selling the Yemenite esrogim. he was very friendly. He gave me a slice of Esrog. They arevery sweet, in contrast to our ashkenazy esrogim.. you can see the large ones in front. The even mroe interesting one is the orange one. He told me the gemara mentions an orange esrog, but I do not remember it. I will have to look for it..

These are the esrogim being sold on the table from Kfar Chabad. They are Chabad Lubavitch esrogim. They originate from an esrog that was used by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. They took his esrog (I guess over the course of a number of years) and planted new orchards of esrogim.

This other merchant was selling particularly bumpy esrogim...

Chag Sameach!

I wanna know which cop had the cojones to pull over Jack Bauer - even a drunk one - and arrest him...... and did he call Chloe for support?

As a result of Israel declaring Gaza to be enemy hostile territory, the best thing that could have happened to Gaza just did.

Bank Hapoalim today announced that because of Gaza's status, it will stop working in Gaza and break off its connections with the various Gazan banks and bank branches.

The commissions and fees at Bank Hapoalim are so high that this announcement can only be good for the residents of Gaza! They will now have more money in their pockets, because Bank Hapoalim will be taking less out from them!

Pashkvilim (those great forms of communication used in frum neighborhoods in Israel) have been passed around Mea Shearim recently. These pashkvilim have been calling for a boycott of Hogla.

Hogla is a disposables company making items ranging from diapers to toilet paper. The claims against Hogla calling for the boycott of their products are that the factory operates on shabbos or the company purchases raw materials from other companies that do.


The local Haredim say they are not behind the ban and it is one of the competitors. The suspicion is that its main competitor, Saniv, is behind the signs calling for the boycott. Saniv says that they have been marketing their Sabbath observance but denies involvement in the boycott.

I find it interesting that boycotts and cherems and bans have become so pervasive and such a part of the haredi culture nowadays that companies play on it and call bans as part of their marketing campaigns.....

Rumor has it that one or two new scandals and investigations into Olmert's corruption are soon to be publicized...

One will be involving bribery issues from when he was mayor of Jerusalem. It will involve educational institutions. I have not heard what they received in return, but I would suspect they received buildings, licenses, funding, etc. In return they gave Olmert gifts of expensive pens (he is a collector), cigars, purchased his wife's artwork at overpriced prices, etc..

On another note, Maariv (Israel's second largest newspaper) is reporting that Olmert is going to be appointing another Deputy Minister to his government, despite his promises to not appoint such positions. The promise was originally made due to the fact that the Deputy Minister carries no responsibilities and is simply an expensive political payment at the taxpayers expense. So we will be now adding yet another ministerial position and salary to the already over-bloated government.

Every year the Jerusalem Municipality comes up with an interesting model of a Sukkah to build in Safra Square (where City Hall is located). I do not have such a good memory to remember all teh various designs, but I remember they made one out of lights last year or two years agon.

Anyways, this year the Municipality of Jerusalem will be building a large sukkah made out of candy, They are calling it the Sukka-riya (play on words combining the words sukka and the Hebrew word for candy).

Entrance will be free during sukkos (supposedly) and candy, such as chocolate, cotton candy and marshmallows, will be distributed for free as well...

Enjoy a sweet holiday!

The guy who gives advice to the police on how to investigate and who to investigate, generally saying they should be investigating someone other than him, is almost always the guilty party.

Just watch any detective/police movie. You will see. Whenever the suspect feigns innocence and advises the police where they should and should not be looking, it always ends up to be he who is guilty.

Today Mazuz decided to recommend for a police investigation into the second of a number of investigations against Ehud Olmert. The one about having sold (one of) his house(s) for an unreasonable price, which leads to the suspicion of bribery and illegal campaign funding, considering the buyer was a financial/political supporter of Olmert's.

That lead to the following statement/headline put out by Olmert: PMO: Olmert bought J`lem home properly, police probe unnecessary (Haaretz)

Thanks for giving the police your invaluable advice. The Comptroller investigated and found reason to indict. The Attorney General looked over the material and found reason to allow the investigation to officially be opened by the police. Thanks for letting us you you think you are innocent and advising the police to drop the case.

Based on the above rule, I think that means you are guilty...