Shana Tova U'Metuka to all of you.

K'ziva Va'Chasima Tova.

Amazing how the police have admitted that they have no suspects at this point as to who is responsible for blowing up the front door of Professor Sternhall and nearly killing him, yet the politicians have no problem claiming to know exactly who did it.

Olmert just said a new "ultranationalist" underground group is responsible. Barak says it is the violent settlers. And more. Everybody in government knows exactly who to blame, yet the police do not even have any suspects yet, let alone knowledge of any groups involved.

Whoever did it should be caught and arrested, whether he is a right winger or a left winger. Why do Olmert, Barak and Co. have a right to point fingers and lay blame on people without proof or even any coincidental proof? Just because Sternhall hated the settlers means automatically it was settlers who tried to kill him? Maybe he had other enemies as well?

This should get you in the "High Holiday davening" mood... Selichos at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem with Hazzan Naftali Hershtik...

On the morning of Rosh Hashana as the congregation was filing into the sanctuary, Rabbi Feldman noticed little Max standing in the foyer of the synagogue staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it. The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the rabbi walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Boker tov, Max. '

'Boker tov, Rabbi Feldman,' he replied, still focused on the plaque.
'Rabbi Feldman, what is this?'
he said, pointing to the plaque.

The good Rabbi tenderly put his arm around Max's shoulder and said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.'

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Max, in a voice barely audible and trembling with fear asked, 'Which service, Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur?'

A Barbarian is hosting Haveil Havalim #184. It sounds dangerous to not go check it out!

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I enjoy exercising my right to vote. I vote at every election in which I am eligible to vote, and I even answer surveys whenever possible.

In 18 years in Israel, I have voted in three United States elections for president by absentee ballot. I believe in being part of the process.

The upcoming election seems to one in which every vote will probably count and make a difference. The race is very tight and the candidates are fighting for every vote. It does not really matter for whom you are going to vote, but you should definitely vote for whomever is your preferred candidate.

So, how do you vote? You can't just walk into a booth in your local library or school building and vote, like you did in the US. The process is not really all that difficult. You simply have to apply for an absentee ballot fro the state in which you last resided. Then, shortly before the day of voting, you will get a ballot in the mail which you fill in and mail back.

So how do you register? Thankfully, an organization has arisen whose goal is to make the application process really simple. All they want to do is to get more people to vote and exercise their democratic rights.

They are called Vote From Israel.

Vote From Israel is a non-partisan, nonprofit dedicated to getting Americans in Israel to Vote in the upcoming US elections for President.

To vote from overseas, you MUST be registered. If you aren’t registered, you can’t vote. Period.

Registration ends October 6, 2008 (in a week!!!). That means, especially with Rosh Hashana happening in the middle of this week, you really have to get moving and contact them right away!

So here is what you should do, in six easy steps:

1. Go to the website.
2. Enter your name.
3. Download the PDF form.
4. Print it out.
5. Fill it out and sign it.
6. And the most important part -It must be dropped off at one of the drop-off points around the country by October 6. The site has a list of all the drop off points. If it isn’t dropped off, you can’t vote!

I have already registered, not through Vote From Israel, but the old-fashioned way. But if you have not yet registered, take care of this right away, so you can be a part of the process. Every vote counts, and yours just might make a difference!

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Today's newspaper had an article today about an interesting psak from rav Arusi, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Ono. I found the original on the Moreshet website, but it is kind of bare bones...

Someone asked Rav Arusi whether he is allowed to purchase food in a restaurant owned people involved in the mob.

Rav Arusi's response was that if you know defintiely that a specific restaurant is owned by one of the crime families, than it would be prohibited to eat there. It is prohibited to assist and support them in any way, as their hands are full of blood.

Obviously the restaurant in question has a hechsher, otherwise the person asking the shailoh would not eat there because of the lack of hechsher. So, if most people generally have no idea who owns any given restaurant they walk into, the real people assisting and supporting these mobster criminals is the rabbanut or other hechsher organizations who allow them to retain their hechsher. If Rav Arusi feels it is prohibited to eat in this persons restaurant, he should also remove the hechsher from the restaurant.

In the meantime, he is playing both sides of the coin, by providing the hechsher (and charging for kashrut services), and telling people to not eat there. This is similar to a few months ago, around Yom Ha'atzmaut time, when the Eidah Hareidis told people not to purchase food products on which were displayed the Israeli flag, despite their continuing to provide the hechsher on the product.

A little integrity please. If it is assur to eat there, you should not be providing them, and charging them for, a hechsher.

I wonder if they would be open to bringing in a kollel of Orthodox Jews to Dothan, Alabama...

An initial subsidy of $50,000 per person could be a nice start for a SEED kollel of some sort... Somehow though, considering the name of the Rabbi is Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith (her husbands name is Rob), I doubt those are the types of Jews they are looking to import...

I never really understood why Haredim try to get involved in running the Rabbanut, whether it is in the sense of the Chief Rabbinate positions or other positions of leadership within the Rabbinic Council.

I am not talking about haredi people who take jobs with the Rabbanut, such as mashgichim or jobs as rabbis of cities or neighborhoods. That I understand.

What eludes me is why Haredi leadership gets involved. Why does Rav Elyashiv try to influence the election of the Chief Rabbi, for example?

The general Haredi public does not rely on the Rabbanut for pretty much anything, whether it be for kashrus of esrogim, meat, marriages, divorce, conversion, vegetables, shmitta, and even things as mundane as popsicles, etc. And it is not like the Haredi influence in recent years has effected a change in the perception of the general Haredi public towards the Rabbanut, so that too is not a goal.

So why?

Yesterday there were elections for the council of the Rabbanut of Israel. Shas was pushing rabbis it supported for the council. Rav Elyashiv and his guys were pushing rabbis they supported for the council. NRP was pushing rabbis they supported for the council.

Rav Elyashiv and Shas got into a bit of a row about this election. One of the leading rabbis Shas was supporting was Rav Avrohom Yosef, the Chief Rabbi of Holon and son of Rav Ovadia Yosef. Rav Avrohom Yosef is a brilliant person, and he sounds like he is personable and forthcoming (he used to give (maybe he still does) daily halacha talks on the radio I would sometimes listen to).

Rav Elyashiv fiercely opposed Rav A Yosef being elected to the council of the Rabbanut. The reason is because Rav A Yosef, like his father, has supported the use of hetter mechira. Rav Elyashiv is against hetter mechira to an extreme, and considered that alone to be enough of a reason to reject supporting the election of Rav Yosef.

This led to a rift between Shas and Rav Elyashiv/Degel. They could not come to an agreement of mutually supporting each others candidates (for ashkenazy and sefardi positions), because Rav Elyashiv would not support Rav Yosef, and it was all or nothing, so each ran alone. Actually, Shas came to an agreement of joint support with the NRP.

It turns out, that all of Shas' candidates got in, along with all of NRPs candidates. Not a single candidate of Rav Elyashivs made it in.

(I am not going to comment on the candidates themselves, because I do not know most of them. I know Rav Kook by reputation and he is supposed to be a very worthy rav, no matter which party or backer was supporting him, so this is not necessarily about qualifications)

So for the first time in recent years, the Rabbanut is back to a situation where it is being controlled by Rabbonim and a community that use its services and trust in it, and no longer by rabbonim who use it, perhaps cynically, as a method of control.

The Calatravva Bridge is a bridge that has been trouble since day 1, with the main debate being whether it should ever have been built, considering the high cost.

Regardless of that, the newest issue to arise is one in which residents are complaining that in certain areas near the bridge, one can look up and catch a upskirt view of females above.

The newspaper article is comparing this to the fiasco of the dance troupe at the inaugural party of the bridge a few months ago in which women participants were forced to wear sacks and hats to cover their body shapes. That was a true fiasco, because that is something that should have never happened, and whatever solution was going to be implemented should have been dealt with in advance, not at the last minute.

The truth is though, that this problem has nothing in common with that fiasco. that fiasco was part of the battle of the extreme Haredi against the secular over the atmosphere and style of Jerusalem. This is just a problem. It is not just Haredi women who do not want men looking up their skirts. Any woman who wears a skirt would not want to be exposed like that.

Maybe they compare it because secular women generally wear pants and not skirts. But that is not true - they wear miniskirts, and plenty wear skirts as well (even if only on occassion), and they do not want to have people looking up their skirts.

I remember when the cellphone industry had first started putting cameras into cellphones, there was an issue in Japan, and maybe other places (but I remember reading about Japan). They were forced to change certain standards and abilities because women were complaining that they were catching men on buses and trains taking upskirt pictures of them.

So it is not just Haredi women who have a problem with this, and this should not be portrayed as a fight of the Haredim against the secular.

People are making a very big deal about the fact that the standard haredi newspapers will not be saying the first name, or showing the picture of, Tzipi Livni.

First of all, who cares? This is nothing new. They never show pictures of women and avoid saying their first names. As a matter of fact the readers of Yated and Hamodia will be better off than the rest of us - they will not be forced to look at Livni's smug face every day.

Second point, I find it humorous that in today's Yated, every time it mentioned Mrs. Livni, it showed a picture of Ehud Olmert.

Third point, in the same paper that refuses to mention Tzipi Livni's name, today had an article describing the process of SHimon Peres conveying upon Livni the responsibility of forming the government. In the article, it mentioned Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik. Yes, Dalia Itzik is a woman. Yes, it said her first name as well as her last name.

Is Israel just a small country, and the religious community just so interconnected, that such a thing makes sense? Or is it pure coincidence? Something else?

They say the Shwekey concert last night was a flop. ONly a couple thousand people showed up, making his decision to hold the concert in the premier stadium of Ceasaria a bad one.

It was clear this was going to be a failure. Who in the frum community is going to concerts on erev Rosh Hashana? In the yeshivas, perhaps it is the very bottom of the yeshiva guys, as even the average guys, who normally would go, would not go now. And in the baalebatish world people are getting ready for yom tov and have work and school...

And who wants to shlep out to Ceasaria for a concert anyway? He should have made it in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. These guys get it into their head that they are so good they can fill a stadium anywhere.

Perhaps his plan should have been to get himself banned again... The mishmeres guys were smarter this time around. By ignoring it and not banning him, they did not make it into a thing to davka go.

Or perhaps people are going tomorrow night to the Paul McCartney concert (in Tel Aviv), and did not want to go to two concerts this week!

(Written by a talmid of Rav Chaim Soloveichik shlita, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel. Motsei Shabbat Parshat Ki Tavo, 5768)

Rav Chaim Soloveichik in his weekly Shabbat drasha on Parashat Ki Tavo called upon community leaders to take a more forceful approach regarding child abusers. Rav Soloveichik heads Mosdot HaRav Aharon Soloveichik – Bet Knesset Ohr Shalom, located in Ramat Beth Shemesh and founded by his father HaGaon HaRav Aharon Soloveichik.

Rav Soloveichik began his drasha by referring to the simcha which the community experiences when witnessing smachot involving the younger generation, such as brit milah and bar mitzvah. The Rav noted that such smachot are so great because of the continuity which they represent. “Our children are our future-we rejoice at smachot connected to them and we must be vigilant in acting to protect them from harm.”

Rav Soloveichik cited the vidui maasroth which is mentioned as the second mitzvah in parashath Ki Tavo and raised the question of why one must say a vidui regarding sins which one did not do, whereas generally one does so regarding sins which one has transgressed. The Rav stated that the purpose of vidui is making a "complete accounting". “Leaders, heads of institutions and rabbanim must make an accounting for that which they have and have not done for their communities.

One issue regarding which a more serious accounting needs to be done is the issue of child-abuse. I have been apprised of a local problem with an alleged child abuser who is employed as a teacher of young children by a local school. The teacher is currently being investigated for inappropriate behavior with children, and community leaders and rabbanim say that we must not remove the teacher lest his parnassa be damaged.”

Rav Soloveichik emphasized that while one’s parnassa is an important issue this does not trump the need to separate such a teacher from children for whom he constitutes a presumed danger.

There are numerous opportunities for parnassah which do not require being responsible for 30 kids.

“It is hard to believe that rabbonim who know gemara, the poskim, mishna berura, backwards and forwards do not have the sense to realize that when non-frivolous claims have been made, an alleged child-abuser must be distanced from a position of contact with children until his name has been cleared. When no leadership is demonstrated by rabbanim, then the bloggers will inevitably fill the vacuum.”

Rav Soloveichik reiterated that an approach which only allows one to separate an alleged child-abuser from talmidim once there has been a criminal indictment or conviction unreasonably endangers children.

The Rav impassionedly cried out:” Those who ask ‘what about the parnassa of the teacher?’ must be rebutted with the question ‘what about the children, what about the children?”

The Rav called upon community leaders to take vigorous action to assure that alleged predators are kept far from positions from which they can pose a threat to children. “Let us restore community initiative to the rabbanim and community leaders. We need to be the ones making the clarion calls, not just the bloggers.”

Rav Soloveichik praised the new initiative of Lema'an Achai, the Ramat Bet Shemesh chesed organization, which has established a "Safe Kids" program. Concerned local parents and kids call "Safe Kids" for professional and practical advice from qualified, experienced social workers, about child abuse.

Rav Soloveichik ended his drasha wishing upon the community that we have the zchuth to act wisely and forcefully for the sake of a better future for our children.

The representative of CHEN heads the Traffic Committee of Bet Shemesh. They recently sent an update to the local email list detailing a number of decisions the committee has recently arrived at.

One of those decisions was that the train station parking lot would be cut down by 30 parking spaces. Those spaces will be used instead by the bus company in an effort to improve the bus service to and from the train.

Below is the letter I sent to the representative of CHEN who had sent out the message.

Greetings -

As a regular commuter to Tel Aviv via train, I was distressed to read in your recent update fro the Traffic Committee sent to the BS email list a notice about the train parking lot.

The train station parking lot is already sorely lacking adequate parking. The lot itself is small compared to how many parking spaces are needed. Originally, there was (perhaps informally) an agreement with the management of the BIG mall, that the mayor used when he was promoting the train, that the overflow parking could use the BIG parking lot. For a long time already the BIG management has closed off that option, at least to commuters who arrive prior to 8:30am (which is most of the regular commuters for work) by disallowing parking from the train station clientele.

A temporary solution has been the undeveloped lot across from the entrance to BIG. The problem with that now is they have begun development on the lot and at times close it off and do not allow us to park there. Try to imagine the panic caused when you arrive to the station and look for parking only to find the parking lot closed off. There are no alternatives as the lot of the station and the few curbside spaces have already been filled. Many people have missed trains to work while they have to drive back up to the industrial zone to look for parking and then walk back down 5-10 minutes to the train station. Even though most of the time it has been available, in the near future when they actually start construction it no longer will be.

In your recent update you wrote "Please also note that Starting in January 2009, Superbus will be taking over the 415 and 420 bus routes from Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem. In addition, the current plan is to replace 30 car parking spots in the train station parking lot with two bus parking spots, thus enabling better public transport from the train."

Considering the above, this is particularly troubling. The lot is already not adequate for the amount of people who require parking. Now your committee is planning on removing 30 more spots so buses can park there? I understand maybe a few people will stop driving their cars and take the bus more as the bus service improves, and then less spots will be required, but I am sure you are fooling yourselves if you really think the solution is taking away 30 more spots instead of expanding the number of parking spaces. Most people will not rely on the historically inadequate bus service, and will not give up the convenience of their car.

Please reconsider the decision. Think of the large numbers of people who daily take the train to work outside of Bet Shemesh and are already frustrated by the regular frustrations of not having enough parking. The decision your committee has arrived at helps nobody but the bus company.

Find a solution for the residents of Bet Shemesh who commute. Find us more parking, not less!


--
Kol tuv,

Rafi

If and when I should receive a response, I will post it here. I urge you, if this issue is one you are affected by and concerned about, if you are a commuter via train, write to your representative, whomever it might be, and ask him what his position on this issue is and how he can help.

A further problem that I did not write about in the letter is that when the new building goes up that whole area will just be more congested with only one little street serving as the entrance to the train station and two malls. It is already over-congested and traffic leaving the train station can be dismal at times as traffic from the station merges with traffic exiting the mall, but it will only get worse when the new building goes up. But that is a separate issue for a different time.