caption contest..

Once again the "Peleg" faction of the Haredi community is sending its boys out into the streets to protest.. they are right now out on main roads and intersections in various parts of the country blocking traffic and expressing their protest. They are once again protesting the arrest of a young man declared AWOL after failing to appear to sign the paperwork to get his automatic deferment fo service as a yeshiva student. The Peleg people, led by Rav Shmuel Auerbach, do not believe in cooperating with the process and are against any such cooperation with the IDF to the extreme.

In response, Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman has instructed his office to look into the possibility of canceling the deferments available to the two yeshivas under the leadership of Rav Auerbach - Maalos Hatorah in Jerusalem and Grodna in Ashdod. As well, to look into the possiblity of canceling all government funding to these yeshivas.
source: Radio Kol Hai news

I think that these people have the right to protest (legal protest, with permits, that is) just like anybody else, and they should not be punished for exercising that right to protest. They should not lose funding because of protests and they should not lose their rights and standing vis-a-vis the army because of protests.

That being said, I don't think it is a bad idea to punish them,, perhaps with these same forms of punishment, but for other reasons. Not for protesting, but for the regular incitement against soldiers in the IDF, especially Haredi soldiers - they have been openly involved in the "Chardakim" campaign against Haredi soldiers, even if they are not the people behind it (I don't know if they are or are not behind it, but they have been involved in it).

Additionally, for a group that uses the claim of the highest level of importance for learning Torah and that it therefore deserves to let them off the hook for many things, they are spending an awful lot of time outside the beis medrash with these protests. While they shouldn't be punished for protesting, they are not fulfilling their obligations to society as they claim to be - defending the nation with their torah learning. a protest every now and again might be ok, but the regularity of their involvement in these things takes serious amounts of time away from their torah learning.

Ynet has some interesting stats from the National Bureau of Statistics regarding migration habits of Israelis.

According to the new stats, Jerusalem has the highest level of negative migration of all the cities in Israel. Meaning, more people per year are leaving Jerusalem to live elsewhere than the number of people moving to Jerusalem from other cities.

And Bet Shemesh is the city at the top of the positive migration chart, with more people moving in than moving out.

Out of all the statistics brought in the article, I found one more interesting stat. That is, out of all the people leaving Jerusalem for other cities, the two cities most moved to from Jerusalem are Bet Shemesh first and then Tel Aviv.

I find it difficult to believe that somebody looking to move to a new city is considering his two options of Bet Shemesh or Tel Aviv. Hmmm, should I move to Bet Shemesh - nah, Tel Aviv is better. Should I move to Tel Aviv - nah, Bet Shemesh is for me. The people considering Tel Aviv are not normally considering Bet Shemesh, and those considering Bet Shemesh are not normally considering Tel Aviv. They are very different cities.

It seems to me that Bet Shemesh is the prime location for Haredim, probably mostly young couples, moving out of Jerusalem looking for cheaper housing than what the big city has to offer. Tel Aviv, on the other hand, is likely the prime location for young professionals, secular or moderately religious, looking to leave the religious environment of Jerusalem and instead live in the country's hub of business and recreation...

Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz met with Temple Mount activists, upon their request, to discuss various issues relating to Har Habayit - including their request that Katz himself ascend Har Habayit..

During the meeting, the Minister expressed the special connection he himself feels with Har Habayit, as he is a kohen. He also revealed plans to extend the new rail lines to Jerusalem to reach a station that will be built just a few meters away from the entrance to Har Habayit despite the engineering complexities involved - the station, Katz said, will be named "The Har Habayit and Kotel Station". Katz said that he believes that making the heart of the country more accessible will strengthen the connection of the Jews to the place of the Temple and will be a step in the geula.
source: Har Habayit News

While I like Minister Katz as a minister and as a Jew, from everything I have read about him and heard from him, he is not the minister I would have expected a dose of messianism from... I think it is a great idea to bring public transportation directly to the are aof Har Habayit and the Kotel and mak eit easier for the masses to visit these places...

The Hamas propaganda division has produced a new music video, in Hebrew, using animation.. this is sure to become a hit, like some previous music videos they released, despite the graphic imagery and violent lyrics

I guess Trump noticed that tweet...

Bibi is pretty funny...


and a friend of mine met Chuck Norris on the Golan Heights..

Tu B'Shvat is coming (this Shabbos, which also happens to be Shabbos Shira), and the stores are busy selling all sorts of dried fruits that people, for whatever reason, love to consume on this holiday. I never really understood what's so great about dried fruits, as the fresh ones taste so much better. Some fruits just aren't accessible fresh, and some might taste better dried, so I get eating those dried - but most fruits are better fresh. I also don't get what dried fruit has to do with Tu B'Shvat. Just because 150 years ago in cold Europe they could only get dried fruit doesn't seem to be a good enough reason, to me, to rpefer it for Tu bShvat today when we have an abundance of fresh fruit available.

Anyways, there are some people who prefer you don't eat the dried fruit, or not much of it, at least. The classic reason some people oppose most of the dried fruit is due to infestation of bugs in many of the various types of dried fruit. Some you can check for and consume, but some are just too infested or too difficult to check and they say you cannot eat these types of dried fruits.

The Ministry of Agriculture is now calling on the public to avoid dried fruits, but for a different reason. The MoA is saying that the dried fruits in the market have less nutrition than fresh fruit and contain artificial food colorings, sugar and empty calories.  

The MoA is saying that instead of eating dried fruits for Tu bShvat, you should be eating fresh fruits.  source: Globes

A Jerusalem beis din recently paskened that a husband beating his wife is not grounds for divorce. Specifically in this case, that is, because he beat her after she insisted on a divorce and refused to attend "shalom bayis" meetings with him for conciliation.

In 2014 the wife filed for divorce claiming that during their 24 years of marriage he had abused her physically, sexually, and mentally. While the divorce filing was active, her husband was arrested and convicted for physically abusing her and threatening to kill her, and there was even a restraining order out on him to keep his distance from her.

Despite his tendencies to violence, the beis din decided that his violence is not grounds for "forcing" a divorce - i.e. for accepting her demand for a divorce. They suspect that she really wants a divorce because of a budding relationship with someone else (her employer), as the husband claimed, and his violent behavior was never proven.

She appealed to the Higher Beis Din, who sent it back down for re-evaluation by the original beis din, considering his recent conviction. Despite 3 convictions for violence, the beis din, upon reevaluation, decided that the violence against her was only a one-time incident and not a trend of behavior and after the husband admitted to his actions, they believe he won't resort to violence again. The said that they believe that had she been open to fixing the relationship and repairing the marriage,, even this one-time incident would have never happened.
source: Ynet
psak of the beis din can be seen here

Meaning, as long as he refuses to grant her a divorce, she has no recourse, despite the violence against her. If she somehow persuades him to divorce her, obviously that would work - but beis din won't force the issue.

All I can think of to say is that when he one day kills her, chas v'shalom, or leaves her unconscious or suicidal, the "elders of the city" will not be able to say "ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה" - our hands did not spill this blood..

very interesting. I never even heard of much of this before hearing this talk...

very interesting discussion, and I agree with most, if not all, of what Klein Halevy says... I would have expected some follow-up questions trying to clarify more how he differentiates between Jerusalem and Samaria, but I guess they ran out of time..