This photo of Captain (Reserves) Yehuda Weitzman heading out to return back to his military base in Lebanon bearing a sefer torah (written in memory of two brothers, Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, two brothers who were killed in a terrorist attack in Hawara) alongside his military gear, captured the hearts of the masses online...

As a follow up to this picture, Goldberg captured another brilliant shot at the Central Bus Station...

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The Haredi parties, especially Degel Hatorah, were pushing for the law to be brought to vote, though they never said they got the go ahead from Rav Landau and Rav Hirsch to actually support it. When they sqaw it was not coming and PM Netanyahu was not doing anything about it, ot the point that Netanyahu told them it will have to wait for the next government, they decided to bring down the government over it. Even though they themselves never said they would support it.

So they decde they can't trust Netanyahu any longer and he is just playing with them, constantly making excuses to buy time and kick the can down the road, so they support going to early election (not a big deal, it is a different of 4-6 weeks, not any significant change). The initial vote passes. PM Netanyahu seems to go into panic mode and despite the process of voting the government out having started, he tries to push the bill through, has the committee put on the afterburner and plan to bring it to vote almost immediately, whether he has the votes or not - even if it does not pass he can say I brought it to vote and tried, don't blame me.

Tonight Degel announced they will not play along. We are not interested in Netanyahu just bringing it to a vote. They are also saying it is a bad proposal - though they still have not said if they would or would not support it should it actually come to a vote. They said Netanyahu can't just bring a law, he has to bring a law with a majority vote.

So Netanyahu first said wait until after the elections, Degel said no. Now Netanyahu is pushing for a quick vote on a law and Degel is saying, no, wait until after the elections. 

The news is reporting, anonymously of course, that the people around Netanyahu are angry at Degel Hatorah saying Degel played with them. Degel, they are saying, never planned to support the bill, they now just want to blame its failure on Netanyahu. Netanyahu's biggest concern, which is what's pushing him to push the law forward now, is that Degel might not support him for Prime Minister after the next election - he already lost Agudat Israel. And if Degel doesn't, it will be messy for Shas as well.

So they are each blaming the other for the failure of a bill that neither side, seemingly, wanted. Degel spent four years ignoring the fact that Netanyahu was trying to not bring the bill forward and only make it look like he was taking it seriously to keep them happy. Netanyahu spent four years saying this bill (that he clearly never actually intended to bring to vote) would bring 23000 haredim to the army within 3 years while ignoring the fact that the Haredi leadership repeatedly said, despite pushing for a bill, that despite any passed law not a single Haredi would conscript because of it.

Will Netanyahu successfully push a law through with a majority vote this week and save himself? We'll see what happens.

My wife Toby and I are in @Israel becoming citizens. At the Interior Ministry, the official reviewing our papers - a Jew who came from Ethiopia in 1991 - asked me for proof that I was Jewish.

I showed him letters from our rabbi. As I did so, tears began to flow.

I told him: “I…

— Rabbi Avi Weiss (@RabbiAviWeiss) May 19, 2026

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For what I guess is the second time, as last year they announced it "for the first time in two thousand years", some people from Yeshivat Hamikdash broke into Har Habayit via Shaar Hatzon, an ancient gate into the walls of Har Habyit via which the sheep were generally brought into the mikash for sacrifices, and performed the sacrifical rite of waving the "2 loaves" on Friday on the holiday of Shavuos. The "hanafat shtei halechem", the waving of the two loaves is the central korban of the Shavuos holiday (in addition to other korbanos that are less possible to bring or perform today).

It is hard to find too many details about this incident but the "Har Habait News" mentions it saying 14 people broke in to Har Habayit through Shaar Hatzon on Shavuos, 9 of whom succeeded in getting in, including Ariel Cohen, to the area of the azara, the inner courtyard of the mikdash where korbanos would be sacrificed. Once there, Cohen, dressed in the Priestly Garments, waved the two loaves, performing the ritual as prescribed.

Ariel Cohen did the same last year as well.

They were all captured and detained.

Har Habayit was closed to Jews on the shavuos holiday, so they really had to break in somehow. I would really like to discover how they got in. Har Habayit is an extremely secure and locked down area.

Can the "Two Loaves" be brought nowadays? I don't really know, I am no authority on this, but form what I understand it is considered a public offering which is generally allowed when the entire, or majority of the, community is impure (similar to Korban Pesach), but there are connected requirements that are more problematic. I found this rundown of the issues on the Har Habait News site if you are interested in learning more about it.

Are these a bunch of delusional kids making trouble, getting involved in dangerous matters (bringing korbanos could be trouble if not done properly - of which there are many aspects)? Are they heroes forcing a matter few want to talk about but some think the time has come? Can it be considered a korban tzibbur, a public offering, if the tzibbur, the public, isn't aware of it, isn't interested in it, and maybe largely even opposes it? Does it matter, if there is an obligation and this Cohen fellow is fulfilling it? I know several years back I would have thought this was a great thing, while now I just don't know. I do think it is good from the perspective of bringing awareness and raising discussion. And I still want to know how they circumvented to police and successfully broke into the most secured strip of land in the country with enough time to do this ritual.

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The agreement on the table, as reported, does not look great for Israel's interests (to put it mildly), but we have been in similar situations before. Israeli reporesentatives are not saying anything, Trump is talking about it being a great deal, and the ranians are saying things that contradict things they are supposedly agreeing to. 

Is it a head fake and the USA is about to go on the attack again while everyone thinks a deal is about to be signed, or is a deal really about to be signed? I am not sure we have any way to make an educated guess. I also would not be surprised if we don't get a deal signed (at least in the coming days) but we also do not get an attack but Trump announces an extension to continue working out the details or something like that.

Confusing times. Sometimes this type of situation can be worse than an actual deal (even a bad one) or attack - can't really make plans, people do not know what to do, terror continues (at least from Hezbollah)

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