On Kol BeRama radio Rav Ahron Butbol was asked a quesion about this type of behavior.

A listener asked if it is ok to register for Likud membership so as to support a specific candidate who is religious in his candidacy for a slot on the Likud list. the questioner mentioned that until now he has refused to do so so as to avoid strengthening a secular political party, but ont he other hand perhaps continuing to refuse actually leaves the field open to anti-religious elements and leaves it open to the opposite of what he wants - he wants the Likud to get closer to more religious positions, but leaving it because it isnt a religious party (at least officially) leaves it to be more influenced by anti-religious...

Rav Butbol said that on election day voting for a secular party is a problem because that strengthens a secular party, but the request here is not to actually vote for the Likud but to register so as to vote in the primaries and support a religious candidate. It is problematic to do so because the Haredi public is committed and obligated to vote for the Haredi and religious parties. However, registering for internal elections is a tool to influence the identities of their representatives and is not necessarily considered supporting the platform of the party.

Rav Butbol points out there were three Likud MKs who torpedoed the progress of the Draft law. The PM could not do anything about it. They were elected to Likud slots in the Likud primaries. If the public with a connection to tradition would be more involved in the internal elections in the Likud, candidates who keep tradition and religious values can be elected and the Likud could be turned into a party that protects the Torah world more. 

Before continuing I would note that MKs Edelstein and Ilouz are both religious and still chose to oppose the law that was being presented.

To conclude, Rav Butbol paskened that if the candidate is recognized as a good decent person with a strong and true connection to religion and tradition, there is a strong reason to register to help him be elected. This would not be considered "assisting a chilul hashem" but the exact opposite - strengthening the Torah positions in other political strongholds.

A few days ago there was a report in the news that the World Cup is affecting the IDF fight against terror.

According to the news report, the World Cup, aka Mondial, competition/tournament that is ongoing is very popular in the Arab communities (this is well known and is not the point of the report or a surprise) and the Arab Muslim fighters against Israel, the terrorists are staying up late at night to watch the games, and then they sleep late in the morning. They are currently far more focused on the World Cup matches than on fighting.

The adjusted schedules of the terrorists has forced the IDF to adjust its schedule of activity and fighting.

The above has been reported about the fighting in Judea and Samaria, as well as in Gaza and in Lebanon. They might watch up to 4 matches a night and the are too tired in the morning to fight.

So how did this bring me back to high school?

I remember my 9th grade rebbi talking about us following baseball and other sports teams and he said that the baseball game is good for getting 40,000 goyim in the stadium and more tens of thousands watching on tv at home off the streets and not attacking or bothering the Jews. That is all it is good for.

I guess he is still right, even with Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists.

Maybe Israel's security forces should explore the possibility of creating additional global tournaments that will draw the attention and focus of the terrorists and  we will have to spend less time and energy fighting them. 

I responded asking about the possibility of the primaries being canceled entirely. While I still dont think that is going to happen and is only being used to pressure Likud leadership to give Netanyahu the maximum number of  "shiryunim" as possible, it is still on the table.

We'll see what he responds, if anything. 

The obne thing that does come of this is that it indicates election season is finally officially here and open!

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The Spokesman of Ichilov Hospital revealed last night in an interview that Erdogan, the President of Turkey, had some bad cancer and Israel sent, with PM Netanyashu's approval, via the Mossad a specialist doctor to turkey to treat him and the team saved his life. 

The specific doctor's name has not been revealed.

Erdogan has for years been threatening Israel and speaking militantly about Israel. And PM Netanyahu has considered Erdogan an enemy and a dangerous threat for years. And specifically now over the past few days with Erdogan trying to buy F35s from Trump, Netanyahu has been speaking very harshly against Erdogan. 

So, why does Israel keep saving our worst enemies? Erdogan (unknown when this happened), Sinwar (2006ish) and Mahmoud Abbas (in 2018) all saved by Israeli doctors sent by Israel (were there others we don't yet know about? but this revelation makes me wonder...)... It makes me wonder if the harsh talk, maybe on both sides, is just for show

Doritos in Israel has come out with a couple new flavors in "limited edition"... the two flavors are Shawarma flavor and Pickles of the Shawarma flavor.

I had the Shawarma flavor chips last week to try. It tasted fine and similar enough to shawarma flavor, but honestly I was not impressed. That is not what I am looking for when I eat chips - it was not satisfying in the way chips normally are.

I now got hold of the Pickles of the Shawarma flavor..

This was a little better than the Shawarma flavor chips but actually pretty similar, though not as heavy a flavor. It was not so easy to identify pickle though - more shawarmey and not so much pickle.

I was wondering why call it the pickle of the shawarma rather than pickle of the hamburger or pickle of the cornbeef on rye or dill pickle or kosher pickle or any other type of pickle... and why/ how come up with that specific pickle of shawarma flavor at all...  I guess once making a shawarma flavor, pickle of the shawarma was just needing a minor adjustment and you get the cuteness of the name for marketing...

if you buy it, enjoy

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I dont know how realistic or exaggerated this clip posted by CBN about summer in the Bungalow Colony is, but from what I can tell from the chatter online, many think it is pretty realistic...

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  -- MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ)

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Names are very important in halacha. Not just what the name is but also how the name is spelled. And not just names of people but also names of places. 

I always found the specificty of how names of places or even names when being transliterated from a foreign (ie a language other than Hebrew) language to be somewhat inane as the entire spelling is really made up so as long as it sounds accurate, does it really matter halachically if it is spelled with an aleph here or there, an aleph or a hei or an ayin, a tet or a tav, etc? is one really more right than the other? I am not talking about names that are Hebrew names that have sources for the spelling (though someone might create a name that is a derivative of a name like that and spell the new name slightly differently...), but names that are really foreign names being spelled in Hebrew.

Despite my feeling that being specific regarding the spelling of names that are not originally Hebrew is inane, halacha and batei din place great importance on the "correct" spelling of names, including the spelling of non-Hebrew names being written in Hebrew. This is important in beis din for all sorts of contracts and ketubas, and even treated with greater importance regarding the writing of a gett, the divorce document.

Tiberias has been an inhabited city for over 2000 years. It is a question or debate if Tiberias has the status of a walled city from the time of Yehoshua, Joshua, when the Jewish nation entered the land of Israel (though it might have existed under a different name back in those days, with the more modern city of Tiberias been built later on the ruins of those more ancient towns, whatever - point being, it is a very old city and has been around since biblical times in some form or another).

The Eida Hachareidis is, reportedly, now debating and coming to a conclusion as to the proper spelling of the name of the city Tiberias. According to Bechadrei, they began debating if the properlys pelling in Hebrew has the word ending in an aleph or hei - טבריה  or טבריא... how has it been spelled until now? how were gittin and kesubas written in Tiberias until now? I don't know but suddenly it became a question for the Eida.

To cut to the chase, Rav Avraham Yizchak Ulman, a dayan of the Eida, concluded after much research that it should be spelled with a hei, טבריה.

According to the article, with the recent expansion of the Haredi community in Tiberias the discussion of the proper spelling has been renewed and discussed, with Rav Ulman now coming to the above conclusion. 

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