Jul 14, 2026
freezing arrests
At the behest of the Haredi parties, the Knesset passed the law a short while ago that enacts a temporary measure to freeze the arrests of yeshiva bochurim who have the status of being deserters. Without getting into the details, it is just a temporary measure and only applies to yeshiva bochurim (and will require supervision and inspections of the yeshivas).
I assume this law will be shot down by the Supreme Court pretty quickly. I do not see how you can pass a law to exempt some people from arrest for the same crime that other people are being arrested for at the same time.
I do not know why they did not propose an easy solution of freezing arrests of all deserters for the same period. That would provide equal application and would perhaps give it more of a chance of sticking (though I am no legal expert so may be entirely wrong about that).
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Interesting Psak: Shabbos elevator in RBS D
This exact story happened in my building 25 or so years ago. I personally was involved in the sense of helping an elderly and unwell neighbor who lived on a higher floor. At the time the people involved did not go to a beis din but went to a local rav to resolve the dispute.
Behadrei is reporting on a dispute in a building in RBS D. The building is 8 stories tall and residents living on the upper floors (including an elderly resident) want to use the Shabbos Elevator that was included in the building by the original kablan, which they iostensibly planned to benefit from when they bought their apartments, and everyone who purchased in the building knew this was an included feature which their apartment price included. They say they purchased the right to use the Shabbos elevator. Preventing them form using it will prevent them from being able to be mobile in general and even from going to shul sometimes on Shabbos and holidays.
Other neighbors oppose the use of the Shabbos elevator in the building in which they reside. They make claims of it being harmful to the education of their children, damaging to the spiritual atmosphere of the building and neighborhood.
Unable to resolve the matter amongst themselves, they agreed to go to a beis din for a decision.
The beis din heard both sides and their positions, and after weighing the matter has come to a decision.
The beis din stressed the issue of the holiness of Shabbos, the special charchter of Bet Shemesh and the sensitivity of the Haredi community to the operation of electrical systems on Shabbos, while also taking into consideration the the rights of the residents who purchased this ability when they purchased their apartments and that the shabbos elevator was installed as an original part of the building (rather than them requesting to add it at a later stage).
The beis din came up with a plan for a comprise by which the Shabbos elevator would be operating on a limited schedule, only certain hours of the day rather than over the entire Shabbos, and some other limitations (I imagine only stopping on the upper floors and the ground floor but not on the lower residential floors). Efforts will be made (nothing is specified so I do not know what the efforts are in real life) to minimize the sense of harm to the charachter of Shabbos, while filling the needs of the residents on the upper floors.
in the case that I was familiar with 25 or so years ago the rav they went to said the Shabbos elevator cannot be relied upon (he did not like the shabbos mode and did not consider it halachically problematic even bdieved) so the Shabbos elevator was not allowed to go into operation and the fellow above had to stay put on Shabbos and yomtov.
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Tweet of the Day
דו״ח שלום עכשיו. רגע של נחת על הבוקר 😌 pic.twitter.com/dKrm3A233N
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) July 14, 2026
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Netanyahu responds to declining US support for Israel (video)
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Can't miss: Comedians Yohay Sponder and Ami Kozak impersonate Bibi and Trump (video)
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Jerusalem, July 10. Friday and the indescribable vibe of the Mahane Yehuda Market. (video)
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Ben Snof - If I forget you Jerusalem (video)
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Jul 13, 2026
Interesting Psak: Registering in the Likud to vote in Primaries
Recent news reports have made references to various Haredi askanim who are powerful, or maybe influential is a better word, in the Likud because they register thousands of Haredim as members of the Likud. The general thought is that most have no intention to vote for the Likud but will continue generally voting for UTJ, but being a registered member of the Likud gives them the ability to vote in the primaries and influence the Likud to take positions closer to what the Haredi community or political parties want.
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.
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haredim,
interesting psak,
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A news item I noticed a few days ago brought me back to my high school days...
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.
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Primary Season is open!
I just got my first "direct" communication from a Likud candidate for Knesset, he is also a current MK, asking for my support in the upcoming primaries. He also offered me the option to volunteer for his campaign to help him succeed.
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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Halacha Headlines: 7/11/26 – Shiur 567 – Extreme Sports and Halacha| How to have a successful marriage (audio)
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THIS ROADTRIP COULD CHANGE LIVES (video)
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MBC goes unexpectedly viral again! (video)
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IL Skip navigation Search Create 9+ Avatar image Idan Raichel & OHAD - Im Eshkachech (video)
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Jul 8, 2026
saving our enemies
By now you surely have heard the bombshell dropped last night by the Spokesman of Ichilov Hospital. It is all over the news.
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
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The Pickle of the Shawarma
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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Labels:
food
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