Josef Gluck with the table he threw at attacker trying to stop #Monsey stabbings. “I am just a simple guy. I don’t know why G-d gave me the merit to do this. I think I saved a lot of Jewish mothers tears.” He is going to use it as a stand for a Chanukiah 🕎 pic.twitter.com/iSEKlCshwC

— Tony Aiello (@AielloTV) December 30, 2019

MK Alex Kushnir (Yisrael Beyteynu) posted the following video on his Twitter account:

רוצים לדעת מה הקשר בין נידה, טהרה, רבנים וקופות חולים?
תראו את הסרטון.
לא מאמינים? כנסו לקישורhttps://t.co/NpsnIP18Wl pic.twitter.com/gCS0663eFr

— Alex Kushnir-אלכס קושניר (@alexkushnir_isr) December 31, 2019

in the video Kushnir claims that rabbis who are not sure about the tahara status of a woman send her to the kupat cholim and she immediately gets taken in to be examined and the results get sent to the rabbi. Kushnir claims that this is being done at the expense of the pubnlic and while this woman with a tahara issue gets an immediate appointment, other people are sitting in hospital hallways waiting to be seen by doctors and nurses, in addition to the financials. Kushnir asks if we've gone crazy allowing this, and asks if the next step is the rabbi sending people for a colonoscopy to make sure they are eating kosher food.

While that comparison to a colonoscopy does bring funny images to mind, I am pretty sure Kushnir misunderstood what is going on. Rabbis dont send women to nurses to check if they went to the mikva or to check if they had unauthorized sex or anything like that. Sometimes a woman might bleed and upon consultation the rabbi might be unsure if the blood is from an internal wound or from menstrual spotting and the like. If it is form a wound, a scratch or whatnot, the blood is not a problem of tumah, but if it is menstrual then it would be. If he is unable to determine that matter, he might send her to a nurse for an internal examination. the nurse will determine the source of the bleed and replay the information for a psak as to her status. Kushnir took that a bit too far.

Regarding the other matter. Should Kupat Cholim's be covering this examination under their policy when it is not a medical issue? I don't know. Kupot Cholim offer all sorts of additional services to attract more customers to their kupa, so I don't see it as anything egregious, even if it seems a bit weird. Regarding prioritizing this over other patients, while it is important she get an answer quickly and cannot really wait months for an appointment for this, I trust the kupot and medical to prioritize their resources properly and make sure those in need of urgent care are getting it and not missing out because of these women. Also, the nurse examining this woman is generally not happening at the expense of the cardiologist in the hospital who is not rushing to see the patient in the hallway, or the orthopedist that has not yet sent the guy int he hallway for an xray for his broken leg. If the hospitals want to hire more nurses and doctors to process their patients quicker, that has nothing to do with the nurse working in the local neighborhood medical clinic.

We've had so many elections recently it is hard to keep track of which is which and which parties ran in which elections, but based on a post I remembered writing back in August, I could identify that Yigal Amir's wife, Larissa Trimbobler, was somehow involved in the formation of a political party that was set to try to run in the previous elections. They obviously did not succeed in passing the threshold, but I don't know how many votes they actually were able to bring in.

Trimbobnler is even more involved this time, by actually submitting registration forms for a new party. The name of the new party would be "Mishpat Tzedek".

The head of the party registrar has said he will allow Trimbobler to form her party, as long as she declares that the party does not support the assassination on Yitzchak Rabin. Trimbobler will have to submit a statement to him within 48 hours to that effect.

Globus, the head of the registrar, said he cannot disqualify a party just because it says it wants to change legislation to allow the release from prison of someone who murdered a prime minister.
source: Srugim

here is two from a series:




16 year old Haredi teenager Noa from Ashkelon is a volunteer in Bibi's campaign headquarters in Ashqelon and stood behind him at his rally last night. She held up that sign about Haredim for Netanyahu, and when he was shaking hands with the row of people (as can be seen in the video on Netanyahu's Facebook page), she withdrew her hand. Netanyahu gracefully just moved right on to the next person in the row.

The role of the State is to free the young Haredim from the cables of the Haredi institution and to allow them to realize themselves, to be free people not dependent on others, and to not allow he raising of another generation of people dependent on the table of the askanim

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu)

I am not quite sure that is the role of the State but perhaps in some sense the role of the state is to give people opportunities. What people do with those opportunities is up to them.

Photographer Federica Valabrega takes us inside the secretive lives of Orthodox Jewish women from around the globe, from New York to Jerusalem.

Back in October I posted an announcement of the planning of a new bus line from Bet Shemesh to the hospitals in Jerusalem, and from the hospitals to Bet Shemesh.

Since then no information has been released. People did not know when the new line would start, which bus company would operate it, the schedule, route or prices.

Until today. Today the announcement was made with details of the new bus line. The new line will be operated by Superbus and will be bus #630.

The Shemeshphone site has the details, which will be, but are not yet, available on the Superbus site, taken from the Ministry of Transportation site.

The new bus line will start running this coming Tuesday.

From the Shemeshphone site:

Here is the list of stops:RBS-gimel Zecharia Hanavi/Neria Hanavi;
RBS-alef Nahal Tze’elim/NahalHever;
Hakishon/Ayalon;
Nahar Hayarkon/Yeshayah Hanavi;
Nahar Hayarkon/Nahal Luz;
Nahar Hayarkon/Harav Greinman;
Road 3855 [the “backroad”/Hayarkon;
Zanoah quarry/Road 3855;
Harav Herzog/Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma;
Harav Herzog/Levi Eshkol;
Ma’apilei Egoz/Harav Herzog;
Rashi/Hazon Ish;
Rabin/Hatavor;
Rabin/Gilad;
Hagilad/Sinai;
Hafetz Haim/Ben Ish Hai;
Yosef Karo/Ben Ish Hai;
Road 3855/Rabbi Yosef Karo;
Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Centre;
Swedish Village/Szold;
Kiryat Hayovel “Monster”/Hantke;
Shaare Zedek Medical Centre;
Givat Mordechai/Bayt; Government offices
Rabin/Netanel Lorch;
Binyenei Ha’uma/Hanasi Hashishi.
The journey from the first stop in RBS-Gimel to Hadassah is scheduled to
take one hour and 18 minutes; RBS-Gimel to Shaarei Zedek one hour and 31 minutes.
Leaving from Beit Shemesh:06:40, 08:10, 09:40, 11:10, 12:40, 14:10, 15:40, 17:10, 18:40, 20:10
No buses on Fridays or Saturday evenings.
Please note: The bus will not stop at the main entrance to the Hadassah Hospital, the stop is next to the traffic circle on the road going up to Ora Junction and at Shaare Zedek it stops on the road outside.

 

way to go!

This report on Channel 13 News is really interesting. It says that many Israelis, including many Haredim, have found an innovative method for smuggling cigarettes to circumvent the high taxes locally on cigarettes.

Truth is, I am not even sure it should be considered smuggling, bu tit is some sort of tax avoidance. The following is the definition of smuggling:



In this case, nothing is being moved in or out of the country illegally, or even legally. The cigarettes were in Israel and stayed in Israel. So smuggling it probably isn't, but it is some sort of tax crime and maybe another type of crime as well.

Anyway, here is the innovative plan. They buy the cheapest flight available, and nowadays there are tickets to destinations that cost bupkes. For just 20-50 shekels you can get a ticket to a multitude of destinations in Europe or elsewhere. They go to the airport and buy cigarettes in duty free - and they buy far more than the legal limitations because nobody enforces that or stops them. They then intentionally miss the flight and leave the airport getting their passport stamped as having returned to Israel.

All the while, their purchased cigarettes remain in their bags which they bring home with them, and then go on to sell in their communities or yeshivas or wherever.

According to the article, because of this report, nearly 55,000 cigarette packets have been confiscated during attempts to smuggle them in (though as I said I am not sure smuggling is the right word). As well, the customs authority at Ben Gurion airport has now issued new directives that will have people checked even if they did not get on or off a flight...

So with the new directives in place, this method might have already gone the way of the dodo bird, but just as this method was discovered, it will surely be replaced, if it has not already been, with a new method. When there is a will there is a way.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced by law to resign from the 5 ministerial he held, not including the Prime Ministerial position itself that he can continue holding.

Today, former Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman was appointed to the position of Minister of Health to fill the vacancy left by Netanyahu's resignation. Netanyahu's resignation caused Litzman to lose his position as well, as you cannot have a Deputy Minister with out a Minister. Appointing someone else as Minister of Health and leaving Litzman in the Deputy Minister position would be meaningless as he would have no powers with a real minister over him, unlike when PM Netanyahu held the position and gave DM Litzman full authority. So, after the Moetzes of Agudat Yisrael approved Litzman taking the full ministerial position recently, today Netanyahu formally appointed him.

What makes this interesting, even though it is only a caretaker government and an extremely temporary position until elections, Litzman had made history by taking the full ministerial position, after decades of UTJ politicians refusing such positions so as not to share in responsibility for government decisions that go against halacha. After serving as Health Minister for a while, Litzman resigned (about two years ago) because he realized the old problem never really went away and with increasing chilul shabbos and other issues supported by the government, he felt he could not bear that responsibility. He was then reappointed as Deputy Minister and has since served in that capacity of full responsibility but not in official appearances.

And now, with the threat of him losing his position and responsibility for the health ministry imminent, the powers that be decided it was more important he keep that appointment despite their historic position, and the reaffirmed position from two years ago, that no job is important enough to be worth sharing responsibility for chilul shabbos and other anti-halachic decisions of the government.

Makes one wonder what changed that now it is allowed again...

(and all this without even mentioning the indictment Litzman himself is supposedly about to be served in the Leifer case for obstructing justice and whatever other charges there might be)

source: Atara German Twitter

Aryeh Deri in the government meeting this morning finishing the last daf of Shas in preparation for the siyyum hashas event he will be attending tonight. I dont know if he learned daf yomi daily, but the tweet (linked above) also says he learned 13 daf over Shabbos...

Minister Deri is a real masmid. His learning should be a zchus for Israel and for the government...

בתו של ח"כ ישראל אייכלר מיהדות התורה ביציאה היום מהקלפי בבנייני האומה בירושלים לאחר שהצביעה בפריימריז לראשות הליכוד pic.twitter.com/ql5W1x6xyn

— יקי אדמקר (@YakiAdamker) December 26, 2019

I always enjoy some good population statistics. I find them interesting, offering the ability to see trends in society. This might be the best part of the end of the old year and beginning of the new year - it always gets accompanied by a plethora of statistics about the population...

Actualic brings some statistics from the Israel Institute for Democracy that show that the number of Haredi men joining the workforce has decreased in recent years and sits at just 51% relative to 87% of men in the rest of Israeli, non-Haredi, society. On the other hand, the number of Haredi women in the workforce has increased to 76%, and that is relative to 83% in the general Israeli, non-Haredi, female population.

The other side of that coin is the increase of men learning in kollel to 86,000 and another 37,000 yeshiva students. These are increases by 30% and 21% from 2015 alone. In 2018 alone these numbers increased by 6%, despite the Haredi community only growing by 4% in the same time period.

The average household salary in the Haredi community is 15,015nis, which isn't all that bad but it is significantly lower than the average household income in the general population being 22190nis.

More Haredim are going to study in institutions of higher education, with the increase during the past decade being by a factor of 2.5, with an increase of 9% among the men and 12% among the women in just the last two years alone. There are about 12000 Haredi students in the academies of Israel.

MehadriNews of Bet Shemesh bring more statistics, more relevant to Bet Shemesh specifically, from the Israeli Bureau of Statistics. These statistics were taken from a comparison of the 16 largest cities in Israel, Bet Shemesh being among them. 

According to these stats, Bet Shemesh and Rishon Letzion lead the list of cities with 76% of their residents being homeowners living in their own homes. Bet Shemesh also leads the list in population density with 1.3 people per room. Another point Bet Shemesh leads in is the number of people paying off mortgages with 73.6% of all homeowners in the city paying a mortgage.  Bet Shemesh also leads the list in percentage of households with a clothes dryer, being 62.1%, and that is despite the strong sun and wamr temperatures we enjoy here in Bet Shemesh.

An unusual and interesting statistic Bet Shemesh also leads in is the number of people who carry two mobile phones, one being kosher and one being a regular smartphone - 87.3% of Bet Shemesh residents own two or more mobile phones. This sounds too high to me but that is what they discovered. 

Rebbetzin Koledetsky, the daughter of Rav Chaim Kanievsky and seen as the successor of Rabbanit Batsheva Kanievsky a"h, has written a letter to school principals urging them to lighten the load of their students and go easier on the testing. She says that lessening the pressure from school and the intense testing would have a positive effect on the increasing number of suicides in the Haredi community.

The Rebbetzin explains that many parents come to her crying about their children who are trembling from stress and have suffered psychological trauma. She says recently this has become a plague, meaning it is increasing greatly. She says it is both boys and girls suffering, below the age of 18, yougn men from wonderful families learning in the best yeshivas, and young women who are talented, pretty, righteous and modest all suffering. They are not sleeping at night, have no appetite to eat, dealing with tremendous fears, not able to daven, not able to focus, and they end up sleeping all day long.

Rebbetzin Koledetsky suggests:
1. giving less homework
2. lower the stress around tests and give test prep questions form which the test will be given
3. easier tests so everyone can do better
4. give good grades, be more encouraging and positive and supportive
5. not to punish girls whoc oem to class a few minutes late
6. not to punish girls who don't come to class on rainy days
7. increase praise for girls who behave well
8. increase praise for the parents as much as possible
9. be considerate of girls whose families are going through tragedies or situations of distress or simchas.

 She says the goal is that the boys and girls should not go crazy from distress and parents should not have to take pills to calm down - the entire house should not be suffering in pain from school.

(the letter can be seen below)
source: Actualic

I am no educator and have no strong opinion on what is the right or wrong way to go about this issue. Some of the schools (many perhaps?), especially among the girls which have more rigorous testing and educational goals but also among the boys yeshiva ketanas there can be a lot of pressure to learn more and not waste even a moment even without the testing systems that the girls have, really do put a lot of pressure on the students. Sometimes, and some levels of, pressure can be a good thing. We want our kids to succeed and do well, but we should not want them to break under the pressure. Schools need to create an environment of striving for success and the pressure can help in that regard, but they should not overdo it. And parents should look for schools that are appropriate for the child and not just send the kid to a school because it is known as "the best" - the parents should know if the child can handle and thrive under a school with an intense program or if the child needs something a little, or a lot, more toned down.

A few days ago, a school in Herzliya held a holiday exhibition. I was going to ignore the issue but in honor of Christmas today I have decided to mention it.

It seems the students preferred to celebrate Christmas more than Hanukkah and put on an elaborate and glittery Christmas display while putting on a small and drab Hanukkah display.

Much of the religious press protested and criticized the school, teachers and students for the display, for allowing it and perhaps even for promoting it.

בית ספר חילוני בהרצליה חוגג:
לא את חנוכה,
אלא את כריסמס.
האמת,
בושה וחרפה pic.twitter.com/tj00qkTiOg

— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) December 22, 2019

It seems to have scaled up a bit but the trend for Israelis and Jews, not really celebrating but commemorating in some way, Christmas has been increasing in the past decade, by my eyeball test. This year I was sure I noticed less of it, but then this happened. So yes, this is on a larger scale, but the trend was already there.

I don't know who is to blame so I dont know who to criticize, so I will just leave it at being a shameful display, a sorry and sad state of affairs that the pining for a foreign holiday is greater than for one that is our own.

And I find it interesting that when anything Jewish is introduced in the Israeli school system there are immediately screams of "hadata" - religious coercion in making the students study or experience something of Jewish religious significance, yet foreign religious experiences are embraced with nary a peep against.

Sure it is just one school. A very small incident with such a small number of people involved. For now. What starts with one will eventually be joined by many, as they find it fun and exciting, unless it is stopped and considered beyond the pale of an acceptable school exercise. people can personally celebrate whatever they want, but Israeli schools in the Jewish sectors of Israel should not be promoting and celebrating Christian, or other foreign, holidays.

There is an interesting battle going on, and it is centered on the Ministry for Religious Affairs.

Despite the fact that the government has only been a caretaker government for nearly a year, with no coalition and already two rounds of elections behind us with a third on the way, political parties are making their demands for what ministries they expect to receive authority over in a future government, as a condition for entering a coalition, and others are fighting about what ministries to be given now, even in just a temporary capacity..

The most interesting of these is the "New Right", Yamina, led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. Both have made statements that they will demand as a condition for entry into a future coalition both the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Bennett said he would appoint a professional appointment to this position rather than a political appointment), and the election of a Zionist rabbi to the Chief Rabbinate.

Shas, currently in control of this ministry and having been in control of this ministry for many years in recent history, has responded with attacks on Bennett. They scoff at the size of his party wondering why he thinks such a small party should get it. They scoff at Bennett, the current Defense Minister, asking if he is willing to trade the Defense Ministry for the Religious Affairs Ministry. They attack him for being responsible for the elections by not uniting with other parties and not passing the threshold thus wasting many right wing votes. They attack Bennett for not treating the ministry properly when he did control it. Basically, Shas is fighting back saying they want to keep this ministry and Bennett can't/shan't take it away from them.

On the one hand, the fight is silly, especially in context of the current difficulty in forming a government. Maybe they need to focus on campaigning, bringing in votes, uniting with other parties to ensure they pass the threshold, and whatever else is part of an election campaign. Talking about future coalitions and jobs is a bit premature at this point.

On the other hand, it excites the electorate. people love some good political sparring. people love some good fighting, some good arguing. This wakes everyone else up. Maybe he deserves it, maybe not. Maybe Shas deserves it, maybe not. That does not matter. This type of a fight can be good to wake people up and excite them and get things moving. I would not be surprised if it was even coordinated between the two parties, as it is really good for both of them.

I am not even sure why the Yamina party would even want the position, besides for just to create the excitement of a fight. They talk about being religious "lite" and more right of a party than religious, so if they are going to remain small and only deserve one or two ministries, it seems that Religious Affairs would not be their focus.

This is similar to the Likud primary. Saar is great for putting his neck on the line against Bibi, but nobody expects him to even get close to winning. The primary seems like a big waste of time and resources, but it is great for the Likud electorate. This is a good energizer for them and will give them momentum into the campaign for the general elections.

Because the polls indicate that the right bloc will grow under Gideon Saar, it is bad for me that Saar should win.... whatever happens, after the elections we will do everything to replace the rule of the right..

  -- MK Ahmad Tibi (UAL)

so in a backhanded way, Tibi supports Netanyahu in the Likud primary election tomorrow. If this went the other way, Netanyahu would surely use such a statement against his opponent, as he has many times in the past. He has a killer attitude that drives him and has made him such a success over the years. Saar should be using this against Netanyahu, marketing that Tibi and the Arab parties want Netanyahu to win. He clearly doesn't have that same win at all costs attitude. I am not sure if that is good or bad...

need an interesting latke recipe?

wow! what a story!

View this post on Instagram

Never forget.

A post shared by TheYeshivaWorld.com (@theyeshivaworld) on Dec 23, 2019 at 7:02pm PST

Israel: We can identify incoming rockets launches, determine if they will land in an area that will cause damage, and if so, accurately fire another defensive rocket at the incoming moving projectile- all in less than 20 seconds.

We cannot find and deliver your Amazon package.

— Noah Roth (@noahroth) December 20, 2019

I never before noticed Rav Yuval Cherlo get involved much in segulas, though it is possible that I just did not notice as I am not an avid follower or student of his.

Rav Cherlo has announced an important new segulah. A segulah that is surely one of the most needed and necessary segulahs in Israel. One that might save many a home and family from distress and misfortune. Rav Cherlo announced a segulah to be saved form being involved in traffic accidents.

Rav Cherlo says that the best and most proper segulah for avoiding traffic accidents, what some call the plague of the country, is to drive safely, to stay focused when driving. Not to do anything else, at all, while driving. To pay attention on the road, to consider what other drivers might do and to be prepared for eventualities, to pull over to rest when tired. We should at least minimize the incidents that are caused by human error.

A person should also daven to be safe on the roads, and say tefillas haderech and do chessed and give people rides and drive them to their destinations when possible, but most important is to drive safely.
source: Kipa

It is hard. It is difficult. We are all so easily distracted nowadays, and we have so many distractions. Do what you can, figure out a way, to minimize the distractions.

Drive safe.

According to this article on TOI, and of course by seeing some people in some groups on Facebook complain about these things, Israel Post has been unable to handle the massive increase in packages arriving for delivery in Israel from Amazon shoppers.

Personally I have had no problems with any of the delivery methods and have gotten whatever I have ordered in a pretty timely fashion, sometimes even surprisingly fast, but one cannot say this was not predictable. Israel Post has had a bad reputation for a long time, and increasing their workload was not going to improve the situation.

While it was probably expected and predicted by just about every Israeli who might have ever used Israel Post, I did put it down in writing over 3 months ago when Amazon first announced it was going to be using Israel Post to handle much of the workload...

Jessica Meir, Jewish female astronaut, celebrating Hanukkah in space

Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate it on Earth! #HappyHanukkah pic.twitter.com/FKC2M5iXni

— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) December 23, 2019

There is a nibbling at the historic status quo. There must be dialogue between all parties and streams, such as regarding the issue of Shabbos, and we must formulate a national agreement for the next 30 years, how to safeguard the Jewish identity of the State and have a state that grants people's individual freedoms..

  -- MK Gideon Saar (Likud)

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced that it will be opening an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Occupied Territories. (It will also be investigating possible war crimes by Hamas.) The result of such an investigation, if guilt is found, would likely find Israelis (government official both past and present along with past or present IDF personnel) arrested and charged when traveling internationally.

Obviously this has upset the Israeli government and the Israeli government is denying war crimes and also denying the ICC's jurisdiction to even deal with the matter.

Interestingly, Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz is now saying that the reason the government has not dismantled and evacuated the village of Khan Al-Ahmar despite the go-ahead given by the Israeli courts is because they were afraid that doing so would be the last straw for the ICC and would lead to trouble.

Looks like they got it anyway.

This used to be called the Sam Malone Method of Problem Solving, being that if you ignore a problem long enough it will go away.

They thought that just ignoring the issue and not doing anything newly provocative would cause the ICC to leave them alone. It turns out that the ICC wants to pick on Israel regardless of Khan Al-Ahmar, and Israel just avoiding the issue did not accomplish anything.

So, will this push Israel to now dismantle the village, since not dismantling it did not help anyway? Or perhaps now it is already too late and it will just make matters worse? Did Netanyahu get this completely wrong, adding this as another misstep and miscalculation of his to a growing list in the past year or two...or was there no way to avoid it anyway?





 

uhhh, it is called gribenes