The Times of Israel is reporting a strange story. The Ministry of Absorption ran a campaign promoting aliyah to Israel. In the campaign they, supposedly, spoke to various immigrants about how they have made a successful life in Israel, some despite hardships they might have encountered.

As part of the campaign, they posted to the various social media platform images of immigrants they had spoken to with short blurbs from each about how they love it here in Israel.

What is strange about this is that the immigrants they included in the campaign are all made up and fake, as are the quotes and blurbs.

Instead of speaking to actual immigrants and taking their pictures, contacting them via Nefesh bNefesh or the Jewish Agency, via their Facebook or Instagram pages, they just made a bunch of people up, using stock images form the Internet!

While I am tempted to call this supreme laziness. in essence it was probably more work to make up all these personalities and quotes than it would have been to speak to a few actual immigrants!

Moshe Le-On, Mayor of Jerusalem, announced that he is going to be changing the name of the Har Nof neighborhood to Naot Yosef, as a tribute to Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rav Ovadia Yosef, both leading rabbonim, gedolim, from Jerusalem.

Some residents love this change, and some residents are upset by it. I don't really care. I don't own stock in either name.

and for background..

haha!

The issue of "hadarat nashim" is up again, and from a more interesting angle.

The annual fundraiser for Ezra Lamarpe, led by Rav Elimelech Firer, is coming up soon and is being planned. The show as planned was going to be a tribute to Shlomo Artzi with other singers singing his songs and other songs in a tribute to him. The concert is for the general public, not for the Haredi community, and will be mixed seating. After performers were approached and had agreed to perform at the event, it became known to them that it had been planned with no female singers or performers. For example, one band leader had been asked to perform without his band, just him and one other, leaving out the female member of his band. He only realized it was intentional that she was excluded at some point after he agreed to perform. The same story for other performers included. The reason, obviously, is because Rav Firer heads Ezrra Lamarpeh and as a frum haredi Jew cannot and does not want to be in a situation of women singing at his performance with him present.

After the performers realized what had been arranged, they started to back out, saying they do not want to participate in an event that excludes women, especially women they normally perform with. Even Shlomo Artzi himself said he did not like how it was arranged and is going to try to get the event changed and to convince Rav Firer to allow it to include women.
source: Ynet and others

In all the recent events, the hadarat nashim was protested by external groups. Also, the hadarat nashim was manifested by the audience - women were not invited at all or were planned to be seated separately or in a smaller area.And in all those events, the event was for the haredi community. In this instance, it is the performers themselves protesting the event, it is an event for the general public and not for the haredi community and the hadarat nashim is in the lineup of performers, not the audience.

Being an event for Rav Firer, it is understandable that he won't listen to women sing or watch them perform. Perhaps his organizers should have been more upfront about what they were doing when they arranged the details rather than trying to do it in a way that nobody would notice. Then they would not have felt deceived. Still, putting on a performance for the general, secular public, and excluding women in the process, is a recipe for disaster.

Last year there was an incident in Jerusalem among the "Cult of the Veiled Ladies" in which the police raided the wedding of a 17 year old groom and a 13 year old bride. Such weddings of underage minors are illegal. When the police raided the wedding, most of the people present scattered and ran off to avoid arrest, while the bride and some of her female escorts were detained for questioning. As well, the police raided the wedding before the ring was placed on the finger of the kalla.

The wedding was against the wishes of the father, and he was not present and was supposedly not even aware of it taking place. After this happened, the father went to a beis din in Jerusalem and asked what his daughter's status is - if married or not, does she need a formal divorce? can she later marry anyone, including a kohein?

The dayanim on the rabbinical court investigated the matter and questioned people whow ere present at the time. They were convinced that the halachic part of the wedding had not yet taken place before the police broke it up. As well, theysaid that the chosson, the young man standing beside her under the chuppa, had never before spoken to her at all, not a single word - not about the wedding/marriage and not about anything else. After discovering all this information, and upon further deliberation and debate, the rabbonim paskened that the young woman was not ever married and would be allowed to marry in the future without the need for a gett.

The beis din decided that she had a chuppa but no act of kiddushin, so she retains her status as being a single unmarried woman.

Another issue the beis din had to deal with was whether or not there was a "kol", public knowledge that she had been married. If such a kol goes out, it is enough to require a gett to dispel the rumors considering her married, even though she was not actually married. The beis din decided that while the wedding was the talk of the day around Israel and especially in her neighborhood of Mea Shearim, but they were actually talking about how the police raided the wedding and what happened and not about how she had actually married. Ergo, no formal divorce is needed even if just to dispel any rumors.

source: Ynet 

The person who killed Rabin was a person with the initials YR - not Yitzchak Rabin. The person behind it was seemingly a leading politician who wanted to eliminate Yitzchak Rabin because he wanted to do away with the Oslo Accords.. From here I call out to remove the false titles "Classified" from all the documents that do not support the theory that the Right killed Rabin. The time has come, 24 years the Right is vilified, my university - Bar Ilan - is vilified. We are all vilified because of something Yigal Amir might not have even done. He is sitting in jail in solitary confinement. Why is he held in solitary? So that he cannot tell anyone the truth. 

  -- Dr Mordechai Kedar, at a pro-Netanyahu rally. Netanyahu rejected Kedar's assertions.

Just when you thought Bernie Sanders couldn’t get any more radical, he outdid himself.  He wants to take money we give to Israel to defend itself from terrorists, and give it to Gaza, which is run by terrorists?? Unreal. Why isn’t every other Dem pres candidate saying he’s wrong?

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 29, 2019

the great butter saga of 2019 might finally be coming to an end!

For months there has been a butter shortage in Israel. The widely accepted reason is that because butter is price controlled in Israel, the manufacturers prefer to export the butter to Europe and other places where they can profit more off it rather than sell it locally at a controlled price with less profit. So, little butter has been sold in Israel over the past year. Whenever a supermarket gets a box or two of butters, lucky consumers present at the time snap up as much as possible, leaving the shelf empty almost immediately. Some shops have begun to limit the amount of sticks of butter any one consumer can purchase at a time.

I was actually somewhat surprised to see the frustration and desperation of so many people over the butter situation. We hardly use butter, and I thought butter is considered unhealthy nowadays and is discouraged in general and only used minimally. I was surprised to see so many people desperate for so much butter!

Anyways, the shortage might finally be coming to an end. Minister of Economy and Trade Eli Cohen has given the order to open up the imports market for butter without import taxes. Cohen believes that opening the butter market to competition by canceling the import tax will induce other companies to sell their butter in Israel.
source: Kipa

So soon enough you might see the return of your valuable butter to the stores of Israel.

I can't take it any more. I am going to leave Tiberias, until the decrees of Antiochus over the city will pass..... because of the decrees of Haman Harasha, a creature whose evil I have not seen paralleled ever in the world, he wants to hate me, I am running away from Tiberias.

  -- Rav Dov Kook, about Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi

soccer/football star Ronaldinho posted the above picture to his Facebook page, showing the world that he is in Israel and added a "shalom" with an emoji of the Israeli flag.

Lots of people got upset, as they are wont to do nowadays - upset that he called it Israel instead of Palestine, upset that he visited Israel and all the regular jazz....

funny

According to this article in Globes, the latest up and coming Israeli street food is gefilte fish in pita. the toppings are chrein, horseradish, and carrot, of course, but can also include pretty much anything else the consumer might be daring enough to try.

Sounds a little crazy to me. Almost a no-no. But who knows? Maybe it is surprisingly good!

And I am almost tempted to find the place that put this together and try it..

According to the website Chabad Online, for the first time ever a sukka was built on the White House complex, provided by American Friends of Lubavitch.

To paraphrase Donald Trump, President of the USA, he built a sukka at the White House and the Jews paid for it!

Richard Branson came to visit Israel and stopped to kiss the ground as he got off the plane..

this is a horrific report that ran on television Channel 13 the other day. It was delayed for a long time as Berland's goons fought it in court trying to prevent it from being broadcast, but the court recently ruled it could be, so it was. I don't understand why the police allow him to continue to do these things.

this is truly a fabulous and fascinating archaeological site. Back in early September we had an opportunity to get a tour of the site. Benjamin, the head archaeologist of this dig, gave a tour to a couple of groups. Benjamin happens to be a Breslaver chossid, very interesting fellow, new immigrant from Detroit. I have a few pictures of my own of the site, but not many as they requested we not take pictures of most of the site as they could not allow images to get out before the site would be published officially, which it was yesterday. If you get an opportunity to visit the site, you should go.

A Guest Post by Dr Harold Goldmeier

Reb Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir, also known as the Kerestir Rebbe, or Reb Shayale Kerestir, has become known as "The Mouse Rabbi". People put up his picture in their houses as segula to rid the house of mice and rats.

This image on the blog will render your mouse clicks ineffective

The story goes that he told a follower of his to hang his picture to rid the house of mice and it supposedly worked. Whether the story actually happened or not is beside the point, and it is under dispute by family members. Either way, the legend took off and nowadays many people hang the famous picture of Reb Shayale Kerestir to get rid of an infestation of mice.

Personally I always thought this was a weird legacy to leave behind, and I am sure how would have preferred to be remembered for his teachings and his Torah and dedication to God and to his community rather than to be remembered as an exterminator. On the other hand, at the same time, I wondered if perhaps he would be happy knowing he is helping Jews by easing their frustration and discomfort by ridding them of mice, despite the strange legacy and the perhaps diminished historic role from Torah scholar and leader to exterminator. I guess it is not for me to decide on this matter, but it did seem strange to me.

Interestingly, YWN is reporting about a Hassidic concert that took place over Sukkos Chol Hamoed that has led to outrage. The Hassidic singer same some song about Reb Shayale Kerestir and the video board displayed mice running across the screen until his image came up and then the mice disappeared. Strange.

According to the article, people are suddenly outraged by this degradation of the honor of Reb Shayale, treating him as nothing more than an exterminator. I don't get why it has been ok until now for so many in frum communities around the world to use his picture this way and only when it went up ont he video it became a problem.

Moe Berg has been a fascinating topic to me for a long time.. this looks really interesting..

funny

Translation:

As the holiday concludes and a moment before the second hakafot begin, I want to tell you about something that moved me this morning. I went with my family to the hakafot in the Heichal Hachaim shul of Neve Avivim. This is a Sephardic shul founded by Avner Sharki z"l, among others. A valuable Jew who at one time was the head of the Mafdal. From there we went to the new shul of Ramat Aviv Gimmel. At the opening ceremony of the shul I had promised to come back during the holidays, and the time has arrived to fulfill the promise.Now, listen well to the following piece of information, as it is amazing, in my eyes, and also gives me goosebumps. Ramat Aviv Gimmel is the neighborhood with the highest Jewish population in the world that had no shul, and this year a shul was opened there, after tens of years of trying unsuccessfully amid many struggles. This is a shul of sephardim and Ashkenazim together. Shai Agnon in Tmol Shilshom prophesied that this day would eventually arrive - there won't be a single neighborhood without a shul". And now, behold, a shul has been inaugurated here.When I went into the shul, just at that moment, there was a group of children that stood on the platform and sang the prayer for the welfare of the IDF soldiers to the tune of Eretz Tzvi. Their singing was fabulous and special. I had goosebumps. I am confident that next year, during the holidays, this shul will be packed with people, and I have no doubt that the prayer of the children will be accepted and arrive in the highest of worlds, just as it entered our hearts.

I would point out that Ayelet Shaked is not religious...

haha!

Amazing how @benshapiro needs less security visiting Hebron than he does on most US college campuses!

— Joshua Wander (@votewander) October 16, 2019

no idea the source. saw it posted around

Now THAT's a makeshift sukka!

for the guy hungry enough that he can't wait to find a real sukka, but has a sandwich handy

the MacGyver sukka

funny

such a great movie..

I say this now to Lapid and to Lieberman - if you join the government with the Haredim, you will  merit having a Heavenly voice (bas kol)  go out and declare: Lieberman and Lapid are invited to a life in the everlasting world, olam haba. You will be able to acquire your worlds in one moment..

  -- Rav Shalom Cohen, spiritual leader of Shas

I don't know who gets credit for the picture, but it was taken in Jerusalem last night. The storms have been unusual for sukkos and really crazy...

For the first time in Beit Shemesh: a new bus line,
Line 520, from Beit Shemesh to the hospitals in Jerusalem!

Beit Shemesh Mayor, Dr. Aliza Bloch and Deputy Mayor of Transportation, Shmuel Greenberg, met with representatives of the Ministry of Transportation today regarding the situation of public transportation in the city.

During the meeting, it was agreed that another 16 buses worth NIS 10 million will be added soon, which will be significant travel additions around the city. Among them is a new bus line, line 520, from Beit Shemesh to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and Shaare Zedek. The bus line is expected to be inaugurated in late November and will serve thousands of city residents who visit their relatives or alternatively work in hospitals. The new bus line will provide 10 daily daily services in each direction, a total of 20 round-trip services

Beit Shemesh Mayor, Dr. Aliza Bloch: "After years of waiting, the bus line to Jerusalem hospitals in addition to the addition of additional lines around the city will be inaugurated and lined up for thousands of city residents. At the same time, unfortunately, the shortage of public transport in the city is great and this is only a partial solution. We held a public-participation process last month for dozens of missing lines in the city along with a petition we filed against the Department of Transportation and we are doing everything we can to resolve the city's public plight. "

Deputy Mayor of Transportation, Shmuel Greenberg: "While we are concerned about the shortage of public transport, we are most pleased with the positive response we have received from the Department of Transportation, where we were able to anticipate the implementation of Line 520 for the hospitals that came out in the tender plans. The service to be provided is a daily service in the form of 10 daily trips in each direction, which will make it easier for the city's hospital staff and the general public who are forced to travel on several buses to the hospital today. The mayor and myself are holding regular meetings with the Department of Transportation to improve the state of the city. "

לראשונה בבית שמש : קו אוטובוס חדש,
קו 520, מבית שמש לבתי החולים בירושלים!

ראש עיריית בית שמש, ד"ר עליזה בלוך והמשנה לראש העיר הממונה על התחבורה, שמואל גרינברג נפגשו היום עם נציגי משרד התחבורה לגבי מצוקת התחבורה הציבורית בעיר.
במהלך הפגישה סוכם שבקרוב יתווספו 16 אוטובוסים נוספים בשווי כ- 10 מיליון ₪, המהווים תוספות נסיעה משמעותיות ברחבי העיר. ביניהם קו אוטובוס חדש, קו 520, מבית שמש לבית החולים הדסה עין כרם ולשערי צדק. קו האוטובוס צפוי להיחנך בסוף נובמבר וישרת אלפים מתושבי העיר אשר מבקרים את קרובי משפחתם או לחלופין עובדים בבתי החולים. קו האוטובוס החדש ייתן שירות יומי במתכונת של 10 נסיעות יומיות לכל כיוון, בסך הכל 20 נסיעות הלוך ושוב

ראש עיריית בית שמש, ד"ר עליזה בלוך: "אחרי שנים של המתנה, קו האוטובוס לבתי החולים לירושלים בנוסף לתוספת של קווים נוספים ברחבי העיר ייחנך ומהווה בשורה לאלפים מתושבי העיר. יחד עם זאת, לצערי, מצוקת התחבורה הציבורית בעיר היא גדולה ומדובר בפתרון חלקי בלבד. קיימנו בחודש שעבר הליך שיתוף ציבור לגבי עשרות קווים שחסרים בעיר יחד עם עתירה שהגשנו לבית המשפט נגד משרד התחבורה ואנו עושים כל שביכולתנו כדי לפתור את מצוקת התחבורה הציבורית בעיר".

המשנה לראש העיר הממונה על התחבורה, שמואל גרינברג: ״יחד עם זאת שאנחנו מצרים על מצוקת התחבורה הציבורית, אנחנו שמחים ביותר על המענה החיובי אותו קיבלנו כעת ממשרד התחבורה בו הצלחנו להקדים ביצוע קו 520 לבתי החולים שיצא בתכניות המכרז. השירות שיינתן הינו שירות יומי במתכונת של 10 נסיעות יומיים לכל כיוון, דבר אשר יקל על עובדי בית החולים תושבי העיר ועל הציבור הרחב שנאלץ היום לנסוע בכמה אוטובוסים לבתי החולים. ראש העיר ואנוכי ממשיכים בישיבות תכופות עם משרד התחבורה כדי לשפר את מצב התחבורה בעיר״.

Rav Shlomo Aviner writes:



Translation:

I want to be a modest young lady
by Rav Shlomo Aviner
Soon I will be bat mitzva, and I want to be a modest young lady. I want to be a good girl in the eyes of God, meaning modest. And I do not care what others in the family will say about me. This is my life.
Therefore, I have decided the following:
1. I will not grow bangs, even short bangs, but will gather my hair in braids.
2. I will button all the buttons of my shirt up to the top-most button, and will wear the type of shirt where even the bottom of the neck is covered
3. I will wear a wide shirt that hides my body shape, and one that is not at all transparent
4. I will make sure the buttons on my shirt are close together
5. I will have sleeves that are long, all the way to my palm. Though in the house of Saul they even covered the fingers, but this is enough for me
6. my shirt will be untucked outside the skirt, because if it is tucked into the skirt it will make the skirt tight on my hips and that is not modest.
7. a wide skirt that hides my body shape both when walking and when sitting. I particularly like layers of clothing
8. the skirt will be until my ankles
9. quiet shoes in a modest color without heels
10. no earrings, no jewelry, and no decorations
These are my ten commandments and this is how I will make God happy

If Rav Aviner wants to be a 12 year old girl, who am I to stop him? In today's day and age, we have accepted each and every person's right to self-identification.

More seriously, this post of Rav Aviner's created quite a brouhaha. Rav Aviner is entitled to his opinion on what modesty is, no matter how extreme his opinion might be, and as a spiritual leader to many, he is perfectly right in publicizing his opinion on the matter. I am not sure the style was such a good idea, seems a little sick and disturbed to me, but he got everybody talking about it, so I guess he won't win any style points but he got his message out successfully.

Rav Aviner's list of modesty rules is the extreme end of extreme, and that is fine for him and for those who want to follow him, no matter how much he is busy sexualizing 12 year old girls in the process.. The best comment I saw on this list is from Rav Amnon Bazak who said that he will only comment on the tenth commandment, despite the entire list being overly extreme. About the tenth he commented that the way to make Hashem happy is to keep the mitzvos. During the 3 regalim, the holidays, Hashem commanded us to be happy and joyous. The Rabam and the Shulchan Aruch explain that this includes making our family members happy, in the way that is fitting for each one. He specifically says that one should buy beautiful clothes and jewelry for the women, as much as he can afford.

Not only is pretty jewelry and clothes not a deficiency, but it is a mitzva to buy these before the holidays. The Torah recognizes that a desire for beauty and aesthetics are part of human nature. Dovid eulogized Saul, who is mentioned in these "ten commandments" mentioning Saul's daughters who wore golden jewelry and adornment son their clothes. An entire chapter in Shulchan Aruch discusses with which types of  jewelry a woman can walk outside on Shabbos, and it concludes, "nowadays women are accustomed to going out in all types of jewelry. the Rama adds that now jewelry is common and women wear them outside during the week as well. Not a single commentary on the Shulchan Aruch found any problem with this. Torat Yisrael throughout the generations did not suppress the natural desire to look beautiful and did not fight against it. After this is recognized, one can implement the values of appropriate modesty in a balanced human way.

I asked the candyman a few questions during Yom Kippur, and thought what he had to say was interesting and worth sharing..

To start, the candyman asked the rabbi if it is appropriate or not to give out candy on Yom Kippur to kids not fasting. The Rabbi responded that it is very appropriate to give out candy, as it is  yom tov - and the rabbi added to give out as much candy as possible because of it being a yom tov.

I noticed the candyman giving outs lots of candy during Neilah, more and more as Neilah went on, and it was to kids who had already gotten, and they kept coming back for more. I asked the candyman why. He said We are in the middle of Neilah and we are begging God to give us things - forgiveness, life, health, parnassa, and all sorts of things we don't necessarily deserve. "How can I say no to the children, when we want God to say yes to us?"

The Candyman added that he took a lesson from the kids as well. He did not announce he was giving candy freely. The kids just picked up on it, some more than others. The kids just kept coming back for more. He said that as some of the kids just kept coming back every few minutes for another candy, we have to plead with God the same way for what we want, even though we already did and even though we really do not deserve it, as the gates are closing. Just keep asking. God wants to give (hopefully). Just keep asking. Ask for more and for more and keep asking.

Benny Gantz posted that after the fast of Yom Kippur, as every year, he does the mitzva of building the sukka

it is nice to be so tall to not need a ladder to put on the schach...

The following is a notice that was posted in the Ashdod area by two people who ran a pub which was open on shabbat in the years 1993-1994. They're asking their customers' forgiveness that they caused public chilul shabbos.





It is a nice expression of remorse, but for the sin of chilul shabbos they need to ask God for forgiveness, not people. Residents who had their shabbos disturbed should be asked to forgive the disturbance, but we do not stand judgement for our sins before people, but before God. Still, it is a touching gesture.

Translation:

Let the new year begin with its repairings :-)The truth is this happened a week ago, and it has been banging around my head to do this, and now the opportunity arose. A week ago we drove to Jerusalem for selichos at the Kotel. It was 3am. As we were leaving to head back to Tiberias, my friend and I discovered a puncture in the tire.While we are standing there helpless - a couple of young women who do not even know to fill up the air - we notice a couple of men and call tot hem for help. They approach and immediately I identified them as Hanan Ben Ari and his musician. We immediately apologized and said we'll manage.Before we could even finish the sentence, the two of them already had the jack in hand. It was then 40 minutes filled with humor, good vibes and fun. Without a doubt, it was only because of them that we made it back to Tiberias safely.I am a school teacher., and the next morning I told my students about what happened the night before. For one to brag about Hanan Ben Ari and his musician changing my tire, but also to share with them a life lesson I experienced - we are all people, equals. Even if we have performances in front of hundreds of people, and also if we have thousands of followers on Instagram. We are a nation of people looking out for each other - especially in these days. Hanan Ben Ari and his musician - you are definitely champions of the world!!! Gmar Chasima Tova to everyone.