Hamechadesh brings Rav Zilbershtein's words of warning and encouragement... Ra Zilberrshtein said the people who learn here in his kollel are like learning in Slabodka where they act and speak with great levels of derech eretz and they are identifiable by their gentleness of spirit. They do not scream in the streets like a donkey. 

When people insult us, as bnei yeshiva, we forgve the insult immediately and simply say thank you for the comment I will take it under consideration. This is what we learned in Slabodka how a ben yeshiva behaves, Rav Zilbershtein said.

During bein hazmanim, while out and about in the streets, your behavior has to be such that people who see you will know that these are people who were blessed by God. No screaming in public. No eating in the street, not even eating or licking ice cream and the like.

And mostly, if someone insults us, simply respond by saying forgive me, perhaps you are right, I will work to be better in the future. 

This type of behavior will be a tremendous kiddush hashem.

Yeshiva boy or not, we could all benefit from better behavior in public and bettering our own behaviors in public.

I find the attempt especially interesting, which is why I have been following it.

Briefly, the latest developments that I have seen are that Leitner is trying to get a rep added to both the lsts of Shas and of UTJ, not one or the other. He represents, or claims to, tens of thousands of young Haredim who feel disassociated with the current party lists of both parties as he represents both ashkenazim and sphardim. Additionally, UTJ appealed to the electoral board whop instructed Leitner to stop using the UTJ logo and electoral information in their ads as it is unauthorized use. Also, the Haredi parties are starting to fight back claiming that they will soon be revealing who is funding Leitner and the revelation will basically put him out of business - the implication being it is anti-haredi elements, perhaps the deep Left, etc.. we'll see how bad it really is when the information comes out (I am skeptical it is as bad as they say and will cause the earthquake they think it will) but them starting to fight back is an interesting development.

What I don't understand about Leitner's plan is how he expects to fit into UTJ even in the best case scenario. Shas might be less of a problem in this. First, when he ran in municipal elections in Bet Shemesh he was asked about how is he any different if he wont add a woman to the party list and he said he plans to in the future but he has to get off the ground first. I remember hearing grumbling about that but people bought it, perhaps due to not having any alternative but they bought it. If they get into UTJ and Shas, what happens with that - will he lose his following he claims to have or will they still stick with him? Does he expect to change UTJ and Shas or does he just become another faction of UTJ and Shas with no big changes?

And second, one of Leitner's big successes, which is why he seems to represent the yougn Haredi crowd, the working Haredim, the modern Haredim, the blue shirt Haredim, the Israeli Haredim, or whatever else you might call them, is his success in pushing through the formation of "Mamach" schools - Public Haredi schools, Mamlachti Haredi, state run Haredi schools in which a full curriculum of core studies is provided, whch is what many of these younger Haredi couples want. Moshe Gafni, head of Degel hatorah, has been very consistent in speaking against the formation of Mamachs and has put forth every effort possible to thwwart them and refuse government licensing. In Bet Shemesh the public has been somewhat successful with some being formed and some getting licensed, but elsewhere Gafni has been largeky successful in preventing it. Even just last week Gafni said in an interview that he will make sure the government does not approve any Mamachs moving forward. So what is Leitner's plan? Does he think he will change Shas's position on this, let alone UTJ's? His one big success (that I am aware of) is one that Gafni is sworn to be dedicated to oppose - how will they live together in one party if his best case scenario pans out and UTJ/Shas open their arms to him?

Has anybody heard him explain this? I haven't.

  -- Mordechai Ben David, the singer, in an interview with Shloime Zionce, when asked about the fact that the Ribnitzer Rebbe (whom MBD was close to) had been the mohel of Avigdor Lieberman back in Moldova

wow. I was shocked when I saw this. Had to read it twice and look for the clip itself, which is in yiddish with subtitles. Very inappropriate comment and very surprising [to me that] he said that.

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