Yesterday the Knesset passed the first reading of a law that will allow a city rabbi to be fired.

According to the law, if it should pass into law, will allow the Minister of Religious Affairs to fire a city rabbi if he is not performing his duties and responsibilities properly. The firing would have to go through a committee that will be made up of dayan appointed by the Minister, a city rabbi appointed by the head of the Rabbanut Religious Council, a legal adviser of a government ministry. If the committee will investigate and deem the suspicions valid, they will be able to recommend to the Minister to fire the suspected rabbi.

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan says this is necessary because there are such rabbis in the system but the system has no ways or tools to deal with them. This law will increase the level of trust the public has in the rabbis. Ben-Dahan also said this law was prepared in coordination with Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau.

The Haredi parties do not like the law proposal. They don't like the possibility that a rabbi will be fired by a politician. MK Uri Maklev asked if judges have a similar system by which they can be fired. MK Yitzchak Cohen compared Habayit Hayehudi to Titus who destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. MK Aliza Lavie is dissatisfied for another reason - the committee is made up of men and they will protect other members of the club. Lavie wants the committee to include women.

Ben-Dahan responded to the Haredi MKs saying that during the rule of Shas, there was a decrease in rabbis, while he, Ben-Dahan, has appointed 69 new rabbis, to date. As well, Ben-Dahan asked them why they are concerned to protect and defend rabbis who don't fulfill their responsibilities but continue to take payment.

The first reading of the law passed by a vote of 54-11.
source: Kikar and Srugim

I like the initiative of what is being promoted as "shmitta chevratit" - social shmitta... the promoters want government offices and other public debt holders to honor the mitzva of shmitta in regards to financial concerns and wipe away any financial debt, at least for segments of the population that are economically weaker.

I like the idea in a general way. Any aspect of keeping shmitta more, and especially with intent on helping those who need it, is good.

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Rav Eli Ben Dahan has joined the group of those who want the shmitta chevratit. Ben Dahan said that government institutions are able to wipe away the debts. He called upon institutions to wipe away the debts of the elderly - such as Bituach Leumi, banks, and other public institutions...
source: Srugim

I would not mind if they wiped away my mortgage..

While I like the idea, I am not sure why institutions, especially banks which are really privately held, would wipe away the debt, which probably adds up to a lot of money. Just like people will keep their privately held debt, perhaps by writing a pruzbol, I imagine most institutions won't want to give up all that money either, and will want to employ the pruzbol or whatever else they might do. Just like some farmers will keep shmitta and not work the land at all, while most will employ the hetter mechira.

I guess if even just a small number of institutions wipe away the debt, it will be good - it will help some people, it will be a start of a good thing. Maybe next time maybe more will do similarly.

The job of mashgiach kashrut has always been conflicted - on the one hand, everyone is trusting the mashgiach to get the kashrut right. On the other hand, they get criticized for the way the system works.

Currently, the mashgiach is almost always employed by the restaurant he is certifying and not by the Rabbanut. The Rabbanut tells the restaurant owner how much hashgacha he will need and how much it will cost, and the restaurant hires the mashgiach directly.

The problem some people have with this arrangement is that, they say, the mashgiach is not truly independent and cannot possibly do his job correctly. He might not be willing to take a stand against the restaurant owner out of fear of losing his job.

How can a mashgiach get the trust he requires for his job?

Deputy Minister of Religious services Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan has the answer. Ben Dahan wants to form a kashrut authority that will employ the mashgichim. The restaurants will pay a kashrut fee to the kashrut authority , and the authority will pay the mashgichim. A set of ethics and policies will be formed for the mashgichim, and they will be supervised by the kashrut authority.

Ben Dahan says this will strengthen the Rabbanut kosher label.
source: Kikar

The last times I went up to Tiberias I had a problem. I had no idea were the local shuls were, where the mikva was, what time services would be held, when they would be open, etc. Even looking up listings on the Internet did not help much. The information provided was inaccurate, not updated and only partial at best.

The same is true in other places as well. When visiting an area unfamiliar, one does not know what his or her options are for religious services, and could very well waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.

This problem will soon be solved.

Israel Hayom is reporting that The Ministry of Religious Services, headed by Minister Naftali Bennet and Deputy Minister Rav Eli Ben-Dahan, is working out a deal with Waze, in which the ministry will pay 100,000 NIS per year for Waze to list 1000 mikvas across the country along with a listing of 130 religious councils providing wedding services and burial services. At a later stage there will also be a listing of shuls around the country. The listing of shuls is more difficult because of how extensive the list will be - there are tens of thousands of shuls around the country, and each one has its own individual schedule.

The plan is that when you type "mikva" into Waze, it will find the mikvaot nearby, or in the area you specifically request, direct you to it along with listing the opening times, the name of the manager or mikva lady and her phone number. And the same for religious councils.

I don't think this has anything to do with it, but let's not forget that Bennet had been offered the position of CEO of Waze a number of years ago, a position that he turned down at the time.

Ben-Dahan explained that a woman should not have to ask around for directions and schedules for the mikva. her need for a mikva should be kept discreet, and this will allow that. Ben-Dahan also invoked the expression coined by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, "The old shall be renewed, and the new shall be sanctified". Using Waze will allow better services to be provided for the consumer, and we are taking something new and imbuing it with a level of holiness.

bringing waze to the mikva, or the mikva to waze, will definitely sanctify waze. Just don't dip your GPS device in the mikva when you get there!

Good job.




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Even minor changes can be significant. Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Rav Eli Ben Dahan has sent out a letter to all city religious councils informing them that as he sees the Religious Council as being an important government service and instrumental in assisting the people, in the days leading up to Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut all religious council buildings should be flying the Israeli flag.
(source: Bechadrei)


Personally I would not have expected such a letter to have to be sent. I assumed there was already a law saying that all government buildings must fly the Israeli flag. If not all the time at least in the period of Yom haAtzmaut and Yom HaZikaron. Seeing this notice from Ben Dahan made me do some searching to see what the law is.

it turns out that only very few buildings by law must fly the Israeli flag. In 1986 the Flag and Emblem Law, which originally said nothing about what buildings must fly it, was amended according to the new section 2A the State flag shall be flown at these places (no official English translation this time):
a. main office of Government ministeries, authorities and statutory corporations.
b. on the building where Head of a Local Authority chamber is.
c. on the Administration building of the high education institutes.
d. on other public buildings and buildings of corporations which supply public services, as imposed by the Minister of the Interior in regulations on approval of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee

As well, Section 2B states, "The State flag shall stand at the chambers of Ministers and Ministerial General Managers, court houses and other officials chambers as imposed by the Minister of Interior on approval of the above Knesset Committee."

In 1997 the law was further amended and the main administrative building of schools were also added to the list.

I guess as head of the ministry Ben Dahan can tell them what to do, even if by law there is no such obligation. I wonder what the penalty will be, of if one is even possible, if a specific religious council chooses not to fly the flag despite Ben Dahan's warning.

My personal opinion is that every government building should be obligated to fly the flag at all times, not just  on Yom HaAtzmaut.

Flying the flag for Yom HaAtzmaut might be a minor issue, overall in the scheme of things  but it is a major step in implementing policy of turning the Rabbanut back into a Zionist entity, as HaBayit HaYehudi had made part of their campaign.

Yesterday there was a crazy incident in beis din in Jerusalem. Beis Din was trying to persuade a sarvan get, someone who has refused to give his wife a halachic divorce, to issue a get. In order to evade the authorities, Shai Cohen, the sarvan get, jumped out of a second story window, and ran away. The police are still looking for him.

Shai Cohen, sarvan get

Shai Cohen, the sarvan, has been in jail since 2007 due to being classified as a sarvan get. His story started before that, as he was indicted for threatening his wife with murder, but the judge took into account circumstances and made it only a conditional arrest. Also, when he first refused to give the get, it was on ideological grounds with no actual demands - he simply refused to give the get. That makes his refusal worse in the eyes of the beis din and the courts. Only later did he include financial demands in his refusal.

I heard this morning on the radio an interview with MK Eli Ben Dahan. Ben Dahan had been in charge of the rabbinical courts before he entered the Knesset, and he is familiar with the case of Shai Cohen. He pointed to the fact that Cohen has been in jail for over 6 years refusing to give a get and for most cases of jail for refusal to give a get it takes just days or weeks, with extreme cases taking up to two months. Sitting in jail beyond that is very rare, as most people realize by then that this is not the way to go. The fact that Cohen has sat for 6 years and continues to refuse to give the get indicates that there is something unusual about him.

MK Rav Eli Ben Dahan

What was interesting is something else Ben Dahan said. He said that a judge had previously refused to grant Cohen mehadrin food and the ability to daven with a minyan in jail, despite the formal request. The judge wanted to harshen the conditions of Cohen, and how can he deserve to act as a religious man eating mehadrin when he is refusing to give a get. The judge was overruled by the Prison Authority because it goes against prisoners rights and is a legal problem to deny such things.

Ben Dahan said that he considers this absurd that someone who refuses a get can be considered religious with the right to demand mehadrin food and minyan. He said that he is proposing a law that would deal with this issue, though he did not go into detail as to what he is going to propose, as the idea is to make the conditions harsh enough to persuade the prisoner to give the get. I found on INN confirmation that Ben Dahan is proposing a law that will make conditions of sarvan get prisoners much more difficult for them, but it too does not give details of what would be denied to such people.