Zaakah, no relation to Zaka (the org of volunteers of people who clean up body parts in the aftermath of terror attacks and handle other forms of kvod hameis issues around the world, is an organization that helps survivors of sexual violence and seeks justice for them and advocates for survivors of child sexual abuse.

We are living in a difficult generation. It used to be that there were askanim and rabbonim, the rabbonim would make the decisions of daas torah, and the askanim, the activists, would accept their opinion. Today is a new generation. The askanim have become the rabbonim, and the rabbonim are afraid of the askanim

  -- Rav Moshe Shternbuch, Raavad of the Eida Hachareidis

he said it, not me

It used to be that if you did not have emunas chachomim the haredic community would consider you problematic. Maybe you can't be trusted for kashrus, maybe kids shouldn't be in the standard schools, etc.

Nowadays this has changed. Nowadays you have to have emunas askanei chachomim, or maybe emunas dovrei chachomim.

Rav Amar, the [Sefardi] Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim, has been critical of the deal giving the Reform and WoW a location along the Wall for their egalitarian prayer. He, among others, has been critical of the Haredi MKs who have quietly let the deal go through.

Today in an interview Rav Amar said "what is being said in the name of the gedolim [about the deal surrounding the Kotel areas] must be checked, and I don't want to expand on that".

He did not question the gedolim.. Rav Amar questioned the people who are, supposedly, quoting the gedolim. Did people with an agenda portray the picture properly to the gedolim to get a true answer and clear direction, or did they misconstrue the information in order to get a specific answer? Did they relate the response from the gedolim in an accurate and precise manner, or did they tell the public more or less what the gedolim said, fudging on the clarity? Too bad Rav Amar does not expand on this.

I think if Rav Amar had heard from the gedolim their position, and he questioned them, that might be a problem, but I do not think questioning the askanim around the gedolim is really much cause for derision.

I would like to believe that someone in the position of a Rav Amar could go directly to the source and clarify what the situation is, and even present his own opinions and understanding for consideration. I know the political aspect surrounding Rav Amar and why he is now considered persona non grata among some of the gedolim, and perhaps that is why he was not able to confer directly with them on this issue.

Anyways, as mentioned, Rav Amar questioned the people quoting the gedolim. That drew the ire of Motka Bloi, one of the top Degel askanim. Rav Bloi called Rav Amar Reform, with a troubled history.

So Rav Amar is now Reform because he does not have enough emunas askanei chachomim. Considering how they fought him in the past and basically tarred and feathered him, I am not surprised he has no faith in them.

Rav Elyashiv Puts An Askan in His Place

Rav Yosef Chaim Kupshitz recently went to Rav Elyashiv recently asking him to sign a letter. He said there is a big problem today that seminary girls walk through the streets talking on their cellphones, and it is very inappropriate. He asked Rav Elyashiv to sign a letter saying he is opposed to this phenomenon.

Rav Elyashiv responded by telling him a story. The Emperor Joseph sent one of his aides to the Jewish community to find out what they were up to. The messenger gets to the Jewish community and finds them congregated in groups outside looking up to the sky.

The messenger went back to the emperor and related what he had seen. The emperor now wanted an explanation so he summoned the rabbi of the community to explain.

The rav explained the were performing kiddush levana - he said, every month we see the moon getting smaller. We pray to God that he should make the moon big again. Sure enough, the moon always gets bigger. God accepts our prayers.

The emperor laughed and said if that is what you are concerned with, your situation must be pretty good.

Rav Elyashiv continued and told R' Kupshitz, if the last problem remaining to be dealt with is the cellular phones of the girls, our situation must be excellent.

Rav Kupshitz took his unsigned letter and left. (source: Bechadrei)

Thoughts:

1. That is a great story
2. Why are the two things mutually exclusive? Just because there are other problems means the "smaller" problems should not be dealt with?
3. If Rav Elyashiv could refuse to sign a letter with this excuse, on a topic that has had letters and bans and pronouncements in the past (though I don't know if Rav Elyashiv put his name to them in the past on this issue), does that mean all those times he does agree to sign his name he really approves of the content and is not being duped?
4. It has seemed like these askanim have their way with all these rabbonim (example: see the way Rav Nissim karelitz was recently duped to sign the Yated letter against the Mishapach aand other newspapers, but when he found out he had been lied to and presented with information that was more than 2 years old he wrote a new letter pulling his approval from the original letter and supporting Mishpacha instead). Is that no longer the case? 

The askanim are renewing their fight against the haredi weekly newspapers. They needed a new tactic, since the old ones have obviously not worked as rather than weeklies shutting down on their orders, even more are being published as new weeklies have joined the market.

Instead of fighting with the newspapers, who have obviously not been listening, they are attacking the readership. Not just by telling them that the gedolim say not to buy the newspapers (this method was already unsuccessfully employed), rather resorting to the tactics of Motka Bloi who tries to shut down the music industry (before Rav Amnon Yitzchak got involved). Bloi famously threatened that any haredim who would dare to go to the concerts would be photographed and their names and images would be publicized. They would take the information to the rosh yeshivas and get them thrown out of their yeshivas and seminaries and kollels.

The askanim are now adopting similar tactic, pointing to the "mazel tov" pages that run in all the weeklies. The "mazel tov page" is the page on which people can announce their simchas, usually used for announcing engagements.  These announcements are often free, and the paper covers it by targeting ads on those pages that are directed to the wedding industry, assuming that the engaged couples and their friends and people "in the parsha" will be regularly looking at these pages.


Besides for informing people which of their friends and acquaintances have gotten engaged the past week, it also tells askanim who reads the newspaper. I guess they assume that if you put your announcement in the paper it means you clearly read that newspaper. I am not sure the assumption is correct especially as the notices are generally free, as people might just announce their engagement in papers they dont read, as a way of making sure as wide an audience of their friends as possible will be exposed to the announcement. Bechadrei says that the existence of such announcements and people choosing to send them in provides a chizuk of sorts to the newspaper and encourages them to continue operating, and it gives the newspaper a sort of hechsher, as people will be under the impression that these papers are accepted and acceptable in the yeshivas and by the rosh yeshivas.

The askanim, for some reason who choose to remain anonymous, are now beginning to fax, on a weekly basis, to the various rosh yeshivas, the lists of their talmidim who announce their simchas in these weekly newspapers that go against the wishes of the gedolim, with the encouragement that the rosh yeshivas should speak out against this and should tell their talmidim to not announce their simchas in these papers.

When all else fails, the reign of terror will sometimes still work. I dont think it will work here though, just like it didnt with Motka Bloi and the concerts. The concerts still happen and people still go to them, and people will still read the weekly newspapers and make their simcha announcements in them. I wonder what they think of onlysimchas.com which is a million times worse because there are even pictures of women!

Rav Shmuel Eliyahu came down heavy duty against R' Shmidel and the Asra Kadisha and their protests...

"In my opinion it is a mitzva to move these graves. So it is brought in the gemara, so in the Shulchan Aruch, so did Rav Shimon bar Yochai..the gemara says Rashbi moved bones that were a disturbance to the public. When an old man protested, Rashbi set his eyes upon him and turned him to a pile of bones."

"Shmidel is known as a troublemaker, he is not a rav, and many great rabbonim said it is a mitzva to remove the bones -so paskened the rav of the city, so paskened Rav Roza who is an expert on these matters, so paskened the Chief Rabbis, and so paskened the Religious Council of the Rabbinate. Who is this Shmidel? Why does anybody have to listen to him? Whoever follows him is a fool... For what do we need the chilul hashem caused between religious and non-religious? This is superfluous, it is not halacha but foolishness."

"Don't say the rabbonim signed. I know how it works, the person comes to the rabbonim and tells them all sorts of stories that never happened. So the signatures of rabbis doesnt impress me. If the great Rav ELyashiv would come and tell us this is the halacha after he saw what the reality is, we would bow our heads and submit to him, but I dont believe Rav Elyashiv said not to move the graves because it can't be - there is the halacha, and Rav Elyashiv is a man of halacha, not politics. Whatever they say in his name is a lie and deceitful."

Considering the city of Elad and the sponsors of a holiday concert were not planning on backing down to threats of kannoim to stop a concert, the final result is a bit disheartening, though not unexpected.

It seems the initial statements in which they seemed to stand strong were only a bit of bravado.

The organizers eventually went with their dilemma to Rav Ovadia Yosef who told them to separate the concert, with the women in a completely different area viewing it on large screens, rather than being present even with a mechitza in the main hall.

The show must go on, and it did. At some point though, the screens had a technical glitch and stopped working. Eventually many women gave up in frustration and went home. Some others decided they weren't leaving, and instead went to the main hall.

After some "scuffling" with ushers, the women still refused to leave. A rav got up and said any woman who does not leave and go home will be cursed.

No concert is worth a curse by a big rabbi, so the rest of the women disbanded and went home. After they left, the show went on until the fat man sang. (source: Kikar)

A curse? Wow!

It's good the askonim still don't have control over RBS. We had an amazing concert, all performed by local talent, with an amazing band, a teenage boys choir, a boys choir, and a star singer who recently moved to RBS.

The City if Elad, in coordination with the haredi radio station Kol B'Rama, has arranged a big event for Pesach. They are having a concert with such stars as Medad Tasa and Udi Davidi. Residents approached the city officials and asked them to arrange something for the residents, and they did.

The askanim of the Committee of Holiness and [Mis-]Education heard and saw the advertisements and have decided the show cannot go on. To quote an askan, "We never approved this event, and we will not allow the city of Elad to proceed putting this event on."

The organizers, and those involved from Radio Kol B'Rama have responded that they never asked them, don't intend to, they have permission from their rabbonim, including Rav Ovadia Yosef, and the askanim will not tell us what we can or cannot do. (source: Kikar)

How disgusting of them is that to stick their noses in and say we never approved of this and we won't let it happen! They feel like they are the final word in the haredi community - nobody can blow their nose or wipe their tushie without permission from this or that committee of holiness. Finally some are hitting back and telling the askanim where they can stick it. I hope this response becomes more common.

Because of deaf people, haredim might be doing a dumb cherem.

One would think that the public "fashla" the askanim caused when they signed the gedolim on the letter of support for Elior Chen would have been enough to shake the system up enough. One who would think that would be wrong.

Egged is running, in a number of cities, none of which have a strong haredi population (Tel Aviv and Hertzliya for example), a screen on the bus over which bus information (coming bus stops, routes, etc) is displayed, with running ads that cover the cost. This is done for the benefit of the deaf, to make it easier for them to know where they are going, the next stops, etc. as they obviously can't hear announcements and have a hard time asking for details and all that.

The haredi askanim have decided that these screens are problematic. I am not sure why, but I guess they don't like the possibility of the advertising, and who knows what advertisement might be run on any particular day. They have been trying to pressure Egged to remove these video screens and scrap the program. So far unsuccessfully. For their next step in the campaign, instead of giving up and leaving it alone, especially since it hardly affects anyone in the haredi community, they are now considering threatening to boycott Egged over this.

Israel's Channel 2 News ran a report on this last night, so the threat of boycott is already in the official stages.

Not only are they threatening this stupid boycott, but they are doing this against the will of the rabbonim.

Kikar Shabbos reports that there was a meeting between the askonim and some rabbonim over the issue, discussing the possibilities and options. The main rav in the meeting was Rav Shteinman. The askanim were pushing the boycott. Rav Shteinman and the other rabbonim said it should not be done.

It seems the askanim have decided to not listen to the rabbonim, and have decided to go ahead with increasing the pressure on Egged by threatening a boycott.

Some people are even saying that many of the recent issues raised and pushed by the askanim, this one included, are effecting a process of the anti-religious Shinui party coming back to life.

Yair Lapid, a journalist and the son of the head of the original Shinui party Tommy Lapid, has been talking about some of these issues and has been talking about the possibility of running for politics and possibly starting a new party. He is polling very well, and if polls are to be believed, if he starts such a party it would see tremendous popularity very quickly.

And I don't blame them. The haredi community is built on listening to the rabbonim, as they have daas torah and know what they are doing. When the community is not listening to daas torah, and possibly even going against daas torah, but is listening to daas askanim and doing every stupid thing the askanim feel like doing, that is not what the haredi community is meant to be, and that is a violation of the charter of the haredi community.

This Letter to the Editor appeared in the Yated Ne'eman this week.

The letter describes a video being shown around in public areas, including Lag B'Omer in Meron, of Rav Elyashiv being asked by askanim about wigs being an acceptable method of hair covering or not.

The video itself was shocking, as it showed the pushy methods used to get Rav Elyashiv to say what they want to hear and to respond to what they want to discuss, no matter how many times he showed his lack of interest in making an issue of something.

Even worse, as the letter describes, is they then edited the video to only show a distorted picture of what Rav Elyashiv said. Rav Elyashiv said that in general sheitels are muttar, but certain types (too long, etc) are not because they are not tzanua. He spent some time talking about the "unkosher" wigs.
They took the video and cut out the part of Rav Elyashiv saying that wigs are muttar, and only left the part where talks about wigs not being tzniyus and therefore assur.

So not only can you not believe what you hear in the name of Rav Elyashiv, you now cannot believe even what you see Rav Elyashiv say, unless you are present when he says it, live.

Another example of this is regarding Kosher cell phones. the askanim got the blessing of the gedoilim, including Rav Elyashiv, to make kosher cell phones and require those int he haredi community to only use these phones. These phones have only phone calls enabled, with internet and sms access blocked.

This week, the rav of a neighborhood in Bnei Brak penned a letter claiming that Rav Elyashiv never said sms is prohibited. He spoke with Rav Elyashiv recently on the issue a number of times, and Rav Elyashiv was concerned with the content being clean of nivvul peh and disgusting topics. The only thing he instructed the committee dealing with it to work on was to ensure the cleanliness of the medium.

He further confirmed, in the name of Rav Elyashiv, that sms is fine, broadcasting news is fine, and all sorts of other methods of communicating (does not say internet access) with cell phones are all fine, and the committee is not to get involve din the content, or the medium, and their only job is to ensure that the broadcasts are clean (mostly problems with advertising).

So, this is another example of Rav Elyashiv's words being taken out of context and distorted.

Unless of course this rav cannot be trusted, as he is saying something int he name of Rav Elyashiv and perhaps he too is distorting his words....

Guest post on Dov Bear about our future askanim

YeshivaWorld.com interviewed R' Yehuda Levin who is an askan in NY. They discussed issues, such as supporting Democrats, specifically Hillary Clinton, the Gay Parade, the recent fight and ban on the Big Concert with Lipa Schmeltzer and more... I found it very interesting...

If you want to hear him talk about Shlock Rock, check out the minute marker at about 32:15..

MKs from UTJ Avraham Ravitz (Degel) and Yaakov Litzman (Aguda) do not get along that well. It is well known.

Ynet reports that Ravitz claims that Litzman is the reason they are not in the government, and the reason is because he was insulted when the position of Director of Treasury Committee was taken from him so now he will not talk to Olmert about it.

Ravitz claims if it was up to him he would dismantle UTJ and make a separate party for Degel. If it was up to him he would join the government depending on passing certain laws for the benefot of the Haredi educational system. "Litzman forces his opinion on the other party members and there is nothing they can do. He uses his Admor and does everything he says.."

UPDATED - Ravitz said, "Because the Rabbonim do not want to see argument (machloket), so they do what [Litzman] says.."

If you ever needed confirmation that the askanim run the show and tell the gedolim what to do or say, it just came from the askan's mouth...

You have probably read about the story of 5 Hareidi men beating up a woman the other day on Egged bus #497 from Bet Shemesh to Bnei Brak. She sat down in the front of the bus, they requested she move to the back of the bus. She refused. A soldier sat down next to her thinking it would deter them from making trouble. They did not care but proceeded to beat her and the soldier and disappeared before the police arrived.

If you missed it on the news sites, you could not have missed it on the blogs. Many of the various jblogs have written about it.

I delayed writing about it because the only details I knew were the ones mentioned above which came from the various media outlets.

I wanted to get more details. I posted on various neighborhood and social forums and asked around.

Nobody responded with any more information than that which was printed in the media.

This kind of stuff happens because the Rabbonim and askanim are busy making life difficult for the simple people. They are busy finding things to ban and posting signs about using only kosher cellphones, no computers and internet, no higher education, no army, no reading this book or that book, no this or that. All the narishkeit in the world has to be banned with signs declaring the protection of the sanctity of the community and speaking in the name of God.

But when incidents like this happen there is only deafening silence. Not a word from the Rabbonim banning such behavior or such beasts. Not a sign on the wall that this is not the way of our camp.

No - our camp does not use unapproved cellphones or eat from hetter mechira. We do not surf the internet or go to concerts that have men and women present even with separate seating. We only beat women who do not acquiesce to our selfish requests. How holy we are.

There is only time and energy for narishkeit.

The Navi says many times in the times of the Kings of Israel that anarchy reigned as "people did what was right in their eyes". There was no authority. The top brass was busy with narishkeit.

That leads to incidents like this. The top brass are busy with narishkeit and not with leading the people properly and providing what the people need.