The Israeli public has been becoming more and more disenfranchised with the Israeli leadership over the years. Blame is placed in lots of areas - some say the MKs high salary and perks cause it, some say their lack of accountability to the public because of the electoral system, etc.

MK Mickey Eitan has long been a proponent of MKs being more connected with the public, and more open with the public.

MK Eitan, who has always been one of the few politicians in the system with integrity, has decided to put his money where his mouth is. Literally. He talks about MKs being more open and connected with the public, and he has decided how he himself would begin to do so. His first step was to put his money where his mouth is. Er, that would be, he published his daily schedule, his expense chart and his salary slip on his website. (his salary is nearly 37,000 NIS, but only 26,000NIS gets deposited in his acocunt after all the taxes and other withholdings are deducted)

Hopefully others will see fit to follow. the real benefit of this is that he has to be accountable to the people. People will see what he, and others who similarly will publicize their information, is spending and he will have to be more careful as be sure to spend wisely.

If the MKs realize that everyone can see what they are using our money on, we will hopefully not be exposed to the annual end of year reports on what ridiculous items MKs spent tax money on. They will know in advance that we are keeping track, and will be more cautious.

Last week there were two earthquakes in Israel. One was a small one, listed at about a 3.0 on the Richter scale, while the second was stronger registering a 4.2. These happened in the Dead Sea region, with the shocks being felt as far as Jerusalem.

This past Friday night was another earthquake registering at 4.1 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter was in the center of the country, just outside of Ramle. In Bet Shemesh we felt it. By "we" I mean the general public. I slept right through it. My wife told em about it in the morning when I got up. So, it turns out I really can sleep through even an earthquake!

The Sadigura Rebbe has said that the cause of these recent earthquakes is the government discussing giving away parts of Eretz Yisrael. He said these are the times of Mashiach and we must all repent.

In other Annapolis news, the police came under heavy pressure to delay their announcement of a decision regarding the possible indictment of Olmert. It was scheduled to be announced today, but they delayed it now because of Annapolis.

And in other Annapolis news, remember Ami Ayalon? The guy who ran for leadership of the Labor party under the banner of his refusing to sit in olmert's government and calling for its dismantlement? Remember him - the guy who said he would never take the position of Minister without Portfolio because it is a waste of public money and has no purpose, then he went ahead and took exactly that position?

Remember him? Well, now he met with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in an attempt to convince him to not alow Shas to pull out of the government even if things in Annapolis go against his wishes. He called on Shas, even if Lieberman pulls his party out, to "show responsibility, stay in the government and support a diplomatic process that is essential to the existence of the state of Israel."

So, he ran on the platform of Olmert's government being corrupt and he would never sit in it. He then reneged on that promise, ok. Maybe he had reason to (good salary perhaps, for the cynics) . But now he has the chutzpah to campaign on its behalf and work to keeping it alive? At best he can justify his own taking the position but still that does not justify his campaigning on the governments behalf as if it is the responsible position.

I am translating (not word for word, but most of it) a letter that was printed as an ad in the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman newspaper recently. The letter ad was placed by a man who is a sofer - a religious scribe - who feels he has wronged his clients inadvertently.

This is an announcement for people buying [tefillin, mezuzos, etc.] in Israel and abroad:

For many years I have written Sta"m [acronym for sefer torah, tefillin and mezuzos] on parchment with no hechsher. I have no found out that all these parchments were invalid because of halachik problems due to the merchant having been caught receiving from trucks filled with parchments from Arabs. There are more than half a million parchment factories [worldwide] owned by non-Jews and sofrim purchase from them 80% cheaper. There was already an issur from the Merkaz Sta"m in Poland in 1935 that was signed by 86 gedolim to write on parchment with no hechsher.

I, a simple person, believed in and relied upon my teacher and the merchant. As well, when I received my certification to write, nobody told me the parchment had to have a hechsher. When I sold items, the buyers never requested to see a hechsher. So I have stumbled.

I asked my Rav and he paskened that in order to fulfill my obligations towards heaven, I must return the money to all those who bought from me. They relied on me and bought from me paying for tefillin and mezuzos that were kosher l'mehadrin.

(the Rav told me as well that according to halacha merchants have no reliability unless they have a hechsher. He also said that if I do not return the money to my clients, and they do not go out and buy new tefillin/mezuzos because they do not have money to do so, and he continues to don the tefillin that I sold him for the rest of his life, and then gives it to his kids, grandkids, etc. I will be responsible for all those years of him and his kids who inherit it not putting on tefillin, theft, deception, invalid blessings, etc [he goes on to list a whole bunch of other things as well and quotes sources].

As a result of the above, I have sold my house and I am in the process of selling the houses of my seven children. The Rav told me to publicize this so people will know to not buy any Sta"m without a hechsher on the parchment, just as you would demand when buying a piece of meat.

Thank God now there are at least 10 parchment factories with a hechsher

Because I stumbled, I request from everyone to make others aware not to use parchment with no hechsher. That should be at least my partial kappara.

Anybody who bought from me should call me and I will return to them their money. And by that I will have saved my soul.

Signed by Asher Green sofer sta"m cellphone:0524025830

There is a great parsha paper that gets distributed in shuls in Israel. It is called Torah Tidbits. It is full of all sorts of interesting articles and features. One of these articles is a weekly piece by Catriel Sugarman on some aspect of the Temple service or the physical construction of the Temple. The piece he writes is generally fascinating and very informative of events and processes we (many of us) have little understanding of.

In this week's article, Sugarman did something a little different. He gave us some of his background as to having grown up Conservative. He described the Conservative belief that there will not be a future Temple, rather the study of the subject is solely for the past, and not for any future relevance.

I was not aware of that belief among the Conservative, so that was an eye opener. He discusses how the Conservative edited the text of various prayers to indicate that belief that there will not be a future temple. He then presented a question he received by email and asked what the readers think about it.

I am reprinting the letter here:

Dear Rabbi (sic) Sugarman,

I am an ideological Conservative Jew and as you know, we do not believe that the temple will return. I download your column weekly from the OU website because the whole subject of the temple has always fascinated me, BUT ONLY AS A PART OF OUR PAST AND NOT AS A PART OF OUR FUTURE.î

Excuse me for saying it but I think the Orthodox movement is, for the most part, intellectually dishonest with itself and others on a central question of belief. This is the area of your expertise, the Temple, animal sacrifices and their reinstatement. The truth? How many Orthodox Jews in the 21st century really want these things?

Let's be for real. You pray three times a day for G-d to restore them to the Jewish people, but do you really want them? Do you really want to slaughter sheep and bullocks and goats by the tens of thousands, toss their blood on the altar, and burn their bodies? Do you really want to tie a red string around the neck of a goat and push it over a cliff so the sins of Israel will be forgiven?

I will not go so far as to call you hypocritical, but I honesty can't believe you people are serious...

Naomi

This is what I sent Catriel Sugarman by email...

Dear Catriel,

I read all your articles with great interest. This week's article was especially intriguing because of it touching on whether we really want the mikdash we daven for, and the future we daven for, or whether we are simply paying lip service but do not really want such change.

I have discussed the topic a number of times with people. I have found that in Israel there are more people who really want the mikdash and the mashiach and all the changes that will ensue because of them than there are in the Diaspora. Yet, even in Israel it is still a minority of the people.

I have asked why more people do not put on the tcheilet (for example). The halachic risk is negligible, and the halachic gain is great (if it is correct than one is fulfilling the mitzva d'oraisa properly). The response I was given is that the frum community generally pushes away anything that has a taste of being messianic.
For some reason, whenever something is deemed as having a messianic flavor, people push it away and reject it. The Rav who told me that also suggested the reason to be because of our long history with false Messiahs. He suggested that any time something quasi-messianic comes along, we automatically reject it because of our bad history with false messiahs.

That being said, I think most people (again, most people is most in the Diaspora and most in Israel as well, but the percentages in Israel will be lower) do not really want that changes that will happen. I suspect a lot of it has to do with fear of the unknown. People worry they will have to give up the luxuries they are used to and their lifestyles. We do not really know what the future will be like when mashiach comes, at best we make suggestions and guesses, so we have a bit of fear of the unknown.

I recently heard a story about a class in a frum school. The teacher asked the students to raise their hand if they want mashiach to come. Everybody raised their hands. The teacher said to keep their hands up. The teacher then asked if they know they have to move to Israel when mashiach comes do they still want mashiach. A few hands went down. The teacher proceeded to mention a few things that will likely change and little by little all the hands went down.

So in general, I believe, most of us do not want mashiach to come or the mikdash to be built. We want to keep our fancy cars, our fancy lifestyles and we do not want anything that might harm them.

That being said I think in Israel there are more people who do want it. I think people who make aliyah clearly want it, at least to a certain extent. They have already shown their willingness to give things up for what they believe. There are people in the general community (settlers, general frum, etc.) who really do want it. But still, even in Israel it is a minority.

What do you think? Do we really want the Beis Hamikdash to be rebuilt? Do we await the return of the korbanos? Do we really want mashiach?
Or are we just paying lip service but don't really look forward to that day?

What do you think? The comments section is open for discussion. And tell us what you really think - do you really want Mashiach or not. Do you really want the mikdash or not. Comment anonymously, if you must.