Israeli forecasters love to predict, errrrr forecast, snow for Jerusalem. They are almost always wrong, but every now and then it actually happens. Last week they missed on it, but now they are predicting 20cm, that is 7 inches, of snow in Jerusalem tomorrow night.

Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kobi trucked in tons, literally tons, of snow to the boardwalk of Tiberias and threw a street party on Shabbos day for residents to come enjoy the snow (video was posted on Kobi's FB page). Supposedly about 15,000 people participated and enjoyed.

Local religious and Haredi residents were upset, not just at the chilul shabbos but also by the fact that immediately as Shabbos concluded, the complex was closed and the snow removed. Meaning, not only did Kobi throw another street party involving mass chilul shabbos, but also brought in this snow and found a way to exclude religious/Haredi residents who could not even enjoy stomping around in it after Shabbos, as Kobi had it removed.

Kbi's response was that by the end of the day the snow was muddy and melted and no good any longer and they could not just leave it there in an empty complex waiting for someone to get hurt, so they had to remove it. And of course Kobi also added that the city of Tiberias no longer buckles under Haredi coercion, blah blah blah..

That's like rubbing salt in the wound...it is also discriminatory. Even if he wants to promote chilul shabbos activities, why should the religious residents not be able to choose to benefit from the same services after Shabbos is out? Perhaps the religious residents should boycott such an event anyway so as not to benefit from chilul shabbos and so as not to support such endeavors as if they are ok with it, but that is their own choice - should they choose to stomp around in the snow, it should be made equally available to them.

it seems funny to me that while our friends and family out in the Northeast of the USA are undergoing a blizzard of epic proportions, with close to 30 inches (and counting) of snowfall, our forecasters here in Israel are talking about the coming blizzard this week in which snow will hit Jerusalem, probably to the tune of about 1-3 inches.

and somehow our 3 inches are actually comparable to the 30 inches they get there, as to the way they affect the population..

I must say, this obsession with the coming storm is getting a bit crazy. There are reports that supermarkets are running out of food, Jerusalem is shutting the incoming and outgoing roads in advance of the snowfall assuming the exact time the storm will hit, schools are already announcing planned closures, and then there is just all the non-stop talk about it.

I guess better this than non-stop news about terror, fighting, strikes, corruption, politics, and whatever other bad news we have to hear about daily. Still, while it was cute at first to see the hysteria from a bit of snow that will be gone after a few days at the most, it is now getting tiresome.

good move! The regional council of Gush Etzion has created a campaign to turn their snow into a profit. They put out a campaign inviting people to come visit the tourist sites of Gush Etzion with the snow. Hopefully they will make good money off it - it probably won't last much longer, but if they can make some while it does last, great. And, maybe some people who otherwise would not have gone to that part of the country now will!

Rav Yoni Rosenzweig, rav of the Netzach Menashe shul in Bet Shemesh, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hamivtar of Efrat, and one of the rabbonim of the rabbinic organization Beit Hillel has written about a personal experience that required an interesting psak in the heat of the moment (pun intended, as will son be seen).

Rav Rosenzweig was scheduled to be with his students in Efrat for Shabbos this past week. When the snow storm hit and found him with his family in Bet Shemesh, it seemed like alternate arrangements would need to be found. They could not get to Efrat, as roads were closed. Efrat, and the rest of Gush Etzion, was snowed in.

At some point he was told that the roads have been opened, and he and his wife decided they were going to make a run for it, before the roads would be closed again. Sure enough, they made it to Efrat and all was good. Eventually everything was shut down, but he was already in Efrat with his family and students.

You can read the entire piece in his article on NRG. I find it especially interesting that he published his personal experience and decision in such a way that exposes himself for discussion and criticism - specifically because such a thing can turn very personal and veer form being strictly halachic discourse. I am only going to be brief here in recapping what he wrote.

When they got back to their apartment on Friday night after the meal, they bundled the kids up in pajamas and put them to bed. At 3:00 am his wife wakes him up to check on the crying baby. He goes to check, calms her and covers her, and then notices all the electricity is off, including all the lights and the heaters. It was freezing cold. He checks the electricity and finds that the main breaker had flipped - it was not part of a general outage as many had been experiencing. This was a localized problem.

Rav Rosenzweig writes that he sat down to consider his options. On the one hand, turning on electricity and the heaters on Shabbos is prohibited from the Torah. On the other hand it is freezing cold, as it would continue to be during the coming day as well. On the one hand, he writes, he knew they could find a way to survive, either by changing apartments or sitting all day bundled in blankets. On the other hand, he could not get them all up and out to another apartment with heat at 3am in the freezing cold. He was concerned about the children getting sick.

Without getting into details, he writes the general ideas he reviewed in order to come to his decision. The rule set by chazal is that regarding cold everyone is called "sick", which gives certain allowances of leniencies. Combining that with the idea of using a shinui  - turning on the electricity in an unusual manner, there could be room for leniency. As well, electricity is not a direct act, as it is manufactured elsewhere, and turning on the flow of electricity is not the direct prohibition.

Rav Rosenzweig concludes by saying he decided to turn on the electricity. In emergency situations one must know how/when to be lenient, even though in day to day life we have plenty of stringencies.

Right? Wrong? I have no idea. The criticism has been quick in coming - talkbacks, articles, forums, etc. I feel that as a rav, who was even bold enough to publicize what he did and open it up for discussion, he clearly felt justified in deciding that there was an element in danger of the kids getting sick and combined it with the use of a shinui. At a time when the Chief Rabbis were allowing trains to run on Shabbos in order to get people out of the freezing cold temperatures and when they allowed emergency services to continue working on Shabbos to get people out of the freezing cold environments, there is definitely plenty of room for him to justifiably have decided there was an element of danger that would allow the electricity to be turned back on. The truth is, though, that I do not know which part of this is more interesting - the psak itself, of which we only know general details, or his publicizing his experience.

very cool picture on the front page of the Wall Street Journal about the snow in Jerusalem..


(Hattip: Rabbi Fink)

terror with snow?

even the prime minister wants to have some fun time in the unusual snow-fall... as long as he doesn't slip and break a leg like he did when he kicked a soccer ball...

Picture Of The Day

snow day in Modiin

The weather forecast is predicting snow in Modiin, though the snow is expected to be driven in by truck rather than to fall from the sky...

According to the Modiin Info website, the city of Modiin will be trucking in 5 containers of snow and making them available to the public, for free, next Tuesday and Wednesday (February 14-15, 2012)!!!

From the source:

Snow is coming to Modiin- but not because of the weather forecast. The city of Modiin is arranging a snow activity for the whole family. At the event, real snow will be brought to the fair area outside the Azrieli mall.


Five large containers of snow from the Chermon area will be available for the kids of Modiin to play with and enjoy. The snow area will be open free of charge on Tuesday and Wednesday (14-15/2/12) between 16:30 and 19:00.


At the event there will be a snowman-building contest for the kids, with the winner receiving a 500 NIS gift certificate to "Happy Shop" in the mall. Kids who want to participate in the snowman-building contest are welcome to bring ornaments to "upgrade" the snowman-- noses, hats, glasses or other items.

I wonder if they will allow guests from Bet Shemesh to come enjoy... or maybe someone can get the City of Bet Shemesh to do something similar (hint, hint RBS Foundation)

Picture of the Day

heavy snowfall in northern Israel

Forecasters are predicting snow on Thursday, in Jerusalem! I hope they are right. The rare snowfall is always appreciated in Israel....


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A few flakes of snow began falling in RBS a few moments ago! The kids are hoping school will be canceled. That reminds me of this picture someone sent to me yesterday...

This picture was captioned - 20 centimeters of snow fell! School is canceled!

That is the question on everybody's mind today. Is it going to snow tomorrow all around Israel, including Jerusalem and points further south as predicted or will this fall the way of many past predictions?

It is already raining and getting colder. This time it looks like the chances are pretty good...