HH #61 (with no asterik, mind you) is up. It is so beefed up, it has got to be on steroids this week. I hear there is a book coming out that claims, despite Jack's denials, that this edition of HH has taken many varieties of steroids in preparation for the big day..

Enjoy.

I particularly enjoyed this post by Oleh Chadasha and Ger Tzeddek's question about minhagim. A really great post by westbankblog about a shift of guard duty on Purim night .

I have noticed a process of what I call the Zionification" of the Haredi public. By this I mean the Haredi public was always viewed as being pretty radical, and has openly been opposed to the State of Israel. In truth, the general haredi public is not against the State, it is just a small, radical element within the haredi public that is against the State. The general haredi public might be against some aspects of the State, but they are not against the State per se. This is clear, as the majority of the Haredi public is represented in Knesset by such Haredi parties as Degel, Aguda (who together form UTJ), Shas, etc. The Haredim participate in the activities and in the goverance of the State.

Aside from this very general position stated above, there is still a certain amount of opposition to the State and its policies. Haredi shuls do not say the Tefilla for the Medina or Tzahal. Haredi men do not (generally) join the army (there are many exceptions, but usually on an individual basis), there is a certain hostility to the ideas of the State, etc. etc.

However, I see a certain process in place. As time goes on, the Haredi public becomes more and more involved in affairs of the State. There is more and more acceptance of the State by the Haredi public and less hostility. More men join the army than ever before (Nahal Haredi is one example of this). The Haredi parties in the past refused to take any position in the government and preferred to just be members of knesset. They said they could not be ministers in irreligious governments. Now, every election we see the Haredi parties getting more and more involved. First they allow themselves to become deputy ministers, then assistants, and finally we are now seeing them become actual ministers. The level of participation has grown.

I have noticed during the current election campaign an interesting phenomenon. The advertising campaign is geared to the general public, for probably the first time. They are taking for granted that Haredim (even though many are disillusioned with UTJ because of their performance and support for Sharon despite the disengagement) will support them, so they have geared their ads to attract a certain percentage of people from the general public that they feel are supportive of a platform based on Jewish values, such as Shabbat observance and Jewish education rather than national issues.

Not only that, but the ads are designed more Zionistically as well. The colors of the ads are blue and white (used to be more black) in the shadesand hues that are generally used by the more Zionistic parties. As well, the wording on the ads are very much connected to Zionism. They state things such as a play on words that says, "Ohavim Israel Yehudi" (loving a Jewish Israel), and a play on words of the national anthem saying we have not lost our hope for shabbat observance, etc.. (od lo avda tikvateinu..).

It is a very stark change from their ways and styles in previous years, and I think it indicates what I call the Zionification of the Haredi public. As time goes on, the haredi public becomes more and more attached to Zionism.

I read an article not too long ago about how someone had appraoched one of the leading gedolim of the Haredi public. he was upset that yeshiva boys "waste" so much time during vacations travelling and hiking around the country. He was looking to persuade the Rabbi to publish a ban on such tiyulim and possibly shorten the length of the vacation times. The Rabbi's response to the request was that it is only natural that the yeshiva boys wish to travel the country. They feel more connected than ever before, because we are now in the third generation. The older generation came over with certain hostilities after facing so much troubles and having to fight hard for certain religious observances. Their children inherited that from them to a certain extent. The young generation of today has already been born here and has forgotten about all those earlier times. They have been born into a new reality. They speak Hebrew naturally and most do not even know Yiddish. This is their country and they feel connected to it in a way that no previous haredi generation ever felt.

I happened to open up a Yated Ne'Eman today (something I almost never do). This was the Hebrew edition, which is slightly better than the English (though not much).
As I am flipping through it glancing at last weeks news, I see a large ad for United Torah Judaism.

Some background for the uninformed readers: Yated Ne'Eman is the flagship "party" newspaper for Degel Hatorah. Degel is one of the major parties in the join UTJ party for Knesset. The other main party is Agudas Yisrael whose "party" newspaper is HaModia. UTJ also has other smaller groups contained within, but those are the main two groups.

So, I am flipping through the paper and see this ad. What does the ad say? It reads (translated by me from hebrew), " The Oslo Accords passed by one vote. One more mandate for UTJ can make a tremendous difference."

Now, it could be they mean something else by this reference to Oslo. Maybe they just want to show how important one extra seat is, but they do not say therefore give us the extra seat to improve Jewish education or to raise the level of awareness in judaism, or whatever. The ad just stops there.
To me that sounds like they are saying if UTJ has even one extra seat in Knesset, it will be that much stronger to thwart issues like Oslo.

I am not going to debate now the idea of peace agreements, or oslo, or the disengagement and whether they are good or not. What does disturb me is when UTJ makes such a reference. UTJ knows that most Haredim (the natural voters and supporters of UTJ) are generally right wing and for the most part were against Oslo, the disengagement and the evacuation of Amona. The ad, making such a reference, is clearly playing on those emotions and saying that a more powerful UTJ can have the ability to thwart such moves by the government.

My problem with this is that it is misleading. UTJ has always said they do not want to take part in national issues and have actually refrained from being the deciding factor in such issues. However, in the last government UTJ supported the government at a time when they were evacuating Gush Katif, even though most of its constituents were against the disengagement. Granted, UTJ was not a deciding factor in any of the votes, and they only joined after they knew the government, but they still joined which gave the government some more comfort room and breathing space. They joined because they were offered 290 milion shekels of support.

And now they are advertising for votes as if they are so right wing and would thwart any such moves by the future government.

If you are really against taking sides in national issues and prefer to stay to issues that deal with jewish awareness and observance, keep it that way in your advertising as well.

I have been recommended to join an email list called The Weekly Haftorah. The email is sent once weekly and it explains the weekly haftorah. It gives some historical background into who the author of the haftorah was and what the context of the haftorah was. It then explains the haftorah and explains the connection between the haftorah and the weekly parsha. It also then gives over some lesson learned from the haftorah.
The email also has images of artistic renderings related to the haftorah's story.

You can subscribe to receive the email by emailing Reuven Ebrahimoff at haftorahman@haftorahman.com

You can also read the sheet online at: The Haftorahman , though it does not include the images.

Since I started getting these weekly emails, I have actually listened to and enjoyed the haftorah in shul, rather than either falling asleep or looking for other things to read, as I used to do.

Check it out.

Take a look here.
You have the opportunity to bring the highest profile Oleh yet!!
I never watched geraldo much, but I did watch his expose on the safe of Al Capone. What a riot!! He is just what we need to spice up Israeli politics.

Take a look at Life of Rubins newest project interviewing J-Bloggers. He has posted the first interview with Mobius..very interesting.. great idea.

Interviews With a J-Blogger: An Interview With .... Dan 'Mobius' Sieradski.

Tonight me and my wife had been invited to a special melave malka. It was being sponsored by one of the local charities in recognition of its main donors and volunteers (that was kind of unclear).

I generally would have passed on the evening, as it would have taken too much away from my blogging time!! Just joking. I would have passed because these things bore me and are usually a waste of time. When I got the invite a week ago, I changed my mind. The keynote speaker was schedulled to be Professor Aumann (sp?) who became famous a few months ago when he was selected as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences award for his work in Gaming Theory. When he went to Norway for the reception, he made a kiddush hashem by his actions, in refusing to wear the standard tux, because it had shatnez, insisting on kosher food and not participating in certain events that were taking place on shabbos. You can do your own search on Google for information on him, as I am too tired right now to do it for you.
Anyways, when I saw he would be the speaker, I decided to go. After all, how often does one get the opportunity to be in the audience of a Nobel prize winner!!

The melave malka was really beautiful and put together nicely. It was nice to get out and see people that we rarely see, despite living in the same neighborhood. I am going to cut to the chase, as Aumann was the highlight of the evening and the most interesting part.

Professor Aumann is an outspoken critic of the disengagement from Gaza. He has spoken from some very public forums against what he has called the National Disgrace (I will explain the term soon). There was great anticipation waiting for him to address the crowd, waiting to see what he would say with shock value.

Let me tell you, Professor Aumann seems to be a very simple person. he does what he does for a living and is a religious Jew and is a very straightforward scientist, with no tricks and deceptions up his sleeve. He spoke very frankly and to the point. He adresses the Gaza issue. He explained his position on it, calling it a National Disgrace. While he was against the disengagement from a professional standpoint, as he considers it a bad move while in the process of negotiations and conflict, that was not the subject of his criticism. That is politics, and while he disagrees with it, maybe there are other reasons to consider it and effect it.
The subject of his criticsm was the evacuees/refugees. The National Disgrace was how the government has treated the evacuees. If it had to be done, is debatable. but once it had to be done, the evacuees should not have been treated as they were. They have been disgraced and shamed to their cores. They still have not received the monies promised them. They have been moved from place to place and many have been staying in hotels, which is not an easy situation to run a normal life in and all the promises the government had made to them have not been kept. The national disgrace is how the government has treated the Gush Katif evacuees.

Anyways, to make a long story short, he said something very interesting (aside from everything else he said that was interesting). Someone asked him to descibe what he felt as a religious Jew being the recipient of a Nobel Prize, with the Kiddush Hashem that he performed at the time. His response was very simple. He said, "I did nto do anything special. I did what I had to do. I am a Jew. That means I cannot eat treif, I have to keep shabbos and I cannot wear shatnez. What would you want me to do. All I did was the minimum."

Now, I do not know what I would have done, had I been in his situation. I hope I would have performed with the same integrity he did, but I have no idea. Here is a man who made a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, and he boils it down to saying I did the minimum I could have done as a Jew. I kept Kosher and di not wear shatnez. I am a Jew and even if it makes those goyim uncomfortable, that is too bad. God's commandments come first.

The local organization is called Lemaan Achain and you can find info on it here. If you want to donate to them because you like what you see, you can do so from the website. It is a very worthy organization that does tremendous work and is a worthwhile place for you to doinate your money for Aniyei Eretz Yisrael (Israel's poor people). Even more so, their goal is to set an example, and thereby assist in setting up similar organizations around Israel, so the successful style here in Bet Shemesh can be duplicated elsewhere.

Softball's main season has started!! For some general details, you can read here and here. I play on the Bet Shemesh team, now called Shimshon Hi-Tech (thanks to our new sponsor).

Friday we played our first game, which was also the first overall game of the league's new season. We had a fun game, and even won in the process, always an accomplishment for us.. :-). Mind you, we are a bunch of aging guys with families and pot-bellies and not in anything you can call tip-top form, especially for the first game of the season.

The season looks promising, especially because we have added a few new guys to our roster, some of whom are fresh off the boats from America (Nefesh B'Nefesh planes actually). It is a fun and exciting experience playing in the Israel Softball Association's fastpitch league, and you even get your name written up in the newpaper's reviews occassionally!

By the way, I usually play infield, usually at first base. This game, due to some poor excuses of injuries by other players, I was platooned in left field. Thank God only a couple balls were hit in my general direction, and most had no plays on them, so I did not mess up out there (there is a lot of ground to cover out there in left field!). I even made one great catch - a guy hit a foul ball fairly shallow but high and I made a (very) long run from where I was positioned and made the catch just before it dropped...

In the process I met a new teammate who happens to be a fellow blogger. Check out his blog at Balloon Twister Aliya Saga

Huh?

Here's the story. I have been trying to shecht my second sheep for the past few weeks. The sheep has been elusive and the event kept getting cancelled at the last minute. I heard all sorts of excuses for the "supplier" - it is not sheep season (sheep in winter are smaller and not fully grown yet) now, the sheep did not show up, the supplier disappeared with his phone off. That is aside from the other people involved who had to cancel a few times because of scheduling conflicts. It was getting frustrating.

Tonight the sheep were arranged (there were 2 of them). I was even willing to pick them up in my car (Mazda MPV) for the sake of ensuring they got to where they needed to go. So, I drive all the way out to a little goat farm just outside of Nokdim (just beyond Tekoa) in Gush Etzion. I took my two older sons for the exciting event. It is dark and the roads are not lit. Eventually, after missing our turn a number of times because it is pitch black outside, we finally find it.

We go in and the supplier gets 2 sheep and weighs them. We load them into the car and off we go to Yerushalayim. I had to be careful (I do not know how), Meier (the supplier) warns me, because technically I need an permit to transport livestock, so if the police stop me I could be in trouble. Great. He also did not want to tie their feet together to keep them docile, because the 45 minute ride is too long for them to be tied down like that.

So I had to worry about the police and about the possibility of 2 sheep jumping around in my car, breaking a leg or a window, and leaving their excrement all over the place. Off we go to Yerushalayim. The sheep were pretty well behaved, though a little noisy. They did not jump around, though I did have to clean out some excrement droppings when I got out of the car.

We finally get there. Now get this - we were shechting in some guys house (actually his porch). Don't ask!! We have done this many times, usually with chickens and turkeys. Doing sheep back there is wild. We shlep the sheep out of the car, half carrying them, half pushing them into the house and out to the porch. We find a bunch of people already there shechting turkeys and chickens. Exciting. That means we have to wait with the sheep until they are done.

Finally the time comes. We get the first sheep on the table (I was only shechting one, someone else would be shechting the second). A couple guys hold it down and we tie the feet up so it will not kick anybody. I position myself and check the location of the trachea and esophagus with my hand on his neck. I make the bracha and slice away. It is over pretty fast. The blood spurts out, all over me and some other people. The internal heat of the sheep causes steam to come out of the body, in the cool Jerusalem air. Just like that, in the time it takes to snap a finger, a life can be taken. A mitzva can be done. Excitement is in the air, as everyone wants to see what happened and did the knife cut enough, is the animal kosher, is it glatt, etc? Meanwhile the place look slike a scene out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is blood everywhere and dead chickens on the floor waiting to be disposed of (the non-kosher ones) or kashered. The scene is surreal.

We then flay the sheep, and open him up to check the internal organs for treifos. The sheep has beautiful lungs and organs. Glatt Kosher!! It takes some time, but we cut him up and check the various organs and fats (for learning purposes - normally one does not need to check for most things as they are uncommon, but we wanted to understand what is what). We bag him up and head for home.

It was a late night. The kids had a great time and I had a great time. I did a mitzva that most people do not do themselves anymore and got some great fresh meat in the process! I just finshed kashering all the meat now and have to go to sleep. I have another big day tomorrow, which I will post about then if I have the time..

Good night..

I am going to make this post about a few interesting events that happened in Israel today, rather than a separate post for each..

(in no particular order)
1. Ehud Olmert cleared from bribery charges in relation to the price he sold his apartment for and the amount of rent he paid.
2. Bibi Netanayahu is victorious in his bid to wrench the power to elect Knesset reps from the hands of the Likud Central Committee.
3. Kadima slip in the polls continues.


Now to my rants on the above issues:

1. Ehud was cleared of the charges in relation to how much he paid in rent and how much he received for the sale of his apartment. The Comptroller clearly said that he did not investigate, nor clear Olmert of any other related charges in the matter, just the issue of the actual price. He said that despite the fact that Olmert paid rent at 60% of the apartments market value, it is considered within a reasonable range of pricing. I wonder how much of a discount is unreasonable?

2. Bibi wrenches control out of the hands of the Central Committee: This was clearly a good move all around. The Central Committee of the Likud already has developed a horrible reputation for itself. In the past, they have been involved in voting corruption and selling voting blocks to potential MKs. It is amazing that they would agree to vote to have the power taken out of their own hands, but that is exactly what they did. They still have power in other spheres of influence within the likud, such as determining functionaries and leadership over Likud organizations. The primaries, though, was one of the most powerful cards Central Committee members held, and they just gave it up to the people. It was a good move, and hopefully it will clean up the internal Likud politics a bit. Likud is expecting a nice jump in support after this turn of events.

3. Kadima slipping in the polls: While I am not one who believes in polls, especially so far away from the actual elections, they are interesting, and do provide a certain amount of an indication and barometer as to where things are heading.. In the latest polls, Kadima has continued slipping, at a slightly more accelerated pace, down to 37 seats. Don't forget, this is off a hig of as many as 45 seats with some polls having predicted up to 49-50 seats!). It seems the allure of Ariel Sharon is wearing off and Ehud Olmert does not have the same mojo that Sharon had. People are seeing through Olmert and realizing he does not actually have a plan, but is trying to react to events, and is doing so in conflicting manners. This is not the way of the strong leadership they had expected from Kadima and Sharon. Now they are seeing that Sharon's shoes were too big for Olmert to fill, and people are starting to leave for parties with real platforms and representatives, not just a conglomerate of MKs getting together hoping to attract everyone possible.

Oh yeah, one more thing. A stock I sold a few days ago (to cut my losses on it) just went up about 35% today..

Today I received in the mail a wedding invitation. The wedding is of 2 young adults, one of which is the child of a popular jblogger. It happens to be that I am invited from the chosson's side, though I know some of the kallah's family as well...
I am debating whether to let him know and introduce myself as a fellow blogger or not..

would you?

Rebbele posted a great story that recently happened with Rav Chaim Kanievsky...
Go check it out.

A friend of mine at work was looking extremely disturbed and distressed today. I saw him a number of times in a corner of the office talking quietly on his cellphone.
I asked him if everything is ok. He tells me that everything is fine, but all of the sudden a lot of things have been happening. Not bad things, but a lot of them.

What, for example? He tells me a pipe burst under his living room floor and they had to rip up the whole floor to fix it. Then one of his air-conditioning units blew. When he went to the electrical box to reset it, the second one blew. He has to fix both now. Then something happened to his fridge he had to repair (he did not specify what).

He goes on to tell me that all these things happened at the same time so he has a lot of expenses now. But they are good things, not bad things. What do you mean? He says think of it like this. If you commit a serious crime and have to go to court. The judge says to you, I will give you a choice between two punishments: either jail time or a hefty fine to pay. What would you choose? You would choose the fine and thank the judge for letting you off like that.

So, he says, it is the same thing. I must have been deserving of some punishment for something. Hashem made me pay a lot of money in repairs as a punishment, when He could have punished me much harsher - sickness, injuries, etc.. As it is, he says, I got off with just paying some money and nothing more serious than that. Thank God for His kindness in judging me like that. And he said it all with a smile.

This is just an average guy. Not a rav or a talmid chacham. A regular guy. His level of emunah and bitachon is astounding. He is going through it right now and he can clearly see how Hashem is being kind to him, despite it all.

Mi K'amcha Yisrael - that he can have all this hardship, yet have the strength to see through it and declare Gods greatness!!

sounds like a lot of fun..

I got this in my email today. I thought it was funny and felt like sharing it with you..


In a slalom race, the skier must pass through about 20 "gates" in the fastest time. Well, it happened that a very Orthodox yeshiva in Montreal had an exceptional skier among its students. So fast, that in practice, with tzitzis streaming out behind, he had beaten the world record several times.

After first checking to make sure none of the men's slalom races would be on the Sabbath, he tried out for and made the Canadian Winter Olympic team. With his times in the trial heats, he was the favorite for an Olympic gold medal. Came the day of the final, the crowd waited in anticipation. The French champion sped down the course in 38 seconds, the Swiss in 38.7 seconds, the German in 37.8 seconds, the Italian in 38.1 seconds. Then came the turn of the Canadian yeshiva "bocher."

The crowd waited, and waited........Finally, after a full five minutes, he crossed the finish line."What happened to you?" screamed his coach when the skier finally arrived. "What happened to you?" screamed his coach when the skier finally arrived.

Breathing hard, the exhausted yeshiva student replied, "All right, who's the wise guy who put a mezuzah on every gate?"