There has been some discussion regarding the shabbos parking lot protests in Jerusalem that were very violent in its first week (this past shabbos the violence decreased dramatically).

A claim was made, I saw it in an article somewhere, and it has been brought up in discussion during various forums and conversations about the protests, that during the protests a policeman sparked the violence by lighting up a cigarette in front of the haredim who at the time were protesting respectably. they took his action as an affront, as if he was flaunting his chillul shabbos in front of their faces and taunting them, and then everything went downhill from there.

The discussion generally centers on whether the policeman intended to provoke them, whether he knew what he was doing was wrong, etc.

Thinking about this claim, it struck me that I doubt we have any obligation to be "dan l'kaf zchus" the policeman.

On the one hand, I see no reason to assume his lighting of the cigarette was with malicious intent. He probably just wanted a smoke. On the other hand, I have no problem saying he was frustrated with the haredim and lit it up to provoke them. I am even willing, to play devils advocate, if necessary to assume he did it to provoke.

But why should that provoke anyone? Are the protesters so childish that they cannot handle the sight of a secular Jew lighting a cigarette that it drives them wild and makes them lose control of themselves and start throwing rocks or whatever else they were doing?

They are there watching people drive. If they would turn their heads in either direction they would see scores of cars passing by. They are protesting that some of those cars now have the option to stop their cars in an orderly fashion. The cars driving by are not bothering them (they are, but they are not not driving them to the point of protest). And the lighting of a cigarette drives them crazy?

Are these rational people driven by the need to defend shem shamayim and the lighting of a cigarette drives them wild? Watching the police drive up in their cars, horses and motorcycles is not provocative (though the parking lot is), and a cigarette being lit is provocative?

If the need to protest chillul shabbos is important, so be it. protest the chillul shabbos. But let's not be ridiculous and make claims about cigarettes being justifiably the cause of violence.

1. A Time of the Signs is hosting Haveil Havalim #224 - The July 4th edition

2. Yaak points to a VIN story about a Japanese convert who used to be a minister who is heading back to Japan to intercede on behalf of the three boys imprisoned there. Very interesting.

3. Ezzie talks about the new kol koreh prohibiting mp4 players, and discusses specifically a surprising statement made by Rav Elyashiv.

4. The JewDentist points to a dentist who discriminated - in favor of muslims.

5. Rabbi Beckerman talks about the problem he sees with J-Blogs.

6.

I had the opportunity to partake in, and enjoy, two vastly different barbecues within 11 hours of each other.

One was extremely Israeli style. the second was extremely American style. One was with my running group, as the conclusion of a 50km nighttime relay race. The second was with my softball team, celebrating the conclusion of a successful season in which we finished first in our division.

I never really paid attention before, but American and Israeli eating styles are completely different. It is very noticeable in the settings described above, happening so close to each other making it easy to compare.

The Israeli bbq is very informal, with lots of chummus being slapped all over the pita and meat. Salads are mostly ignored, and lots of watermelon is devoured.

The American bbq is much more formal - eating the hotdogs and burgers on buns with ketchup, mustard, vegetables (onion, pickle, lettuce, etc), etc. We had a watermelon, but we even forgot to take it out and cut it up. Salads were not even present except for the purpose of filling the buns.

Both were great, but they were very different from each other.

Man, was I stuffed after those food orgies.

Everything is relative.

Bernie Madoff has hired a "prison consultant" to help him figure out in which prison he would be best off serving the next 150 years of his life.

Baruch Hashem, I did not even know there was even such a profession as "prison consultant" until now. I also did not know that prisoners get to choose which prison they want to spend their time in.

One would think it does not make much of a difference. the courts will put him in a prison of a certain type and security level, and all prisons of that type must be pretty similar (within a range, of course).

I guess if you are going to spend the next 150 years of your life in the same place, even those minor differences make a difference, and best to get the best possible location in advance.

Whose money from the Ponzi scheme did you use to hire your prison consultant? More power to you, Bernie. I hope you choose wisely and enjoy as much as possible your next 150 years...

The guys who went up north last month for the 200km relay race had such a good experience that they wanted to replicate it, on a smaller level, for the rest of us who could not go.

They designed a local relay race, using trails in the Bet Shemesh area, for a 50km race to be run during the night, concluding with a BBQ dinner.

We split into four teams of 4-5 runners per team. We began the run at 8pm, and it was estimated to take us until about 1am, at which time we would have the BBQ.

The various legs of the race were split into an average of about 8km per leg. The legs differed mostly in terrain and difficulty.

The first leg was about 9+km from Nofei Aviv up to Beit Natif and down to the entrance of RBS. The second half of each team waited at the ending point to begin the next leg. While each leg was being run, the other runners would drive to the next meeting point. The Beit Natif run was the longest of all the legs. From there, the second leg began, running back to nofei Aviv and up to the beginning of the Yishi trail.

The first runners then took over for the third leg, running the whole 8km length of the Yishi trail. The drivers met them at the other end of the trail, driving all the way around to get to Tal Shachar. The runners switched and ran back the whole 8km to the beginning of the Yishi trail.

Leg 5 was from the Yishi trail up to Tzora, to the Retorno complex on the top of the hill, and back down to Derech Ha'Psalim. The sixth, and final, leg of the run was from Derech Ha'Psalim until Presidents Forest. This was the only leg that was run completely on the road.

the run was great, an exciting and interesting adventure. Running in the dark, with almost complete silence, is a completely different experience. The moon was not yet full, so while it provided some light, as did the distant lights of various cities (like Bet Shemesh and other small villages), it was still mostly dark. At times you could hear animals rustling in the bushes nearby, as we disturbed their habitat. Jackals could be heard nearby on parts of the run. We heard owls hooting. Perhaps the most exciting part was when Daniel, my running partner, and I enjoyed a military escort for part of our run back on the Yishi trail (leg #4).

Part of the Yishi trail is up against the edge of a large army base. At certain points along the trail, the fence of the base is practically right up against the trail. We must have looked a bit suspicious running in the dark alongside an army base with headlights on our head. They must have thought we were either spies or infiltrators looking for a good point to cut through the fence.

So as we were running, we noticed an army jeep following us for a bit (on their side of the fence). At a certain point, the trail was right up by the fence - just a few meters away. The jeep stopped and a soldier called out to us to ask what we were doing there. He told us we need to get moving and get out of there. We told him we were in the middle of a race and were trying to get out of there as fast as we could! He followed us for a few more minutes, and then disappeared.

The last leg of the run was probably the most difficult. First of all, we were all stretched to our limits already. It was already after midnight when we began the last leg. We were tired, hungry, sore, etc. Second, it was all highway running, and all uphill, including the last 2km being an extremely difficult uphill to Presidents Forest next to Highway 44.

We finished it just before 1am, exactly as expected. I felt bad for our A&B runners that they had us on their team. they are good runners and did not deserve to end in last place just because of us (the C&D runners), but those are the breaks.

When we made it to Presidents Forest, we collapsed into the BBQ that was just getting under way. We had salads and meats coming non-stop for the next hour and a half, along with shooting the breeze and chilling.

It was really a great experience, and if we do it again, I am signing up!

It was difficult today to keep it down to 6 7 links. There were a bunch of good posts. Sorry if I did not include yours....

1. The Wolf talks about the new decrees for modesty in hotels. The discussion in the comments is interesting.

2. Jameel @ The Muqata is looking for a caption for a strange picture...

3. SuperRaizy has a summary of the weeks important news - mostly Michael Jackson news.

4. Parsha Blog continues the discussion about the Chazon Ish becoming a doctor.

5. Dror comments on Sarah Palin's recent claim that she could beat Obama... in a foot race.

6. At Kaplan's Korner (a blog I am really taking a liking to), he lets us know that the Star of David is getting married! Mazel tov!

7. Ari Goldwag gave a tremp to someone and they had an interesting talk about sensing the keduasha of Eretz Yisrael...

Israelis can pretty much hack any new system that comes out on the market. For example, just hours after the new iPhone was recently released, there was already a hack to be able to pout Hebrew on it and to use it in Israel. The same with the previous model - just hours after it was released, it was already usable in Israel due to an Israeli hack.

A friend was just telling me about a system he was looking at buying. The system was limited, but he was told that for only an extra 200 NIS he could buy a "chip" that someone created to hack the system and this would give him all the additional features, instead of buying them separately.

He asked the supplier if that was legal - if he buys it would it be under warranty, would some authority come chasing after him, etc.

The supplier responded that originally it was not legal, but they found a way around that (a loophole in the law?) and now the chip is legal.

They even hacked the law to get the hack on the system recognized! I told my friend that they made a "chip" for the law about the chip.

There are all sorts of rumors and assumptions about how the "rift" between the USA and Israel, or more specifically between Barak Obam and Benjamin Netanyahu, will play out in the coming weeks.

I do not make any assumptions as to what Obama's intentions are, nor about what Netanyahu is going to do.

I do, however, see 2 possible outcomes of all this.

1. Netanyahu will "mitkapel" - fold. It is not completely unrealistic to expect this. the pressure on him from the American government seems to be (if the media reports are to be trusted) enormous, and he has plenty of experience of folding and not implementing right-wing policy (which is what he is meant to represent) but left-wing policy.

If he does this, if he folds to US pressure, he can pretty much kiss the premiership goodbye. The Likud is the most left-wing party in the current government (I do not count Labor because only part of Labor is in, and they are insignificant anyway). If he freezes settlements, if he destroys settlements, etc. as a way of relieving himself of US pressure, he will be sure to cross the line that will drive most of the members of his government away.

2. the better outcome is that Netanyahu stands strong against US pressure and tells Obama to go take a hike. And instead of grovelling to find ways to throw bones to Obama to get him off our backs, he says "No more".

Personally I recommend Netanyahu take option #2. It might make things tense for a bit, and there might be some repercussions, but option #1 is a free-fall. if Netanyahu starts throwing bones at Obama and saying we'll stop this, we'll cut back that, we won't build here, we'll uproot there, he will only find the pressure increasing. Obama will see that pressure works with Netanyahu and will be unrelenting. nothing Bibi will do to appease him will be enough. And that will be Bibi's end.

if he stands strong, perhaps Obama will respect him and look for a different approach. Bibi will get nowhere by caving in to Obama.

Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz discusses the recent violent protests in Jerusalem over the opening of the parking lot.

He raises some interesting points. Rabbi Horowitz says:

Maybe it is just me, but throwing stones to prevent the desecration of Shabbos is about as logical as a librarian yelling, “STOP TALKING” into a powerful megaphone at the top of her lungs whenever someone whispers in the library. Or like a group of vegetarians celebrating their accomplishments by hosting a communal barbecue.

The demonstrations were purportedly called by our gedolim shlit’a in Eretz Yisroel. The large and beautiful Friday Night group Kabbolas Shabbos may have been initiated by them. However, the overall campaign to make these hafganos are unquestionably planned, prepared and led by “askanim” not gedolim.

If I may give an analogy, a sefer written by a gadol is just that – 100% the work of the gadol who wrote it. But if I write a sefer and get a haskama (letter of recommendation) from a gadol, that is a very different kettle of fish. All the more so if I were to only show the gadol the first 50 pages, and then add another 150 pages that he never saw.

I don’t for one moment believe that our aged and overburdened gedolei hador shlit’a are being informed by the askonim who plan these demonstrations, what the “last 150 pages” look like – the disgusting images of burning garbage cans and pitched battles with the police that are broadcast worldwide in real time.

Rabbi Horowitz also suggests:

I suggest that all askanim take a hiatus of at least one full generation where we stop protesting about other people’s sins and start looking inward. Maybe Mr. Krause should worry more about the hundreds of our sons and daughters who are in Israeli clubs on Friday night smoking pot, than worrying about secular Jews parking their cars on Shabbos. Maybe Mr. Krause should worry more about the pedophiles in our community who are violating children, more than those outside our community who are violating Shabbos.

Those of us who have any positions of influence in our communities must speak up loud and clear and call this behavior what it is -- a disgraceful Chillul Hashem and a distortion of Torah values -- in the loudest and most unequivocal terms. I am convinced that those of us who don’t, will have to give din v'cheshbon for not having done so.

Rabbi Horowitz also makes reference to the following Jpost article quoting Yoelish Krausz, who is involved in arranging these protests.

"It's a network," he says of the young men who willingly take to the street in protest. "Once the word goes out, it filters through the community quite efficiently."

While he shies from the title, the slender, 36-year-old father of 11 is indeed the man behind the men - the coordinator of the Eda's meticulously coordinated protests and behind-the-scenes deal-brokering that brings leading rabbis into its fold on various issues. He can set the haredi street on fire, often literally, with a telephone call or even a word.

In reality, the job is more complex than that, and Kraus, himself born and raised in Mea She'arim, serves as a facilitator - someone who knows who's who within the community, and makes the appropriate connections between them when something needs to get done.

"Let's say we want to stage a protest," Kraus says. "I contact people and get the word out, while the pashkivlim [wall posters used for announcements] also play an important role."

Rabbinic support only helps, and depending on the perceived severity of the issue, Kraus is able to drum up support and use his connections to mobilize his men on the street, culminating, if he so chooses, in what was seen last Saturday... and may be seen this Saturday too, unless Barkat backs down.

As Rabbi Horowitz points out, you can see that these hafganas are not directed by the gedolim, as people claim they are. Rav Elyashiv told people to protest! The Gerrer Rebbe told people to protest! etc. Krausz says they decide what to protest and how, and then they get the rabbonim to sign on if they feel they need that extra boost. But even then it is only after the askanim have decided everything.

In a very strange symbol of education and raising awareness for a cause, the organizers of the annual Tel Aviv Water Fight have decided that they are going to still run this years event tomorrow despite the drought.

The difference is that this year the Water Fight will be dedicated to raising awareness of water conservation.

One rule that is being implemented is that nobody can bring and use any water from outside Rabin Square. The only water to be used is from the pond within the Square.

The theme of the fight is being entitled "Fighting Over Every Last Drop".

Apropos for the crazy (meant in an endearing tone) people of Tel Aviv.

I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran.

-----Burt Prelutsky (columnist)

(I do not know when this was said. It was emailed to me and I like it, so it is qotd)

1. The Jewish Side of Babysitter went with her family to visit a rebbe... interesting story in the waiting room...

2. Foreman lost his boxing match - not George Foreman, but Yuri Foreman, a rabbinical student. Kaplan's Korner has the latest. Looks like there is a resurgence of Jewish boxers, considering this name in addition to Dmitry Salita...

3. Yaak has the latest segulah - carrying a piece of arava from the Boyaner Rebbe.

4. Neil comes back with a post about what to do with teens on shabbos afternoon and discusses their hanging out issues.

5. Jewish Blogmeister on the phenomenon of female kashrut supervisors...

Let this be a lesson - always use a certified mohel. Well, either that or use something a bit better than a nail clipper....or don't try this at home......

The young man had to be rushed to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. The wound was disinfected to cleanse it before he was given a bed in an observation ward.

"This is something we would advise men never to attempt," a medic said, "The results can be quite horrific and long-lasting and have quite an affect on a man's sexual performance.

"Using a pair of nail clippers must have caused excruciating pain, even if he had had a few drinks beforehand."

In the words of the great Jon Lovitz, [They] missed it by that much.

I don't know how much longer the Nazis would have needed to put this plane into production, but it looks like they were not too far off. Had they gotten it out in time, who knows what the world would look like today....

Using radar of the same type and frequency used by British coastal defenses in World War II, the engineers found that an Ho 229, flying a few dozen feet above the English Channel, would indeed have been "invisible" to the Royal Air Force — an advantage that arrived too late for the Nazis to exploit.

Northrop Grumman Corp. spent its own time and money using the original German blueprints to replicate the wood-and-steel-tube bomber, right down to its unique metallic glue and paint, at its facility in El Segundo, Calif.

"This was the most advanced technology that the Germans had at the end of the war, and Northrop solved the question of how stealthy it was and its performance against Allied radar at the time," documentary filmmaker Mike Jorgenson told the Long Beach, Calif., Press-Telegram. "It's significantly better than anything flying operationally probably until the 1960s."

Here is what looks like it might be an interesting documentary on the singles scene in Manhattan.



I am not sure what to say about it. It is easy to say "the reason for the shidduch crisis is x, y or z". Look at some of the people they spoke to, and you are not surprised they are not married. For example, the guy who says he knows exactly what he is looking for, down to the last detail including hair color, eye color, etc. But I do not know that from speaking to 5 or 6 people if one can come up with an actual analysis and explanation for it that is based in reality rather than anecdotal or subjective indicators.

(HatTip: PeskySettler)