In response to the publicized psak in the name of Rav Elyashiv (note that I never said Rav Elyashiv said it, just that it is being said in his name - unless you hear a psak from him directly you should never assume something said in his name is accurate or true), the Rabbonim of Tzohar have issued a counter psak.

Rabbanei Tzohar have said that such a psak is divisive and is not correct. You can buy chamtez from a chiloni who sold his chametz before Pesach to a non-Jew. You cannot look at it as a chiloni selling his chametz as doing a purely religious act, with no meaning or intent behind it. A chiloni businessman who decides to sell his chametz before Pesach to a non-Jew does so with full intention to sell it because he knows that religious people will not be able to buy from him if he doesn't do so. Because of that, his intention is to sell the chametz.

Rabbanei Tzohar continue and say that if Rav Efrati's statement would be correct, we should invalidate everything religious chilonim do - we should invalidate their marriages, because after all, maybe they didn't really have full intention, full gemiras da'as..and maybe they were doing a "purely religiously imposed act". Such piskei halacha have no basis or foundation and are simply divisive in situations where there is no justification to be so. (source: Ynet)

Rav Elyashiv is being quoted by his confidante, Rav Efrati, as having issued a psak that one should not buy chametz after Pesach from a chiloni Jew, even when he sold his chametz.

The reasoning for this issur is that the chiloni has no interest in selling his chametz - he is simply doing it to fulfill a religious requirement being imposed on him. Because he has no actual intention to really sell the chametz, the sale is a farce and does not take affect. If the sale is invalidated, that means any chametz he owns is retroactively considered chametz that was owned by a Jew on Pesach, which is not allowed to be purchased.

The kashrus organizations that dealt with the selling of the chametz actually considered this problem and say they had resolved it by using a different text in the sale. The altered text gave this sale a much more powerful legal status to the sale, thus ensuring that the seller of the chametz actually had a level of intent to really sell the chametz.

Despite this, Rav Efrati says in the name of Rav Elyashiv that the problem remains and one should not buy chametz from a chiloni Jew. (source: Ynet)

What I find particularly strange about this is how it compares to shmitta. During the shmitta year, the main argument, or one of them at least, against the hetter mechira, in any form, was that no land owner actually wants to sell his land. They don't want the non-Jew to actually process and complete the purchase of the land. Therefore, with the intention to not really sell the land, the sale cannot be valid.

Fine. However, when the inevitable comparison to mechiras chametz always came up, and the question was raised why it worked for chametz but not for land, the answer given was that anybody would be happy to sell his chametz, if the non-Jew would want to complete the transaction. Land, not. The difference means that the sale of chametz works, because they are happy to sell, while the sale of land doesn't work, because the owner is hoping ti doesn't actually happen.

So now Rav Efrati, in the name of Rav Elyashiv, is really saying that this difference is not even true. Really chametz and the sale of the land are exactly the same.

And, why does he think that the seller is not interested in selling his chametz? Wouldn't any store owner be happy if the non-Jew came in and said he wanted to take all the chametz items and pay the full price for them? I would think any store owner would be ecstatic about that happening.

You judge for yourself - they look strikingly similar...



It is possible that Albert Einstein has an Israeli love child. At least that is what Yosef Ben-Kochav found out after his parents died - that really Einstein was his father.

He has not been able to get any DNA testing done, because Einstein had requested his body be cremated after death, and the parts that were preserved for science cannot be used for DNA.

The Israeli media is up in arms and all upset at Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman again. This time it is because he spent the last Shabbos helping a sick Haredi child arrange a liver transplant abroad, in Belgium. This despite the fact that there are 151 patients in Israel waiting for liver transplants, along with hundreds of others waiting for other transplants. (source: Ynet)

The question is not really why Litzman helped this poor child - that is his job, both as Deputy Minister of Health and more so as a human being in position to help. The question is if he tries as much to help other people.

Is it ok that Litzman gets involved more with Haredi patients than with non-Haredi patients?

On the one hand, he did attain his position as a representative of the Haredi community. He is meant to represent them before others. That is what he is in the government to do.

On the other hand, he has achieved a position that gives him responsibility for more than just his own sector of voters and he has equal responsibility to all citizens and residents of Israel, and he should not be giving some preferential treatment.

Perhaps the reason he intervened with this patient is simply because this patient asked for his intervention. Did others ask for his intervention and he refused? Did they not ask? Perhaps he would intervene on anybody's behalf, if only they asked.

Also, I have heard, though it has not been confirmed, that the patient is in the family of a very famous Haredi family. While it never seems fair when celebrities get special assistance from politicians and others simply because of their fame and influence, the fact is that they do get it. If this child is really a member of a "celebrity" family, that may well explain why and how they had the influence to get the deputy health minister to intervene on their behalf..

If you don't smoke, this won't make a difference to you. If you do smoke, it probably also will not make a difference to you - there are enough reasons to nt smoke that this one is unlikely to be the straw that breaks the camels back..

It seems that researchers have discovered that cigarettes contain pig hemoglobin. Perhaps the amounts are "bateil b'shishim", or perhaps not. Either way, it is repulsive for a Jew to be ingesting pig...

The Dutch research found pig haemoglobin - a blood protein - was being used to make cigarette filters more effective at trapping harmful chemicals before they could enter a smoker's lungs.

Prof Chapman said while tobacco companies had moved voluntarily list the contents of their products on their websites, they also noted undisclosed "processing aids ... that are not significantly present in, and do not functionally affect, the finished product".

This catch-all term hid from public view an array of chemicals and other substances used in the making of tobacco products, he said.

At least one cigarette brand sold in Greece was confirmed as using pig haemoglobin in its processes, Prof Chapman said, and the status of smokes sold was unknown.

"If you're a smoker and you're of Islamic or Jewish faith then you'd probably would want to know and there is no way of finding out," Prof Chapman said.

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"back to protecting Sunday"??? She is promoting keeping Shabbos, but in a non-Jewish way. Strange...

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.

If the Jews don't like matza, at least the Arabs do..

According to Haaretz, Israeli Arabs love the matza and can't get enough of it...

The matzah craving among Israel's Arab citizens - about 20 percent of the
population - reflects their ambiguous place in the Jewish state. While they speak Hebrew, carry Israeli passports and wear Israeli brands, many say they suffer discrimination and identify themselves as Palestinians.

Still, they love matzah.

"We eat it from the start of the holiday to the end, and when we run out we buy more," said Umaima Igbaria, a 35-year-old Muslim woman who lugged a carton of matzah out of a supermarket in the Arab town of Umm el-Fahm in northern Israel.

She said she, her husband and their three sons all eat matzah, usually with tea and slathered with chocolate sauce. She said they didn't care if it was Jewish food.

Inside the store, a 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) stack of matzah boxes stood in the entryway, all that remained of the more than 4 tons that owner Tariq Ifin ordered for the holiday, which began Monday night. He had no doubts the rest would sell.

Personally, I like matza. not enough to eat it all year round, that is, but I like it enough for a week...

NBA Fanhouse seems to really like the theme of the Ten Plagues.

He likes them so much, he figures the NBA could turn them into a "sports marketing bonanza".

Bethlehem Shoals proceeds to give nicknames, based on the 10 Plagues, to various NBA players. He caps it off with Lebron "Slaying of the First Born" James.

Truth is, I am so out of it, Lebron James's name is the only one in the list I recognized...

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Stephen Colbert invites Elijah to his Passover dinner...

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If you go to any of the tourist sites, the parks, the hikes, the recreation areas, you will see the places are packed, mostly with people from the religious, both DL and Haredi, public.

It is wonderful that everyone takes the opportunity to get out and see Israel, each from his preferred vantage point - one family goes hiking, the next goes to a museum, another goes to holy sites, yet another picnics in a park, etc.

Have the religious become the majority of the country? Where are the secular? Have they all gone to Turkey or Georgia for the holiday vacation?

Ralph Peters, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army and current military analyst, has written a column in the NY Post bashing Obama and his policies in the Middle East, among other things.

Peters writes:

Last, but not least, there's our arctic treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu and our Israeli allies. Kim Jong-Il or Hugo Chavez would've gotten a warmer White House reception than Bibi did.

Wednesday in Washington was dedicated to shooting down one Israeli compromise offer after another. Of course, we haven't asked those valiant Palestinian freedom fighters (unfairly considered terrorists by reactionaries like me) to compromise a fraction of an inch.

The Palestinians dictate, the White House obeys.

This is madness. Rewarding terror and intransigence, we're undercutting the single rule-of-law democracy and defender of human rights in the Middle East. "The rockets' red glare"? Last time I saw it, the rockets were raining down on civilians in northern Israel. But Obama truly believes that the Palestinians are the good guys.

Here's the US-Israeli-Palestinian relationship in simple terms: You run a business. And you have a brother who's worked with you for decades. A group of corrupt "partners" with criminal records, notorious for flouting every deal they've made, promises to make you rich. All you have to do is kill your brother.

The Palestinians and their Arab backers have broken their every pledge on the (blind-alley) road to a deal. Time and again, they've refused reasonable terms proposed by Israel.

They could've had a deal under Clinton. They had another chance under W. Each time, the Palestinians walked away. Because they don't really want peace with Israel. They want Israel destroyed. Either Obama gets it and agrees with them, or he's naive to an extent that makes Jimmy Carter look jaded.

As far as the trumped-up issue of settlements goes, my Israeli friends are missing a great opportunity: Since Obama's supporters insist on a history-based Palestinian right of return to Jerusalem, Jews should demand their historical right to resettlement in the Saudi-occupied city of Medina -- where their once-prosperous presence is documented by the Koran.

The ultimate travesty, of course, is that the Obama administration will spin each of Wednesday's triple-whammy debacles as a triumph. It showed those wicked Israelis who's boss; it gave treacherous Pakistanis all they demanded, and it got tricked by Russia into further weakening our strategic defenses.

This isn't a pattern of failure. It's a surrender cult.

This is a strange law for the Knesset to worry about.

It seems movie theaters are making their killing not necessarily on the tickets they sell, but on the concessions. They hike up the prices of the soft drinks and popcorn. From the article it sounds like customers need to take a second mortgage on their homes in order to be able to afford the drinks and popcorn.

MK Carmel Shama (Likud) has proposed a law that would limit, on the upside, how much theaters, and any large scale entertainment event, could charge for concessions.

“We have to put an end to this. The public should not have to mortgage their houses for a soft drink and a snack," Shama told Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

The real victims of this issue must be non-Jews. Real Jews don't buy concessions. We bring them from home and sneak them in.

It is great that we have the time and energy to be concerned about these types of problems, and are no completely distracted and consumed by more serious issues like terror, housing, etc.

California GOP candidate for Senate and former HP Chairwoman, Carly Fiorina, sent her Jewish supporters a holiday greeting.

After the initial greeting and wishing of a happy Passover, Fiorina wrote, "This week, as we break bread and spend time with our families and friends .."(emphasis mine)

A funny snafu... as nobody I know is breaking bread this week. Breaking matza, but not bread.

Her response was even funnier:

A spokeswoman for the campaign told ITK that the intent of the e-mail was to encourage people of all faiths to come together, and she pointed out that matzoh is unleavened bread (although they are separate words in Hebrew). “We embrace all breads, leavened, unleavened, gluten-free, rye or whatever else.”