Here is this week's partial article from the current edition of [English] Mishpacha:



To purchase the issue, click on Mishpacha.com..

One of the touchy subjects in haredi schooling in recent years has been the balance between the schools inability to reject some students from joining the school due to issues of discrimination and equality, and between the need for such schools to protect their own style and atmosphere with  their own criteria for acceptance.

We have seen a number of cases, most recently in Emmanuel and Bet Shemesh, of haredi schools that set criteria, and the courts rejected their right to do so saying the criteria was specifically to exclude certain people and therefore was discrimination.

In Elad there was recently a case of a private haredi school run by Shas that rejected the application of a 6 year old child. The mother sued, claiming the child was rejected due to discrimination against single-parent families.

In court, the school showed that claim to not be true, showing that they have 30 other kids in the school that are form single-parent families. Rather, they claimed, the reason for the rejection is that they are a haredi school and the mother is masorati, traditional, and does not dress appropriately for the style of the school. She has even come to the school dressed in that style. That being the case, it would be inappropriate to have this child in the school. The rejection was based on the fact that the child and school were not appropriate for each other.

In this instance the court supported the school. The court was satisfied that it was anot anti-single-parent discrimination, and the court said the school has the righ to determine certain criteria for acceptance, taking into account the fact that the school needs to maintain a certain level of lifestyle, atmosphere and style.

The school is a private school and the lifestyle of the student at home is a major component of the haredi education.  To force the school to accept such a child, whose family life is not in accordance with that, is to take away the whole purpose of the existence of the haredi schools.

The judge admitted that at times applying such criteria will be in cointrast to the values of equality and anti-discrimination, but the criteria must be determined to be appropriate for the school and community the school serves, and a balance must be found between these two rights -equality and the right of the school to determine its appropriate criteria. (source: Kikar)

I think this is a balanced approach. However it sounds like it is a very grey area of when this can be applied. When will the value of equality win out and when will the right of the school to make the determination win out?

MBD was on the radio, and the discussion turned to the attempts to get him banned because of his performing in front of mixed crowds.

MBD said that those machers trying to get the rabbonim to ban him are telling the rabbonim lies. He said that before his last performance, the one to a woman only audience, Rav and Rebbetzin Landau (the rav of Bnei Braq) called the head of the organization and said that they had been told they were bringing a dancer to perform. The organizer was in shock and after a moment responded that it is not true but there is only one performer at the show and that is Mordechai Ben David. The Landau's thanked her and wished her well. MBD says he is happy the Landaus checked out the story and did not just sign based on what the askan tells them, like many other rabbonim do.

He then went on to claim that they are making him out to be a rasha, saying he performs to mixed audiences, and it is not true as he refuses to take jobs that would require him to perform to a mixed audience, and that he never has done so.

That claim is not true. Perhaps he might say he no longer does. Perhaps he might limit it to Eretz Yisroel, but in  the USA he does (or did).

I don't have video proof, but the reality is that in the USA there was no such thing as completely separate seating at concerts until recently. If he would have never performed to a mixed audience, he would never have become a successful singer/performer. Also, he has famously performed at many HASC concerts and those are mixed audiences.

Regardless, whether he does or does not should not matter. If the crowd is mixed that should not make him into a rasha, but it should make the people in the crowd into rasha'im (if it is really so bad). All he is doing is taking a ob to sing. he is not telling them to sit mixed or not. They choose to sit mixed it should not make him into a rasha.

This came on an email list I subscribe to...

Posted on Facebook by an Israeli:

"Dear Egyptian Rioters,

Please don't damage the pyramids. We will not rebuild.

Thank you."

a million Egyptians take to the streets in protests

Wow! I just got in my mail a flyer from a local supermarket with all of this weeks sales. They have on sale Eida Haredis fresh Hiddurim brand chickens for the unprecedented price of 9.99 per kilo.

Tell me they are not desperate because of the scandal. Eida chickens for 9.99? you can never get any mehadrin chickens, from any mehadrin hechsher, for less then 15 NIS, even at the cheapest sale prices, with the rare exception and then only on Auerbach chickens, if at all.

9.99? When Eida chicken usually sells for over 25 NIS per kilo? The price alone tells you there is something going on.

It's so cheap it must be treif, as they say. Oh wait, maybe it is!

In what seems to indicate that the original haredi ban on the Internet has been abandoned and forgotten, the askanim are now working hard to get the rabbonim to put out a ban on Facebook.

Bechadrei reports on the coming ban saying that the askan they spoke to said that the beis din has been presented with numerous situations of families that have been damaged greatly [because of Facebook]. The askan said that because Facebook has absolutely no use for business purposes or for parnassa, therefore there is no hetter to use it. That along with the tremendous amount of time it causes people to waste.

While he is right about the tremendous amounts of time people waste on Facebook, he is wrong and clueless about the business and parnassa relevance of Facebook. Many companies use Facebook as a way of being in touch, at little or no cost at all, with their clients and customers, and with potential customers.

The haredi businessmen and people in advertising Bechadrei spoke to also said that such a statement by the askanim indicates more that they dont know what they are talking about than anything else, as much of their communication and business is done involving Facebook.

As one haredi social media manager responded, banning Facebook in 2011 is like the attempt to ban Google in 2004.

Kikar adds to the report by speaking with the askan Mottka Blau, the head of the committee for the holiness of facebook. Blau is leading the initiative to get Facebook banned. He says that Internet is needed for parnassa, but the ban on Facebook will work because it has nothing to do with parnassa and work. Another reason it will work is because he will redefine the word "haredi" to only include people who dont have Facebook. As Blau says, he who is haredi does not have Facebook. Someone who is not haredi, but a haredon (Haredi lite?) does have facebook. So that slves it - everyone with facebook is no longer haredi and therefore his fight was successful.

Blau lists 3 reasons why Facebook should be banned:

1. It is a tragedy that from a young age the haredi community is makpid on separation of the genders. It is incomprehensible that mixing of the genders should be ok in social media.
2. people are regularly transgressing issurim of lashon ha'ra and rechilus.
3. tzniyus issues in regards to pictures and other things that are shared.

Koritz, the fellow saying a ban would not work, responded by saying that at the end of the day it is a matter of self-discipline, like anything else. Somebody who uses snail mail can also have inappropriate materials sent to him in his mailbox.

Anyways, the ban might be coming, so be on the lookout for the latest haredi initiative called glattbook or chaverbook, or something else like that, that will be promoted as the Facebook alternative that will have been created by a friend of one of the askanim..

Oh yeah, feel free to "Like" and share this on Facebook by clicking the button below.

(source: Srugim: my translation, after lightly editing the ridiculous results of Google Translate)

The prophets of Israel relate at length the collapse of the rule of various kinds, many prophecies deal with the future kingdoms of evil. Even when very strong empires rose to power, Israel's prophets foretold that the end of all power is collapse, if it loses the foundation that justifies its existence. Human pride and evil regime are exposed as a shaky foundation, and can collapse quickly. This is part of the general inquiry about human power exist in the world, and the recognition that even if a similar kingdom is eternal - the speed of the collapse may be quickly. Not only that, but one of the ingredients (though not the only one) of the riots in Arab capitals is the aspiration of freedom and basic human soul, and charged that limit where people enslave others. This message is also regularly words of the Prophets.

It is difficult to evaluate whether the riots in the Arab world good or bad. On the one hand, they have a series of liberation from tyranny, and the countries we see them moderate, both countries towards the citizens and evil bondage. On the other hand, it is not clear that the collapse of a current government will lead to better rule. On the contrary, it is possible that it will lead to anarchy and terrible bloodshed, accompanied by many revolutions, where in the name of the aspiration to freedom they become murderous enslaves; radical Islamic movements can take advantage of the opportunity, on behalf of God behave like the devil; new regime restoration can be a tyrant no less than the last. Therefore, it seems that it would be wrong to wait a while to decipher the meaning of events; and it is possible that for some time the world will move on as usual.

However, the words of prophecy remain eternal. We need to assimilate within us the recognition that all factual assumption on which we base our behavior - is shaky to begin with. Especially when it comes to the rule and the kingdoms, especially when it comes to enslavement and preventing freedom. All political assessments are assessments on probation; all alliances are conditional; all that is dependent on humans - can change. This requires us to care more when we plan our future. And more importantly - it shows that we need to also to go back to other existing strengths. These strengths are the strengths of morality, justice strengths, strengths and grace. These too are not guaranteed, and sometimes in our world also the righteous is defeated  (the first war in history, Kane defeated Abel). However, decentralization of various strengths, and things about which we base our lives is one of the most important lessons shocking world order systems.

So if we add it all up: recognition of the importance of government along with the claim to freedom; recognition of the royal forces together in tandem with moral forces, the moral and just; dealing with the real world with the realization that everything could change one threat of the sword - we will see that we will deal that much better with the challenges we face, and we will be able to listen more attentively to the prophets that  teach us about the great importance of the additional powers over the State's power. We will see that we are already able to come to this conclusion more strongly because of the earthquake that is occurring around us
---

I wonder if he includes Rav Nir Ben Artzi in his list of prophets.. Just joking, but it is clear that the tumultuous events around us are something we need to be concerned about and take lesson from.

An interesting story happened recently involving a beis din and a non-Jew.

Beis din is typically meant to be a place where two jews settle their disputes. it is not meant for non-Jews, as non-Jews don't follow the same set of laws as Jews do. Non-Jews are not bound by the Shulchan Arukh.

Yet the situation of a non-jew in beis din discussed is typically referring to a case where a Jew is suing the non-jew. It does not make sense for this to happen in a beis din, as why would the non-Jew even agree to have the case heard there.

That makes the following story, as reported by Bechadrei, even more unusual.

The story goes that Jibril Chushiya, an Arab resident of Hebron, worked for a number of months for a Jewish kablan. The Jewish employer paid Chushiya's salary regularly, but unfortunately for Chushiya the checks always bounced.

After many months, Chushiya confronted the kablan, saying he was owed 40,000 NIS of salary that was never paid due to bounced checks. The kablan apologized, but said that he was bankrupt and had no money to pay him with, however he would try to pay up sometime in the future.

Chushiya decided to not put up with it any longer. He was going to sue the kablan for his money.

Looking to the courts, he realized was futile. As he began to prepare to file his suit, he realized that going through the courts would take a very long time,along with astronomical expenses, and that was not the route he wanted to go. Chushiya figured he had a better chance of seeing justice in a timely fashion by suing the kablan in beis din.

So he sued. In beis din.

After a number of sessions, the beis din decided the case in favor of Chushiya, against the kablan. The kablan would have to pay his debt, and they set up a payment plan that would allow him the ability make his payments.

Rav Ariel Bareli, director of the beis din, said that the fact that an Arab turned to beis din for din torah is the fulfillment of the vision of the end of days..

Very unusual case.

After the recent discovery of a massive level of kollel fraud, with a few certain kollels registering non-existent people, along with forging identity cards of people not registered and registering them, and collecting money for those people, many kollels were concerned about threats of ramped up levels of investigation and inspection.

Since then the Ministry of Education has been sending letters to kollels and informing them of the rules, and that they are subject to inspection at any time. Bechadrei reported that recently inspectors went to Bet Shemesh to check out a bunch of kollels. By the end of the series of inspections, four kollels had been punished and removed from the books, no longer to receive funding from the ministry, due to too many registered avreichim not being present.

One of the avreichim is quoted as having responded to the news by saying "this is a further escalation. Today we suffered a serious blow. The Rosh Kollel never imagined that the inspection would come so quickly - he only received the letter two days ago."

Wow - they were only given two days notice that they have to show up to kollel... how unfair..

To his credit, the head of the division of MoE carrying out the inspections said that it is clear that it is a very small minority [of kollels] that are staining the name of all the good lomdei torah, and the overwhelming majority of lomdim and kollels are not connected at all to this type of situation in any way.

It is very emotional, and kudos to the entities that revealed the road used by the olei regel. This is our history. But on the other hand it is time that we also went on Har Habayit. We love to go in the tunnels, where nobody can see us, but it is time to make the switch from dealing with the past to looking toward the future. As long as we avoid it, it is difficult to be satisfied with historical finds...
Instead of establishing a Temple on Har Habayit, we let the Jordanians put generators there. This is another symptom.. Regarding Har Habayit we act like scared mice, and not like authority....

  -- Yehuda Etzion