It's official.  The Supreme Court has rejected Abutbol's petition.  Bet shemesh is going to new elections.

One of the big items of the day, on the Haredi news radio stations is an army officer who was recently promoted.

This officer was overheard a few months ago saying really nasty things about Haredim. She had said she hates haredim and she hopes they die. Very nasty and inappropriate. At the time she was sent to some sort of disciplinary board and was punished in some way.

It was recently discovered that this officer has been promoted to a new post.

The question is, is this promotion ok, or should she not be promoted because of what she had said a few months ago?

On the one hand, what she said is very problematic. If a haredi soldier should pass through her authority, would she treat him fairly, respectably, like any other soldier or would she be biased against him? Maybe such a person should not be in a position of authority.

If she had said something similar about Arabs, or about Ethiopians, or Sefardim, would she be tossed from the army or would promotions be curtailed? Was this just a slap on the wrist because she "only" said it about haredim?

On the other hand,.who cares what her personal opinion is? It is not relevant to her work. If one cannot show that she has been unfavorably biased against haredi soldiers under her authority, why should she be punished for what is just a personal opinion, reprehensible as it may be? If she is a good soldier, who cares about her personal opinions?

I don't know. My inclination is to say that I don't care about her personal opinion, as long as she has not acted on it in the capacity of her job. In an army of tens of thousands of soldiers, there will surely be some who hate Haredim, some who hate Secular, some who hate Sefardim, some who hate Arabs, some who hate Ethiopians, some who hate Americans, some who hate Japanese, etc. Should they all be punished for their personal opinions? As long as it was not acted upon, who cares? But she is in a position of authority. She should be smart enough to not say such things. Maybe she does mistreat soldiers whom she has a bias against.

What do you think?

2 years ago, NY businessman Jona Rechnitz won $50,000 on a frwak play in the Super Bowl whethe Giants beat the Patriots. He bet that the first scoring play of the game would be on a safety in favor of the Giants. he was right, despite it having happened only once before in any Super Bowl. With his odds and his bet, he then won $50,000, which Rechnitz donated to charity.

In 2014 Rechnitz has done it again. He played the same bet, that the game's first score would be a safety. He cashed in on winnings of $25,000 which he said he is donating to charity.
source: Fox Sports

Lightning does strike twice.

Someone asked Rav Yaakov Ariel, Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, if it is permissible to participate in the Tel Aviv Marathon that is fast approaching, considering it is a mixed-gender race. He also asked the same question about participating in Triathlons, events that include running, biking and swimming, that are mixed-gender races.

Rav Ariel's answer was simply, if people were dressed properly, it would be allowed. However, unfortunately, people are not dressed properly.
source: Yeshiva and NRG

uh oh. Good thing I am not participating in Marathon Tel Aviv...

Actually, this would apply not just to the Tel Aviv Marathon, but to all such marathons and sporting events. I know people who run a lot, but don't run marathons or other races only because of the way people (of the opposite gender) are dressed..

The truth is that this also applies to most of life - walking down the street, taking a bus, going to work, gooing to a mall, a supermarket - people are dressed immodestly everywhere. Granted, in sports clothes it is a lot of that concentrated into one place..

I find it interesting he did not employ the issue of it being a mixed-gender event, and only one of immodest dress.

I don't understand why Dalia Rabin is a member of the Directorship of Aku"M. What's her special connection to culture, music, artists rights, freedom of expression? Are there any specific creations in her name? Any special understanding in the domain?
No. Just because politicians and retired respectables decorate directorships that aren't theirs.
The problem begins and increases when personal political opinions have influence in areas in which they have no benefit at all. When foreign considerations take on the appearance of "public"influence professional decisions.
Dalia Rabin is appropriate for the directorship of Aku"M precisely the way Ariel Zilber is appropriate for the directorship of the Rabin Heritage Center.

  -- Minister Uri Auerbach

this old, grainy, video, from over 30 years ago, was once used as PR by the IDF to explain why Israel must hold on to Judea and Samaria, from a military perspective...
source: INN

that clip from the other day, of new shoes for stomping out Amalek? it wasn't just a funny clip for the spirit of Adar and Purim - it was an intro to Eli Friedman's new song..

The end is nigh! The end is nigh!

No, not the end of the world. The end of the fax machine! The end is nigh!

MK Stav Shafir (Labor) has proposed a law that would hopefully put an end to the fax machine.

Not too many people have fax machines anymore. they are outdated technology. People now can generally scan or take pictures of documents, send them by email, upload to websites, share by social media or other forms of online services - there is simply no need for fax machines.

Except there is.

Government offices and banks are the two greatest offenders, still requiring communication by fax. Most people do not even own a fax machine, yet if they need to send a document or signature to the bank, it can only be sent via fax.

If Stav Shafir's proposal will be accepted, the government offices and banks would have to accept communication by email as official, and people will finally be able to get rid of the few remaining fax machines.

Shafir's law, if it passes, will obligate government offices, municipal government offices, government authorities, telephone companies, ISPs, cable and satellite television companies, banks, water authorities, and others to officially accept communication by email. The law would also let the providers communicate with the customer by email in an official capacity.

As Shafir said in support of her proposal, "It is about time service providers will move to the fast and cheap service lanes, and will allow all customers to communicate with them in whatever way they are most comfortable with. The situation today is disregard for the time of the consumer who need to go looking for a fax machine near where they live, sometimes having to pay for the service, and sometimes having to actually go to the providers offices when a fax is not available. 
It is not logical that when technology allows a person to go shopping around the world without leaving his own house, he must waste long work hours to approve his credit line in the bank. It is difficult today to find a person not connected to email, and it is even harder to find a person who is connected comfortably to a fax machine in his house. If the service providers refuse to recognize this, we will have to force the, to do so."
source: Walla News

Unlike Stav Shafir, I know plenty of people who do not have email... but most of them also do not have fax machines...  

Finally! I hope this law passes. Banks, hospitals, government offices, requiring fax machines is SUCH an inconvenience!

About 6 weeks ago Minister of Interior proposed a law that make make municipal elections an official vacation day (a.k.a. federal holiday) just like national elections are.

Yesterday the proposal was brought to vote in the Knesset and it passed its first reading with 20 MKs in favor and 1 MK opposed - it seems like a lot of MKs were absent yesterday during the voting on this bill. The bill now goes back to committee and will be prepared for its second and final readings.

The new law would make it a national holiday, meaning employees would have a paid vacation day. The Minister of Interior will decide on the operation of public services and public transportation on the day of municipal elections.

Some MKs spoke in favor of the bill, mostly pointing to the low voter turnout and saying that making it a vacation day would encourage more people to vote... MK Nissim Zeev (Shas) argued against the bill saying that going to vote is not a big deal, does not take much time, and turning it into a vacation day is a waste of a day - Zeev said  "how long does it take to go from home to the ballot station? 10 minutes? It takes longer to bring a sick person in an ambulance to the hospital than to bring a voter to the ballot station!"
source: Ladaat

Zeev is correct, and I personally do not understand why so many people cant make a minimal effort to go vote. People should make more of an effort.

What Zeev does not understand is that people who are out all day working, and then go to vote when they return home from work at the end of the day, all go to vote, if they go, and find long lines - by then they are tired, worn out, frustrated, and often give up. Some of them don't even bother going, knowing that it will be a long line, and say its just not worth going.

Either way, the proposal is now one step closer to becoming official law! There is still no word from the Supreme Court announcing a decision regarding the Bet Shemesh elections, but if they decide to uphold the lower courts decision, we in Bet Shemesh have a chance of being the first to benefit from this law!

Just a few days ago the Rabbanut announced problems with Roladin - "non- Jewish" milk powder in the hamantaschen and unauthorized kashrut supervisors, and decided to remove its hechsher.

Roladin fans will be happy to know that Roladin has decided to fix the problems discovered by the Rabbanut, comply with the rules, and will be receiving their hechsher again.

I guess the loss of business, or the threat of it, made them decide to fall in line..

Roladin has committed to changing the unauthorized mashgiach and replacing him with Rav Asher Zemel, the authorized mashgiach responsible for the Lev Hasharon region.

As well, and this is more interesting, they will not use the "non-Jewish" milk powder any longer, and will mark the products better, labeling them clearly as dairy. In the letter (below) sent from Roladin to the Rabbanut detailing their commitment, all product packaging of hamantaschen will include stickers stating them explicitly as dairy.

As a result of Roladin's commitment, the Rabbanut has announced that they are giving the hechsher back, and the public can buy from Roladin - as long as the consumer sees a valid kashrut certificate (as is always true).





It seems clear from the new commitment that the problem, or at least part of the problem, was that Roladin was not labeling the products clearly. Perhaps they were relying on the idea that all customers surely know all products are dairy (as I heard from some people who buy pastries in Roladin regularly). In other words, the problem is not the use of dairy dough, but that they did not do enough to inform the consumers that the dough was indeed dairy. In addition to the use of "cholov nochri" milk powder.

Kipa on the Senate floor! and he talks about Rav Michael Dov Weissmandl..

funny