his suit is so ill-fitting it makes him look creepy.. but his talk is interesting...

Pro-Palestinian activists disrupt a New York City Council meeting. It was council member's David Greenfield reaction that left us speechless!

I was with Maran [Rav Ovadia] for 60 years. He had nothing else besides for Torah...At the coronation of the rav [Yitzchak Nissim as chief rabbi in 1955] we sat together, side by side. at the conclusion of the coronation of Yitzchak Nissim they started to sing "Kol Od BaLeivav" (Hatikva) and I thought - they are crazy. I did not stand. The Rav stood... I asked him why he stood. Rav Ovadia said "I said Aleinu" - he did not want that stupid song to have an effect on him.

  -- Shas Rabbinical leader Rav Shalom Cohen

Rav Cohen said this at some election rally, and people are upset he called Hatikvah stupid. Shas is coming to his defense saying he has the right to think it is stupid, he grew up within the walls of Jerusalem and nobody can teach him what is zionism and about love for eretz yisrael.

I happen to agree. He has the right to think Hatikvah, or anything else is stupid. he clearly did not learn the lesson from Rav Ovadia who was sitting right next to him. Rav Ovadia stood up when they sang it. He might have thought it was stupid or might have seen no purpose to it, or might have loved it - we dont know. But even if he thought it was stupid, he respected that others found importance in it, and he stood up. So he said aleinu quietly. He still made sure not to insult anybody else over it. Rav Cohen, missing that lesson, seems to excel in casting insults.

Shabus! Shabus!

Sounds like the classic protest scream from Bar ilan street in Jerusalem, from Mea Shearim or many other places where chilul shabbos takes place and some people go to protest.

That is actually "Shabbes! Shabbes!". "Shabus" is almost the exact opposite.

The Shabus is a new initiative of some Jerusaleem residents to have a private "bus" on Shabbos. Sha-bus. The Shabbos bus. It would be a series of private vans driving around between the different neighborhoods and entertainment and recreation centers.

Their complaint has been that while places around town are open on Shabbos, people do not have the ability to get to any of them unless they have their own car. There is no public transportation on Shabbos.

Hence the creation of the Shabus.


This really is not much different than people driving their private cars, which is legal even in Jerusalem. Obviously it is against halacha, but the issue for them is the law. The law does not allow for public transportation, which sticks them in a bad place. This is private transportation. There probably isn't anything anybody can do about it to stop it, unless it fails as a business initiative, if there is not enough business to keep them afloat financially.

I recently asked somebody I know who has until now been "saruf" on Shas, i.e. was totally sold on Shas and completely dedicated to Shas, about voting in the coming elections.

He surprised me with his answer. He told me he might not vote at all - he might look for the Satmar headquarters that pays people to deposit their identity cards in exchange for $100.

That actually was not the surprising part. A lot of people are fed up; fed up with both the fact that we have elections and fed up with the parties that seem to just bicker and fight and not actually try to improve anything.

The surprising thing was the next part of what he said.

He said that if he votes at all he would vote for Eli Yishai's party, Yachad.

I was surprised and asked him to explain. I said I like Yishai's new party, and if I had to vote for a religious party, they probably would get that vote, but I know you, I said to him, and your family have been dedicated Shasniks - Rav Ovadia, Aryeh Deri, etc. I am shocked that you would vote for Eli Yishai.

He smiled and responded that he was dedicated to Shas when it was Rav Ovadia. Now that Rav Ovadia isnt alive, and Shas is Aryeh Deri - Deri is crooked and I won't vote for him.

I was surprised. Somebody I had no question about that he and his family would be Shas supporters have given that up and would vote for Yishai.

I know it is just one person, but if such a dedicated Shas-supporter would change like this because of the current situation in Shas, there must be many more, and maybe Yishai is really doing good work drawing support. He put together a good campaign on his message of unity of different sects of religious Judaism...

The one thing I am unsure of with Eli Yishai is that I have this suspicion that once he gets in on this ticket of unity of different Jews, he will end up voting in line perfectly, or almost so, with the Haredi position on issues n the Knesset. He will have taken his message of unity and turned it into just another Haredi party made up of voters from other communities (since there is no direct representation he does not really have anyone to answer to).

It is just my suspicion, but when I hear him talk on the radio, besides for his message of unity he talks about "bringing more votes from other communities"...and that makes me suspect he is either playing the public as if he isn't really a Haredi party or he just can't break the shackles and is doing it naturally while his partners don't realize this.


The latest campaign video for Yachad:

For the first time in my life I witnessed a sefer torah fall to the floor this past shabbos.

It was a shocking, and horrifying, experience for everyone present.

The torah was not dropped by anybody, but the table it was standing on (it was a sefardi sefer torah) collapsed, sending the torah to the floor.

The rabbi at the minyan, an ad hoc minyan arranged as part of the celebration of a simcha, announced that each person should pick a day this week and fast that one day. Those who can't fast should give tzedaka.

The rabbi also spoke about taking a message from the sefer falling and committing to improve decorum in the shul. He specifically suggested people put an end to the custom, as he did in his own shul, of throwing candy. The rabbi said that even though throwing candy at a chosson has very good and old sources, it often leads to a breakdown in decorum as some people then have fun and throw candy at other people in shul besides for the chosson.

yes, Bet Shemesh had snow...



this year is our year!

Likud
would we be here if Ben Gurion wouldn't have done the right thing?


Habayit Hayehudi
mishenichnas adar marbin bslicha


Kulanu Kahlon
who are you to step on Yair Lapid?


meet Arele from the bank


a waste of the rainforests


the elderly's consumer ban of Givat Olga


Aleh Yarok
not sure because of the threshold?


the power is in our hands


ringtone


Meretz
dont repeat the same mistake 3 times


Hamachane Hatzioni
from the desk of MK erel Margalit


MK Stav Shafir's unforgettable address to the Knesset


Kulanu Na Nach




some ideas


psychological mutations



Yachad - Ha'Am Itanu
together, all the kippot, all the streams..

Here is a paramedic speaking about Adelle Biton, the little girl who just died as a result of a terror attack 2 years ago.

This paramedic is an Arab, Mawaya Kabba (spelling?) and he talks about how he has gotten close to the family, and how he gets close to the families of many of the victims he treats, rather than just treat them and move on. He talks about the difficulty with everything around it, and the importance of seeing people as people and against baseless hatred.

Bechadrei is reporting on an interesting psak from Rav Shteinman.

Truth is, the psak is not really new, though it might be new from Rav Shteinman as a source for it. What is interesting about it is not the psak itself but how he explained it. To me it raises the possibility of an interesting discussion, or questions.

Rav Shteinman was asked about the validity of using someone who owns an iPhone for witnessing a wedding.

Supposedly, his answer was, that there are two different types of prohibitions one can violate that might invalidate him from being a witness; a prohibition that has the punishment of malkus, lashes, attached to it, and a prohibition that does not have lashes as a punishment.

A prohibition with lashes would invalidate the person from being a witness at a "d'oraisa" level, while a prohibition without lashes would invalidate him but only at a rabbinic level..

Rav Shteinman said that having an iPhone does not qualify one for lashes, so it only invalidates the bearer at a rabbinic level from being a witness.

Rav Shteinman also supposedly said two other points, and that is what I find most interesting.
1. while it is common for the rabbi officiating at a wedding to tell the witnesses to do tshuva right then in order to ensure they are kosher witnesses (in case they had done anything wrong in the past that might invalidate them), Rav Shteinman said they often do not actually do tshuva. Using such witnesses is a problem.
2. He commented on the expense of the iPhone, when they told him how much it costs. He compared it to an esrog and said in wonderment that it costs more than an esrog, and also expressed his surprise or anguish that people would pay so much money in order to sin! It is expensive to sin, but people will pay the price for that ability!

Regarding #1, it brings into question the entire practice of telling the witnesses to do tshuva. If they aren't doing it anyway, and we know that (or presume it), what's the point? And if we know they don't do tshuva anyway, how can we allow them to witness the wedding?

I guess in a situation where we, or he himself, are not actually aware of any specific violation that would invalidate, it is a "just in case" situation, so we can proceed even without tshuva. If he owns an iPhone, or if we know specifically about a different violation, it is no longer "just in case" and we would require actual tshuva.

Regarding #2, it is an interesting way to put it. The difference is that the esrog is for just a week, and for only a short amount of time each day during that week, while the iPhone you pay a lot of money for because you want it to be enough quality that it will last you a year or two or three, and survive your nearly constant usage for many hours of each day during that time. Many things cost a lot of money, more than an esrog, and there are reasons why they cost a lot (supply and demand, the costs of development and marketing, etc) and why people will pay those prices.

Also, most people are not buying the iPhone in order to sin. They are buying it in order to use as a communication device, and the sinning is inadvertent (if you say the iPhone itself is a sin, or else in the way he uses it afterwards). So saying for an averia someone will pay x while for a mitzva he will only pay y, is like comparing apples and oranges, or iphones and esrogs.

Regarding the actual psak, the interesting point is how he explains it as an issur with no lashes, thus it only invalidates him at a rabbinic level. I'd like to hear how it is determined that this is an issur at all, and how it is one with no lashes. Do rabbis today have the ability to create a new "issur drabanan"? Are they defining an ancient issur derabanan to include the iphone as a form of application of an existing issur?