The Ministry of Transportation recently announced the end of March, Erev Pesach, as the date for the opening of the first stage of the high speed rail between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with the new train being available to bring tens of thousands of people to Jerusalem for the holidays at very high speeds.

truly a wonderful and optimistic announcement.

Globes is reporting that experts are warning that the project is not even close to being ready and there is no way they will be able to safely operate the new line at the end of March - unless they speed up the work and in the process ignore important safety factors. You can get all the details of the various concerns in the Globes article, but the issues are truly concerning and one wonders how the MoT really expects to be ready, considering the issues raised by those experts.

Hopefully the experts are just being overly cautious with their warnings, but hopefully there will not be a horrible tragedy when the train opens. The MoT response is that they are working very hard with all the relevant parties and authorities and are making great efforts to finish on time while ensuring passenger safety.

Nobody really believed, from day 1, that the project would be finished on time. The agressive target date recently announced brought out more skepticism, but also made one wonder why pick such an early date if they are not even close to ready, suggesting that perhaps they are further along than expected. They now have about 5.5 weeks until the conductor is supposed to toot the first horn on that line, so it is coming down to the wire. I probably would not have been on any of those first few days of train rides anyway, just because I don't like to go to such events and attractions with big crowds, but now I will probably just stay away until it is clear that train route is safe.

cute ad for Machon Lev. They've made some good ones.. this one did make me laugh..

According to some tzniyus pamphlet distributed in Bnei Braq and other Haredi areas (surely it will be coming to Bet Shemesh soon, if it hasn't already) that has taken the fight against wigs to another, yet more extreme level.

according to Kikar, the pamphlet describes how 37 avreichim in Kiryat Sefer all had the same dream on the same night in which they all saw Rachel Imeinu showing them that in the upcoming war all women wearing sheitels will be slaughtered. Tens more people around the country had this dream as well.

Further, the pamphlet says, in the past year the chief commander of ISIS instructed his soldiers how to differentiate between Jewish women and Muslim women, so as to be able to avoid killing Muslim women, to check the hair and if it is a wig she must be a Jewish woman and be slaughtered.

ok.

Besides for the extremist crazies cozying up with ISIS, I am not sure what they are trying to prove - that ISIS says the way to identify a Jewish woman is by her wig? That would mean that Jewish women wear wigs and it is normal! Just because ISIS identifies Jews like that and does not like it, means Jewish women should not wear wigs? Maybe Jewish women in ISIS-controlled territories should not wear wigs out of the danger to their lives presented by ISIS, but I do not see why the fact that ISIS wants to slaughter women with wigs should have any effect on what Jewish women wear.

Also, ISIS does not want to slaughter Muslims? Besides for the fact that ISIS has been almost completely defeated and wiped out, more than 99.9% of the people they have slaughtered have been Muslims, so I highly doubt this little factoid published by the tzniyus crazies has even a kernel of truth to it.

The police should open an investigation, if they have any investigators available among all the investigations into Netanyahu's affairs, into finding and arresting whoever published this drivel and the implicit threat to the Jewish sheitel-wearing women 

A young couple decided to marry, after knowing each other for 4 years. And now they are divorcing.

Mr has a managerial position in an investment house. Mrs is a senior bank employee. They decided to make a big fancy wedding, and Mr told Mrs that he would put a significant ("scary") amount in for the ketuba, and they agreed to use Bitcoin. They agreed on 30 Bitcoin, the value of which at the time came to 2 million NIS. At the time of the wedding, they all thought it was cute, as once camels and sheep were used and now it is Bitcoin.

Now that they are getting divorced, she wants to claim her ketuba of 2 million shekels. Mr, on the other hand, says he is fine with paying her ketuba, but wants to pay in the 30 Bitcoin he promised her, at today's value, which is much less.

It seems from the brief story unclear exactly what is written in the ketuba. Mrs says that at the time of the wedding she told him to just write "bitcoin worth 2 million shekel". It seems like he write 30 bitcoin, value being 2 million shekel.

Mrs also adds that being that he is an investment broker and she is a banker  they are both aware of the issues with Bitcoin and they both agreed to consider bitcoin legitimate for this purpose.

The dayanim now have to figure out what to do with this and how to settle the dispute.
source: Rotter

The easy way to settle the dispute, and the one preferred by beis din in most situations, is a compromise, and I would guess that's how this will end.

The actual value should be dependant on what precisely is written in the ketuba. Currency always changes value, so if it just straight up says bitcoin, I would think it would be valued at current value.. Otherwise every divorce (not using the shekel currency or without usng the standard ashkenazi text) would have a dispute over exchange rates.

In the meantime, it seems to me that marrying with bitcoin should be considered problematic, as it has no actual value and its value is just based on speculation. While perhaps a transaction can be done with bitcoin if a kinyan is made and both parties agree, marriage needs the kinyan of kessef, and bitcoin might not be considered such a kinyan. The beis din might have to decide this.

This is a very interesting case and could become a serious precedent.

If I see any follow up on this case with the decision of the beis din, I will be sure to bring it to your attention

The last update on the "tzniyus" signs in Bet Shemesh had the courts telling the mayor of Bet Shemesh, Moshe Abutbol, that he had to actively take down the signs and if he would not he would be fined and even arrested.

The courts have now revisited the issue and have made further demands of Abutbol. The latest demands have him installing 7 cameras in the specific area of the signs. The cameras must be installed within a month. The city must also continue removing all the relevant signs and stickers and the graffiti all over the area.. And, the city must begin legal proceedings against all residents that are involved in hanging the signs.
sources: Kikar and Ch10

The public has been requesting cameras for a long time. Abutbol has been promising cameras for a long time. The city was given a budget for the installation of cameras a long time ago (as part of the national "city without violence" project), yet the city has failed to install cameras in this specific area (other area sin Bet Shemesh have been covered with security cameras). It is almost as if Abutbol wants to protect these residents from any legal repercussions. Financial and legal  implications have been demanded by residents as well against the relevant people, rather than just removing signs that will immediately be reinstalled.

Behadrei is reporting on a shiur given by the Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Chevron, Rav Mordechai Farbshtein, in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. It is noted that the last time the rosh yeshiva of Chevron Yeshiva gave shiur in Merkaz Harav was 50 years ago when Rav Yechezkal Sarna gave shiur and the Roshei Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav were Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook and Rav Avraham Shapira.

I appreciate that the article does not describe this as a show of "achdut", or unity. I always dislike that term when used to describe two Jews with different kippot that do an activity together. I also appreciate that the visit was not described as "historic", as is often done in such situations.

While I too applaud the invitation offered to Rav Farbshtein by Merkaz Harav and his acceptance and deliverance of the shiur, I do wonder when we will see reciprocity. Every now and again we find such occurrences of rebbes and rosh yeshivas of Haredi yeshivas or schools being invited to schools and yeshivas in other sectors, and that is wonderful and very open-minded of the hosting schools and yeshivas to expose their students to the Torah and teachings of other streams. I fail to recall such an invitation offered by a Haredi school or yeshiva to any rebbe or rosh yeshiva from other streams thus exposing its students to the teachings and Torah of others. Just like I want to see the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron as a guest in Merkaz HaRav, I also want to see the Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav, or Kerem BYavneh or Shaalavim or others invited to Chevron, or Mir, or Ponevezsh, or others.

Meet Simha, a singer and musician who makes Klezmer music with a Latin beat for audiences around the world. plays guitar, piano and accordion and is love with Jewish music from the 1940's

The Jewish Press has an interesting interview with Rav Heschel Shachter.

There are 3 points in the interview that are interesting to me (people interested in the female rabbi issue might be interested in that one as well).

1. Har Habayit:

There is a growing movement in Israel of frum Jews ascending Har Habyit after going to the mikveh. What’s your opinion on this movement?The Rabbanut said you’re not allowed to go on the Har Habayit. Now, the majority of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael are not shomrei mitzvos and are not really interested in what the Rabbanut says. In fact, they want to do away with the Rabbanut because it gives them problems – a kohen can’t marry a grushah, he can’t marry a mamzeres, he can’t intermarry, etc. In Bnei Brak and Meah Shearim, they also couldn’t care less what the Rabbanut says. So you’re left only with the Modern Orthodox, the Dati Leumi, and now they too are ignoring the Rabbanut by going on the Har Habayit.
So the government will do away with the whole Rabbanut. What do you need it for? In Bnei Brak they don’t hold from them, in Meah Shearim they don’t hold from them, the overwhelming majority are secular, and the Dati Leumi are also not listening.
How do you go on the Har Habayis? We’re going to be responsible for the demise of the Rabbanut. It will be a disaster. As bad as the situation is now, it’s going to be worse if there’s no Rabbanut.
Haven’t you said in the past that one may, in theory, walk on certain parts of Har Habayis?Yes, but if the Rabbanut said you shouldn’t go, you have to listen to what they say. If they say a kula and you want to be machmir, gesunterheit. But to be meikel against them I think is not right.

That is an interesting point he makes, and I don't dispute it (not that he needs me to agree or support his position). I would however suggest that if that logic works it raises an important question. If nobody is interested in the Rabbanut and nobody listens to the Rabbanut except for the Dati Leumi, and therefore they are obligated to follow the Rabbanut's decisions so the Rabbanut will not become completely pointless, why should we have a Rabbanut? According to Rav Schechter it is important to follow them in order to justify their existence, but really if the only people listening to the Rabbanut are one small sector of Israeli society, do we need a State body for this? Can we really justify the expense of the Rabbanut, let alone the need for the Rabbanut, if it is only just for the Dati Leumi community?

Another, more minor, question might be that not everyone going up to Har Habayit is Dati Leumi. There is an increasing number of Haredim ascending. So, do only Dati Leumi ascenders need to follow the Rabbanut's dictates on this and not ascend while Haredi ascenders can ascend, or do Haredi ascenders also need to stop? Furthermore, if Haredi ascenders don't listen to the Rabbanut anyway regarding anything else, why should/would they listen to the Rabbanut about this?
This is a minor question because the Haredi ascenders are a minority.   

2. kezayis of matza

Not long after Purim comes Pesach. Many people obsess over how much matzah they are supposed to eat at the Seder. Your definition of a kezayis, though, is rather smaller than what’s currently popular.I don’t know what’s popular. My father-in-law spent about two years by Rav Shimon Shkop rewriting the Shaarei Yosher. Rav Shkop asked the mashgiach from the Mir Yeshiva, Rav Yeruchom Levovitz, for a bachurwho had a nice style of Hebrew, so he sent my father-in-law. He was there about two years, so he ate the Seder by Rav Shimon Shkop. He said five boys ate a kezayis from one matza. That’s a pretty small kezayis.
Didn’t you once say a kezayis is the size of the palm of one’s hand?Rav Chaim Volozhiner says that.
So why do people think a kezayis is much larger than that?Exaggeration. They like to exaggerate about everything – l’hachmir and l’hakeil. Everybody exaggerates.

no comment necessary

3. techeiles

You are known as being in favor of wearing techeles nowadays. Why?It says in the Chumash that we should wear techeles.
But people claim we don’t know what authentic techeles is anymore.Okay, but there’s a very strong possibility that the [techeles produced by Ptil Tekhelet in Israel] may be the correct techeles, so if there is a possibility, safek d’Orasia l’chumra.

it is as simple as that