this fellow, Eli Roth, is frum, hassidishe, and competed on the Israel Ninja show very impressively. I would point out that it is unfortunate the clips they post to social media do not include the entire section, as, if you go to the Israel Ninja website the full episode includes the pre-compete interview where he talks about himself and his background. That part was just as, if not more, interesting than the competition itself..

Every day I request assistance from clerks and ministers in order to find ways to help citizens of Israel. That is exactly what Rav Litzman did, and for that they are attacking him. You don't think Rav Litzman is stupid, do you?  This is a serious precedent, like in Sodom... At the end of the day nothing will come from these police recommendations for an indictment. The problem is that they are setting a new bar for public servants not being able to assist the public..

  -- MK Yisroel Eichler (UTJ), regarding the announcement of the police recommendation to indict Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman for breach of trust and some other matters regarding some of the cases he was being investigated for (some of the cases were closed).

Some of the other responses were reasonable - expressing hope and expectation that Litzman will be found innocent, and the like. Eichler convolutes everything, as usual, as if Litzman is being prosecuted for helping people. The potential indictment is not for helping people but for allegedly using his power and influence in an illegal way to change professional opinions and approaches to help people Litzman wrongly wanted to help.

new series....

One thing about Bnei Braq is that it is a big mix, a cholent, perhaps, of types of Litvishe Haredim. You have the far more mainstream people affiliated with rabbonim lik Rav Kanievsky and others, along with being affiliated with the great yeshivas there, and you have the more modern haredim in the more gentrified slice of Bnei Braq with some serious wealth and often a somewhat more modern approach (though these do not necessarily go together). While some crazy extreme chumra-hocking comes out of Bnei Braq, a lot of it is really led in other cities and towns and not in Bnei Braq itself. For example, issues such as mehadrin buses, when they were a thing, never really took hold in Bnei Braq. The various tzniyus signs are not really an issue in Bnei Braq.

Yet now that a Sefardic rav has been appointed in Bnei Braq, that very well might change.

Behadrei is reporting that Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Bnei Braq Rav Masoud Ben Shimon is working now on preparing a list of new decrees for the residents (and visitors, I guess) of the city.

Rav Ben Shimon is planning on trying to decree that avreichim should not have [kosher] phones on while they are learning. It is too much of a distraction and prevents avreichim from truly growing in Torah. That's reasonable and fair. I don't know that it should be a city-wide decree, but yeshivas should be able to implement such a rule if they want to, each for their own avreichim and bochurim.

Rav Ben Shimon complained about when he goes out Friday night to the shul he sees the entire Chazon ish St is filled with men and women walking around, shpetziring, and one cannot even walk int eh street because of the crowds, the mixed crowds. Rav Ben Shimon did not say what, but he said something must be decreed about this matter - perhaps men walk on the sidewalks and women in the street, or vice versa, but something must be done. The problem is not so serious during the weekday but on Shabbos when people are relaxing, he says, it is a big problem and is inappropriate for such a Torah-centric city..

Interestingly, Rav Ben Shimon relates that there was an area that a similar situation greatly disturbed Rav Shach and he asked his talmidim to avoid that area. I say "interesting" because according to the story he related, Rav Shach did not say it is a problem and we must make a city-wide decree. Rather, Rav Shach gave his students specific instructions. yet Rav Ben Shimon wants to make a decree out of it.

Unless the rabbonim he consults with, presumably the other Chief Rabbis of the city, tell him not to start making trouble and making radical changes the public will not like, you can look forward to big changes in Bnei Braq.

from Ynet

The government went down to Eilat yesterday for a special session, mostly discussing issues of taxation and Eilat. While the Ministers mostly flew by helicopter in both directions (except for one who drove back after having an unpleasant flight with nausea), Netanyahu had his chair driven down so he could sit on the same chair while holding the government session in Eilat.

Lapid, who grew up as a spoiled rich child, continued to accumulate wealth as a presnetator for banks and as a broadcaster in newsrooms - his hands did not tremble when he stole from Israeli children as a failed Finance Minister, until we managed to get rid of him after 2 years and thereby saved the economy from possible collapse.... when I shook off my clothes in the Knesset after Lapid touched me, some said that was exaggerated. Today everyone realizes that Lapid is still the same Lapid whose sole issue is spreading the poison of hatred and enmity between populations and sectors.

  -- Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, after Lapid released an election video in which he attacked Netanyahu and his coalition partners while portraying the Haredi parties as taking advantage of Netanyahu's weaknesses to demand more and more money.

Behadrei is reporting on an interesting case that came before the beis din in Beer Sheva.

The case had the potential to be tragic, thankfully was resolved positively, and I wish they would have given us a few more details about the resolution.

A married couple went before the beis din to get divorced. Fine. It happens. They got the divorce. As always, the beis din warned the woman to not be with another man for 90 days, as the halacha requires, so as to avoid a situation of her potentially getting pregnant and it not being clear if the baby is the child of the first husband or the second, which would cause problems later down the road when it would be time for the child to marry.

It seems that the woman did not heed the instructions. She came back before the beis din with a baby in hand saying the baby was born exactly 9 months from the day of the divorce. She is claiming the baby as the child of her new husband/partner, and wanted the baby to be registered as their child. This is a big problem. Halachically it is not clear who is the father, and the 3 month waiting period is meant to avoid such situations.

Upon the direction of the Attorney General of Israel, the beis din appointed a special team of dayanim for determining issues of "yuchsin", headed by the Av Beis Din Rav Yehuda Deri to investigate the matter and come to a decision.

The beis din headed by Rav Deri determined and paskened that despite the fact that the woman did not wait the necessary 3 months, the child is the child of the mother and the second husband, and is kosher to marry as any other kosher Jew, even to a kohen.

That is all the info given, and it is definitely an interesting psak. I would like to know if they used paternity tests, and if such tests can help make a halachic determination. Presumably they investigated when she had been last with her first husband and surely must have found compelling witness to whatever was discovered. I wonder what other considerations were involved in determining this matter. 

Had he had any difficulty coming to a conclusion, he could have used the solution used by King Solomon when he offered to cut the baby in half and split it between the two parents as a way of determining who the real parent is. The problem is that in King Solomon's case it was  a dispute between mothers. The women really knew which carried the baby for 9 months and which was just claiming to do so, and one had emotional ties to the baby. In this case it is the father under dispute, and they have no real way to know which is actually the father, except by external factors...

powerful, and revealing, interview

they released an emotional music video together about a month ago (called Echad).. it has been posted here before, maybe I will post it again after the Nine Days... here is some background to the story..

for women