Check out this well written post by Joe Settler on secular coercion and sexual harrassment..

Click here to see Matisyahu's new music video for the song "Jerusalem".
Enjoy

(hat tip: Life of Rubin)

The all new Healthy and Fit Family Carnival has its first edition posted. If that interests you, check it out over here.

Shoshana at Sweet Rose is hosting Haveil Havalim #91 and just posted it.. Check it out here and make sure you are comfortable.. she included plenty of good posts..

Way to go Bears! 41-10. I was kind of hoping (and even expecting) them to beat the 49ers by 49 points today, but it was not meant to be. Only by 31.

and I quote.. "but this house is being buried before my eyes because of unreliability, because of deals, because of zigzags, because of lack of leadership."

hmmm, maybe a former resident of Gush Katif? Maybe a former resident of one of the 4 Northern Samarian settlements that were razed this past year?

If that is what you guessed, it was a good guess but completely wrong.

Opher Pines-Paz said it tonight in the stormy Labor Central Committee meeting deciding whether to stay in the coalition with Lieberman's party or to drop out of the coalition. Pines-Pas was in favor of leaving the government coalition. I agree with Pines-Paz and feel that from a Labor party standpoint the right move would have been to leave the government. The problem is the people running the show nowadays (not just in labor but in a lot of parties) are worried about personal interests rather than long term goals. They are afraid of facing their electorate now and think they will be better off by delaying such an event for a while. So they voted to stay in the coalition.

Ironic that he could use such a statement as a condemnation of the days events and an argument for specific policy, when he ignored such arguments last year and has been looking to push an agenda exactly of deals, zigzags, lack of leadership, and burying peoples houses in front of their own eyes.

This shabbos morning something unusual happened. The gabbai asked me tolead the shacharis services.

It is unusual because generally I respond in the negative to such requests, so they do not even bother asking anymore.

Why do I say no? Because I have a bad voice. I can sing along decently, but singing on my own or leading a song is another story.

I might add that I happily lead services that require almost no singing and are simply a matter of efficiency, such as weekday services, Pesukei D'Zimra on shabbos, Mincha on Shabbos, and the like. I am not shy in this regard, simply do not feel it appropriate that someone with my voice should lead the Shacharis services.

I have said no in the past enough times that the gabbai rarely asks me. When he does, he must be pretty hard up for a candidate, or it must be a slow week with a small crowd (like this week becaus eof the rain).

My shul has a number of people with beautiful voices and a number of people who can carry a tune very nicely, so they usually have enough people in the pool to choose from for leading services. But sometimes they pick people with voices like mine and usually they daven for the amud and we all have to sit there "enjoying" their voices. The one good thing about these situations is that generally the davening will move along faster.

This week it was my turn. He asked me. I hesitated a moment and said "Yes." I figure if I have to suffer through other people's voices, they can suffer through mine every now and then.

I must say that after I said yes, I immediately regretted it. As the gabbai walked away, i thought to myself, "What am I goign to do now? What tunes will I sing?". I will be honest and admit I do not think I said very much of pesukei d'zimra, as I spent most of the time trying to figure out what tunes I would use.

I picked the most basic tunes (those were the only ones I could think of) - you know, the ones you learn at your bar-mitzva and never forget. The ones you never hear nowadays, because they are so old nobody sings them, except the guys like me who only daven once in a blue moon. Yeah those. I spent the whole (practically) pesukei d'zimra going over them in my head and then I went up to the amud.

It came out ok. The songs I sang were fine (when everyone else joins in they cover my voice up), the problem was more with the solos, like the beginning of the repetition of Shmone Esrai (mixing up different tunes), and voice hitting wrong notes, etc..

Overall, not too bad I think (I don't know what other people thought). My kids did not get to hear it though because they only showed up during the Torah reading.

I fired up the grill today to make bbq chicken for Shabbos. Looks and smells great and I can't wait for shabbos to get here so we can eat!!



Here we go...



Before:



During:



After:


Have a great Shabbos everybody!

I love answering polls on the telephone. All sorts of polls. Come dinnertime and the phone will ring and it is someone saying "Can I just ask you a few questions? It will take just two minutes." For some reason I cannot resist. Usually the poll is about something mundane like what cereal I prefer or what kind of charities I donate to with boring questionairres. I feel as though I am having some sort of influence on the marketplace; of products and of ideas.

NOTE: I do not get these pollsters often. Just a few times a year.

Tonight I answered the phone and it is a polster. She wants to ask me a few questions. No problem, go ahead.

This was a pretty serious poll. It was about the state of security of the world. She asked me about the Iraq war increasing or decreasing the level of security. She asked me about workd keaders being dangerous or not. All sorts of questions that you could discuss with someone for hours and not come to a conclusion on any of them, yet I had to answer about 10 of these questions in one word sentences with 3 seconds to think about it. As a matter of fact, I now realize that your true opinions might be easier to get to when you have to be brief quickly. More so than when you have plenty of time to pontificate and play devils advocate...

Anyway, thinking back afterwards about the questions and my answers, I find it ironic that George Bush is lumped into categories with people like Ahmadinejad, Bin Laden and Kim (the North Korean guy).

And by the way, based on the way the questions were worded and the choices I had for answers, George Bush turns out to be just as dangerous to world security as the North Korean guy.

One more thing - they always want to know about you at the end of the questions. They need to know the demographics I guess. they ask how old I am and am I male or female, where I live, etc.. On equestion always irks me. They always ask, "What kind of Jew are you? Hiloni? Traditional? Haredi? Dati Leumi?"

I always answer, "Just a simple Jew".

They usually get confused and refuse to accept that. They insist on putting me into a category. I always insist and say, "Just a Jew".

A bit racist but here goes...

For those of you who do not understand the hebrew it is a play on words. It says, "Hebrew is a nice language.

What do you call a place you eat in? Misada (restaurant)

what do you call the act of eating in the Misada? Soad

What do you call the meal in a restaurant? Seudah

What do you call the owner of the Misada? Misadan

What do you call the guy who washes the dishes in the Misada? Said (an Arab name)"

I do not really know if this qualifies, because I do not know what would happen if you tried to do this in the USA, Europe or other places around the world outside Israel, but I will mention it anyway.

Today someone went to a silversmith. The request was a custom made candelabrum. They make 6 branch candelabrum's and they make 8 branch. This person wanted a 7 branch candelabrum. It would have to be custom made. This person asked how much it would cost to order a 7 branch candelabrum.

The answer was we will not make them.

Why not? Because there is a Rabbinic prohibition against making 7 branched candelabrums because that is what they used in the Bet Hamikdash. It does not matter that the branches on this style are uneven and in a circular design rather than even and straight. You cannot make a 7 branch candelabrum, end of story. Order a 6 branch or an 8 branch, no 7.

I wonder what would happen if you tried this at a silversmith in New York or England...

Absolutely amazing!! We are witnessing amazing things in Israel right now!

Avigdor "Yvette" Lieberman has given up on all his demands - yes every single one of the 5 issues he had demanded as preconditions - to join the coalition of a government that until 2 weeks ago he was calling for its resignation . Not only that but he only requested one ministerial position (for himself) (when he heads a large enough party that based on current guidelines deserved 3-4) and was willing to take an office that was made up just for him (Minister of Strategic Affairs) and is unclear what that includes and entails.

In addition to that, Amir Peretz who has had nothing reasonable until now to say about Lieberman and has vehemently opposed allowing him in to the coalition has agreed to support his entry. In return, Olmert promised him more money and offices. He will possibly get the Ministry of Social Affairs (still dependant on UTJ), along with a new Ministry of Arab Affairs and another head of a committee in Knesset.

Look what people will do for a taste of power. Amazing.

Look how easy it is for Olmert to throw around our money to get what he wants. If you thought the government was bloated with ministries until now, we just got a few more.. That is millions of shekels more every year out of the taxpayer pocket... Amazing.

In daf yomi we learned an interesting gemara last night. I would like to share it with you. On page 52a of Tractate Sukka the gemara is discussing the idea that in the future there will be a day on which the Evil Inclination will be eulogized after having been slaughtered by God. The gemara questions this asking why would we eulogize the loss of the Evil Inclination - we should rejoice when that happens?

The gemara answers with a tradition that in the future Hashem would slaughter the Yetzer Ha'Ra before the righteous and before the wicked people. The righteous people will see how the Yetzer Ha'Ra was so strong and powerful like a tall mountain they had to conquer and will therefore cry over how much they toiled, suffered and succeeded. The wicked people will see the Yetzer Ha'Ra as a simple small thread. They will cry because they will realize had they only tried a tiny bit harder they could have overcome their desires.

I am reading a book now called, "The 33 Strategies of War" by Robert Greene. In chapter 10 he discusses the strategy of creating an image and reputation for yourself. More important than what you actually have on your side is what your opponent thinks you have on your side. He brings examples from the American Civil War how a unit of 3600 men was able to standoff in battles against 90,000 men and change the direction of the war. All because the general Stonewall Jackson was able to create an image and perception of having many more men than he actually had.

The author brings a number of other examples showing the same idea. If you can create an image of yourself, you caan effect people's perception of you. Even if it is not true, you can make people think it might be.

That is the strategy employed by the Yetzer Ha'Ra. To the righteous people he creates an image of small bump in the road. He knows they will be willing to fight hard to overcome their inclination and therefore he makes it look easy hoping they will try to face the [easy] challenge and find it more difficult than expected.
When he deals with the wicked, he knows that they will not try hard to overcome the challenge, but will give in to their temptations quickly. To them he appears as a large mountain. When they see the challenge is great, they will not even try but will give in to their desires quickly.

The Yetzer Ha'Ra tricks us by creating an image of himself that he feels will cause us to fail. He tries to get us to believe that image and perceive him in a specific way.

The righteous will cry because they will see what they really overcame. They will see how difficult it really was. The wicked will cry because they thought it would be difficult but will see they really had a wrong impression and it would have been easy had they only tried with a bit fo effort.

Avigdor Lieberman is bringing his party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) into the coalition of the government. That is the news of the day. They signed the agreements last night and it now has to go up for a vote in the government. It is likely to pass the vote and we will see Labor sitting in the same government with Yisrael Beiteinu.

This is an amazing turn of events. A few months ago Labor refused to join the government coalition if Olmert would invite Lieberman's party. The two parties are diametrically opposed in their outlooks and beliefs and (they say) share no common ground. There is no way they could sit together.

Well, it looks like they will now find a way.

It is not final yet, as Labor is still deliberating its reponse. Will they pull out? Some ministers from Labor support pulling out and some support staying in. Olmert obviously believes Labor will stay in, as he is bringing Lieberman in despite Labor's wishes.

I too think Labor will decide to stay in, though I think it will be a big mistake if they do so. By staying in the government they will have lost their balance of power. Right now every party holds the balance of power because each party can threaten to topple the government (except the Pensioners Party - they are not big enough to wield that power). Once Lieberman joins, the government will have been expanded beyond the ability of any one party to hold that influence.

In general that sounds great from the perspective of the Prime Minister. However, from the perspective of Labor (and Shas) it is catastrophic. It means they will not have the power to insist on certain positions they want implemented. They will have lost all their power.

The voter base of these parties is already upset at them. Labor voters are upset with the way Amir Peretz has been running the party. They are upset with the way he ran the war. They are upset with the way they have abandoned social issues. If they now choose to sit with Lieberman, thereby abandoning their position in not sitting with [what they call] a far right party, their voters will not forgive them. Right now, if elections were to be held today, Labor would be taking a big hit, which is what the supporters of sitting with Lieberman are afraid of. If they sit with Lieberman, they will take an even bigger hit.

The Presidential elections. No, not the ones Avigdor Lieberman is trying to change the political system to. I am referring to the elections for the new President of Israel that will seemingly be taking place in the near future.

President Moshe Katsav is on the brink of suspending himself and possibly resigning his position. It looks like he will be served with an indictment in the near future and will have to resign. If he does not, he likely will be forcibly removed by a special session of the Knesset. Thsi will bring us to new presidential elections in the very near future.

I am in favor of changing the system. I would like to see presidential elections in which the public elects the prez, rather than the Knesset electing him. I would like to see politicians disqualified from the position (as long as the whole political system is not changed and stays in its current format with the prez being an apolitical position).

There have been calls recently, because elections are clearly coming, to change the format of the elections to an open ballot election. That means that when the voting takes place, everybosy has the ability to see who voted for whom.

When Moshe Katsav defeated Shimon Peres for the presidency in the last elections 7 years ago, they used a closed ballot system. Shimon Peres had assumed he would win because of promises people made to him to vote in his favor but was then surprised with defeat when the secret ballots were counted. People actually voted for the candidate they preferred rather the one they were pressured into supporting. Now the supporters of changing to open ballot are saying, "Look what the closed ballot system got us".

I am sorry, but the closed ballot system had nothing to do with whether or not Moshe Katsav raped his employees.

The closed ballot system allows people to vote according to who and what they really want to see sitting in the chair of the President, rather than according to all sorts of pressures exerted on him. Those pressures could be party affiliation, they could be personal (e.g. a candidate pulling favors), they could be emotional (e.g. someone feels bad saying no to Shimon Peres). In a closed ballto system, people could say what they want before the election and then vote for whomever they really prefer.

That si the way ti should be. Voting should not be influenced. The pre-election campaigning is enough opportunity to influence the voter. No need to actually watch the vote and then make people not vote for their preferred candidate.

Can "Prayer Barbie" be counted in a minyan?