-- President Shimon Peres

Boy was I wrong. I went today because some relatives of mine were making aliyah and arriving on this flight. I went to greet them.

I am not going to describe the whole day, but the event was exciting, extremely emotional, encouraging, and invigorating. It gave over the sense of being part of something larger than life.

I saw a friend of mine, a fellow runner, among many friends I saw, who told me he was not there greeting relatives, but had come with his family simply to renew his

sense and feelings of Zionism (I forget the exact term he used, but that was the idea), and that is exactly what the event does. It is worth going once in a while just to help you remember and appreciate what we all have here in Israel, to remind us of why we came, when you see a planeload of new olim coming, returning home.

Here are some pictures from the event, with some commentary..

The one thing Nefesh bNefesh needs to add to the ceremony is validated parking tickets for all registered guests!

V'Shavu Banim L'Gvulam!

In the interview he explains why he resigned, and describes the faulty way decisions are made, how the leaders don't get involved and just send people out to protest and get pounded on by the police, how they refused to coordinate the visit of various admorim, including the Admor of Rachmastrivka, with the police for the sole purpose of not allowing the police to know who was coming so they would pound on these admorim as well which would generate sympathy for the haredim and hatred against the police, how the askanim decide things on their own and dont ask the gedolim, etc.

For now, enjoy these selected videos..

More or less, it works like this. The buddy assigned to you will get a report of the websites you (or whoever uses your account) surf to. This creates a sense of accountability - there is a mashgiach watching you, and you will not go to inappropriate sites. And if your kid does without your knowledge, your chaver will let you know that someone in your house is accessing site x, y and z.

Here is what I think about it.

The WebChaver, and other monitoring and filtering systems might be great solutions for keeping your Internet access safe for yourself and for kids. You very well might want to consider implementing this solution, in addition to other other solutions like a web filter, or even on its own, in your house.

That being said, I think a school or yeshiva should be allowed to set rules for what type of internet access the potential student will or will not have. For example, the school can say kids cannot have access to the internet unsupervised. When the kids use internet they need webchaver plus double filters. Or whatever set of rules they want.

I understand the need for it, but then why not hire someone to sit in your house and keep an eye on you 24 hours a day because who knows what you might be doing in your house eating bassar b'chalav, shichvas zera lvatala, listening to inappropriate music, reading inappropriate magazines and newspapers, etc.

People are adults and should be treated as such. I have no problem with them being told "we dont accept kids if the kid has internet access that is not monitored" or something to that effect, and the parents should be trusted, just like they are trusted in every other aspect of yiddishkeit, to say they dont give their kids access, or they supervise or they filter or whatever. The parents should be trusted and there should not be the ability to force parents to install a mashgiach in the house. We should trust the parents who give their word.

And it is not a matter of someone having something to hide. It is simply nobody else's business what I or you do, what websites I access, and what else I do. I dont need them knowing if I read CNN and Haaretz or if I regularly visit the "Jews who Love Obama" website or if all I do is
my banking at Bank Hapoalim, or if I access a bank account in Aruba. It is nobody's business.

All this is besides for the security risk such software might pose for people who access their office networks from home.

An ironic situation would be this. WebChaver serves as a proxy, with the server sitting in the US. People have complained, in Israel, that they cannot watch video clips on HULU or other video hosting sites, because of copyright issues and broadcasting to Israel legal issues. Signing up for WebChaver would probably solve that problem and give you full access to ll the videos on HULU. I have not tried or tested this, but if I understand at all how WebChaver works, it seems to me like this will be a solution to the HULU problem, as long as you don't mind that your chaver knows you use HULU.

Someone who wants to sign up for it, no problem. Someone who doesnt want to, I totally understand. I have no problem with the school recommending it, but to demand it is wrong, I think.

Again, it is nobody's business, and if they can force this, I dont see why they cant force you to go hire a mashgiach to drop in to your house, even as a yotzei vnichnas, and give him access to everything you do. Check your books and newspaper subscriptions. Check which hechshers you
keep stored in the pantry. If you use white tablecloths for shabbos or colored.

Maybe you should give out your bank account and credit card info to someone so they can review your financial dealings regularly to see if you buy anything that might not be appropriate, or to see if all your business dealings are honest.

People in general are trusted, and they are responsible for their own lives. They should be for this as well, despite the risks of the Internet. Stop treating the adults of the community like they are children that you have to supervise. Give guidelines, no problem. Tell what to do? No.

2. Tests and Consequences

3. Egged

4. The Color of the Sea

5. Yeshiva makes parents install Web monitoring Software, and an update

6. Reb Meier Baal HaNes for shidduchim

Interesting that he compares himself to Moshe Rabbeinu, and the laptop to the luchos rather than to the eigel. I guess he felt he was smashing a Tablet, just like Moshe smashed two Tablets...

They sent him a letter stating their request/demand, and say they have been working on this a long time, and have discussed this in the past with Rav Rabinovitch, and have yet to see any change implemented. They even say that they have discussed it with anti-religious groups who have given their agreement to doing this.

What does "walkways leading to the Kotel" include? the last few meters before the kotel? the streets all the way back to Jaffa Gate? would the mechitza be set up through the Arab Shuk walkways or only through the Jewish Quarter walkways?

Would the new elevator/cablecar from the Jewish Quarter to the kotel also be affected by this? Would it be for men only? women only? 2 separate elevators?

A new "Mechina Kedam Tzva'i" is opening up. This one is unique in that it is specifically for the Haredi community.

I think this is a great idea. 17 and 18 year old boys who know they are not going to make it in yeshiva can spend a year preparing for the army, in a frum environment, with yeshiva studies in tandem with physical and mental prep for the army.

They don't mention who, but they say they are supported by many rabbonim.

The only problem I see with it is the last line in the ad gives an indication as to who is running it. I suspect that because of that, many who would otherwise embrace it, might not. It might become a mechina specifically for Chabad boys. That, too, would be good, but not the same as one for the general haredi community.

I see this as a positive development that will help integrate haredi boys to the army, and then to society, while keeping them in the frum environment they require to make that transition.

Rav AY was asked who is an acceptable singer, and his response was that there is a singer in mea Shearim, associated with Shomrei Emunim, who is a great singer. His music, Rav Yitzchak said, is holy and pure and modest, and there is nothing to worry about when listening to his music.

the funny part is this - at one of these events, in Beit She'an, a young woman of 18 years old asked him what is wrong with the disks of [Mizrachi singer] Chaim Yisrael, and this is the only music she likes and listens to.

Rav Amnon Yitzchak responded that if she doesn't smash his disk, she is going to burn in Hell (did I mention that his style is very much fire and brimstone?). He then offered her 100 NIS to break the disk.

First of all, is her salvation from hell only worth 100 shekels to him?

Second of all, if I were in that situation, I think what I would have done is I would have taken the money, smashed the disk, gone out and bought a new one for 60 NIS (or whatever it costs precisely), and pocketed the difference.

By the way, supposedly after arguing for a few minutes, she decided to agree and break the disk.

Another interesting point he made was he played the video clip of Lipa singing alongside an African American fellow who sang the Jewish songs beautifully. He then added that if you take away the words, and only listen to the music, do you hear hassidic music or foreign music?

This is all assuming their is something intrinsically Jewish about one style of music over another. Generally, all our Jewish music has always been influenced by general music throughout the generations. I don't know what would be considered inherently Jewish music.

Rav Yitzchak said, at another such conference, that the real problem with all this is that the music stars have become the "rabbonim" of the youth. This is what has to be stopped.

He probably means that the kids, and even adults, idolize some of these stars, rather than just enjoying their music. I don't think anyone considers them to be their Rabbi.

In my opinion, it is probably better to idolize guys like Avraham Fried, Mordechai Ben David, and Yaakov Shwekey than to idolize guys like Randy Macho Man Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and others of their ilk that we idolized as kids.

At the end of the day most people don't "idolize" these guys or treat them like Gods or Rabbis. They just simply like the entertainment value these performers provide.

An email with the following subject line was posted to one of our local email lists..

What exactly is a "good looking donkey"? perhaps it should register with jdate (or maybe d[onkey]date) or something...