Delta's alliance with Saudi Arabian Airways

Delta is entering into a partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines through its SkyTeam Alliance, beginning next year. Delta planes don’t actually fly there, but Delta customers will be riding on Saudi Arabian through an interline agreement.

A lot of people have made a big deal about this saying that Delta would comply with Saudi requirements regarding who can arrive in the country, which could lead to the exclusion of Jews.

IMHO this is really idiotic. The Saudi government only allows in non-Saudis who have a visa. To get a visa you need to apply with the Saudi government. The Saudi government will not issue a visa to anyone who has an Israeli visa stamp in their passport nor to anyone who they think is Jewish. No airline can fly you to Saudi Arabia without a visa, agreement with Saudi Arabian Airways or not. In fact, today, you can fly on Continental through Frankfurt to Saudi Arabia and on American Airlines through London to Saudi Arabia. The problem is with the Saudi Arabian government not with Delta.

The Wall Street Journal seems to agree with me Blame Saudi Arabia, not Delta, for Policy on Jews

Should we go to the best doctor?

Last week R' Elyashiv had heart surgery and the Charedi press had extensive coverage. Mishpacha (Hebrew) had a number of articles about the surgery including a profile of the surgeon. They flew in the top cardiac/blood vessel surgeon from Cleveland (a religious Catholic) to do the surgery.

The question I would like to ask is why was that necessary? The prevalent (only?) Charedi hashkafa today is that not even a leaf falls without it being a גזירה מו שמים and that השתדלות has no effect, it is just an illusion. השתדלות is just so that we avoid ניסים גלוים (see מכתב מאליהו, חזון איש אמונה ובטחון and others). If so, shouldn't bringing the top surgeon be too much השתדלות and a lack of בטחון? After all, Hashem is doing the healing not the surgeon and once we have done our השתדלות, going to the doctor and having the surgery, why should it matter whether the surgeon is the best in the world or simply Joe surgeon who is competent? As long as we do our השתדלות to avoid requiring a נס, the rest is a גזירה מן השמים. If the גזירה is that the surgery will be successful, then it will be successful even if done by the average surgeon, and if the גזירה is that it won't be successful then it won't help that you have the best surgeon.

In fact, what does it actually mean that someone is considered the best surgeon? After all, הכל בידי שמים, our success is actually an illusion to make it look like it is our skill. In fact, our success in worldly matters is simply a גזירה מן השמים so the fact that he successfully operated is not due to his skill but due to the גזירה מן השמים.

R' Sternbuch's response to the Segula Ring

The original ad in last week's Mishpacha listed R' Sternbuch as endorsing the ring. Mishpacha this week printed the following disclaimer from R' Sternbuch's son.

It is interesting that R' Sternbuch seems to accept the segula, he just says that he doesn't know if these rings meet the criteria for the segula.

Some of the segula type ads that I have seen in the past

Here are some of the ads that I have posted about in the past.

For the first time since Moshe Rabenu ...




Kupat Hair never stops



Historic event in Vilna taking place today



Here is the schedule for today's big event:



Important information for all Daf Yomi Learners




The tzedaka wars are escalating

Here is the latest Kupat Hair ad:

R' Chaim Kanievsky and tzedaka organizations




The Tzedaka campaigns are working overtime

These are all from 1 edition of Yated Neeman in October 2008.















Believe it or not this is just a drop in the bucket, there is literally a campaign a week.

This time it's "Segula Wine"

The following ad for segula wine was a full page on the back of last week's Hamodia.

I don't know what to say anymore, what's next?

Judaism or Avoda Zara? Updated with contact information

I could not believe an ad that I saw in this past week's Mishpacha magazine. It was for a "Silver Segulah Ring". Is this what we have come to? Believing that wearing a "magical" ring can get us a shidduch, money, health, etc.?

For anyone who actually wants to find out more and maybe buy one here is the contact information:

The Yated continues the war against Mishpacha

For the last few weeks Yated Neeman has been waging a war against the weekly Charedi magazines especially Mishpacha. Last week they published a pashkevil from R' Nissim Karelitz saying that it is prohibited to read Mishpacha. According to Mishpacha (who printed a handwritten letter from R' Karelitz last week), R' Karelitz was misled and has since retracted his ban. Today Yated Neeman printed the ban again with the notable exception that R' Nissim Karelitz is no longer on the ban. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as Mishpacha has a large readership in the Charedi world.

The NY Times has sunk to an all time low

They printed an op-ed today from Mahmoud Abbas which has brazen out and out historical lies. Opinion is one thing but I don't understand how they can print something which completely and utterly distorts history.
The Long Overdue Palestinian State
the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued.

Arab armies intervened ??? This is such drivel it is ridiculous but unfortunately the average NY Times reader will believe every word.

What  is even more egregious is that the NY Times own archives unmask the lies of Abu Mazen.

The New York Times, Nov. 30, 1947: While the Jewish leadership and population in Palestine accepted partition, all of the Arab members states of the UN - Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen- voted against it. Upon the resolution's adoption, the Arab delegates declared partition invalid

The main headline of the NY Times on May 15th 1948 was as follows: Zionists proclaim new state of Israel ... Tel Aviv is bombed, Egypt prepares for Invasion

I"m in kollel but my life is a sham

This was the headline of an article in the English Mishpacha magazine a few weeks ago (repeated last week in hebrew). The article details how the author met a yungerman who was learning in kollel for years who doesn't believe in God and he has no one to talk to about it. Anyone who brings up these types of emuna questions is immediately labeled an apikorus. Here is an unbelievable quote from the article:
A group of teachers came to consult with this talmid chacham who is also a prominent figure in chinuch. One of the issues they raised was what to do about students who voice doubts about emuna. 
"How do you answer them?" the gadol inquired. 
"We silence them, and tell them that such such questions are not to be asked."
"Why don't you just answer the questions?"
Are there any answers to those questions?

Can you believe it? The teachers themselves doubt that their are answers.

The fact is that for the Charedi world there may not be answers. The questions in emuna that are raised are not new and have been dealt with in the classical Jewish sources like the Moreh Nevuchim, Sefer Haikkarim, Ralbag, R' Crescas, etc. However, many of the answers given in those seforim do not fit the current Charedi hashkafa and would be considered apikorsus today. They could say it we cannot and therefore unfortunately the teachers may be right.

I am planning on writing a series of posts about  which will outline some of the major questions and the various answers found in the classical sources.

Have we become Amish?

Hamodia this past week printed a letter where the letter writer was very upset that an article a month ago seemed to promote computer use among students. He writes:

there are numerous Gedolei Yisrael who have clearly stated that it is wrong for children to use any form of technology

The Author responds that yes the letter writer is right, however out in the field we can't say this.

This is unbelievable. It is wrong for children to use technology? How do their kids get to school? By horse and buggy? Do they not use electricity? Where do you draw the line?

Below is the complete text of the letter and the response.

Advertising to Charedim

Ynet has a very interesting article on the subject Tapping into haredi ad market

This is a good follow on to my post from a few days ago.

One of the most interesting points is all of the restrictions.

The restrictions in the ultra-Orthodox advertising world are many and varied. Every newspaper has its own Rabbis committee and a head censor who works for them called 'the auditor'. His is in charge of making sure the content published in the newspaper is suitable for the readers' moral values. He approves or disqualifies commercials and makes sure they are photo-shopped, incase there is any hint of femininity.
Women are not allowed to be shown at all, not even little girls. "We take security precautions because man is born evil," explains Eitan Dovkin, director of Habetzefer's haredi satellite. Publishing women's first names is also not allowed. For example, the opposition leader Tzipi Livni is referred to as Mrs. Livni and pregnancy is referred to as "the time before giving birth" or "when you are expecting". 
...
"Using only the Yiddish language is not a good idea and neither is showing a skullcap in every situation. An ultra-Orthodox watching a doctor with a skullcap will think: 'Do they think I'm stupid? My doctor is secular", says Menachem Eichler, co-CEO Cultures McCann for the ultra-Orthodox sector.
 

Touch screen kosher phone???

This is why I can't take the whole kosher phone thing seriously. If all you are supposed to be doing with your phone is making calls, then a touch screen phone is completely unnecessary and is in fact a step backwards. What exactly do you need a touch screen for? In fact why do you need 3G if you don't have a data plan? In fact, for actually making phone calls a touch screen can be quite annoying. It is clear that this is being done to keep up with the Jones's and is a money making idea from Pelephone (they charge a lot more for the phone) and the Vaad Harabanim went along, why, I don't understand.

Fascinating insight into the Charedi view of various professions from children's books

We bought my 4 year old son a set of books (in Hebrew) written for the Charedi public in Israel. The books teach safety rules through stories about a little boy called Eli.

It was very interesting to see how the various professionals were portrayed. When Eli got hurt and had to go to the hospital, the paramedic and the doctor were both Charedi (big black Yarmulka and beard). When he had cavities and went to the dentist the dentist was likewise portrayed as Charedi. However, when he went to the zoo, both the zookeepers and the head of the zoo were portrayed as Chilonim as was a house painter and a firemen. Of course, they were all men.

It is fascinating that even though the current hashkafa is torah only certain professions are still portrayed as Charedi. You also get a clear picture of how the Charedi world looks upon the various professions. Even though no Israeli Charedi can become a doctor or dentist (as University is absolutely forbidden), they are still portrayed as Charedi as if to say, if you do work these are worthwhile professions. On the other hand, for professions such as zookeepers, firemen, painters the clear implication is that these are not professions that are worthwhile.

Kupat Hair - Marrying off your children puts you on the tzedaka rolls

According to Kupat Hair the profile of the recipient of Tzedaka has changed dramatically. In the past most of the people who needed tzedaka were people who had undergone some tragedy, someone died, got sick, divorce etc. the average Charedi was not rich but did not need support from Kupat Hair.

In the last few years this has changed dramatically. Most of the people who now get money from Kupat Hair are regular people who are poor because they married off their children. To marry off their children they had to buy them apartments and that put them under water. They borrowed money that they could not repay and now they need tzedaka (source Michpacha newspaper).

This just strengthens my feeling that the Charedi system is falling apart and cannot go on much longer.

Did the Avos keep all 613 mitzvos?

The You Tube video that everyone is watching has brought this question to the forefront.

R' Hoffman wrote a response The Avos and the Mitzvos, where he claimed that there are 3 opinions, minimalist, middle and maximalist, where he recommended teaching the maximalist position. He also claimed that the video mocked both the maximalist position as well as R' Elyashiv.

IMHO, the video mocked neither. The video mocked those who take the maximalist position to ridiculous extremes.

The fact is that even the maximalist position is not so maximalist.

The same Radvaz who R' Hoffman claims is a maximalist discusses a similar question in a teshuva. He discusses what does it mean that the Torah existed before creation. He quotes Chazal who describe the discussion between the Moshe Rabenu and the Malachim when Moshe went to get the Torah. The Malachim asked how can Hashem give the torah to man? Moshe answered it says in the Torah לא תנאף does that apply to Malachim? It says לא תחמד does that apply to Malachim? etc.

The Radvaz asks what was the Malachim's question and what was Moshe's answer? They didn't know that it says לא תחמד in the Torah? He answers that the Malachim understood Torah on a different plane. They saw Torah as a description of אלוקות, they didn't know about the mitzvos that relate to man. Moshe explained to them that the Torah has another level of meaning where it requires certain mitzvos that only apply to man. He explains that before matan torah the letters of the Torah existed but not in the same order/words that we have. In fact, the Ramban in his introduction to his commentary on Chumash makes the same point. The Gra also is quoted as saying this. The Gemara in Bava Basra has a discussion about who wrote the last 8 pesukim in the torah. One opinion is that Moshe wrote it בדמע. The regular pshat is tears. The Gra however is quoted as saying that דמע is from לשון דמאי, something that is mixed up. He says that Moshe wrote the letters but not the way we read them today. In short, they all say that before Matan Torah the Torah existed in a different state then what we received at Har Sinai.

It is clear that the same thing applies to those who hold from the maximalist position. The Avos were mekayem the mitzvos based on their understanding of how to serve hashem. How to serve Hashem was different then it is now. That is why Yaakov could build a מצבה, Yehuda could perform Yibum with his daughter in-law, Amram could marry his aunt, etc. They fulfilled those mitzvos that made sense to fulfill.

I would like to make another point. Just because Rashi quotes a midrash doesn't mean he holds from it. Rashi quotes midrashim to explain the text, if a midrash explains the text well Rashi will quote it. There are places where Rashi quotes Midrashim that contradict each other.

A few quick examples. In ויצא Rashi quotes Chazal that Dina was conceived as a boy and Leah davened and a נס happened and she turned into a girl. Yet Rashi quotes in Vayigash on the pasuk ואת דינה בתו that the man is responsible for conceiving a daughter. The Maharsha in Nida points out the contradiction and answers that the Gemara in Nidda had a different pshat in ויצא (see my post The interesting story of Dina and Yosef for a full explanation). Yet, Rashi quoted both. Similarly Rashi says that Avos kept all of the Mitzvos yet Rashi says in Vayigash that Shimon married Dina which is clearly prohibited. The Maharal there answers that he saw ברוח הקדש that it was permitted. We see that things are not as simple as they appear.

My point is that it is impossible to take a completely literalist/maximalist approach to the Gemara in Yoma 28b. There are too many examples of things that the Avos did contrary to halacha.

R' Hoffman claims that the majority opinion is the maximalist one. I am not sure where he got that from. In any case, I happened to see that the Meshech Chochma (33:18) seems to take a minimalist view. He explains the Gemara in Yoma 28b that Avraham kept Eruv Tavshilin as a מליצה (an expression) to mean that Avraham was involved in הכנסת אורחים. So we find a 20th century mainstream Acharon taking the minimalist view.

Here is the video that is causing the storm.

Fascinating letters in yesterday's Yated

The letters in the Hebrew Yated Neeman are always interesting. I would like to share 2 of them with you.

An Avrech writes about how he was swindled by a get rich scheme. Someone approached him and told him he could make 20,000 shekel a month basically doing nothing. All he had to do was make some initial investment. Well, he fell for it, he paid his initial investment (a large sum of money) and of course the 20,000 a month never materialized.

Now I understand that many people fall for scams and Madoff had some very savvy and rich investors. However, there is no question that the average Charedi Avrech is very vulnerable to these kinds of scams for a number of reasons:
1. They are poor and desperately need money so they are willing to take chances.
2. They are sheltered and have no idea how the economy really works. They don't understand that there is no way that you can make 20,000 shekel doing nothing.

The next letter complains about how Charedi women now need to work 8-9 hours a day to support their husbands in kollel. The letter goes on to say how the husbands are now taking care of the kids in the afternoon getting up at night etc. because the wives are working so many hours. He asks, why can't they only work for 4-5 hours a day instead and work in shifts? Instead of 1 women 8 hours have 2 for 2 4 hour shifts.

This letter also betrays the ignorance of the letter writer about the economy and the workplace. There are 2 reasons why his suggestion is silly:
1. If they only work 4 hours they won't make enough to support their husband learning
2. The jobs that he is talking about are in high tech, knowledge worker jobs like computer programming. It is no problem to have shifts for cashiers, cashier A works 4 hours from 8 - 12 and cashier B works the next 4 hours from 12 - 4. There is little or no loss of productivity. However, that is not the case for computer programmers. 1 person working 8 hours is much more productive then 2 people working 4 hours. In The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks illustrates a similar fallacy with the following example: If one woman can produce a baby in nine months, then nine women should be able to produce a baby in one month. The reason that this is false is that gestation is a sequential process, whose stages cannot run in parallel. If nine women get pregnant at the same time, in nine months they will produce nine different babies.

A similar principle applies here, many if not most times it is not practical to split up the work between 2 people and therefore you simply have the work proceeding at half the pace. In addition you now have twice as many people who need to synchronize/communicate which slows everyone down.

In short, it simply won't work.

The common denominator of these 2 letters is the fact that the writer has no clue how the economy/workplace really works. This is sad, because if these people ever do leave kollel and go into the workplace they are woefully unprepared for it.

Unfortunately, the latest kollel scandal doesn't surprise me

It is an explicit gemara. The gemara in Kiddushin 30b states:

ר' יהודה אומר כל שאינו מלמדו אומנות מלמדו ליסטות ליסטות ס"ד אלא כאילו מלמדו ליסטות

My translation:
R' Yehuda said whoever doesn't teach his son a trade is teaching him to be a robber. [The Gemara asks] teaching him to be a robber? [The Gemara answers] it is as if he is teaching him to be a robber.

The Gemara states explicitly that if you don't teach your children to make a living they will eventually steal because they have no way of supporting themselves. Due to everything that is going on (financial crisis etc.) the Charedi population and institutions are in dire straights and need money. With no other alternatives to make money some turn to robbery exactly as the Gemara predicted.

There is another factor as well. When your whole chinuch is predicated on dismissing everyone else and saying that everyone else is worthless, wrong, a sinner, etc. it is very easy to justify stealing from them. After all, if the government is רשעים etc. there is nothing wrong with stealing from them.

What bothers me most about the latest Kollel scandal

If you haven't heard, a number of kollels were raided yesterday on the suspicion that they were cheating the government.

Police: Haredim embezzled millions in ID fraud
Jerusalem Police on Sunday raided the offices of three ultra-Orthodox non-profit organizations, which operate yeshivas in the capital and nearby towns of Beit Shemesh and Beitar Illit. Officers believe that the organizations embezzled millions from the State.

The haredi institutions are suspected to have produced fake IDs in order to receive monthly stipends from the Education Ministry for alleged yeshiva students.

More than a 1,000 fake ID cards were discovered in the raid, along with computers and machines for printing and laminating the cards, and other equipment.
...
Police officials said they monitored the organizations in question for quite some time. "The organizations presented a false record of hundreds of students who attend each yeshiva, and received money for these students," one official explained.

What is most bothersome is that many of the Charedi sites (Take a look here for example) are focusing on who turned them in and how they are going to get back at those people. The fact that they stole money from the government isn't important or bad. The real sin is that someone turned them in.

The electricity is back on in the New Square Main Beis Medrash, for now

They gave Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. a check today for $46,450 toward the unpaid bill nearly 30 hours after the utility shut off power for lack of payment.

They still owe another $31,882, the amount paid today represented the minimum payment for restoration of power.

New Square main synagogue pays $46G to get power back

New Square Deputy Mayor Israel Spitzer said earlier today that he and other community members were negotiating a payment plan with the utility to get power restored.
...
Spitzer blamed the tough economic times cutting into the donations from supporters to pay for the utility costs.

It doesn't sound like this is over by a long shot. I can see a recurrence of this in a few months when they again don't pay.

New Square Main Bais Medrash Has Power Cut For Not Paying $78,000 Electric Bill

Financial Meltdown: New Square Main Bais Medrash Has Power Cut For Not Paying $78G Bill

Mispalilim coming to Skver’s main Bais Medrash have been Davening in the dark since Monday morning after Orange and Rockland Utilities cut off power when bills were not paid.

Congregation Zemach owes the utility $78,332 dating to late 2009 and payment negotiations have been ongoing for several months, a utility spokesman told LoHud.

The congregation must pay a minimum of $46,500 for power to be restored, O&R spokesman Michael Donovan said

When you combine this with the Girls School in Brooklyn being evicted for non-payment of rent and all of the other financial crises in the Charedi world, this may be the beginning of the end. I just don't see where the Charedi world is going to get the money to continue as is.