Haredi drug smuggling exposed - Updated

חשד: רשת של חרדים עסקה בהברחת סמים

תחילת הפרשה לפני כמה ימים, כאשר שוטרי משטרת יפן עצרו בנמל התעופה בטוקיו שלושה חרדים, שניים תושבי בני ברק ואחד תושב שכונת מאה שערים בירושלים, כשבכליהם 90 אלף כדורי אקסטזי.
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בשל חזותם כאנשי דת, סברו השלושה כי הם לא יעוררו חשד בקרב אנשי המשטרה ויצליחו להבריח את הכמות העצומה של הסמים - אלא שמידע מודיעיני שהגיע ליפנים סיכל את ההברחה.
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רבים מחבריהם של החשודים, תלמידי ישיבות מירושלים, הגיעו לדיון כדי לחזק את חבריהם העצורים. במשטרה מעריכים כי מדובר ברשת פעילה, ובשעה זו נבדק אם הם היו מעורבים בהברחות נוספות של סמים ברחבי העולם.

I wonder how the Haredi press is going to report this? Are we going to now have appeals for "pidyon shvuyim" of these 3 from Japan?

Update

The story from Maariv is very misleading. The 3 arrested in Tokyo were arrested a year ago and are the 3 that we know about it and are in the middle of their trial.

What happened yesterday is that the police arrested 2 more people in Israel who they claim are the ringleaders.

Here is another news report:
חשד: רשת מבריחי אקסטזי חרדית

לאחר שבשנה שעברה נעצרו שלושה חרדים ביפן לאחר שנתפסו עליהם 90 אלף כדורי אקסטזי, אמש נעצרו שני בחורי ישיבה נוספים, הפעם בישראל. אחד העצורים חשוד בעמידה בראש רשת חרדית שאירגנה הברחת סמים במסווה של העברת העתיקות
...
אולם בית המשפט התמלא באברכים רבים שישבו על ספסלי העץ וקראו פרקי תהילים למען חבריהם שישבו, לראשונה, מאחורי זכוכית המעצר.

A year after 3haredim were arrested in Japan after they were caught with 90,000 Ecstasy pills, yesterday 2 more yeshiva students were arrested, this time in Israel. One of the suspects is accused of being the head of a Haredi network taht arranged drug smuggling under the guise of moving antiques.
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The courtroom was full of Avreichim who sat on the wooden benches saying tehillim for their friends who for the first time were behind bars.

What is עין הרע?

I have been going over the 7th Perek of Bava Metzia and the topic of עין הרע comes up. I believe that this is a very misunderstood concept and would therefore like to share some of the more common interpretations.

1. The Maharal writes that it is a power given to people that with their eyes they can actually cause damage. The Chazon Ish also goes with this approach. He writes that is מסודות הבריאה that people can cause damage by looking at things. However, he makes a very important point. He says that עין הרע only affects someone who was supposed to be damaged. There already was a דין in שמים for them to be damaged, the only question is how. One of those ways is עין הרע. He does point out that עין הרע can put a person in danger and when a person is in danger sometimes his דין is reevaluated. This is why עין הרע is something that people try to stay away from even though it has no independent power to harm them. The Gemara in ב"מ פ"ד quotes R' Yochanan as saying that עין הרע does not affect the descendants of יוסף. According to the Chazon Ish and the Maharal it is some kind of real protection from the actual damage that the eyes do. The descendants of Yosef would seem to be based on lineage, they have special protection based on the Beracha given to Yosef.

2. R' Dessler explains that עין הרע works as follows. When a person (Reuven) flaunts what he has, he causes pain to others by making them feel that they lack something. This pain is what causes Reuven to be punished. He is punished for causing others to envy him and feel bad. He then explains why עין הרע does not affect the descendants of יוסף. Someone who lives only for others and always gives and never takes does not arouse envy and therefore is protected from עין הרע. This is what Yosef represents. The Gemara has a different derasha which learns it out from fish. Fish are hidden from the eye under water and don't compete with people on land. Therefore they don't cause envy. According to R' Dessler when the Gemara says that עין הרע doesn't affect the descendants of Yosef, it is not referring to his actual descendants but rather to those who follow his path.

Tosafos (ב"מ ק"ז) clearly argues on this as the Gemara states in the name of Rav that most people buried in the cemetery died because of עין הרע. Tosafos asks how could that be, what happened to the בני יוסף who are protected from עין הרע? It is clear from Tosafos's question that they are referring to the literal descendants of Yosef.

These are 2 very different views of עין הרע. The Chazon Ish and the Maharal take a supernatural view and attribute power to the eye to actually cause damage. Similaryly the protection is supernatural and is based solely on lineage. R' Dessler on the other hand takes a rational, ethical view nothing to do with the supernatural. עיו הרע is all about a person and his desires. The protection is based on a person's own actions, any person can be protected from עין הרע if they act like Yosef.

Only in Israel could Amir Peretz run again

MK Amir Peretz: I will run for Labor Party chairman

MK Amir Peretz announced Saturday he will be running for the position of Labor Party chairman in an interview on TV Channel Two.

In his first public response to the results of Israel's general elections earlier this week, Peretz stated Defense Minister Ehud Barak needs to resign from his position as Labor Chair, following the poor results the once leading left-wing party reached ? just 13 Knesset seats.

Amir Peretz was only an absolute disaster last time he was head of the Labor Party, why not bring him back?

It's not over yet

All of the votes have not been counted. The votes of soldiers diplomats, etc., 4-5 seats, are going to be counted by tomorrow (Thursday afternoon), the overwhelming majority of them soldiers. In the past the soldiers have tended to vote for the right and therefore it is very possible that the Likud will pick up 1 - 2 seats and Kadima may lose 1. If that happens then Livni's whole argument goes up in smoke.

How did my election predictions work out?

Before the elections I made predictions and except for Kadima I was spot on.

Party	Prediction	Result	Comments
Likud	29-31	27	Pretty close. Lieberman clearly pulled some votes from the Likud
Kadima	Low 20's	28	My mistake was not realizing that the Left would abandon everyone else and vote only Kadima
Labor	14	13	Pretty close
Yisrael Beitenu/Lieberman	15	15	Right on
Yahadut Hatorah (Degel and Aguda)	4-5	5	Right on

Post election analysis

While Livni won a personal victory the Left was absolutely trounced. The non-Arab left only won 44 seats while the right wing won 65 (60 if you subtract Yahadut Hatorah).

The problem is that the current system of government is completely broken and it will be very hard for anyone to make a stable government.

I don't see any way for Livni to make a government. Let's do the math. Kadima has a grand total of 28. Labor has stated, and this time I think it is true that they are not joining any coalition. However, just for fun let's add them in as well.

28 (Kadima)
13 (Labor)
-----------
41

Livni needs another 20 seats. Lieberman is looking for 3 things:
1. Security issues
2. Civil Marriages
3. Changing the system of government to a Presidential system

In theory Livni can offer 2 and 3 to Lieberman. However, that only gives her 56. She still needs 5 more seats. The only 2 choices are Shas or Yahadut Hatorah. The problem is that if they are in she loses both Civil Marriage and changing the system of government. Neither Shas nor Yahadut Hatorah will agree to either.

Netanyahu will not have an easy time making a government either. Shas and Yahadut Hatorah will have high budgetary demands and he will need to satisfy Lieberman. However it is doable.

The truth is, for the Charedi world this is by far the best option. They will get money and be able to keep the status quo.

The other alternative is Kadima, Likud and either Labor or Lieberman or both. There is no question that Netanyahu would love to make such a coalition. The big problem with that is who will be Prime Minister? Netanyahu clearly has the upper hand as he can form a right wing government. Therefore the only way I see this happening is if Livni agrees to be number 2. For her own political good she should force Netanyahu to make a right wing government and let him fail. She will then be in a good position to win. However, for the good of the country she should join a government with Netanyahu for the sole purpose of changing the system. The current system is completely unworkable and leads to disaster.

Livni is the Al Gore of Israel

In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote in the US but lost the Presidency, Livni got more seats but most probably lost the election as well. The fact that Kadima has 1 more seat then the Likud is irrelevant, the Right wing has 65 seats while the Left has 55, 45 without the Arabs.

The Kadima spinmeisters are trying to spin this that soince Kadima has more seats Kadima should form the government. However, this shouldn't fly as she cannot make a government.

My election predictions

The polls in Israel have been seriously wrong in the past few elections and I believe that they are wrong again this year. Therefore I am going to make my own election predictions based on what I see around me and hear on the radio etc.

Likud - 29-31 - I think that the support for Livni is overstated in the polls (remember the Kadima primary and the polls) and the support for the Likud understated
Kadima - low 20's - see above
Yisrael Beitenu/Lieberman - 15 - the polls have definitely inflated his numbers
Labor - 14 - every rocket that falls in the South takes away seats
Shas - 11 - They have lost a lot of votes to the other right wing parties
Yahadut Hatorah (Degel and Aguda) - 4-5 - base this on the fact that all everyone is talking about is the disappointment and anger in the Charedi street. I see a lot of posters similar to the one I posted about here

It will be interesting to see who is closer to the actual results, me or the professional pollsters.

Anti ג flyer

This is amazing. It is going to be very interesting to see how many seats ג gets.

Kiryas Yoel is the poorest place in the US - Updated

It has the highest poverty rate in the US and the second lowest median income. The median household income in Kiryas Joel is $15,848; in Carbondale, Ill., it's $15,799.

Poverty rate

Kiryas Joel: 68 percent
Athens City, Ohio: 52 percent
State College, Pa.: 50 percent
Newburgh: 28 percent

More than two-thirds of Kiryas Joel residents live below the federal poverty line and more than 40 percent receive food stamps, according to the American Community Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau study of every place in the country with 20,000 residents or more.

That makes the village poorer than crumbling big cities like Detroit and noted slums like East St. Louis, and by far the poorest place in the mid-Hudson.

The big question is how much longer can this last? How much longer can the combination of very large families and no secular education manage in tough economic times?

Source: KJ highest US poverty rate, census says

Here are some other very interesting numbers:

The 2000 census reports that only 6.2% of village residents spoke English at home, one of the lowest such percentages in the United States. Over 89% of residents spoke Yiddish at home, while 2.3% spoke Hebrew. Of the Yiddish-speaking population in 2000, 46% spoke English "not well" or "not at all." Overall, including those who primarily spoke Hebrew and European languages as well as primary Yiddish speakers, 46% of Kiryas Joel residents speak English "not well" or "not at all."

Almost 50% of the population doesn't speak English well.

The Israeli press aginst Livni?

Hard to believe but a number of papers published very scathing attacks on Livni. Haaretz published an article by Ari Shavit where he goes so far as to say that Tzipi Livni is not fit to be prime minister.

All these issues, however, are dwarfed by the question of all questions that Livni evokes: Who is she and what is her inner core? A few of the people I spoke to this week had a disturbing response to this question: Tzipi Livni is hollow. They argued that Livni lacks the cultural baggage, historic vision, emotional tools and personal abilities of a leader. She has never shown civil courage, has no achievements to her name and has never gone against the tide. She recites a series of correct statements about dividing the country but does not know how to translate them into policy. That is why her negotiations with Ahmed Qureia failed and why her faith in Annapolis was proved false.
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One of the people I spoke to was especially agitated despite being a mature, restrained and conservative person. He told me he felt like a member of some cult with a terrible secret: Tzipi Livni is not fit to be prime minister. There is a black flag waving above her journey to the Prime Minister's Office.

The witness said it was inconceivable to him that the media are not revealing this secret; intolerable that the public does not know.

Walla also published an article against Livni.

יתרה מכך: בקמפיין הבחירות הקצרצר מנסה מנהיגת המפלגה להבליט את חלקה במבצע עופרת יצוקה. צריך מידה לא מבוטלת של עזות מצח כדי להתגאות בפעולה שנולדה אך ורק בשל מחדליה של אותה מפלגה ממש. כי קדימה, יש לזכור, הוקמה על טיקט אחד: ההתנתקות. היציאה מעזה הביאה למרד נגד אריאל שרון בליכוד, לפרישתו מהפלגה ולייסוד גוף פוליטי חדש. ההתנתקות הובילה לעליית החמאס, ומלחמת לבנון מוטטה באופן סופי את אידיאולוגיית ההתכנסות שבה נופף אולמרט.
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ה התחיל בהפיכתו של אריאל שרון הקיצוני לסבא החביב והאחראי של כולנו והמשיך בהצגתה של לבני כמנהיגה נקיה, שמנותקת לחלוטין ממפלגתה האפורה, תוך תמרון וירטואוזי בין עמדת האופוזיציונרית בכל מקרה של כשלון (השחיתויות, התגובה הרפה למשבר הכלכלי ומלחמת לבנון) לבין הידחפות לכסא ההנהגה כל אימת שנרשם הישג, לכאורה (המבצע בעזה).

In truth, I simply cannot understand how any thinking person can vote for Livni and Kadima. The fact that she has 20-25 seats in the polls is simply mind boggling.

A guide to getting in to a Charedi Girls High School

יוכבד מתקבלת

This article explains the process for getting into a Charedi girls high school. Quite sad. The author exaggerates a bit to make her points but on the whole the article is pretty much true.

I hate to say it, but I told you so

This is what I wrote when Israel declared a cease fire:

Here is what I think is going to happen. Hamas will cease fire long enough for Israel to withdraw from Gaza. As soon as Israel withdraws from Gaza and frees the reserves they will go right back to what they were doing before the war started. They will test Israel's resolve by firing 1 or 2 rockets.
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Hamas will fire just enough to keep the people down South edgy but not enough to justify another full scale attack.

Hams just fired 4 rockets this morning, so far no response (all talk no action). The smuggling has started up again as has the firing on Israeli border patrols. In short, we are back to where we were before Operation Cast Lead.

Hopefully this is costing Kadima and Labor votes. It is beyond me how anyone (let alone enough support for 25 seats) could vote for Kadima.

Must we believe that there is השגחה פרטית on animals?

R' Nasan Enshin is a kannoi (he doesn't vote in the elections etc.) who writes a weekly column in the Mishpacha magazine in Hebrew. This week he made the following point. He said that in the past Rishonim held points of view that today are considered heretical. He gave the example that a few (his language) Rishonim held that there is no השגחה פרטית on animals. He then compares anyone who believes that today to someone who would eat chicken with milk. He says that someone who believes today that there is no השגחה פרטית on animals believes in דעות כוזבות (illegitimate, false views).

IMHO the comparison he makes is completely invalid and it is perfectly legitimate to believe that there is no השגחה פרטית on animals.

He states that a few Rishonim held this view. Actually, I believe that the majority of Rishonim held this view including some of the greatest, the Rambam and the Ramban. I don't know of any Rishonim who explicitly argue with the Rambam and the Ramban.

The Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzvah 169 writes the following:

There are sects among mankind who maintain that Divine providence controls all the matters of this world… that when a leaf falls from a tree, He decreed that it would fall…. This approach is far-removed from the intellect.

In other words according to R' Enshin anyone who doesn't believe what the Chinuch called far-removed from the intellect is an apikorsus. Anyone who doesn't believe that everything that happens (even the most insignificant thing like a leaf falling from a tree) is decreed from heaven is an apikorsus.

This kind of statement boggles the mind. Most of the Rishonim including both the Rambam and the Ramban hold like the Chinuch. They state explicitly that except for exceptional tzadikkim everyone is exposed to (chance) מקרה. The amount of hashgocha a person has is directly related to how close they are to Hashem. The average person is very much exposed to chance (the forces of nature etc.).

The opinion that R' Enshin is quoting is based on the Ari, the Baal Shem Tov and others. However, the fact is that many Acharonim after the Ari and the Besht agreed with the Rishonim.

The Meshech Chochma( Shemos 13:9)writes:

Divine Providence is manifest for each Jew according to his spiritual level as the Rambam explains in Moreh Nevuchim (3:18): Divine Providence is not equal for everyone but rather is proportional to their spiritual level. Consequently the Divine Providence for the prophets is extremely powerful each according to their level of prophecy. The Divine Providence for the pious and saintly is according to their level of perfection. In contrast the fools and the rebels lacking spirituality are in essence in the same category as animals... This concept that Divine Providence is proportional to spiritual level is one of foundations of Judaism...

The Meshech Chochma died less then a hundred years ago, yet he still held like the Rambam and the Chinuch.

There is one more very important point. There can be no psak here. This is a hashkafic issue and not a halachic one and therefore it is not נתפס in psak. The Rambam writes in 3 places in the Perush Hamishnayos (Sanhedrin 10,3, Sotah 3,3, Shavuos 4,1) and in the Sefer Hamitzvos lo taaseh 133 that there is no psak on hashkafa which is not relevant to halacha. The last point is a crucial one, namely the Rambam is talking where there is no practical difference in halacha. Here is a quote from one of the Rambam's (Sotah 3,3 the language is almost the same in all of them)

וכבר אמרתי פעמים רבות כשיש מח' בין החכמים בסברת אמונה אין תכליתו מעשה מן המעשים שאין אומרים שם הלכה כפלוני

As I already wrote many times when there is a dispute between the chachamim on a matter of faith that has no relevance to action we don't say the hakacha is like ploni

Whether there is hashgoch pratis on animals is a perfect example of what the Rambam is talking about. There is no נפקא מינא להלכה and therefore there can be no psak. To compare it to chicken and milk is absolutely wrong. Chicken and milk is a מחלוקת התנאים on a halachic issue where there was a clear psak in the Gemara. השגחה פרטית is a hashkafic issue where there never was a psak and there never will be a psak.

Shas is trying to attract Ashkenazi Charedi votes

Many Ashkenazi Charedim are upset at the Ashkenazi Charedi leadership for what happened in the Jerusalem mayoral election. Porush's supporters cannot bring themselves to vote for UTJ where Litzman is no 1 on the list. Shas is trying to capitalize on this and get these disaffected Ashkenazim to vote for them.

I have a hard time believing that this will work, as there is a lot of bias in the Ashkenazi Charedi world against Sefardim and therefore it is hard for me to see many Ashkenzim voting for Shas.

Does it pay to work?

This letter was printed in Yated Neeman.

Dear Editor,

I was called to my son’s cheder to talk about tuition. I was directed to the administrator, who informed me that he would be raising my tuition since, in his words, “You are working in Manhattan and making a nice salary.” (I’m already paying more than most people, as they won’t give me breaks because I’m not learning.)

I tried to explain to him that I am indeed making $61,000 as a computer consultant, but after deducting my work-related expenses, I don’t come out with much more than others. He disagreed with me, and claimed that my salary is a lot higher than what many others earn. And so he decided that I should pay more.

We started discussing the matter and he told me that his salary is $25,000, and that the yeshiva works out his payments so that he is still eligible for government funding. I then explained to him that he makes a lot more than I do. I pay $6,000 in transportation costs a year to get to and from Manhattan, plus another approximately $5,300 for social security, federal and state taxes. (This was a low estimate. I think it’s going to be higher.) I pay another $8,500 for medical insurance. After deducting all these expenses, I am left with $41,200.

He receives approximately $14,500 in HUD, $5,800 in Earned Income Credit, ($4,800 federal + $1,000 state), plus $1,700 in WIC, and $2,100 in HEAP (for utilities). Additionally, his insurance is free (Jersey Care). This leaves him with over $49,000. (This amount is reached even without including other programs, such as free school lunch programs, etc.) This is a lot more than the $41,200 that I make. This calculation also doesn’t include food stamps, because he didn’t volunteer whether or not he receives them. If he does get food stamps, his total income would add up to $56,000. This particular individual is an administrator, but in the event that he was learning full-time and only receiving a kollel check ($4,160) and a night kollel check ($3,000), he would still be making more than $38,000, which is not much less than my $41,200. (This calculation does not include another few thousand dollars possibly earned from morning kollelim, shemiras hasedarim, etc.) To top this all o! ff, I end up paying much more in tuition because I don’t get any breaks.

Add to this the fact that the hours that my wife can work are limited, as she has to carpool the kids and be home with them after playgroup and school hours, since I’m not home until 7 at night. In contrast, this administrator told me that his wife works until later in the afternoon, because he is home between 2 and 4 and takes care of all the carpools and babysitting until his wife returns home from her job.

At the conclusion of this discussion, the administrator told me that he still feels I should pay a higher amount towards tuition since I work.

I am not writing this letter to complain about people being able to manage with the help of government programs. I just want people to understand that just because I work doesn’t mean that I am walking away with more money. In fact, I have the same problems paying tuition as any kollel yungerman may have.

A Yungerman Who Now Works

The situation is very similar in Israel.

Does this sound familiar?

U.N. Staff and Hospital Come Under Shelling as ... Fights Cornered Rebels

...the United Nations confirmed that staff members and their families had come under heavy shelling in what the government told them was a no-fire zone, and a government health official, also behind the front line, described artillery attacks on a hospital compound.
...
A shell landed near the compound on Saturday evening, and then another early Sunday morning, killing 9 civilians and wounding more than 20, according to a memo sent by United Nations officials in ... to their headquarters in New York.

“Our team on the ground was certain the shell came from the ... military, but apparently in response to an L.T.T.E. shell,” the memo read. “All around them was the carnage from casualties from people who may have thought they would be safer being near the U.N. Sadly they were wrong that night.”

A United Nations official, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity, said the team on the ground had suspected that the rebels were firing at government forces from close to where civilians were taking shelter. “Both sides are egregiously flouting humanitarian norms and principles, and as a result civilians are dying,” the official said.

Where is Ban Ki Moon? How come he is not immediately flying out to visit the scene? How come there are no calls for an immediate cease fire? Where is the emergency session of the Security Council? How come we don't hear the US State Dept. condemning the attacks? Where is the European Union? Why is the BBC's top story "Israeli jets target Gaza tunnels" and not this? The hypocrisy of the world is there for all to see.

The answer is very simple, this is all happening in Sri Lanka and not in Gaza.

So much for the US stopping arms smuggling to Gaza

Remember how Tzipi Livni made a big deal about how she reached an agreement with the US about helping to stop arms smuggling? There it goes, another one of Tzipi's "big accomplishments" down the drain.

U.S. forced to release Iran ship believed to be carrying arms for Gaza

The U.S. navy was forced to release an Iranian boat detained in the Red Sea on suspicion of carrying arms to Hamas-ruled Gaza. Weapons of various kinds were found aboard the ship, which was flying the Cypriot flag when it was stopped January 19.

The ship was released Tuesday when it became apparent that there was no legal basis for holding it.

At a press conference in Washington, Admiral Mike Mullen, who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said although American naval personnel boarded the ship and found the weapons, they had no legal authority to impound the arms. He suggested that more stringent resolutions by the UN Security Council would be required, stating clearly that Iran is violating standards against arms smuggling.

In other words the agreement with the US is not worth the paper it was printed on.

Evaluating the results of the Gaza war

If Israel's deterrent capability in the Gaza Strip has indeed been restored, why has a soldier died there such a short while after the IDF pulled out? Is this not further proof to the Likud's claim that the government needs to let the IDF "win" - in other words, to complete the job and crush Hamas?

It's starting already

A soldier was killed and 3 others wounded by a bomb next to the border fence with Gaza.

It is clear that Hamas is feeling out Israel's responses and is trying to figure out how far they can go. We will see how the current government responds or doesn't respond. If the response is weak Hamas will just step up the pressure.

I"m back

I was traveling on business last week so had little or no time to post. I hope to get back to a regular posting schedule.

The withdrawal has already started

The question is what happens in a week after the army is fully withdrawn and Hamas starts firing a few rockets again? Will Israel re-invade? I seriously doubt it.


Meanwhile many of the soldiers are expressing feelings we missed our opportunity.

Shin Bet Chief: Hamas will resume arms smuggling to Gaza within a few months

Shin Bet Chief: Hamas will resume arms smuggling to Gaza within a few months

So what exactly did we accomplish in the 3 weeks of war?

Ceasefire deja vu

Here is what I think is going to happen. Hamas will cease fire long enough for Israel to withdraw from Gaza. As soon as Israel withdraws from Gaza and frees the reserves they will go right back to what they were doing before the war started. They will test Israel's resolve by firing 1 or 2 rockets. How will Israel respond? Many will say that we can't go to war because of 2 rockets. Hamas will fire just enough to keep the people down South edgy but not enough to justify another full scale attack. They will also start smuggling weapons again. There is absolutely no reason to think that Egypt will do any better at stopping the smuggling now.

Last but not least, they will continue holding Gilad Shalit and use him as a bargaining chip.

In short, it looks like we are back to where we were 6 months ago.

Yitzchak Rabin on giving Gaza to the Palestinians - How wrong he was!

The big questions is would he have had the courage to admit that he made a mistake?



(Hat tip Life In Israel)

A look back at what the left said before the disengagement

It is amazing to watch this clip (English subtitles) and see what the left said about how the disengagement would bring peace and security to Israel. So far I haven't heard anyone of them come clean and say we made a mistake.



(Hat tip The Muqata)

Coming soon to El Al, Mehadrin flights

בקרוב באל על: "טיסת מהדרין" לחרדים

This means:
1. Separate seating (men in the front women in the back)
2. No stewardesses only male stewards
3. No movies

I am sure the wives are going to love this. They are now going to have take care of the kids for the whole 12 hour flight with little or no help from their husbands. After all, he can't go back to the women's section and she can't come to the men's section.

Tzippi, what happened to the UN?

Tzippi Livni was the chief architect of the Resolution 1701 which ended the Lebanon war. She listed that as one of her big achievements. It was great that the UN was involved. Yet, as time passed, it became patently clear that it was a disaster (see Security Council resolution 1701 has completely failed).

She still refuses to admit it however, it is interesting to see her stance this time towards the UN. Now, she is adamantly opposed to any UN resolution regarding the Gaza conflict. If she were a different type of politician as she claims she would admit her mistake.

In any case, she failed again as the UN passed a completely one sided cease fire resolution against Israel.

The government fiddles while Rome burns

Last night the UN Security Council approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease fire. This is going to make it very difficult for Israel to embark on phase 3 of the ground operation.

The government has been acting as if Israel has all the time in the world. Everyone knew that the time window for an operation would be limited and that relatively quickly the world would intervene and impose a cease fire. yet, the government has dithered and dathered about making decisions. For example, on Wednesday the cabinet met to discuss phase 3 and didn't come to any decision. Well now it may be too late. If the operation had already started then it might have been possible to continue.

Torah scholars don't need protection - does this apply now during a war?

The Gemara in Bava Basra 7b discusses the need for building walls around a settlement. Since walls are for communal protection, all residents have to share in the cost of erecting them. However, the Gemara rules that Torah scholars are exempt from this expense, since they are protected by virtue of the Torah they learn.

Does this apply in a time of war?

R' Zevin in a famous essay says no.

When actual lives are at stake, may we rely on miracles? In 1929 at Hebron... didn't young students of the yeshiva, whose holiness shone like stars in the sky, fall before the malicious enemy? Please, did these martyrs need protection or not?... If you understand that the scholars don't need protection in relatively peaceful times and are exempt from building the protective walls, what consequence has this when compared to a life-and-death struggle, a war which is a mitzvah and in which all are obligated? The defense authorities ordered everyone to cover all windows as protection against shattering glass in case of an air raid. Would anyone think that some rabbis will not do so, claiming, "Rabbis do not need protection?" ...Why did rabbis leave areas under enemy fire along with the rest of the general population? Why did they not rely on this maxim?

R' Aharon Lichtenstein makes a similar statement:

It may be stated... that such a claim (that since rabbis "don't need protection" they should be exempt from military service) raises a very serious moral issue. Can anyone whose life is not otherwise patterned after this degree of trust and bitahon argues for exemption on this ground? Is it possible to worry about one's economic future - in evident disregard of Rabbi Eliezer's statement that "whoever has bread in his basket and says 'What shall I eat tomorrow?' is but of little faith" - and yet not enter the army because one is presumably safe without it?

Yeshivas are moving north out of danger, what about the protection of Torah learning? - Updated

Many of the yeshivas in the South (Ashdod and other places) have temporarily moved to Yerushalayim or Bnei Brak.

On one hand the move is understandable, with rockets landing in Ashdod they wanted to move to a safer place. However, on the other hand, this raises some serious questions. The Charedi world justifies the draft exemption for yeshiva students based on the following:

1. Torah learning protects everyone
2. The boys are engaged in מלחמתה של תורה
3. Talmidie Chachamim don't need protection

Based on these it would seem that the Yeshivas should stay where they are. If the boys who are learning are engaged in war just like the soldiers why should they abandon their posts? In addition if Torah learning protects, let them stay where they are and be protected by their Torah. Their move undermines the claim for draft exemptions and looks very bad. The soldiers are entering Gaza to fight while the yeshiva bachurim are fleeing to safer havens.

Update 1/6

The Yeshivos that I am talking about are Charedi Yeshivos. I took the information from last week's Mishpacha magazine. Here are some of the Yeshivas that left Ashdod:
Grodna, Petersburg,Belz,Ger.

Here is how the Roshei Yeshiva explained the move:
תורה מגנא ומצלא, אבל ככה קשה לבחורים להתרכז
Torah protects and saves, however, the boys found it hard to concentrate

A day of Tefila

The 3 State Option

John Bolton in the Washington Post rightfully buries the idea of a Palestinian state. The solution that he advocates is I believe similar to what Benny Elon has been saying for years. Basically he is proposing that Egypt take control of Gaza and Jordan in some way shape or form the West Bank (details about the West Bank need to be worked out). This is a much more realistic solution then the current failed 2 state model.

The biggest problem is that the Arabs will never agree for a lot of reasons.

In any case this is a good thing because the more people dispute the current 2 state orthodoxy the better.

Winning the war and losing the peace

The government is looking to end the war with a political agreement based on a new monitoring system for the prevention of smuggling along the Egypt-Gaza border. The system would rely on an existing security committee comprising representatives from Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the United States.

Does anyone really believe that this will work? We see how well it worked in Lebanon with Unifil. Does anyone believe that Egypt has the political will to stop Hamas smuggling? The fact is that for the past 6 months they have done nothing to stop smuggling, why should things change?

When will the leadership here realize that Israel cannot rely on the UN or any other group for it's security?

3 years ago today Sharon went into a coma

How ironic that exactly 3 years later we are back in Gaza.

Anyone with half a brain can see that the disengagement was a bad idea and has been disastrous for Israel.

What is amazing is that Dov Weisglass who was his chief of staff has the gall to say today that the disengagement was the right thing to do. Anyone with any integrity would get up today and say we made a mistake.

The final nail in the disengagement coffin?

Now that we are back in Gaza where we were 3.5 years ago, is there anyone who can possibly think that the disengagement was a good idea? I really want to hear the press ask people like Tzippi Livni, Chaim Ramon, Shaul Mofaz, etc. (all the big disengagement supporters) what their view is today.

What is amazing to me is that Kadima, the party founded on the idea of disengagement, still has 27 seats in the poll. How blind are the people? Don't they realize that the current war is a direct result of Kadima's failed policies for the last 3 years?

Top Barak Aide: IDF not aiming to crush Hamas

Why not????? This is pathetic leadership. Barak (and Livni and Olmert) are just setting us up for the next round in the not so distant future. Crushing Hamas is exactly what needs to happen.

Top aide to Barak: IDF aiming to stop Gaza rocket fire, not crush Hamas

Deja Vu - Is this the Lebanon war redux?

Unfortunately I believe so. Again, the government has no clear cut goal and is clearly hesitant to commit ground forces. There is no political will to win the war.

Here are 2 articles that say it better then I can.

Analysis: Disturbing echoes of 2006

...And yet, as Day Five of Operation Cast Lead drew to a close, dismaying comparisons with 2006 were multiplying.

As happened then, there was a developing lack of clarity about the goal of the operation. Initially clearly defined as being aimed at restoring security to the South, it was being exaggerated by some Israeli officials as extending to the destruction of Hamas, and minimized by others as merely seeking a better version of the failed cease-fire.
...
The willingness to even begin to consider a time-out implicitly amounted to Israel starting a stopwatch toward a cease-fire - an approach that, at this stage, flies in the face of the relentless determination promised by the Israeli leadership at the outset.

As with 2006, the hesitancy has extended to the use of ground forces - or rather the non-use of ground forces

Like in Lebanon, in Gaza Israel blinked first

...The declared goal of Operation Cast Lead ("the creation of a new security reality") is minimalist and reveals Israel's unwillingness to fight for a long-term resolution that will create a comprehensive new reality, not only a new security reality.

What is worse, the way the battle is being waged after the impressive air strikes raises concerns that the operation's leaders do not intend to achieve even its modest aims, among other reasons because Israel once again blinked first. The blinking did not begin on Tuesday with Barak's announcement that Israel was considering a "humanitarian" 48-hour cease-fire. It began when the first air strikes were not immediately accompanied by a ground operation. Israel showed, as in Lebanon, that it does not want to reach a strategic resolution and does not have the will, determination or self-confidence to lead a military operation beyond reprisal and punitive action.

This is a major and painful operation, but despite its ambitious intentions it is not a military action that will end the eight-year nightmare of the people of the Negev.
...
If the concealed goal is not resolution but another cease-fire, then it is a pity to use ground forces because the enemy will revive once again and smuggle in rockets, which this time will be able to hit Dimona, and perhaps even Tel Aviv. And once again the air force will be sent in. And again, after every red line is crossed, there will be an amazing air strike. And what then? And until when?

The more days go by with the main component aerial bombardment, which, like in Lebanon, cannot stop the rockets, the public begins to feel (our leaders' arguments show this) that the operation is losing momentum.

The war was lost before it started

All the talk about a ceasefire yesterday just confirms this.

It pains me to say this but the war had no chance to succeed for a very simple reason. The government does not want to win. Again, the government has no clear objective for the war. They have stated explicitly that they have no intention of reconquering Gaza or deposing Hamas. A lot of damage will be done, a lot of Palestinians will be killed, but, whenever the war ends Hamas will still be in charge of Gaza and the day after, they will be back smuggling more rockets back into Gaza.

Shaul Mofaz - Another wasted year as Transport Minister

YNET has an article which details how public transportation went nowhere in 2008 and all of the promises (train line to Eilat, bus competition, etc.) have not been fulfilled.

Why is this very important? The answer is that the Transport Minister is none other then Shaul Mofaz who wants to be Prime Minister and is currently number 2 in Kadima. He has been Transport Minister for 3 years and he has absolutely nothing to show for it. In fact, just recently the FAA downgraded Ben Gurion Airport to category 2. This put us in the elite company of countries like Honduras, Indonesia, Ukraine, Haiti and Bulgaria. Given his track record of no accomplishment as Transport Minister why would anyone want him as Prime Minister?

This emphasizes again the problem with the Israeli system of government where the ministers are appointed for political/coalition reasons. You end up with ministers who have no interest and know nothing about their ministry.

The left is calling for a ceasefire

I am actually surprised it took so long, but today all of the leftist icons (Amos Oz, AB Yehoshua, David Grossman, Shulamit Aloni) called for a ceasefire.

A ceasefire now would be a colossal mistake. Hamas would declare victory and in a very short period of time would start firing rockets again. Nothing will have been gained except the feeling in Hamas that Israel is a paper tiger afraid of real war.

Here is David Grossman's idiotic suggestion:

We should in no way strike them so violently, even if Hamas, for years, has made life intolerably miserable for the people of southern Israel, and even if their leaders have refused every Israeli and Egyptian attempt to reach a compromise to prevent this lastest flare-up.

What these people don't understand is that peace cannot be one sided. You can't make peace with yourself.

I am positive that in 1941 all of these idiots would have been calling for a ceasefire with Hitler, after all war solves nothing and you make peace with enemies. Luckily, the world was saner then and the Allies pressed on for unconditional surrender. Israel needs to take a similar tack here.

Degel and Aguda are running together

Last weeks Charedi newspapers were very pessimistic and predicted that they would run separately. However, yesterday in marathon negotiations they came to agreement and are running together.

It will be interesting to see how things play out as Litzman is again number 1 one on the list and he is a very controversial figure in the non-Ger world. Porush is number 3 on the list another controversial figure who many blame for running for Mayor of Yerushalayim and losing. Many people may find it hard to vote for such a list and we may see some Haredim voting for other parties.

So far so good, but how will it end?

So far Israel has landed some big blows on Hamas. However, the question is what is next and how will it end? The second Lebanon war started out fine also but the governments indecision and failure to apply overwhelming force led to disaster. The big question is will history repeat itself?

Ehud Barak is Crazy Eddie - His prices are insane

80 rockets buys the Palestinians 40 trucks with "humanitarian aid".

This really is just insane. There is no other way to describe this. No sane leader would allow this situation to continue let alone aid and abet those who are firing the rockets.

Is Kadima in the opposition?

If you were out of touch for the past 3 years and just returning to Israel, after listening to Kasima leaders like Tzipi Livni, Chaim Ramon, Mofaz, etc. you would be sure that Kadima is in the opposition. They get on the radio every day and say the situation is unbearable, we need to take action, the ceasefire with Hamas was a mistake, etc. without ever acknowledging that they are responsible for the situation because of their past actions and they are in charge of the government that is doing nothing. The fact is that the situation is unbearable because of them. They were the ones who executed the disengagement, they were the ones who voted for the ceasefire, they are the ones running the government now.

What is amazing (or maybe not so amazing) is that no one and I mean no one in the press calls them on this. The Likud needs to keep hammering away with this. I heard Benny Begin on the radio this morning make exactly these points and the host tried to shut him up and move on.

הוציאוה ותשרף

All of the mefarshim are bothered by this, why was Tamar chayav שריפה? Rashi says that she was the daughter of שם and therefore a בת כהן (against the Gemara in סוטה), but in any case even so the din of שריפה should not apply.

The בעל הטורים quotes a fascinating pshat in the name of R' Yehuda Hachassid. He says that they were not going to kill her, rather they were going to burn a mark on her forehead to mark her as a prostitute.

Primaries in Israel, a big joke

Today is the Kadmia primary and last week was the Likud's. To call these democratic primaries is in IMHO a big joke. What is amazing to me is how the press here in Israel thinks this a wonderful democratic process when in truth it is anything but.

The way the system works is that every voter has to pick a list of candidates that they want to serve in the Knesset. For example in Kadima voters have to pick between 18 and 22 names. There are a number of glaring problems with the system:

1. There is no ranking. Everyone you pick is equal. Imagine you have a few candidates you think are really worthy so you vote for them. Now you have to vote for another bunch of candidates just so your ballot is valid. In other words, your vote for some Joe Shmo as your 18th pick who you know nothing about counts as much as your number 1 pick.
2. You end up voting for people that you never heard of and know nothing about. What ends up happening is that various groups make up lists of recommended candidates and that is who people vote for. For example, in the Likud, Feiglin put out a list of candidates to vote for. Most people had no clue who many of the names on the list were who they were voting for.
3. There are all kinds of crazy deals and revenge lists. The system lends itself to manipulation by organized groups.

It is clear that the only solution is a district based system where every MK is elected from a district and then you can have district based primaries.

יש תורה אין קמח

This was the headline of last week's Mishpacha in Hebrew. Some yeshivos have cut out meat meals, others are literally serving only bread and water, and yet other yeshivos have had their electricity cut off.

The kollelim are not doing any better and in fact have no money to pay the Avreichim.

In short, the Yeshiva world in Israel is on the verge of collapse with no salvation in sight.

In fact, Lakewood has been affected as well. Recently they closed the dining hall for the Avreichim and stopped serving lunch. They have also installed special monitors to save electricity because of the financial difficulties.

One idea suggested to deal with the crisis is that every Charedi household in America should contribute $180 per year to a special fund which will pay the Avreichim in Israel.

The reality is that these are all bandaids for a much larger problem. The kollel society that has been created since the end of WWII is simply unsustainable.

I am still voting Likud

Even after Netanyahu's machinations to push Feiglin down to number 36. Here are some of the reasons:

1. There is no alternative. The other right wing parties simply have little or no influence.
2. Number 36 is not unrealistic. If everyone who would have voted for the Likud with Feiglin at number 20 votes for the Likud with Feiglin at number 36, there is a good chance that he will get in. Once he is in the Knesset there is absolutely no difference what number he was on the list.
3. For all his flaws, Netanyahu is still the best candidate for PM. It would e a disaster of Kadima ended up with more seats then the Likud.

Livni: "We can't bring back everyone"

Tzipi Livni mad an unbelievable statement today regarding Gilad Shalit. She said "We can't bring back everyone".

This is a terrible statement that undermines everything the army stands for. What motivation is there to serve in a combat unit if the government won't do everything to bring you back if you are captured?

Gestures to the Palestinians abound, releasing prisoners, giving them 100 million shekel etc. all for free. What has the government done to bring Shalit back? Absolutely nothing.

Moshe Feiglin has caused hysteria in the media

Yesterday on the radio they kept playing the same clip over and over again, "Moshe Feiglin number 19". The press has gone wild about him just because he is number 19. The truth is number 19 has little or no influence. Who is number 19 in Kadima today? Labor? I don't know and I doubt very many people know. It is clear that the press is doing this because they want the Likud to lose the election. The press has jumped on this like crazy.

ויהי בבקר והנה היא לאה

Aside from the practical issues of how could Yaakov have not realized who he was sleeping with there is a halachic issue here. The Gemara in Nedarim (20b) has a list of פגומים (who the Gemara calls rebellious), one of them is בני תמורה, which the Rishonim explain to mean that he has 2 wives and thinks he is having relations with 1 and is actually having relations with the other. This would seem to be exactly the case of Yaakov and Leah, he thought that he was sleeping with Rachel not Leah and Chazal state that Reuven was born from Yaakov's first emission (ראשית אוני). it is very hard to believe that ראובן one of the שבטים, would be considered פגום.

The Raavad is bothered with this and answers that Yaakov was before Matan Torah and was not מקפיד on this (clearly very difficult). He offers another answer that Leah did not get pregnant that night. However, this contradicts the Chazal about Reuven being from Yaakov's first emission. See the Magen Avraham ( סי ר"מ סעיף ט) for another difficult answer.

At least in India ministers take responsibility

Top Indian Security Official Resigns as Toll Eclipses 180

India’s highest-ranking security official resigned on Sunday, as the government began to reckon with the fallout from a three-day standoff with militants that raised troubling questions about India’s vulnerability to terrorism.

The response may not have been great but at least those in charge have the courage to take responsibility and resign. In Israel we know what would have happened, just look at what happened after the Second Lebanon war. The politicians in Israel could learn something from the politicians in India.

קופת העיר is off on another trip

This time to the graves of the Chasam Sofer and the Maharsha. Just to remind everyone, in August they had a "historic trip" to Vilna.

R' Hirsch on the lessons we can learn from Yaakov and Esav

The following is from RSRH's essay "Lessons From
Jacob and Esau" that appears on pages 319 - 331
of his Collected Writing VII. This volume deals
with his thoughts on Jewish Education.

Down to our present day we have been able to
observe the disastrous consequences of a
one-sided approach to the unique task of being a
Jew. Many a son of a pious talmid chacham has
been totally lost to Judaism because his father
insisted on training him to become a talmid
chacham without considering whether his
personality and inclinations truly lay in that
direction. Thus he is exposed to Jewish life in
only one context: that of a quiet existence of
study and meditation for which he has neither
talent nor desire. What attracts him instead is
the busy, colorful life of the world outside. But
as a result of the narrow view of life in which
he has been trained he gets the impression that
in order to participate in the active, variegated
life for which he yearns, he must give up his
mission as a Jew. He consequently abandons his
Judaism in order to fling himself into the
maelstrom of excitement and temptations offered by the world outside.

The story of such an individual might end quite
differently if only, instead of forcing him into
the mold of a talmid chacham, his father would
raise him from the very beginning to become a man
of the world who, at the same time, is faithful
to his duties as a Jew; if only that father would
teach this son that the activities of the world
outside, too, have their place in God's plan,
that it is possible to preserve and to
demonstrate one's complete loyalty to Judaism
even as a sophisticated man of the world. He
should make his son understand that, as a matter
of fact, many, if not perhaps the most important,
aspects of Jewish living are intended primarily
to be practiced amidst the conditions and
aspirations of everyday life, in the midst of the
world and not in isolation from it. He should
make his son understand that the Taryag
Mitzvos  are not meant to be observed in the
klaus [Judeo-German equivalent for a small
synagogue. (Ed.)] or in the beth hamidrash but
precisely in the practical life of the farmer or
the public-spirited citizen. If only that father
would make it clear to his son that the spirit
and the happiness of Judaism are just as
accessible to a Zevulun "in the world outside" as
they are to an Issachar "in the tents,"?who knows
whether that son might not stand by his father's
deathbed and gently close his father's eyes as a loyal, pious Jew?

Why can't the Charedi world today understand this? Why do they insist that Torah only is for everyone when it clearly isn't?

Tzipi Livni throws a fit on an El Al flight?

The NY Post is reporting the following:

ISRAELI foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who could become prime minister after February's general elections, threw a temper tantrum aboard a recent El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Newark after she was seated in business class instead of first. "She really went berserk over the fact that there were kids near her," says a fellow passenger.

I wonder why this wasn't reported in the Israeli press?

How old was Rivka when she married Yitzchak?

Everyone know the medrash quoted by Rashi that she was 3 years old. However, the Gemara in יבמות and the Sifri in וזאת הברכה disagree.

The Gemara in יבמות ס"א discusses who a Kohen Gadol can marry. The Torah says בתולה, the gemara says that a בתולה means a נערה, a girl who is between 12 and and 12.5. The Gemara says that we know this from the pasuk by Rivka which calls her a בתולה. We see clearly that the Gemara assumes that she was older then 3 (at least 12).

In fact, all of the Rishonim point this out (that the Gemara argues on the medrash that Rashi quotes) and say that it is a machlokes hamidrashim. The Rishonim also point out the gemara later on ס"ד. The Mishna has the din that if a couple is married for 10 years with no children they should divorce. The Gemara asks why isn't it 20 years as Yitzchak married at the age of 40 and didn't have kids until 60. According to Rashi that Rivka was 3 there is no question, for the first 10 years she couldn't have kids. You see clearly from the Gemara that the assumption is that Rivka was old enough to have children at the time of the marraige.

The Sifri in וזאת הברכה says that Rivka lived 133 years. If you work backwards from her death she got married at the age of 14 (see Tosafos in יבמות ס"א for the exact calculation).

Why did Rashi pick the medrash that she was 3 against the gemara? It would seem that Rashi thought that was the simpler pshat in the pesukim. It all seems to hinge on when the akeida was. The following facts are mentioned in the Chumash itself.

1. Yitzchak was 37 when Sara died (she was 90 when he was born and died at 127).
2. Yitzchak was 40 when he married Rivka
3. Rivka was born around the time of the Akeida (see the end of וירא).

If the Akeida was when Yitzchak was 37 then Rivka was only 3 when she married. On the other hand if the akeida was 10 years earlier then she was around 14.

Valis was sentenced to 6 years in prison yesterday

For those who don't remember, 2 years ago, Yisrael Valis, a 19-year-old father was accused of violently killing his infant son. At the time there were riots in Yerushalayim and proclamations by the Gedolim that he was innocent (see this post, Psak in the name of R' Elyashiv: Valis is innocent ). Yesterday he was sentenced to 6 years in prison (see here for more details). I don't hear anyone proclaiming his innocence any more.

What does this say about the original reaction?

ועשית ככל אשר יורוך

This is the new slogan in the Charedi world to mean listen to דעת תורה.

Lately it is being used to mean that everyone needs to listen to R' Elyashiv whatever he says. Here is a good example:



The implication of the poster is that everyone needs to now stop wearing sheitels because R' Elyashiv said so.

The problem is that for the past 2000 years halacha hasn't worked that way. Once there is no בית דין הגדול there is no final psak. Throughout the generations we find disputes in halacha and we don't always pasken like the "posek hador". R' Moshe Feinstein was certainly the posek in America after WWII and yet many of his psakim were not accepted. The same goes for the Chazon Ish and every other great posek. Therefore, for these people to say that we always pasken like R' Elyashiv is a perversion of the halachic process and was never the case. The fact is that R' Elyashiv has shitas on many issues that no one paskens like, they just aren't publicized.

A good example of this is the shita of the Chazon Ish by מעמיד of a succa. The Chazon Ish holds that you cannot use metal anywhere in your succa even screws becuase it is considered מעמיד בדבר המקבל טומאה. There is no question that in his day the Chazon Ish was the "posek" in Israel. Yet, very few people followed this shita of the Chazon Ish. The answer is simple. As great as the Chazon Ish was we don't pasken like him on every issue. The same applies to R' Elyashiv and therefore every person needs to consult their Rabbanim about every issue.

Unfortunately there is a trend in the Charedi world taht says everyone has to be exactly the same. There is no room for different psakim, different minhagim, etc. Everyone has to follow a specific shita and that is it.

Why is gas so expensive in Israel?

The answer is very simple, TAXES.

The current price of NIS 5.49 for 1 liter of 95 octane gasoline, is composed of the following:

Price of the actual gas per liter: NIS 1.66
Marketing costs (gas station profits): NIS 0.68
Excise tax: NIS 2.42
VAT tax: NIS 0.73

In other words the real cost is NIS 2.34, the other NIS 3.15 is taxes. In percentage terms taxes are a whopping 57% of the total price.

Is the Cherem on Shefa Shuk slowly disappearing?

I heard a fascinating story on the radio last night. It seems that Hamodia (run by Gerrer Chasidim) and Ger in general were behind the cherem on Shefa Shuk. After the elections in Yerushalayim where Gerrer Chasidim voted for Nir Barkat a chiloni and not Meir Porush, many have come to the conclusion that Ger is acting in their own interest and not לשם שמים. They are saying that if they can vote for a chiloni because of a fight over Chinuch Atzmai, land etc. then why should we believe them about Shefa Shuk. Therefore, they have decided to start shopping in Shefa Shuk again. In addition, many people have canceled their subscription to Hamodia.

It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months. This could really hurt UTJ in the upcoming elections. Many Chareidim will have a very difficult time voting for UTJ if Litzman is number 1 on the list.

Biased Media

We always think of the mainstream media as biased against Israel, Jews etc. What is fascinating is that the Charedi press has it's own biases.

I get both the weekly Hamodia in English as well as Mishpacha in Hebrew and it is always interesting to see what news is in one and not the other and vice versa.

This week the difference is dramatic. Mishpacha devotes a huge number of articles to the municipal elections focusing on Porush's loss in Yerushalayim. Hamodia on the other hand almost completely ignores the elections. They have one small article and that is it. Why the big difference?

The answer is simple. Hamodia is run by Gerrer Chasidim and Ger right now is feuding with much of the Charedi world. Ger refused to support Porush in Yerushalayim and in fact, may have actually told some of their Chasidim to vote for a chiloni candidate. Similarly in Bet Shemesh, Ger did not endorse the Charedi candidate from Shas supported by Degel Hatorah, rather they supported Shalom Lerner who is religious but not Charedi.

Here is a fascinating article from VosIzNeias

Meanwhile, the rebbe of Ger, Ya'acov Aryeh Alter, aware of the threat that Porush presents, has called on his hassidim not to vote for him, even though he's the city's only haredi candidate. Ger enjoys the support of the Boyan Hassidic sect, which is still angry at Porush for bucking its authority in the Betar municipal elections.

In Friday's Hamodia, a weekly controlled by the hassidic sect, Alter placed a front page notice calling to vote for Agudath Yisrael. Conspicuously absent was the rebbe's electoral command regarding the mayoral race. Porush's name simply was not mentioned.

The rebbe's omission was particularly striking since it was accompanied by an ad publicizing the opinions of a list of leading haredi rabbis who specifically called to vote not only for Agudath Yisrael and for Porush.

Here is another interesting article from VosIzNeias

Outside a polling place in Jerusalem's Geula neighborhood yesterday, young Hasidic followers of mayoral candidate Meir Porush gathered. On the other side of the street, youngsters in the distinctive dress of the Gerrer Hasidic community set up their own post. The tension between the two camps was palpable.

After a few minutes, the Gerrers crossed the street and entered the station. On the orders of their rebbe, due to a longstanding grievance between their group and Porush's camp, they were threatening to vote for secular candidate Nir Barkat. All eyes were now on the Gerrer voters to see whether they would indeed "betray" the ultra-Orthodox sector by voting for Barkat.
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A young Gerrer walked into the station slowly with his grandfather and assisted the old man in inserting his ballot into the box. On leaving, he encountered an acquaintance from his community and the two began a lively discussion, from which it emerged that both voted for Barkat. "Like everyone," he told his friend jokingly.

Was his hand shaking, his friend asked. "No way," was the response. "The rebbe said so, and so we're happy to vote for Barkat." Hearing the tale, Moshe Friedman, the head of Porush's campaign, let out a sigh, saying, "it breaks your heart."

What should we make of the success of Tov in Bet Shemesh?

Tov in Bet Shemesh, despite being attacked non-stop by the local Rabbonim, who even brought R' Shteinman to RBS to speak, got over 1200 votes and a seat on the city council.

I think that a lot of the rank and file Charedim feel like the guy quoted below. When you couple that with the fact that the Torah world is broke this might be a serious change.

Israel - Haredi Voting Signals Weakening of Sector's Political Establishment

The 2008 municipal elections will go down in history as a watershed event for haredi politics that will likely have far-reaching implications on the national level.

For the first time in Israeli political history, the normally obedient haredi voters showed signs of rebellion.

In two haredi centers - Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh - there is a significant haredi contingent that has come out openly against the haredi political establishment.
...
Many have begun to question their obligations to a rabbinic leadership that rejects them and offers them no future. Many also are being to question rabbinic opinion on mundane matters such municipal elections.

As one haredi put it, "What do rabbis know about politics? Do I ask a rabbi what kind of floor cleaner I should use? We need a separation between religion and politics. I don't want rabbis to tell me what kind of cellular phone to use or where to sit on the bus.

Municipal elections in Israel today

Today is election day for all of the local elections, mayor and city council.

I would like to focus on 1 city, Bet Shemesh, that is not getting much attention from the national press but is actually very important.

One of the candidates running for mayor is Moshe Abutbul from Shas. Abutbul made deals with a number of non-religious parties and from his ads in the secular press you would never know that he is Charedi or from Shas. Every ad has him surrounded by his bare headed coalition partners who are featured prominently. There is only 1 party that he made a deal with, that does not feature in any of his ads at all, UTJ. The reason is obvious, he is trying to to run as the stealth Charedi candidate.

This is a very important race for Shas and the Charedi world as a whole. For Shas, if Abutbul wins he would be this would be the first mayor ever elected from Shas. For the Charedi world as a whole this race is very important. The Charedi world looks at Bet Shemesh as the next big Charedi city and a place that can alleviate the housing issues.

Another interesting development in Bet Shemesh is the party Tov. Tov is a party started by Charedi baal habatim who feel that UTJ doesn't really represent them. UTJ has ran a very nasty campaign against Tov and has basically tried everything possible to get them to withdraw. They even sponsored an assembly in one of the shuls in which the focus how they (Tov) are going against the gedolim, and how people who vote for TOV cannot be called frum etc.

What UTJ hasn't done is explain why someone should vote for them, aside from the fact that the gedolim say so. This is part of the reason for Tov's success.

Barack Hussein Obama, the next President of America

Now that the election is over I would like to make a few comments.

I. Who is Barack Obama?

No one really knows. After 2 years of campaigning there are still huge holes in his life story. It is hard to know what he really stands for and who he really trusts.

In any case he is by far the least experienced President ever. He has been in the Senate for a grand total of 2 years 4 years. His biggest job before the campaign was as a community activist.

II. The press was completely biased in favor of Obama

In Israel we like to complain about how the press is left wing and how the press protected Sharon when he decided on the disengagement and how the press loves Livni and is in favor of her. However, believe it or not, the American press was as bad or worse in the last election. How is it that we still don't know where Obama was born? How is it that the LA Times refuses to release a video of Obama with a Palestinian radical? Last January, in an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle Obama said that he would bankrupt the coal industry. This statement only came out this past Sunday too late to effect anything. The list could go on for a long time. Basically the press gave Obama a free pass.

III. Obama is the clear winner

The American system produces winners and losers. Obama won Mcain lost. Listening to the radio in Israel this morning, they were talking about how Obama won by 5 points (52% - 47%) and how that is a big victory. Lets shift gears a second and think about the election in Israel. Imagine Netanyahu and Likud win 5% more votes then Livni and Kadima. Will the press think that it is a big victory? I think not. 5% of the vote is 6 seats. In other words if the Likud would win 35 seats Kadima would win 29. It would not be a decisive victory at all.

The difference is that the US has a winner take all system. Someone wins and someone loses. Here everyone wins. Because of that, there are so many parties and it is impossible to govern.

Only in Israel: A transitional government can't appoint Judges but can negotiate to give away the Golan

The Attorney General was asked if it is legal for Olmert to negotiate with Syria even though he has resigned and is running a transitional government. The answer, yes. However, the Justice Minister wants to have a meeting of the committee to appoint judges and appoint new Supreme Court justices but the President of the Supreme Court (who herself was appointed by a transitional government) has refused claiming that a transitional government has no authority to appoint new judges.

Think of how absurd this is. The transitional government can negotiate away the country, that is not important, but it can't appoint Supremem Court justices, that is too important for a transitional government. Does this make any sense???

Of course given the Judicial Dictatorship we live in Beinish may be right. Appointing Supreme Court justices is the most important thing because in the end they rule the country.

Leiberman tells it like is regarding Mubarak

Here is what Lieberman said:

[Ze'evi] would never agree to the self effacing attitude of Israel vis-à-vis Egypt. Time after time we went to see Mubarak in Egypt - he never agreed to come here in an official capacity as president.

Every self-respecting [Israeli] leader, would expect a reciprocal visit when making one on his own. He wants to talk with us? Let him come here; he doesn't want to talk with us - let him go to hell,

Lieberman is absolutely right and tells it like it is. Mubarak has been in power for over 27 years and he has never made an official diplomatic visit to Israel. In addition, the official State run press is viciously anti-Semitic. There has never been more then a very cold peace with Egypt. It really is embarrassing how our leaders grovel before Mubarak who is the dictator of a third world country of little real significance.

Of course our wonderful leaders Peres and Olmert couldn't let this insult stand even for a few hours. They telephoned Mubarak right away to apologize and grovel before his excellency. Where is their self respect?

ז' מצות בני נח

Do these apply today?

The simple reading of the Gemara in Bava Kama 38a seems to say no. The Gemara says:
מה ראה ראה שבע מצות שקיבלו עליהם בני נח ולא קיימום עמד והיתירן

The Gemara then asks how could that be, the sinner is profiting? The Gemara answers that even if they are מקיים them they only get שכר כאינו מצווה ועושה.

Rashi there seems to take the Gemara literally that they are no longer חייבים. Others understand the Gemara that they still are חייבים however, even so, they don't get שכר like a מצווה ועושה.

According to Rashi, if they are not חייבים how can they be punished for not keeping them? The Netziv answers that the ז' מצות בני נח are really mitzvos for the good of society. Without these miztvos society cannot survive. Therefore, if people violate these mitzvos they are not being punished for violating them, rather society will fall apart and they will suffer because of their actions. The Meshech Chochma (beginning of וזאת הברכה) says a similar idea that the ז' מצות בני נח are for societal order. Since Hashem built the world based on the Torah, whenever the ז' מצות בני נח are not observed things don't work well.

Peres: Israel is closer to peace than ever before

What planet is he living on? He is really in a dream world.

As Professor Robert Auman said The very act of running crazedly after the longed-for peace is precisely that which distances it from us.

Professor Auman knows what he is talking about as his Nobel Prize was for "enhancing our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."

He said the following as well, which is well worth reading:

I will allow myself to say a few unpopular, unfashionable words: our panicked longing for peace is working against us. It brings us farther away from peace, and endangers our very existence.
...
Roadmaps, capitulation, gestures, disengagements, convergences, deportations, and so forth do not bring peace. On the contrary, they bring war, just as we saw last summer. These things send a clear signal to our 'cousins' [the Arabs -ed.] that we are tired, that we no longer have spiritual strength, that we have no time, that we are calling for a time-out. They only whet their appetites. It only encourages them to pressure us more, to demand more, and not to give up on anything. These things stem from simple theoretical considerations and also from straight thinking. But it's not just theory: it has been proven and re-proven in the field over thousands of years. I returned today from a trip to India, where we heard about historical stories that illustrate the same. Capitulations bring about war; determination and readiness bring about peace.

Until the Arabs accept Israel as a Jewish state there is nothing to talk about. Nothing that has happened recently has changed in terms of their accepting Israel, rather the tactics have changed. Why is it so hard for the leaders of Israel to see this?

This is why organizations like Peace Now are so misguided. They claim that if Israel really wanted to make peace then peace would happen. Unfortunately, they are sadly mistaken. As Bernard Lewis said, If the issue is not the size of Israel, but its existence, negotiations are foredoomed, if the other side doesn't want to make peace then peace will not happen.

Only decisive, unambiguous victory for one side or the other can end a long, bitter conflict. Until Israel learns this there will never be peace. Organizations like Peace Now not only don't bring peace now, but like Neville Chamberlain, actually encourage the other side to continue the battle.

The polls show Kadima with 29-31 seats - unbelievable!!!

I cannot understand how after almost 3 years of a disastrous Kadima government people actually want more. Let's remember that Tzipi Livni's biggest achievement is UN Resolution 1701 which has proven to be an unmitigated fiasco.

Why would anyone vote for Kadima? What do they see? What I see is a party of opportunists that failed miserably at running the country, lost a war and have done nothing. Can anyone think of a single achievement of the current Kadima led government? Why would you want more of Shaul Mofaz, Ruchama Avraham, Eli Aflalo, etc.?

It is clear that the mainstream press greatly prefers Livni and will do everything to help her. I have a feeling that the polls are going to prove just as inaccurate as they were in the Kadima primary with Kadima getting much fewer seats.

The moon and the stars

The Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei Hatorah (3:9) writes:

כל הכוכבים והגלגלים, כולם בעלי נפש ודעה והשכל הם; והם חיים ועומדים ומכירים את מי שאמר והיה העולם, כל אחד ואחד לפי גודלו ולפי מעלתו משבחים ומפארים ליוצרם כמו המלאכים. וכשם שמכירים את הקדוש ברוך הוא, כך מכירים את עצמן ומכירים את המלאכים שלמעלה מהן. ודעת הכוכבים והגלגלים, מעוטה מדעת המלאכים וגדולה מדעת בני האדם

The Rambam writes that the stars and the galgalim (which includes the moon) are spiritual beings like angels. This Rambam was proven wrong when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon showing that the moon was a physical entity.

The Rambam (ibid 3:8) also writes:
כל הכוכבים הנראים--יש מהן כוכבים קטנים שהארץ גדולה מאחד מהן, ויש מהן כוכבים שכל אחד מהן גדול מן הארץ כמה פעמים. והארץ גדולה מן הירח כמו ארבעים פעמים, והשמש גדולה מן הארץ כמו מאה ושבעים פעמים; נמצא הירח אחד מששת אלפים ושמונה מאות מן השמש בקירוב. ואין בכל הכוכבים, כוכב גדול מן השמש ולא קטן מכוכב שבגלגל שני.

He states that the Earth is 4 times bigger then the moon and the sun is 170 times bigger then the Earth. These numbers are clearly wrong based on modern astronomy.

Interestingly enough, R' Shach wanted to use this Rambam to show that Torah includes everything. R' Aharon Lichtenstein responded to R' Shach as follows:

R. Aharon Lichtenstein, "Legitimization of Modernity: Classical and Contemporary" in Leaves of Faith (Ktav: 2004), vol. 2:

...Moreover, I freely concede that one's faith in the concept is periodically put to a severe test. As but one instance, the doyen of [then-]current rashei yeshiva, R. [Elazar Mann] Schach, proves the value of Torah as the self-sufficient repository of all knowledge by asking, rhetorically: "Whence did Hazal know that the earth was forty-two times larger than the moon, and that the sun was approximately one-hundred-and-seventy times larger than the earth (as explained in the Rambam, Hilkhot Yesodei Hatorah 3:8), if not from the power of the Torah?"[24] In raising this question, he is wholly oblivious not only to the rudiments of astronomy but also of the fact that the selfsame Rambam explicitly states, with respect to these very issues, that they are beyond the pale of Hazal's authority.

Elections in Israel!!!

Livni failed in creating a coalition. Here are the big winners and losers:

Winners
1. Netanyahu and the Likud - Netanyahu will most probably be the next PM unless he makes a big mistake or something dramatic happens here.
2. Olmert - If Livni had managed to create a coalition today would have been his last day as PM. Now he has another 3-5 months as PM
3. Eli Yishai - He proved that no one can create a government without Shas

Losers
1. Livni - She promised a different politics but what we saw from her over the last month was the same old politics done poorly. Mrs. Clean is no longer Mrs. Clean.She will now go into the elections as Foreign Minister with little ability to do anything to affect her political fortunes. The worst possible scenario for her was for her to negotiate make concessions and not create a government.
2. Barak - His actions and the coalition agreement that he negotiated buried him.

IMHO the Likud should ignore Barak and focus on Livni and Kadima. They can attack her and Kadima on 3 fronts:

1. The war in Lebanon - Kadima was in power and the war was a fiasco. All they need to do is read the relevenat quotes from the Winograd reports
2. UN Resolution 1701 - This is touted as Livni's big achievement. The only problem is that it has been an absolute disaster according to everyone.
3. Leadership ability - the past month has only strengthened the claim that Livni is not a leader.

How could אדם הראשון eat from the עץ הדעת?

After all if אדם הראשון had no יצר הרע how could he do a חטא? We can ask an even more basic question. Did he even have בחירה?

R' Dessler explains based on many sources as follows. Before the חטא he was certainly a בעל בחירה however on a different level. The יצר הרע was outside him. There was no "I need, I want". Instead it was "you need, you want". The Rambam explains that before the חטא everything was אמת or שקר, everything was black and white. To do a חטא was like to walk into a fire, it was crystal clear that it was the wrong thing to do. There was no way to rationalize or justify. After the חטא however, things are now טוב ורע, a much more subjective reality where an עבירה can turn into טוב and we can rationalize our actions.

If so, how could אדם be חוטא? The answer is that he willingly walked into the fire. He felt that his status made things too easy. If everything is crystal clear where is the נסיון? If רע is so clearly false then there is no challenge in staying away from it. He felt that he could create a bigger קידוש השם by eating from the עץ הדעת and having a greater נסיון to follow the commandments from Hashem. He wanted to be able to understand רע and stay away from it. Unfortunately, he miscalculated. He did not understand that eating from the עץ הדעת would bring such confusion on the world. Someone at his level could not fathom the world after the עץ הדעת, he could not fathom the חשך of טוב ורע.

Pride goes before a fall

On Simchas Torah I davened vasikin at a different shul then I normally daven in. The בעל קורא who read וזאת הברכה was a well known talmid chochom from the neighborhood who is the best בעל קורא that I have ever heard, someone who knows all of Tanach literally by heart and never makes a mistake. After he read חתן תורה a different person from the shul came over and insisted that he lain בראשית and the haftara. The first בעל קורא did not object. Unfortunately the second בעל קורא is not on the same level. He made many mistakes in the trup as well as a few mistakes in the words. The haftara was similar.

The question is why did he insist on laining? He knows the first בעל קורא and therefore had to know that the first בעל קורא was going to do a better job. The only answer that I can think of is כבוד/pride. However, the fact is that instead of bringing him כבוד his actions made him look foolish.

Sitting in the succa in the rain

Generally speaking it doesn't rain in Israel on Succos. However the forecast is for rain late tonight and early tomorrow and therefore we will not be able to sit in the succa.

At first glance, we would say that the פטור of Succah when it is raining is the regular פטור of מצטער. However, if you look at both the Gemara and the Rambam it doesn't seem like that.

The Gemara in Succah on 26a in discussing the din of a חולה and his attendents posits the idea in the name of רבא of מצטער פטור מן הסוכה. However, the Mishna later (28b) discusses rain and gives a completely different reason, it gives a parable of a servant spilling water on his master (or vice versa see the Gemara 29a). The Gemara at no point brings this Mishna (discussing rain) as proof for רבא.

The Rambam also seems to split these 2 up. The Rambam (סוכה ו:ב) writes the halacha of a חולה and a מצטער that both are פטור מן הסוכה in halacha 2. However, he doesn't bring the halacha of rain until halacha 10 unconnected to מצטער. It seems clear from the placement that the 2 are unconnected.

Based on this we could say that the din of rain is an independent din and not based on מצטער. It could be that when it rains the succah loses the din succah because it is not a דירה with rain coming in. It is not related to the person's discomfort but the succah itself.

Buying an Esrog this year

This year buying an Esrog is different then other years because of shemitta. Shemitta raises a number of different problems. Esrogim according to the consensus of poskim have קדושת שביעית. Here are some of the issues:

1. שמור - shemitta fruits need to be made hefker, if they are not they may be assur and may not be able to be used for the mitzva
2. נעבד - you are not allowed to do various melachos related to the esrog tree during שמיטה. Again if these are done the esrog may not be able to be used for the mitzva
3. סחורה - you are not allowed to buy/sell shemitta produce.

To get around all of these issues many people are buying אוצר בית דין esrogim. The אוצר בית דין watched the orchards and made sure that there was no forbidden melacha going on. they also were מפקיר כדין. The esrogim are also sold in sealed boxes so you can't go and pick out a specific esrog.

The big issue is what about סחורה? The answer is that the אוצר בית דין is allowed to charge in order to cover their costs. Therefore when you buy an אוצר בית דין esrog, all you are paying for is the actual cost in producing the esrog, there is no profit to anyone.

There is 1 major problem. All of the אוצר בית דין are selling esrogim in 3 different price ranges:

1. כשר - these sell for 40-60 shekel depending on the אוצר בית דין
2. mehudar - these sell for 80-100 shekel depending on the אוצר בית דין
3. mehudar א - these sell for 130-150 shekel depending on the אוצר בית דין

If as we said all the אוצר בית דין is doing is recovering costs, how can they charge more for a better esrog? The answer given is as follows.

The אוצר בית דין has for arguments sake 1000 esrogim and needs to get back 75,000 shekel for their costs. If they tried to sell every esrog for 75 shekel people would not want to buy, there are always people who want a more mehudar esrog and are willing to pay more and there other people who can't afford to pay 75 shekel for an esrog. Therefore what the אוצר בית דין does is split the cost differently. They still get back only the 75,000 shekel however, the more mehudar esrogim subsidize the less mehudar ones. This enables them to sell the esrogim and get their costs back while enabling the more affluent buyer to spend a little more and the poorer buyer to spend a little less. Since no one is actually picking a specific esrog, you just get a sealed box, it still doesn't look like סחורה.

By the way, I bought 3 sealed אוצר בית דין esrogim this year and ended up with 3 beautiful esrogim that in a regular year I probably could not get.

Some halachos of building a succah

This post (Some halachic points regarding building a succah ) covers a number of the main issues.

No outdoor שמחת בית השואבה or הקפות שניות allowed

for צניעות reasons

The Tzedaka campaigns are working overtime

Here are some of the ads that appeared in today's Yated Neeman. As you can see R' Chaim Kanievsky is featured prominently in many of them:

What does המלך הקדוש mean?

This post, What does המלך הקדוש mean? , from 3 years ago is very relevant now during the עשרת ימי תשובה