Dr. Berish Rubin: This man may save your child's life

This is one of the captions on the cover of this week's Mishpacha magazine in English. The magazine has a very positive article about Dr. Rubin a molecular biologist who is doing research about genetic diseases that affect Ashkenazi Jews.

Dr. Rubin is Charedi from birth (see below) and went to Torah Vodaas for high school and Beis Medrash.



After reading the article I have a number of questions:

1. From a Charedi Torah only perspective, did Dr. Rubin make the right decision to leave the Beis Medrash and become a scientist?
2. Given the de-emphasis on secular education in Charedi yeshiva high schools and the almost complete prohibition of college, where is the next Dr. Rubin going to come from?
3. How could his parents let him read treif science books which are full of kefira (evolution, the age of the world)? If they hadn't, would he have succeeded and become the scientist that he did?

The Charedi world can't have it both ways. On one hand basically ban all secular studies while one the other hand expecting to produce people like Dr. Rubin.

Who will be the next mayor of Jerusalem?

Things are heating up. As of now there are 3 declared candidates, Gaidamak, Nir Barkat (Chiloni), and Meir Porush (Aguda).

However, it looks like Aryeh Deri (former leader of Shas) may run, and that changes everything.

A little background. In the Ashkenazi Charedi world there are 2 parties, Aguda and Degel Hatorah. Aguda is Chassidic and Degel represents the Yeshivish community. Aguda and Degel generally have rotation agreements for mayor. One term Aguda one term Degel. This is what happened in Bnei Brak, Beitar and other places. This arrangement has come under fire recently as it forces highly successful mayors to abandon the job after 1 term for possibly inferior people.

In Jerusalem, before the last election Degel and Aguda signed an agreement and Lupoliansky from Degel was elected with the agreement that Aguda would put up the candidate in this election. The Aguda candidate is Meir Porush. However, Porush is not well liked by many groups in the Charedi world (especialy Degel) including many Chassidim (especially Ger). Therefore, Degel and parts of Aguda are not happy with his candidacy. Recently polls have show Nir Barkat, a chiloni candidate as trouncing Porush.

Based on the above Deri is thinking of running. he will certainly have the support of Shas and may get the support of Degel. If no one candidate gets 40% of the vote there will be a runoff. Deri believes that with 2 Haredi candidates (and the Charedi population about 40%) there is little chance of anyone getting 40% and all he would need to do is beat Porush. Then in a runoff, he would get the Charedi support by default to keep the chiloni out of office.

Latest Charedi censorship target: Music

Haredim move to eradicate 'foreign' pop

Musicians who use rock, rap, reggae and trance influences will not receive rabbinic approval for their CDs, nor will they be allowed to play in wedding halls under haredi kosher food supervision, according to a new, detailed list of guidelines drafted with rabbinical backing that differentiates between "kosher" and "treif" music.

The guidelines, which are still being formulated, also ban "2-4 beats and other rock and disco beats;" the "improper" use of electric bass, guitars and saxophones; and singing words from holy sources in a disrespectful, frivolous manner.

"Michael Jackson-style music has no place in our community," says Mordechai Bloi, a senior member of the Guardians of Sanctity and Education, an organization based in Bnei Brak that enforces what it sees as normative haredi behavior.

...
The man responsible for drafting the list is Rabbi Efraim Luft of Bnei Brak, who heads an organization called the Committee for Jewish Music. Luft works in conjunction with Bloi's organization and with the Jerusalem-based Council for the Purity of the Camp headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Safronovitch. These are the two most important and influential "modesty patrols" in the haredi community.

This is a really interesting quote:

"We might be able to adopt Bach or Beethoven, music with class, but not goyishe African music and beats.

It will be interesting to see if this succeeds.

Sources in the haredi music scene who spoke off the record for fear they would hurt their relationship with the rabbinic representatives said they doubted the rabbinic establishment would succeed in their newest crusade against CDs.

"What are they going to do listen to every single disc that is released? What about the thousands of discs that are already in the market?"

Olmert racing against clock for deal with Palestinians

This is absolutely pathetic. Olmert who has completely and utterly lost any public trust that he had is doing anything to make an agreement with Abu Mazen. The fact that the agreement isn't worth the paper it is written on is irrelevant. The fact that Abu Mazen rules over nothing is irrelevant. All that matters is that the "Peace Process" is moving forward.

Only in Israel can a leader who is resigning under a cloud can give away half the country.

Solutions for poverty in the Charedi world

Jonathan Rosenblum wrote an article in last week's Mishpacha magazine (Can we talk seriously about poverty?) where he describes the poverty in the Charedi world and the toll that crushing poverty takes on individual lives and Charedi society as a whole. He mentions 3 possible solutions to the problem:

THREE SOLUTIONS ARE commonly offered to the destructive poverty in the Israeli chareidi community (though the problem is hardly limited to Israel): greater government support; increased contributions from rich Jews abroad; and adopting a simpler lifestyle. Each is a thin reed upon which to pin hopes for a solution.

Amazingly enough he leaves out the only real solution, education and working for a living. Why has working for a living become verboten? What happened to the Gemara in Kiddushin of חייב אדם ללמד את בנו אומנות? What happened to the Mishnayos in Pirkei Avos? The answer is so obvious and yet he brings up solutions that are bandaids.

What airline should you fly on II?

Today's Yated Neeman had a follow up ad which listed more recommended airlines. For the curious, US Airways is the recommended airline for flights in the USA.



Of course, if you must fly on a different airline that has movies you can get your handy mechitza by calling 057 3155613.

Why Russia succeeded in Georgia and Israel failed in Lebanon

The press here in Israel has been very focused on the war in Georgia and actually quoted Russian sources that Russia learned from Israel's failure in Lebanon. They have also been discussing why the Russians succeeded so quickly and Israel failed.

There is a very simple reason why Russia succeeded and Israel failed. Russia used overwhelming force while Israel did not, basically fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. Israel's leaders need to learn this simple lesson from the Russians, overwhelming force wins. You can't fight a war with 1 hand tied behind your back and win. Until we learn that lesson the war in Lebanon will repeat itself again and again.

Historic event in Vilna taking place today

The Kupat Hair Bnei Brak is sending a minyan of talmidei chachamim to daven at the grave of the Gra for the people who gave money to the Kupa.

Here is an ad that appeared last week to promote the big event:



Here is the schedule for today's big event:



As I hope you can figure out from the tone here I am not in favor of this for a number of reasons:

1. It tries to get people to act against Halacha. These ads ran in newspapers around Israel and flyers were distributed all over the country. Yet, the halacha clearly states that עניי עירך קודמים. In other words, someone who lives in Yerushalayim, Bet Shemesh, Beitar, Rechasim, Ashdod, etc. should be giving to their local Kupa shel Tzedaka not the Kupa of Bnei Brak. By going out with these big campaigns they are making it hard for local tzedaka organizations (which al pi halacha come first) to collect money.
2. It makes a business out of tzedaka. People can no longer give tzedaka just to give tzedaka? How many עניים could have been supported with the money that went to fly all of these people to Vilna? Do we need to promise a yeshua to get people to give tzedaka?
3. It is a quick fix approach. It makes all kinds of promises of yeshuos with no effort. Give a little money and someone will daven for you and you will be saved. Is that what we believe in? What happened to working hard on yourself, davening yourself, improving yourself?

Not eating meat during the 9 days

There are a number of different reasons for not eating meat during the 9 days:
1. Aveilus - Meat is something that makes us happy (אין שמחה אלא בבשר ויין) and therefore in these days of mourning we abstain
2. זכר לקרבנות - We are supposed to remember that during this time the קרבנות were stopped.

Whatever the reason we are supposed to use this to feel the aveilus of the churban. Unfortunately, many people take not eating meat during the 9 days in the wrong direction. Some people love it, as I once heard "and best of all, there's always ice cream or cheese cake for desert".

Those who feel that it is easy and great and they get to eat ice cream all the time, are missing the whole point. They may be doing the minhag but by Aveilus there is supposed to be a kiyum balev, you are supposed to feel something. These people feel no aveilus because they are not eating meat, in fact they are happy. This is a perversion of the minhag. The minhagim are supposed to help you feel aveilus, if they don't you should do something else that will help you feel the aveilus as well. Clearly, we cannot violate the minhag and eat meat even if we don't like meat, on the other hand, we shouldn't be eating gourmet milchig meals and enjoying ourselves either.

These days are supposed to be sad, eating gourmet milchig meals while not technically violating the minhag is certainly violating it's spirit.

ערב ט' באב שחל בשבת when to take off your shoes?

The Rama is clear, after Borchu you take your shoes off. This is the minhag that I remember when I was growing up.

However, recently a new minhag which makes a lot of sense has evolved. People go home after mincha, eat, and then at Tzeis Hakochavim say boruch hamavdil, take off their shoes, change their clothes and then go to shul to daven maariv. This seems to work better then the old minhag of taking off your shoes in shul. The question is, why didn't the Rama advocate this minhag? One answer is that in the days of the Rishonim and Acharonim it was hard to get people to come out to shul at night and therefore if people had gone home they wouldn't return for maariv. Still you have to wonder is this really true? Was this the case in Eastern Europe 100-150 years ago?

I am interested to hear what the readers will be doing.

Functionally illiterate Chasidim

This weeks Hamodia had a very sad letter from a Chassidishe housewife living in Boro Park. It seems that her husband who was born in NY cannot speak English. He is completely dependent on her for any interaction outside of the Chasidic community. From her letter it is clear that this is not an isolated incident but is a normal phenomenon in many Chasidic groups in NY.

My wonderful capable husband is completely handicapped. He can't call the telephone company without me. Any questions on our credit card bill must be resolved through me.
...
Yet, if my husband must venture out into the world, even simply via a telephone call he is at a complete disadvantage due to the inadequate command of the English language.
...
my husband went to take his road test. When he arrived home, I asked him how it went and he sheepishly handed me the paper the instructor had given him. He hadn't been able to figure out whether he had passed or failed.
...
my husband is a native New Yorker, born and raised. He is also quite intelligent. Yet, when I walked in he was at a complete loss and the nurses were gaping at him in disbelief not comprehending how an American adult could not respond to such elementary questions about his own child without assistance.

This is very sad and is spreading to the non-Chasidic community. I can identify a Yeshivish kid right away by the way they speak Yinglish instead of English. English today is the language of the world and for people living in America not to learn it is a terrible shame.

In 5 years we"ll ask how this happened

This was Olmert's comment in response to the report from GSS Head Yuval Diskin about the the weaponry that Hamas is smuggling in.

There is just one problem, he is the Prime Minister and running the government. He can do something about it if he wants to. What kind of idiotic response is that? He fears what will be but does nothing about it. The sooner he goes the better.

The beginning of the end of the Kollel system in Israel?

According to Mishpacha, 2000 Avreichim may lose their places in Kollel and the 5 biggest Kollels have suffered a 50% drop in donations. The money has basically dried up due to the financial problems in the US and the devaluation of the dollar vs the shekel.

Is this the beginning of the end of the Kollel system for everyone?

Olmert's birthday wish to "Moish" Talansky

Ynet has a video that Olmert sent to Talansky for his 70th birthday.

מויש, אני אוהב אותך, אתה בן-אדם כיפי. תמיד מועיל להיות חבר שלך, אני מקבל יותר ממה שאני נותן, ובתקופות של צרות, של בעיות ושל קשיים - אני מעדיף לצידי אותך, מאשר את רוב האנשים שאני מכיר

Moish, I love you, you are a fun person. It is always great to be your friend, I get more from you then I give, and in times of problems, stress, and hardships, I would rather have you at my side then most of the people that I know

The line about "I get more from you then I give" takes on a lot more meaning today.

Remember, this is the guy who Olmert's lawyers tried to make out as a money launderer, and a serial liar.

Update

Here is the actual video (courtesy of Rafi G):

Kadima splitting?

Globes is reporting that Tzippi Livni is thinking about forming a new party to run in the next elections. The reason for this is that Livni could very well lose the Kadima primary to Mofaz and she is not willing to be number 2 to Mofaz. According to Globes she has wide support both from the Kadima MK's as well as outsiders.

This is absolutely amazing, first they split the Likud now they are splitting Kadima.

As I have mentioned many times before the political system in Israel is completely broken and needs to be remade. It is absolutely ridiculous that in a list based system(the voters vote for a party not individuals), and MK can walk away from his party with his seat. At the very least there needs to be a district system where at least half of the MK's are elected from a district and are directly responsible to the voters.

Olmerts attorneys making another mistake

So far they have tried to blacken Talansky's image, calling him a liar and a money launderer and a criminal. While this might be a good tactic in a regular case, in Olmert's case they are just making things worse.

Imagine, they convince everyone that Talansky is a money launderer. That will not help Olmert, in fact it will hurt him. No one denies that Olmert was a friend of Talansky and took money from him. How is it going to look that the PM was friendly with and took money from a money launderer? It will only make the bribery case stronger, as a criminal does not give money for free, he asks for something in return.

Olmert's team also made a mistake in their pre-cross examination boasting. They boasted that they would destroy Talansky, peel him like an onion etc. This created very high expectations. So far, after 2 days of cross examination, they haven't done much. They have basically wasted time investigating Talansky's past. It certainly seems like Olmert and his attorneys were just blowing hot air.

The NY Times on Samir Kuntar - Raid went "horribly" wrong

The New York Times writes the following about the child killer Samir Kuntar:

Perhaps Israel's most reviled prisoner, Samir Kuntar, will return to a hero's welcome when he crosses into Lebanon this week, 29 years after he left its shores in a rubber dinghy to kidnap Israelis from the coastal town of Nahariya.

That raid went horribly wrong, leaving five people dead, a community terrorized and a nation traumatized. Two Israeli children and their father were among those killed.

What does the Times think would have happened if the raid had gone right? In fact, why do they think the raid went "horribly" wrong at all? What do they think Kuntar set out to do? Kuntar and his compatriots did exactly what they set out to do, they murdered innocent Jews. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that they were captured.

The fact that Abu Mazen praised Kuntar showed his true colors. How anyone can think that this man wants to make peace after calling a child killer a hero is beyond me. The same goes for Lebanese PM Siniora.

It looks like the government will fall over Avishai Braverman

Absolutely amazing. The government didn't fall after the disaster (war) in Lebanon, the 2 Winograd reports and Olmerts 6 investigations (including Talansky and Olmertours). It looks like it is going to fall because Labor MK Avishai Braverman was not appointed head of the Knesset Finance Committee. Because he was not appointed, the Labor Ministers voted no confidence in the government, this should lead to their dismissal. If they are dismissed, on Monday the government will fall and elections will be in 90 days.

The bottom line is, the sooner this government falls the better and if it has to be on a political matter like Braverman so be it.

Where does ישמעאל fit into the ד' מלכיות?

בלעם at the end of the parsha, discussed according to many, the Messianic era. The Ramban understands that he was talking about the ד' מלכיות. The Ramban quotes the Ibn Ezra who thought that ישמעאל was the last of the ד' מלכיות. The Ramban disagrees and says that the Ibn Ezra is completely wrong and that ישמעאל is independent of the ד' מלכיות.

I heard teh following explanantion of the Ramban. The ד' מלכיות represent rebellion against Hashem. They take the kingship from us (who represents Hashem in this world) and worship avoda zara. ישמעאל is different. ישמעאל has Hashem's name in his name and is not rebelling against the מלכות of Hashem. ישמעאל as the Torah says is a פרא אדם, a wild man. He believes in Hashem but wants to do what he wants to do. ישמעאל does everything in the name of Hashem including killing. Therefore, ישמעאל is independent of teh ד' מלכיות and can exist concurrently with them.

Olmert: Peace with Palestinians is closer then ever - Who does he think is fooling?

This is the headline in Haaretz online today.

How dumb does he think the people are? Gilad Shalit is still in captivity, Hamas is violating the ceasefire almost every day and he is talking about peace with Abu Mazen? Does anyone beside Olmert and the diehard left believe that Abu Mazen is relevant? Would a deal with Abu Mazen be worth the paper that it is written on? For Olmert to state

"It seems to me that we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today,"

is cynical beyond belief. Olmert, a petty thief who stole from charitable organizations, is trying to make people forget about his legal troubles. This time I don't think it will work. No one, even the Israeli public, is that stupid.