Life in Israel

Brand New Song from MBD "Omdos Hayu Ragleinu" (video)

2012-01-27T13:10:00.000+02:00

Brand New Song from MBD "Omdos Hayu Ragleinu"

Quote Of The Day

2012-01-27T11:36:00.000+02:00

Quote Of The Day

Our family wants to make this demonstration as a big hug to all the Chareidim who have to suffer living amongst these criminals. I hope we can help provide them with the strength to deal with the suffering which they must cause them and also empower them to fight against it by joining our cry.

--- Omri Mashiach, brother of Natalie Mashiach

The family will not let the demonstration be political - nothing against the iriyah, no local politicians speaking. The title of the demonstration is "Don't let extremism kill"
Tuesday - 6:00 PM - at the plaza of the Rontal and Bank Leumi in Old Bet Shemesh

Sending Flowers From RBS To Natalie Mashiach

2012-01-27T10:12:00.000+02:00

The following message was sent to the local email list and I encourage people to participate.
--
Natali Mashiach experienced the darker side of RBS a few days ago..
It's now our chance to show her we abhor this radical behaviour and we Do have a Heart!

Your last opportunity to put a few Shekels in the box at Gals Flower Shop (next to Yaaleh bakery on Nahal Kishon) is Friday 11.30am.

Thee bouquets will be sent to Natali in Bet Shemesh at Noon.

She will be pleasantly surprised when we convey the True Loving side of our exceptionally warm community!!

Dont miss out! Let's fill the box asap Friday morning!

The smash glass that wouldn't (video)

2012-01-27T09:22:00.000+02:00

The smash glass that wouldn't

Nokia ringtone during concert of classical music (video)

2012-01-27T08:17:00.000+02:00

Nokia ringtone during concert of classical music

The violinist performing in the video below is clearly very talented, as well as a quick thinker..

Maybe when someone's cellphone goes off in shul the chazzan should start singing the services to the same tune...

Is Mashiach Responsible For Paying For The Damage Done?

2012-01-26T17:49:00.000+02:00

I was wondering if Natalie Mashiach would have to pay for the damage done to her car. The car was a rental, from Shlomo Sixt, and, assuming she had not bought full coverage "walk away" insurance, she should technically have to pay the deductible. On the other hand, this was a big story, similar to a terror attack. I was wondering if she would be made to pay for the damage done - in the form of the deductible.

I went into Shlomo Sixt and asked the clerk what would be. When a similar story happens from Palestinians, the State pays for the damage, due to it being labeled a terror attack. In this situation there is no recognized terror organization behind the attack and it will be labelled as a crime rather than a terrorist attack. Maybe if Ketzaleh's attempt to label these thugs as a recognized terrorist group would pass this would be different, but so far they are not recognized as such.

The clerk's response was that they do not know what will happen and if she will have to pay or not. Nothing similar has ever happened [to their cars] before.

What do you think? Would she have to pay? I don't see why they would not be able to charge her for the damage (the deductible), unfortunate for her as that might be, but she should also be able to sue the perpetrators for it, assuming the police catch and prosecute the right people.

Following In Eli Cohen's Footsteps

2012-01-26T16:04:00.001+02:00

The other day marked 47 years to the day Syria announced it had captured an Israeli spy that had infiltrated into the highest ranks of the Syrian government - Eli Cohen.

At a ceremony to mark the day, a ceremony that was attended mostly by people from the Mossad and other intelligence groups that knew Cohen, one soldier's presence was unique. The soldier is the grandson of Eli Cohen and he is serving in the same Intelligence unit in which Eli Cohen, the grandfather, began his career. (source: NRG)

Chilling.

Potential Twinning With Bet Shemesh Called Into Question

2012-01-26T14:41:00.001+02:00

Many Israeli cities have partnerships with other cities around the world. They call them twin cities or sister cities. Bet Shemesh has a lot of sister cities. It promotes development, business ties and tourism between the cities. I do not know how a city chooses which city to partner with, based on what criteria.

Bet Shemesh has "sisterships" with a number of cities around the world. According to the Bet Shemesh municipal website, they have twinning programs with 9 cities. The countries include the USA, England, Germany, China, South America and Croatia.

A city that has been considering entering into such a partnership with Bet Shemesh, and recently passed the decision to do so, is Montogomery County in Maryland. Unfortunately, they read the news out in Montgomery County. Bet Shemesh has been the subject of a letter to the editor calling into question the decision to twin with Bet Shemesh considering the recent bad press.

From the Gazette:

Last summer, The Gazette published a glowing article about Montgomery County's Sister City Program, extolling the good works done in the impoverished city of Morazan, El Salvador.

Briefly, the same article mentioned that the program would next move into Beit Shemesh in Israel, with county officials explaining that it was chosen because the Jewish community there already had a relationship with the city. However, that same city is recently in the news — the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and others — for its ultra-orthodox residents' extreme harassment of children who they say are dressing "immodestly."

The Christian Science Monitor article reported: "In Beit Shemesh, prominent signs calling for modest dress and excluding women from certain sidewalks near synagogues have been tolerated for years in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood near the elementary school, which happens to serve a less strict group of Orthodox Jews ... For months now, 8-year-old Na'ama Margolis and her classmates have endured insults and spitting ..."

Even other Israelis have reacted with outrage. Einat Horovitz, a spokeswoman for Israel's nonprofit Religious Action Center, was quoted as saying, "This ties into whether we are a democratic liberal state that protects women's rights, or whether we're not going to be a democracy in the future."

So, we have to ask, why is Montgomery County twinning with such a city? Did it do any research, other than the recommendation of the local "Jewish community?” (Note that the more liberal Jewish Voice for Peace condemns this choice.)

When residents inquired by phone, we learned that the decision was made behind closed doors, without even county council involvement, and that "human rights" was not a consideration. It's also worth asking why a town in Israel — which ranks as the fourth largest arms exporter in the world and has the eighth largest military — needs the support of Montgomery County (compared to the obviously needy El Salvador).

Pam Bailey, Washington, D.C.

(Tip of the Hat to Joel)

When Christmas Met Tu B'Shvat

2012-01-26T13:14:00.000+02:00

Bet Shemesh Scholars On Path To Save Shechita

2012-01-26T11:43:00.000+02:00

Some local Bet Shemesh people are looking to save kosher shechita in Europe.

Some European countries have been trying to pass laws that would require stunning animals before slaughtering them. This would effectively be a ban of sorts on shechita, as a stunned animal is considered treif. Professor Rael Strous and Dr. Ari Zivotofsky have been conducting research into the effects stunning has on an animal. The results, briefly, are that stunning the animal causes far more pain and trauma than the act of shechita does.

From the Jpost:

An Israeli study on electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) for severely depressed or psychotic patients has apparently disproved the claim that the similar process of stunning animals before slaughter is humane and minimizes their suffering.
Prof. Rael Strous, a psychiatrist at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Be’er Ya’acov Mental Health Center, has just published an article on the subject in the journal Meat Science together with Bar-Ilan University researcher Dr. Ari Zivotofsky.
The researchers reached the conclusion that electric stunning of animals, often advocated as kinder than kosher slaughter, “is in fact cruel and barbaric,” as if one administered ECT without first giving patients sedation and/or general anesthesia.
The team studied ECT given to depressed patients – in which a strong electric shock is given under sedation and/or anesthesia to those who are not helped by conventional anti-depressive medication – as a comparison for the stunning of animals. This was unique research in which medical procedures used on humans were investigated to learn about the suffering of animals.
“Thus, introducing stunning, as we know from the experience in psychiatry on humans, defeats the objective of more humane slaughter,” they wrote. Animals that are inadequately stunned because of improperly positioned electrodes or other problems could suffer pain for a minute or more before losing consciousness, they said.
Strous said all leading Orthodox rabbinical arbiters around the world – except for a single rabbi in New Zealand – insist electrical stunning of animals before ritual slaughter is forbidden. In shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter of kosher animals, an extremely sharp knife is used to quickly sever a major blood vessel in the animal’s neck. This, the rabbis have long said, minimizes distress and pain to the animal as it loses a large amount of blood and consciousness very rapidly.
“Several European countries are introducing compulsory stunning prior to animal slaughter,” Strous told The Jerusalem Post. “This would in essence ban shechita for the first time since the Nazis in Europe.
The “stunning bill” was already passed in the lower house in the Netherlands, Strous said, “and only recently delayed in the upper house due to much lobbying – including, I am led to believe, with the help of academic input, such as our article.”
The article includes a description of ECT, in which electrodes are placed on the patient’s temples, after which a rapid burst of electric current of 70 to 170 volts is meted out. The mechanism by which the electricity “rearranges the brain cells” and provides relief to psychiatric disease is not fully understood but it is often very effective, at least for a while. It can even prevent psychiatric symptoms.
Without putting the patient “under,” ECT is considered a form of “medical torture.”
Patients who have been subjected to it without general anesthesia have reportedly suffered much more anxiety and trauma than they had before.
The authors show that “reversible electrical stunning,” very commonly employed in commercial abattoirs abroad, is very similar to ECT given without general anesthetic. Stunned animals behave as if they had an epileptic seizure, their bodies rigid with muscle contraction.
But it is reversible stunning, and they do not all lose consciousness.
The amount of voltages varies according to the type of animal, techniques used and the individual creature’s size and behavior. The animals going to slaughter can thus regain consciousness and then face the knife that will kill them.
Stunning a chicken, they write, is more problematic than in cows, sheep or other animals.
A common stunning method for poultry is to give them an “electrical water bath through the birds to the metal shackle.”
Every component must be adjusted perfectly to ensure a proper stun. There has to be a solid electrical ground, water height must perfectly match the bird size, and there must be some form of isolation at the beginning to pressure pre-stun electrical shocks.
In practice, the authors write, these conditions are often not met. The stunning process can also cause blood blemishes on the meat, broken bones and painful muscle contractions in the birds, which can still sense what is happening.

Bet Shemesh might end up saving Europe... Who would have thought....

Rav Brand Says To Vote Feiglin (video)

2012-01-26T10:39:00.000+02:00

Rav Brand Says To Vote Feiglin

The Problem Of Migron (video)

2012-01-26T09:33:00.001+02:00

The Problem Of Migron

Feiglin: The Geula Process Is Not On Auto-Pilot (video)

2012-01-26T08:17:00.000+02:00

Feiglin: The Geula Process Is Not On Auto-Pilot

Secular Reporters Dressed As Haredi To Investigate How Secular Treat Haredi (video)

2012-01-25T16:06:00.000+02:00

Secular Reporters Dressed As Haredi To Investigate How Secular Treat Haredi

The haredi media has been full of reports recently of attacks by secular on haredim, along with general worsening treatment of haredim by the secular. Haredi MKs have made such claims in the Knesset. Haredi media have established hotlines where people could report incidents.

Two secular journalists, Ravib Druker and Miki Rosental, dressed up as haredim, and took a haredi fellow as a consultant of how to behave and dress so they would not be spotted. They planned to walk through a secular area as haredim and see how they would be treated. They tried to rent a house, join a gym, ride local bus lines and tracked how people would react and treat them.

Obviously this is not a scientific study, but it is interesting. Watch and see the results of their experience (in Hebrew).

Mashiach Is Not Welcome In RBS B

2012-01-25T13:11:00.001+02:00

Natalie Mashiach's Assaulted Car

I had a chance encounter, that is as much as any encounter can be marked as chance, with Natalie Mashiach yesterday, shortly after she was nearly lynched in RBS B. I was in Shlomo Sixt car rental agency in RBS A, when in walks a woman escorted by police. She is crying and worked up. She had just been attacked while working in RBS B hanging signs. The police brought her to Shlomo Sixt, while someone else had stayed behind with the car, because the car belonged to Shlomo Sixt and they were working out the procedures for towing, repairing, evidence and whatever else is involved.

While she was there, she told us, by "us" I mean everyone in the office - me and the clerks who were helping - what had happened. She was emotional and crying.

I did not write about it yesterday because I was so angry that I could not write about it without painting a broad brush and write things I would later regret. After thinking about it for a long time, and being part of many discussions about what happened, I must say that I did not witness the incident itself. I met her shortly after the incident happened, and I heard part of the story from her, but I still know the details mostly from the media like everyone else.

Some have said she was there to provoke. I don't believe it. I spoke with her. She was not dressed provocatively, though she was wearing pants. What was she doing there? Just her presence - she should have known not to go there - well, she told me that she has been hanging up signs all over Bet Shemesh, including in that exact location, for 5 years already! She had absolutely no reason to think that after doing this for so long in that same exact spot that it would suddenly be a problem. You can hear her talk in an interview where she describes how she works with haredim and deals regularly with them and no problem has ever come up before this.

Natalie Mashiach

As well, I find it ridiculous to call her a provocateur. She is a traditional Sefardic woman. She is not a secular atheist who is anti-religious. For the most part, to generalize, the traditional sefardim have more faith than even the most devout religious ashkenazim. This woman, Natalie Mashiach is not, or at least was not, anti-religious.

While some give lip-service to condemnations of violence, they also, at the same time, offer excuses. She was there provoking. Violence of the two sides. If they really condemned the violence they would not be looking for excuses to explain the behavior. Just condemn the violence.

This is not a haredi issue, it is not a dati leumi issue, and it is not a secular issue. This is a Bet Shemesh issue. Bet Shemesh, the people of Bet Shemesh, the elected officials of Bet Shemesh and the police of Bet Shemesh all together, has to solve this problem.

This is also a national problem. While it is happening in Bet Shemesh, it is also happening in Jerusalem. It is also starting to happen in other places, such as Elad and Modiin Ilit, they are fighting in Rehovot about similar issues and it continues to spread.

Locally, all good people of Bet Shemesh need to put an end to this, and nationally it must be dealt with as well, with support and activism at the highest levels. This is not a gang of teenagers, and that 50 people can stand around and watch 6 hooligans attack a defenseless woman and not try to stop it is unacceptable.

I have no idea how close or distant Mashiach's arrival is, but I do know that incidents like what happened yesterday in RBS B show that Mashiach is just not welcome in some places.

Soldier refuses To Jump, For Religious Reasons

2012-01-25T11:43:00.000+02:00

If you thought the issue in the army between religious male soldiers and female soldiers ended in parties and ceremonies where a female soldier would be singing, and how important is it that they cannot exempt him, for religious and ideological reasons, from a problematic situation, then we must think again.

According to this Haaretz report, a male religious soldier refused to jump because the parachuting instructor was female. Not knowing too many details, such as why the army didn't give him a male instructor, which according to the article is something any soldier can request, it is difficult to know what actually happened.

I find it strange that a community, the dati leumi community, that has waved the banner of being the bridge between the secular and the religious, the community that is proud to join and embrace the outside world and find solutions to deal with "problems" rather than avoid such situations, would be at the crux of this issue, and especially dealing with it in such a manner.

It clearly is not going to be limited to the issue of women singing. The solution to the issue will not be exempt religious soldiers from being at such ceremonies. This is going to affect the entire army, as more soldiers join the trend of backing out of even necessary activities, necessary by all counts, to avoid coming into contact, even without necessarily physical contact, with females.

The Miracle Of Oil And The Hummus Plate (video)

2012-01-25T10:46:00.000+02:00

The Miracle Of Oil And The Hummus Plate

A funny look at leftists..

Birth of Boy in Tractor Ambulance in Old City Jerusalem (video)

2012-01-25T09:25:00.000+02:00

Birth of Boy in Tractor Ambulance in Old City Jerusalem

This story is a few years old, but I only just saw it now.

The history of Israel's Mossad YouTube on Geraldo At Large (video)

2012-01-25T08:24:00.000+02:00

The history of Israel's Mossad YouTube on Geraldo At Large

Interesting Psak From Rav Elyashiv: Torah Scroll and Zuto Shel Yam

2012-01-24T17:35:00.000+02:00

An interesting question was raised by the leaders of a community from Baltimore visiting Rav Asher Weiss on Ramot.

They showed Rav Weiss a Torah scroll that had survived the war, World War II and the Holocaust, and they wanted to use it in their shul in Baltimore. The question they asked is if using such a torah, as they never received permission from the original owners or the original community whom had, presumably, been wiped out by the Nazis, might be considered stealing.

Rav Weiss did some research and supposedly responded that there is no problem for them to use it. Rav Weiss then went to Rav Elyashiv and discussed the issue with him. Rav Elyashiv paskened that there is nothign wrong with using this Torah scroll, as it is considered having been saved from "zuto shel yam" - it is like it was washed out to sea by the waves. (source: Anashnews)
The halacha of "zuto shel yam" is that such an object is considered hefker, as the original owners had automatically given up hope of ever retrieving it.

Considering how ill Rav Elyashiv is, and has been recently, this discussion and psak must have happened a while back.

A Satirical Look At What Happens When A Haredi Man Sneezes (video)

2012-01-24T15:32:00.000+02:00

A Satirical Look At What Happens When A Haredi Man Sneezes

The video seems pretty obvious, showing the secular surroundings like the Wild West, with violence and crime, while the policeman dozes. When the haredi fellow sneezes, the policeman grabs and arrests him and calls in the troops for backup.

It is a sad look at society - both that people look at society and see it functioning like that, and that, to a certain extent, there is a bit of truth to it.

Teenagers Deliver Babies In Ambulance From Bet Shemesh

2012-01-24T13:23:00.000+02:00

In an unusual story, two 16 year old boys delivered a woman's twins when she went into labor on her way from Bet Shemesh to Jerusalem recently.

Births in ambulances are nothing unusual. The distance to Jerusalem is significant enough, especially when there is traffic, but not only, that not always can they get to the hospital in time. As the city continues to grow, it increases the need for a local hospital or birthing center.

So, the ambulance picks up the woman in labor, a mother of five kids already, with two on the way out. The paramedics in the ambulance, besides for the driver, were two teenage volunteers.

As they got to the Harel interchange, the ambulance had to pull over to deliver the babies. With the teenage volunteers regularly escorting expecting women to the hospital, this was the first time they would find themselves delivering a baby on the side of a road (or anywhere for that matter). To their credit, they rolled up their sleeves and did a fine job bringing those twins into the world. Mazal tov! And kol hakavod to these two volunteers, both for being volunteers and doing great work, and for staying calm and doing what needed to be done under difficult circumstances.

You can see more of the incidents details on Ynet..

A nice follow-up to the story is that the boys later went back to the hospital to pay a visit to the woman and her twins. The parents had bought a present for the MADA volunteers that had helped them, and also promised to invite them to the kids eventual bar and bat mitzvah parties. They also took the opportunity to view the incident as a bridging opportunity, considering the recent tensions between dati leumi (the community the teenagers are from) and haredi (the community the family is from) communities in Bet Shemesh.

As nice as the story is, I am surprised that there would be just two teenagers working the back of an ambulance and no adult volunteer along with them. As well, it highlights the need for a more local solution for giving birth.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky Saves The Grasshopper Miracle Wall

2012-01-24T11:51:00.001+02:00

There is a famous story with Rav Chaim Kaniesky about how he never really knew what the "chagav" looked like - how to identify the kosher grasshopper described in the Torah. One time when he was learning the related gemara, suddenly a chagav showed up in his room. Rav Chaim inspected it, decided it met the criteria of the gemara and therefore is obviously the elusive chagav and the miraculous story of how the chagav appeared so Rav Chaim Kanievsky could understand the gemara that much better was retold.. I might have some the few details not 100% accurate, but that is the gist of the story of Rav Chaim Kanievsky's grasshopper miracle..

According to Kikar, Rav Chaim Kanievsky's apartment has been undergoing some renovations. According to the story, it seems unclear but it looks to me like this happened before the renovations began, Rav Chaim woke up from his sleep on a Friday night and looked at one of the walls. He told his family that he is worried that the wall, that wall was where the grasshopper miracle had occurred, would be knocked down.

And what's wrong with knocking down the wall?

Rav Chaim explained that a story had happened with the Chida that a miracle had happened on stairs near his house. A short while later the Chida wanted to cover the stairs with gold as a sign. Marking the place of the miracle in such a fashion would strengthen other Jews in their faith. Therefore, Rav Chaim said, it is very important that the wall upon which the grasshopper miracle had occurred should remain intact.

Interesting story.

Newt Gingrich - I'll Help Israel Attack Iran (video)

2012-01-24T10:46:00.000+02:00

Newt Gingrich - I'll Help Israel Attack Iran

Newt Gingrich On The Possibility Of A Muslim President (video)

2012-01-24T09:26:00.000+02:00

Newt Gingrich On The Possibility Of A Muslim President

Newt Gingrinch has upset Muslim groups in the USA with this statement. I don't get why they call him anti-Muslim for what he says here (I do not know if he is or is not - I just do not see it in this statement). I see nothing anti-Muslim about supporting a Muslim-American to run for president as long as he rejects the adoption of Sharia law into the US court system.