Life in Israel

Interesting Psak: voting for a Har Habayit supporter

2026-10-19T14:08:00.000+03:00

Rav Yitzchak Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas political party and member of its Council of Torah Sages, has issued a psak by which it would be prohibited to vote for Itamar Ben Gvir's party Otzma Yehudit in the coming elections, and possibly for others as well such as Betzalel Smotritch's Hatzionut Hadatit party (because of Moshe Feiglin, not because of Smotritch).

According to Rav Yosef, who signed a letter stating his psak, anyone encouraging others to ascend Har Habayit or who goes up is causing the public to sin and it is prohibited to vote for such a person. There are people, he says, who call themselves nationalist, from a variety of parties, who raise their hand up against God and His Torah and cause people to sin with the punishment of kareit, under the banner of nationalism.

Besides for the halachic problem itself of ascending Har Habayit, doing so also causes problems for us with other countries. Rav Yosef rejects the claim that it is needed for strengthening Israeli sovereignty and that, even if true that it strengthens sovereignty, is not any reason to permit an issur kareit..

Rav Yosef then says explicitly that it is prohibited to give such political parties any strength in the elections and to assist them or vote for them. ANyone who does will bear the sin of kareit and carry the collar of kareit around his neck.

source: Arutz7

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Yishai Fleisher: Ben Gvir, the Temple Mount, King David & Terrorism (video)

2026-10-19T12:22:00.000+03:00

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Eretz Nehederet’s “Fauda in the Skies” 😂 The Plumber Who Saves the Plane | FLYDUBAI (video)

2026-10-19T11:01:00.000+03:00

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The Niggun Within | Eitan Katz | Backstage with Benny (video)

2026-10-19T09:33:00.000+03:00

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Kobi Mirsky - Horeni Hashem (video)

2026-10-19T08:02:00.000+03:00

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Picture of the Day

2026-10-18T17:07:21.183+03:00

no longer just for women...

Minister Itamar Ben Gvir did a hafrashat challa event for the success of the right wing bloc and for Tali Gotliv to be appointed Minister of Justice...

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The Law of the Indicted

2026-10-18T15:53:51.758+03:00

Currently according to the law in Israel, as I understand it, anyone under criminal indictment is allowed to run for Knesset but cannot be appointed to a ministerial position. Even though Prime Minister is somewhat a ministerial position, the ultimate ministerial position, it is not specifically denied in law to someone under indictment, which is why the Supreme Court allowed Netanyahu to continue running for Prime Minister, when his candidacy was challenged a few years ago.

Back in 2021 Gideon Saar proposed an amendment to the current law that would also prevent anyone under indictment from being Prime Minister. Saar's proposal became known as Chok HaNeesham - the Law of the Indicted. I am not sure what happened to Saar's proposal - it seems to have just never been dealt with due to the multiple elections and chaos happening in those years.

MK Avigdor Lieberman has spoken out today (and maybe others have as well, not sure) that after the elections, assuming he and his potential coalition partners obtain some sort of victory in the elections, will immediately move to replace Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana with their own representative (nothing wrong with this move, it has been done before), and then immediately pass Law of the Indicted, Chok HaNeesham, which would then prevent Netanyahu from running again for Prime Minister (at least until his court cases are finished in his favor with an exoneration of all the main charges) in future elections.

Whether it is a good law or not I don't know, though I think it is. Just like someone indicted should not be any other type of minister, he or she should also not be Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's attention should be focused on running the country, not on defending himself in court. Even being a good law, it should not be used to ban Netanyahu from running, at least one election forward. Passing this would be a law targeted at someone specifically which should always be out of bounds. If they do pass it, I would expect and hope that Netanyahu would be allowed to run in at least the elections after that (and I am saying this as someone who no longer supports Netanyahu for Prime Minister), though maybe not in elections after the next one. We cannot pass laws targeting specific people and we cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. If after the coming elections this law gets passed, it should only go into effect after the next elections after these.

It would though be fun to see Gideon Saar's law passed to hurt Netanyahu after seeing how Saar has changed his poisitions the past 2 years....

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Halacha Headlines: 10/17/26 – Shiur 579 – What’s the right age to date and get married? (audio)

2026-10-18T12:31:00.000+03:00

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First haredi women on a haredi Knesset slate speak out (video)

2026-10-18T10:57:00.000+03:00

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Jerusalem. What's going on in the Old Town? Tourists visit the Holy Land (video)

2026-10-18T09:38:00.000+03:00

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Hallelujah: Live in Jerusalem! - Shulem (video)

2026-10-18T08:05:00.000+03:00

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Shay Viner - Shabat Shalom (video)

2026-10-16T13:39:00.000+03:00

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Quote of the Day

2026-10-14T15:25:39.630+03:00

Our enemies want to attack us in these days, the proxies of Iran want to shoot rockets at us, to attack us.... we did 90% of the work [on the various fronts] - but there is still work to complete. In the coming two years we will finish off Hamas completely, we will eliminate Hezbollah, and we will bring down iran.

-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

when he says things like this (he made similar style predictions regarding the draft of Haredim before he decided to not pass the law they were working on) I sometimes feel like I want him to win just so we can see how his words play out, or not, in reality

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Tweet of the Day

2026-10-13T14:03:00.000+03:00

יש עסקה. את הכסף שלך אשמח שתתרום לאברכים הממיתים עצמם באוהלה של תורה, וחיים בעוני מחפיר יותר מאי פעם.
— מוטי לייטנר Moti Leitner (@MotiLeitner) October 12, 2026

Translation:

first, background of what this is in response to:

Haredi journalist Yaakov Rivlin tweeted to Moti Leitner, head of the Hatzibbur Hacharedi political party running in the elections for Knesset offering a deal. Rivlin says Leitner and his team claim they are very close to the minimum threshold for getting into Knesset. Rivlin says he thinks they are not even close and will not get in. Rivlin is offering a deal in which if Hatzibbur Hacharedi achieves even just half the votes necessary to get in to the Knesset he will donate 10000nis to the charity of Leitner's choice.And if they do not get at minimum half the votes necessary, Leitner will make the donation to a charity of Rivlin's choice. I am not sure why but Rivlin at the end adds in, just answer yes or no without turning it into a discussion and offering explanations and conditions...

In response to that, Leitner tweeted (above) saying "You have a deal. You can send your donation to the avreichim killing themselves in the tent of Torah and living in the worst level of destitution ever

impressive that he did not just ignore the whole thing... Rivlin is clearly trying to protect the old guard from losing votes (whether Leitner actually gets in taking away many votes from the original Haredi parties or whether he does not get in and "burns" those votes...) and one classic approach would be to ignore. Leitner went out on a limb here...

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Israeli Parties Go Head-to-Head in Fiery Election Debate (video)

2026-10-13T12:25:00.000+03:00

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The Temple Mount Debate: A False Narrative (video)

2026-10-13T10:59:00.000+03:00

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JERUSALEM TODAY! The Real Life of Jerusalem. (video)

2026-10-13T09:36:00.000+03:00

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Prayer for the IDF – Live | Chaim Stern (video)

2026-10-13T07:52:00.000+03:00

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Quote of the Day

2026-10-12T17:30:43.636+03:00

I think the Haredim are ungrateful to God and we have a piercing disagreement with them on our relations to the State and the process of geula. I don't understand how anyone can be Haredi today. The Zionist enterprise is successful - is there any greater proof to the geula than that?... I won't comment on a gadol hador but I will daven that Rav Landau should do tshuva... I would suggest that Rav Landau and Lieberman should have a competition - He wants the Jordanians and the other wants the British, they can do a rotation...

-- Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch, speaking at the Arutz7 conference

harsh words there...

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“We Don’t Believe in Equality”: Haredi Public’s Nechumi Yaffe on Israel Electioncast (video)

2026-10-12T11:03:00.000+03:00

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I have a choice - Ariella Zeitlin (video)

2026-10-12T07:57:00.000+03:00

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Quote of the Day

2026-10-11T15:33:54.954+03:00

When I met with my parents after I was released they said we hope you are not angry with us. I said I was not angry but was proud of them....my parents fought for me like crazy, and while they were fighting for me they were fighting for other things as well, and one does not cancel out the other. This was an issue of dinei nefashot, matters of life and death. Do you want to save a life now or save lives even later? To me it was ovious that if we make a deal now I would get out of there but in abother2 days, 3 days, a month, two months, a year, 2 years, 10 years, someone else will end up sitting here in my place.....

I looked at my captor and said to him I will not leave this land... He asked why not? I said look at the Gaza Strip - it is completely destroyed, everything here is death, when the war ends and the crossings will be opened will you leave to Egypt? He said no. Why not? Because this is my house. Exactly, this is my house as well.... In 100 years there will be Jews here. In 100 years there will be Arabs here. What should we do during these 100 years. Do you want my children to kill your children, and your grandchildren to kill my grandchildren? Or maybe we should be smart enough to find a solution so we can all live here. Because we will live here, one way or another we will be living here together...

-- excerpts from former hostage Avinatan Ohr's interview with Ilana Dayan

different news sources quoted different parts of the interview, each depending on the position they wanted to stress and promote. The first in which he is ok and understanding of his parents choosing to be in the Tikvah Forum and fight for advancing the war while not demanding immediate release of their children vs the second in which he talks about finding a way to allow Jews and Palestinians to live peacefully side by side. People are complex and situations are complex. People can hold different positions on issues that dont always jibe with each other so cleanly

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Halacha Headlines: 9/26/26 – Shiur 578 – ASSISTED SUICIDE IS NOW LEGAL IN NY!! (audio)

2026-10-11T12:31:00.000+03:00

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Dan Illouz says Netanyahu cannot lead Israel after October 7 (video)

2026-10-11T11:03:00.000+03:00

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Jerusalem, Friday. Bustling activity at the market and the city center quieting down before Shabbat! (video)

2026-10-11T09:34:00.000+03:00

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