Life in Israel

Go Visit Israel

2009-07-12T17:36:00.000+03:00

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As we head into summer vacation, there is this great website you should check out to help plan your vacation. It is called Go Visit Israel.

Whether you are planning a trip to Israel from abroad, or if you live in Israel and are trying to figure out what to do, where to go, what food options are available where you will be going, etc. Go Visit Israel is an amazing site of resources to help you plan all that.

They have great features, like Itinerary recommendations where you can get ideas for specific tours for any part of the country. You can get listings of places to stay, restaurants, activities, etc.

Basically it is a great resource for you to have available when you are trying to plan your vacations schedule. Even if you are not going anywhere, but just want to know what is available in your own region of Israel, Go Visit Israel is an amazing resource.

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Interesting Posts #40

2009-07-12T17:00:00.003+03:00

1. How to be Israeli is hosting Haveil Havalim #224 - the Welcome New Israelis edition..

2. Open minded Torah discusses his choice to give his teenage son access to the Internet, but uses a filter.

3. The Hurwitzs have an aliyah anniversary, and post a bunch of "Only in Israel" stories - always interesting to read these...

4. Moving On Up found a new g'mach. Sometimes I think the word is abused, but I like this one!

5. Michael Sedley weighs in on the Shabbos demonstrations...

6. Lulei Demistafina offers a different perspective on the Shabbos demonstrations...

7. Jameel posts about a Facebook group calling for a ban of Cellcom because of an ad they consider racist. I don't see what they say in the ad.

Bet Shemesh tragedy

2009-07-12T14:38:00.000+03:00

Everyone has already heard of the tragic car accident on the Highway 38 outside of Bet Shemesh on Friday just before shabbos.

The driver, supposedly at fault, was a 20 year old guy. I am told he is the son of the guy who owns the watermelon stand in Bet Shemesh (the watermelon stand) at the corner before Migdal HaMayim.

My thoughts:

1. How the heck does a guy who sells watermelon for a living afford to buy his 20 year old son a brand new BMW??? I am definitely in the wrong line of work!

2. We drove by the scene of the accident this morning on the way to the train. There was not even the slightest sign that anything had happened. No sign of any accident. They cleaned it all up right away. Amazing that something so tragic can happen and just a short while later one can go to the same place and he would never even know about it...

The "Jewish Jail"

2009-07-12T11:22:00.003+03:00

Bernie Madoff requested to be incarcerated in Otisville Correctional Institute, which is known as the "Jewish jail" because of the high number of Jews incarcerated there.

Madoff's request was denied, because of the length of his sentence, that facility is not deemed high enough security for him.

I am simply embarrassed by the fact that there is a jail known as the "Jewish jail". Aren't you?

A Time for Change

2009-07-12T10:54:00.002+03:00

As you can see, I changed my template. There are still things that need adjusting, so be patient.

Overall, I like the new look. Hopefully I'll get all the tweaks finalized in the next few days.

if you have any issues, complaints, requests, put 'em in the comments and I'll see how I can improve it more...

Most Palestinians have Jewish background? (video)

2009-07-12T08:01:00.000+03:00

they keep doing it anyway

2009-07-10T15:08:00.003+03:00

Today a 36 year old mother of 7 in the Haredi city of Elad passed away suddenly from (semeingly) heart failure. Baruch Dayan Ha'Emes.

The authorities (i.e. police) wanted to perform an autopsy. That led to the local residents going out to protest by the thousands.

I don't understand why this fight has to go on every single time there is a sudden and unexpected death (is any death not sudden or is any death expected?) in the haredi community. The authorities already know that they never do the autopsy because the haredim prevent it due to halachic restrictions, and the attempt just brings them out en masse to protest. In the end, every time, the authorities give in and release the body.

So why do they bother even trying? In the beginning, I understand. Maybe they did not know yet, maybe it was not every time. etc. But nowadays, it happens every time, and they go through the same dance - they take the body for an autopsy, the locals and others protest, the authorities agree and release the body.

So why bother? Why fight do they about it and attempt to autopsy the body when the conclusion is already known in advance?

Interesting Posts #39

2009-07-09T17:38:00.002+03:00

1. Michael Sedley saw a third option, and the Jerusalem post today confirms it to be accurate... You've got my vote!

2. Rationalist Judaism discusses a letter to the editor in the Yated about Tylenol and timtum haLev.

3. Food is a big factor in all aspects of Judaism. The Jewish Side of Babysitter went to a shiur on jewish food.

4. The Rebbetzin's Husband has a few reasons, straight from CNN, for you to consider making aliya...

5. A Tome of the Signs. Chocolate scented deodorant? really? Ugh!

6. ParshaBlog has more Kupat Ha'Ir insanity...

What is a browser (video)

2009-07-09T14:02:00.000+03:00

The video itself is pretty irrelevant, though funny, to this blog, except for that at 1:03 they talk to an MOT... (yes, I still get a kick out of seeing Jews in public videos)

I tripped over some Jewish Music in Hong Kong!

2009-07-09T12:01:00.000+03:00

You will never believe this.

I just had to call Hong Kong. The person I was talking to put me on hold. The hold music was extremely familiar, but classier than what i was familiar with. I knew the tune, but could not think of the words.

I called over three different people and had them listen to the hold music, so I have witnesses. I then did some research (i.e. I called my musical wife) and hummed the tune and asked what the song is. Lo and Behold, the song is Abie Rotenberg's Adon Olam.

I quickly found it on the internet and played it for the people I had played the hold music to, and they concurred it was exactly the same tune.

I had not called some Jewish office in Hong Kong where the Jewish owner might have set his hold music to his favorite Jewish soing, I called the largest ISP in Hong Kong, and this was their hold music!

So, did they take Abie Rotenberg's tune and use it (granted, if they did, it was probably somebody else who took it and made it into general music which they then used), or did Abie Rotenberg take someone else's music and put Jewish words to it.... I hope it was the former. It is really a great song, as are almost all of Abie Rotenbergs songs...

Tragedies

2009-07-09T09:36:00.002+03:00

They say that if you are researching your genealogy - family tree - the trick is to find someone famous in your family. once you find someone famous, the rest is a piece of cake. Famous people usually have lots of documentation, and their histories are fairly well-known, so if you connect yourself to someone famous, you have made your work easier.

I have spent many years working on my family tree. I have had ups and downs, with long periods of time that I just could not continue, and periods where I spent way too much time working on it. In all that time, and I have been able to branch my family back to the mid1700s, I have yet to find anybody famous in my tree. That means I am always working for new information. Because of the Internet I have been able to find relatives I never knew existed. Now, they often send me information about branches and connections that I did not previously have or know about.

A recently discovered relative just sent to me a bucketload of information. A lot of it I had already, though I was able to use his info to correct some of my mistakes, and some of it was new.

Going through this information over the past few days was very striking. I also checked some of my old papers to compare and found similar patterns. There are so many names of children who died young -as babies just a few days or months old, as young children, etc. That along with the scores of names of people who died in the holocaust.

Coming across these names, and putting them into my online tree on geni.com, and correcting my other information, became very difficult, seeing all these people who died so young. I had seen this phenomenon before, but never really paid attention. Now that I am comparing the new info to my old info, I am noticing it more. It became very difficult to process too much information in each sitting. i had to stop working on it after short periods of time.

What is amazing is that the info I am working on is all from Germany. the premier country in culture and medicine and sciences. Not some backwater Eastern European shtetl. Yet even in Germany mortality rates were horrible.

The advances in medicine we have gone through in the last 60-70 years, and definitely the last 150 years, are absolutely amazing in the sense that it is not nearly as common now, people are living longer, it is not quite as common for children to die at such young ages.

I thought this appropriate to post today, being today is the 17th pf Tammuz - a day of fasting and introspection on the tragedies of the Jewish people, specifically the walls of Jerusalem being breached, the Torah being burnt, the luchos being shattered, among other tragedies throughout history - communities being destroyed, etc. Looking back over the past few days at all this information in my family tree, I see that there were tragedies occurring on a regular basis - families were losing children to sickness and disease fairly regularly. Seeing the regularity of it has shown me that it was a tragedy of massive proportions. Thank God we have improved in that, and hopefully will continue to improve.

Interesting Posts #38

2009-07-08T17:51:00.002+03:00

1. I just stumbled across this blog - looks interesting. His concept is to help guys who want to leave kollel and start a business, without having to go to college first.

2. Shearim talks about some issues in Arad - between a community of Gerrer Chassidim and their black refugee neighbors. Another example of how people will try to not let others live near them, but when others try to prevent your group form living somewhere you complain.

3. Geulah Perspectives describes a shiur given by Rav Mendel Kessin on the issue of Mashiach Ben Yosef.

4. Pesky Settler posted some video from the big chazzanus concert in Ariel.

5. Free Thought talks about giving donations over the phone... based on an earlier post of mine.

6. Treppenwitz rants about secular and religious and their approaches towards community..

I did not donate, and found salvation!

2009-07-08T13:01:00.002+03:00

I woke up this morning to find volume 7 of the magazine published and distributed by Kupas Ha'Ir called "Meh-tzapim L'Yeshuah" - Looking for Salvation. the subtitle is "Stories of salvation by Kupas Ha'Ir Bnei Brak".

I normally just toss this stuff in the trashcan next to the mailboxes, placed there strategically to be able to quickly throw out all this junk mail. Today I felt like being entertained with a story or two so i took it to read.

I ended up flipping through it and reading one story. I found it highly entertaining, so I will share it with you, in a shortened version.

The story goes basically like this:

It is erev pesach, and the family is all packed up and ready to go to the parents for yom tov. They need a taxi to take them, but there are no taxis to be had. Erev pesach is a busy day for the taxi companies. they keep trying and trying, but they cannot get a taxi.

As time goes on, one of the kids suggests that they donate to Kupas Ha'Ir in order to get a taxi. The father says that this time he is not donating to Kupas Ha'Ir. "When they left Egypt, they were able to do so without first donating to Kupas Ha'Ir. They were able to get to har Sinai without first donating to Kupas Ha'Ir. This cannot run our lives. i am not donating this time to Kupas Ha'Ir!"

They wait some more time, still unable to locate a taxi. Meanwhile, the mother calls the parents to let them know of the delay because they cannot find a taxi.

A few minutes later, the father comes running up the stairs to the house saying he found a taxi. They load up the car and head out.

The father points out that they were successful even without having donated to Kupas Ha'Ir. Even though it is tzedaka, this is not the way to live where every move needs to mandated with a donation to Kupas Ha'Ir - you can't find a taxi, you can't find your glasses, you are looking for a job, the plumber can't find the source of your leak, you are applying to get your son in yeshiva so you donate to kupas Ha'Ir. It was never before like this and there is no reason we need to make this into a new minhag to donate to Kupas Ha'Ir every time we need something. And look - we did not donate to kupas Ha'Ir and we got a taxi anyway. We did not donate and we found salvation!"

They continued on their way, eventually arriving at their destination. When they get there, the grandmother asks if they got the taxi right after the phone call. Yes, the mother says.

the grandfather smiles and says to call Kupas Ha'Ir right away and tell the story. Why - we did not call Kupas Ha'Ir? The grandfather says he overheard them on the phone that there was a delay in finding a taxi so he right away called Kupas Ha'Ir and made a small donation so that the kids should get a taxi. Right after that they got their taxi.

I find it striking that the stress in this story seems to be the father constantly saying they cannot run their lives by Kupas Ha'Ir. The result of the story is that they cannot run their lives without Kupas Ha'Ir.

I think I am going to test this out on one or two situations. If I do, I'll let you know the results.

Today's Bad Idea of the Day: Having an idiot solicit donations for you

2009-07-08T10:13:00.004+03:00

I am not going to identify the organization referred to in the post below. They are a good and important organization, and I do not want them to be harmed inadvertently by anything written here. They will therefore remain anonymous.

I received a phone call yesterday from someone soliciting donations for an organization. This is an organization I have supported in the past, and continue to support.

Many organizations have similar names, and play on that to solicit donations from supporters of other organizations with similar names, playing on the confusion based in the similarity of names. I have heard of this happening, and aside form my general dislike of donating over the phone and not really knowing with whom you are actually talking, the frequency in which I have heard of such situations (wrong orgs collecting your money intended for different org), I just about never donate over the phone.

So this person calls asking for a donation. I support the organization, so I told her that I support them and will give a donation to a volunteer. She has on record that I support them, so she knows she can either send someone to me to get a check or send an envelope or however else it would work out. I told her I do not donate over the phone and would give my donation to a volunteer. She said thank you and that ended our conversation.

This morning she called me back. She spoke very harshly that I should donate through her over the phone. She started bad-mouthing the volunteers saying that it has happened in the past that volunteers have forgotten to pass donations along to the main office, and other things about how the volunteers should not be collecting money (even though they are regularly used in that capacity). She said I have donated in the past so I have nothing to worry about and I should not give to the volunteers.

I was shocked that she called me like this. Aside from her tone that she was using when speaking to a [potential] donor that was a very big turn-off, I thought it very inappropriate for her to be bad-mouthing the volunteers of the organization she is working, and collecting, for. Heck - if the volunteers are such bad people, why would I want to donate money to them at all???

The thing is that I know the organization and I still want to make my meager donation to them despite her bad attitude and inappropriate comments.

I told her that I very much dislike her calling me like this, especially after I said I do not donate over the phone, and insisting I donate over the phone. Furthermore, I find it completely inappropriate for her to be bad-mouthing the volunteers, who I have found to be extremely dedicated to the organization. I told her I dislike what she is doing and i will no longer talk to her about this. Then I hung up.

The organization is really good and important. I think this person is an idiot, but I will continue to donate despite her.

The IDF Did More to Safeguard Civilians Than Any Other Army (video)

2009-07-08T07:25:00.000+03:00

(HatTip: @noahroth on twitter)

Interesting Posts #37

2009-07-07T18:45:00.000+03:00

1. Rabbi Fink, the Rabbi on the Beach, gives a great book review to Dov Bear's book "Dov Bear on the Parsha".

2. The Zoo Rabbi describes how he experienced the feeling of Bigfoot in the Mir.

3. The Rebbetzins Husband considers whether rabbinic term limits are a good or bad idea.

4. The Wolf thinks there might be something in the water in Lakewood, considering some recent letters that have been published by Lakewood people.

5. Jacob recalls his firsthand accounts with terror in Jerusalem..Anybody who spent significant time in Jerusalem in the late 1990s experienced terror firsthand. unfortunately you could not avoid it.

6. I am a bit behind the curve on this one, but RivkA could use your tefillos....

Picture of the Day (potd)

2009-07-07T17:05:00.000+03:00

Different Perspectives

2009-07-07T12:53:00.002+03:00

It is always interesting to see how different people see and perceive the same events, each from his/her own perspective, and come up with completely different, even opposing, understandings of those events.

For example, in this past weeks array of local Bet Shemesh newspapers, they all described a recent municipal committee meeting in which a vote was meant to take place on a number of issues including RBS C/G/3/Gimmel. I don't recall (and don't have the papers in front of me) exactly the details of what they were to be voting on, and it does not matter for the discussion here.

The secular and DL reps found out that the meeting was going to include a certain vote, so they presented a united front, got everybody there, even pulling in a rep from his vacation out of the city, and presented a majority to vote against the proposal.

The mayor retracted the intent to hold a vote on the issue.

Here were the different perspectives:

The secular papers all presented the situation as a successful stand of unity made by the secular and DL reps. They got their acts together, stood as one for their common interests and showed themselves as a majority that would reject the proposal. (nothing was really gained, because the vote was only delayed, and they did not have the opportunity to actually reject it. But it was a sign of unity and the ability to work together for their common cause).

the haredi newspaper presented the situation as a successful "targil", or maneuver, pulled by the mayor and haredi reps against the others. They got all the other reps to show their true intentions by submitting a proposal for a vote, and then pulled it at the last minute, even ruining one reps vacation in the process (I could not tell if they were gloating about that or just considered it an unfortunate inconvenience).

Different perspectives of the same incident, with completely opposite explanations of what happened.

Was it a diversion?

2009-07-07T08:35:00.002+03:00

The big talk today, so far, is how Netanyahu folded over the new tax on the vegetables (and the tax on the tourism industry, but people seem less interested in that).

Personally, I think this tax was a diversion. I don't think he ever intended for it to pass. I think he put it out there for the purpose of distracting everybody, especially the MKs, from something else he was trying to pass that he thought might be opposed. By putting out such a ridiculous tax, that he knew his coalition members, if not also his party members, would adamantly oppose, the ended up spending their energies fighting this instead of the "other" item.

I do not know what that other item is, but I see no reason to believe that he really intended this vegetable tax to pass. before the first reading of the bill a few weeks ago, Netanyahu had made a deal with a number of MKs that they should at least let it pass the first reading, and then he would allow them to oppose it. They agreed and di so.

I think he never intended for it to pass, but floated the idea out to divert attention from something else.

Interesting Posts #36

2009-07-06T17:16:00.008+03:00

1. Ezzie writes about the R' Doron Beckerman piece in Cross Currents. the discussion continues into the comments section, with R' Beckerman clarifying his stance.

2. Hadassah posts part 5 in her "Why I moved to Israel" series...

3. Rabbi Horowitz again on the shabbos protests... Rabbi Horowitz calls on the public to protest the chillul hashem of the type of protests that give the rest of frum jewry a bad name, by writing letters to the jpost and haaretz - he offers you the text of the email..

4. Happyduck woke up and found tznius brochures in her mailbox.

5. The Gan Eden Tracker for the iPhone is being revealed here!

6. Good news from Israel has the picture of the Worlds Longest Cucumber - grown right here in Israel!

7. The Jewish Worker says the Eida is clearly becoming more Zionist...

Does Rav Kanievsky see the lottery numbers?

2009-07-06T14:13:00.000+03:00

When talking about issues that have been foreseen by gedolim, people often criticize the idea by saying "then let him tell us the lottery numbers, if he can see into the future".

Well, Rav Chaim Kanievsky has now addressed that claim.

During a consultation with Rav Kanievsky about financial problems, a member of the Kupat Ha'ir tzedakka fund jokingly said that the rav should either reveal the lottery numbers to them (50mil NIS prize) or daven that the ticket they purchase should be the winning ticket.

Rav Kanievsky responded, "Even if I could tell, I wouldn't. The Jewish nation has survived because of the merit of giving. If the money would come form the lottery, the Jewish nation would lose out on the many merits of the mitzva of tzedaka.
(source: bhol)

A side note - Does this mean that the Kupat Ha'Ir regularly uses donations to buy lottery tickets or were they just saying that if Rav Kanievsky would give them a bracha they would buy a ticket this time?

Picture of the Day (potd)

2009-07-06T12:47:00.000+03:00

Caption?

Trying out for the Macabbia 100 meter dash.

(this pic is not really from today - it is at least a week old, and I debated putting it up a few times. I could no longer resist)

Interesting Psak: No Burning Garbage Cans

2009-07-06T11:26:00.002+03:00

An interesting twist has been brought up in the discussion surrounding the shabbos protests in Jerusalem.

The Rav of Ramat Eshkol, Rav Weinfeld, has said that aside from the known issurim involved in burning garbage cans, such as bal tashchis and damaging property and health of people, there is another issur involved that has not previously been discussed.

Rav Weinfeld says that by burning garbage cans, one is transgressing the prohibition of cooking meat and milk together. Nowadays where people commonly dispose of food that is still edible, any given garbage can will definitely have edible meat and edible milk contained within. Lighting such a garbage can on fire means the perpetrator has just cooked milk and meat, thus transgressing the prohibition in the Torah.

Definitely an interesting, and unique, reason to not burn garbage cans!

(source: bhol)

The cigarette that sparked the violence

2009-07-06T08:51:00.000+03:00

There has been some discussion regarding the shabbos parking lot protests in Jerusalem that were very violent in its first week (this past shabbos the violence decreased dramatically).

A claim was made, I saw it in an article somewhere, and it has been brought up in discussion during various forums and conversations about the protests, that during the protests a policeman sparked the violence by lighting up a cigarette in front of the haredim who at the time were protesting respectably. they took his action as an affront, as if he was flaunting his chillul shabbos in front of their faces and taunting them, and then everything went downhill from there.

The discussion generally centers on whether the policeman intended to provoke them, whether he knew what he was doing was wrong, etc.

Thinking about this claim, it struck me that I doubt we have any obligation to be "dan l'kaf zchus" the policeman.

On the one hand, I see no reason to assume his lighting of the cigarette was with malicious intent. He probably just wanted a smoke. On the other hand, I have no problem saying he was frustrated with the haredim and lit it up to provoke them. I am even willing, to play devils advocate, if necessary to assume he did it to provoke.

But why should that provoke anyone? Are the protesters so childish that they cannot handle the sight of a secular Jew lighting a cigarette that it drives them wild and makes them lose control of themselves and start throwing rocks or whatever else they were doing?

They are there watching people drive. If they would turn their heads in either direction they would see scores of cars passing by. They are protesting that some of those cars now have the option to stop their cars in an orderly fashion. The cars driving by are not bothering them (they are, but they are not not driving them to the point of protest). And the lighting of a cigarette drives them crazy?

Are these rational people driven by the need to defend shem shamayim and the lighting of a cigarette drives them wild? Watching the police drive up in their cars, horses and motorcycles is not provocative (though the parking lot is), and a cigarette being lit is provocative?

If the need to protest chillul shabbos is important, so be it. protest the chillul shabbos. But let's not be ridiculous and make claims about cigarettes being justifiably the cause of violence.

Interesting Posts #35

2009-07-05T17:28:00.002+03:00

1. A Time of the Signs is hosting Haveil Havalim #224 - The July 4th edition

2. Yaak points to a VIN story about a Japanese convert who used to be a minister who is heading back to Japan to intercede on behalf of the three boys imprisoned there. Very interesting.

3. Ezzie talks about the new kol koreh prohibiting mp4 players, and discusses specifically a surprising statement made by Rav Elyashiv.

4. The JewDentist points to a dentist who discriminated - in favor of muslims.

5. Rabbi Beckerman talks about the problem he sees with J-Blogs.

6.