Convince mode

 I was online at the Aish site trying to read some material by N. Weinberg when this chat popup appeared, trying to engage me by asking my opinion about world Jewry. As the answers were all about the state of Israel, I wrote that there are other topics in life. This lead to a 'rabbi' getting on the chat. So I asked him about women being exempt from some mitzvos and he told me that classic apologetic nonsense answer that they don't need the mitzvos because they are holier. Blah, blah.

So I told him that I found that offensive and illogical. And what amazed me is that he spent a half hour trying to convince me of it. He used bogus logic and no scholarship of course. So here we have a kiruv site and his goal is to do kiruv and all he can do is argue with me, trying to convince me. Shouldn't we have talked about Torah observance, proof of G-d, etc? Shouldn't he have bonded with me?

Well maybe he should have, but these kind of guys only know arguing. They are going to argue you into Torah observance. They know the truth of course and if you can pull back your ego you'll see that they are right. As you may have guessed, he tried that insult on me at one point. He got nasty real fast. 

Now on this topic, he's no match for me. And I started sending him all kinds of material from the Maharal and others who say men are more holy. His answer, those are out of context. His intellectual dishonesty was breathtaking.

It was such a weird experience. Is this how you do kiruv, by arguing, by having ignorant people pose as rabbis? 

teshuva is possible

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z2URkgKSr8M?feature=share

Dealing with the KNOW-IT-ALL narcissist

 

Does this describe 1 in 3 people in the Orthodox world?

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxhwwgKxGHNhTGCKjoj_8sCdHdTe4tlgI3?si=Q0GbC0DInAyItjPO

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxgqcO9ymdoJNu9zcheVDVspoghccZzQik?si=Aamnb3kFjRbZ2cI0

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxw8L4X8z8dp0a4wMVsgsMkoZ5ZgEwet9Z?si=9WdXljbE4jOsEgVm

making it worse

 

Work on your middos but not here

The Vilna Gaon said, “All G-d’s service is dependent upon the improvement of one’s character. Character traits are fundamental to the performance of mitzvos and to Torah principles. Conversely, all sin stems from unimproved character traits.”

Even Sheleimah, The Vilna Gaon Views Life, p. 17 (1:1–2).

Rabbi Avigdor Miller says that everyone must study musar, no matter what group they are from. We all have to learn how to conduct ourselves, how not to hurt the feelings of other people. For this, you must study musar.

Listen to this recording. 

Rav Miller on the need to study musar

How can you move your family to a place like this? Do you care about their avodas Hashem? Aliyah pushers guilt you. They make you feel as if you are not idealistic because you live in chutz, that you only stay there because you are addicted to luxury, as if every Orthodox Jew lives in chutz in luxury. I say, if you are idealistic, stay where you are because SSOI will hurt your avodas Hashem. 

The brain under the influence

 "וְהָעִנְיָן הַשְּׁלִישִׁי מָה שֶׁהוּא נִרְאֶה מֵחֻלְשַׁת תַּחְבּוּלוֹתָיו כְּשֶׁיֶּחְסַר כֹּחַ הַדִּבּוּר אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לוֹ הַבּוֹרֵא יִתְרוֹן עַל שְׁאָר הַחַיִּים שֶׁאֵינָם מְדַבְּרִים לִמְאֹרָע שֶׁאֵרַע בְּמוֹחוֹ כִּי בָּעֵת הַהִיא יִהְיֶה נַעֲוֶה וְנִתְעֶה מִשְּׁאָר בע״ח וְאֶפְשָׁר שֶׁיַּשְׁחִית עַצְמוֹ בִּשְׁחִיתוֹת וּבִתְמוּתוֹת וְנִמְצָא רֹב בע״ח שֶׁיֵּשׁ לָהֶם מִן הַהַכָּרָה בְּדַרְכֵי טוֹבָתָם וְהַתַּחְבּוּלָה בְּהַשָּׂגַת מְזוֹנוֹתָם מָה שֶׁמְּקַצְּרִים רַבִּים מִן הַמַּשְׂכִּילִים שֶׁבִּבְנֵי אָדָם מִכְּמוֹתָם כ״ש מִי שֶׁיִּפָּקֵד שִׂכְלוֹ מֵהֶם."

[חובות הלבבות, שער שלישי - שער עבודת האלוהים, הקדמה]

הציונות מייצרת סוג של פגיעה מוחית שהופכת את היהודים לחסרי שכל.

“In respect to a human being's incompetence when, due to a brain injury, he loses the rational faculty which G-d bestowed upon him and which constitutes his superiority to the other creatures that are irrational. For at such times he is stupider and more senseless than other animals. He may inflict serious injuries on himself and even kill himself. Most animals, too, we find, possess an apprehension of what will be to their advantage, and show an ingenuity in obtaining their food, while many intellectual men fall short in this regard, not to speak of one who has lost his intellect.” [Duties of the Heart, Third Treatise on Service of G-d, Introduction]

Zionism produces a kind of brain injury that renders Jews senseless. 

PDF Version

Good place for Litvacks

 

Midwestern work ethic

 

9-5 and no more

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZusbjEIGoIY?feature=share

even a rapper does this

none of this NY financial industry 7 am until midnight garbage

do you want to live in a place that's booming?

i want to live in a place that's sane

guess where Akon (the black guy telling the story) is from. Metro NEW YORK!

At age seven, he and his family relocated to Union City, New Jersey,^[16][17] splitting his time between the United States and Senegal until settling in Newark.^[15] Growing up in New Jersey, Akon had difficulties getting along with other children.^{[citation needed]} When he and his younger brother, Bu Thiam, reached high school, his parents left them on their own in Jersey City and moved the rest of the family to Atlanta, Georgia.^[18] Akon attended William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City.^[19]

Guess where Eminem is from? Michigan. Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri.  By the age of twelve, Eminem and his mother shuttled between states, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and mostly living with family members, moved several times and lived in St. Joseph, Savannah, Missouri, Kansas City, Warren, Michigan and Roseville, Michigan[16] before settling in Detroit.

Go out of town. save yourself, You don't have to live in NY

aging and don't marry for looks

 

The Rebbe was against Zionism

The Rebbe was against Zionism

 אמנם צריכים להיות נגד הציונות, אך את האנשים המחזיקים בה באופן אישי יש לקרב, כלומר: מקרבים כל יהודי מאחר שהוא יהודי, אך לא מקרבים יחד איתו את הציונות שבו ח"ו

שיחות קודש תשכ"ז ח"ב ע' 407

It is true that we must be against Zionism, but one should still engage in outreach with the people who cling to it. That is to say, one should do kiruv with every Jew because he is a Jew. However, the Zionism should not be brought in along with him.

Lubavitcher Rebbe

Sichos Kodesh, 5727, p. 407

What about Ezra?

This is another standard aliyah propaganda line, that Ezra decreed people must return to EY and most did not and he criticized them for that. Therefore, we must return to EY.

Firstly, it's not clear who Ezra was talking to. Was it just the Jews of bavel who were prophesized to return? Was it just the tribe of Yehuda. Yirmiyahu Cohen talks about this in his book I Will Await Thee.

But besides that, what has Ezra's call to them have to do with me? Ezra lived in 480–440 BCE. That's two thousand and five hundred years ago!

As one hears often, we listen to the gadolim of our era. Ezra lived 83 generations ago. He spoke to the people of his day, not to us. 

The gadolim of our day have not demanded that we return to Israel. They didn't return to EY. Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Aaron Kotler, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rav Avigdor Miller  and so many others, all these wise men of our era lived in chutz. The Rebbe and Rav Miller never stepped foot in EY. Rav Soloveitchik never stepped foot in the Medinah. Even the ones who lived in EY: The Steipler, Rav Elyashiv, Rav SZ. Aeurbach never told everyone to move to EY. 

A decade ago, I had a neighbor in America, a self-professed Zionist, who shouted that all of these giants must do teshuvah for not pushing aliyah. Imagine the chutzpah of that. Well, Zionists are known for their chutzpah. Guess where this guy lives today? He lives in a town in New Jersey in a big house that was purchased by his wife's parents. 

RHS's throwaway line is that rabbanim have an excuse because they are needed in America. Zionists have to be the most manipulative people on the planet. They have an answer for everything, but it's an answer that doesn't really hold up and is usually self-serving Aren't teachers need too? What about doctors? What about children of elderly parents? What about parents whose children need them for guidance? What about people who become needy by moving to the SSOI, because they can't earn a parnassah, because they ruin their children, because their children get killed in the Israeli military who as we have learned this year do not hesitate to put soldiers in harm's  way? Can't RHS move to Israel and answer shilas by computer, phone, Zoom as well as for the people there? Of course he could. But he continues to live in New York and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salary at YU and speaking fees. 

Regardless, the gadolim have not told us to move. They are our Ezra. So you can cite Ezra all day. He didn't make decrees about aliyah for me. He made other decrees for all times and we follow those. 

musar

שְׁמַ֣ע בְּ֭נִי מוּסַ֣ר אָבִ֑יךָ וְאַל־תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ תּוֹרַ֥ת אִמֶּֽךָ׃

My son, heed the discipline (musar) of your father,
And do not forsake the instruction (torah) of your mother; 

Rashi:

Hearken, my son, to the discipline of your father What the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Moses in writing and orally.

your mother Heb. אמך [like אמתך], your nation, the nation of Israel, as in (Ezek. 19:2): “What a lioness was your mother [meaning your nation]!” These are the words of the Scribes, which they innovated and added and made safeguards for the Torah.

Thus musar is the written Torah, toras imecha is the words of the rabbis.

How can musar here mean chewing somebody out? It's compared to Torah.

People confuse tochacha (rebuke) with musar. To give somebody musar should only mean instruction, englightenment. 

rebuke is something else.

don't fear the word musar. 

Culture there is not

 So you thought a country full of Jews would have all kinds of fine art. Israel has in fact very little, but what it has isn't home grown. The classical music is from Russians. For example:

Even the audience at these events are middle aged Russians.

I'm told also that the Jewish studies academics of the world are not found in Israel. An academic in America told a friend of mine that the last great Jewish studies academic specializing in Kabbalah was Gershon Scholom who passed away half a century ago. And he, like most of the handful of Israeli Nobel prize winners, was educated outside of the secular state, in his case Germany.

Am I Like the Meraglim?

That's a standard aliyah propaganda line, that anybody who points out the shortcomings of life in SSOI is repeating the sin of the spies.

The Jews in the Midbar were commanded by Hashem to enter the land. The spies were on a fact finding mission. They weren't supposed to sway the people against a Divine command.

We do not have such a command. The mitzvah of yishuv ha'aretz in our time is optional. So says the posek HaDor Rav Moshe Feinstein who says this is the case even according to the Ramban. And the Ramban himself didn't come to EY until the last two years of his life when he escaped persecution in Spain. I'm talking about real persecution, not somebody tearing down a poster on the Columbia campus.

Not only that but moving to Israel puts your obligatory mitzvahs at risk. Will you be able to learn as much Torah? Answer is no because you and your spouse will have to work six days a week. Will you be able to house guests? Usually not because you'll live in a tiny apartment. Will your middos improve? Definitely not. They will plummet. 

So we are in a totally different situation than were the meraglim. I would never make it seem as if its impossible to keep Shabbos in the modern economy because Hashem commanded us to keep Shabbos and therefore He will make it so that we can succeed in doing it and even if not, we should keep it anyway.

Living is Israel is not like that. You have to go with the halacha, not with your fantasies. And I feel obligated to warn people that moving to SSOI puts their religious observance at risk. 

Am I saying Israel is a horrible place?

No, I'm not saying that. If you grew up there, if Hebrew is your first language, if your family is there, if your childhood friends are there, if you have childhood associations with this neighborhood or that, if you are used to cutting in line or shouting every displeasure, if you are used to the militarism, if you like soccer or are used to the amount of high culture that is there (not much), if you like smashing your buddies on the back, that's another story.

Recently, I saw two Israelis shouting at each other. The yelling was so bad that I was sure a physical fight would break out. I contemplated what to do. Then, one slapped the other on the back, they broke into smiles and walking away laughing. I realized that they were friends. This is how people talk over here. If you can deal with it, fine. If you are from Minnesota, you never will get used to it. In Minnesota, if somebody yells at you, the chances are excellent that you did something wrong. Here if somebody yells, you best no pay attention at all! It has nothing to do with you. But you likely will walk around feeling guilty all day long not making the switch from Minnesota to SSOI.

So I'm not telling you that Israel is a good place to live or a bad one. I'm talking completely to people who live outside of the land, telling them to see through the fantasy sales pitches and know what they are getting themselves into. As I have said, some olim are happy in Israel. Good for them. Will you be one of them? Look into it first, take several pilot trips. Live there for six months if you can. And don't be guilted into anything. And even if you are easily guilted, consider your family. You have no right to drag other people into a mess or to possibly shorten your own life with stress and pervasive disappointment. 

Could be that Israelis won't be happy in England or Canada. The people are too polite. They don't speak their minds. That can be frustrating if it's what you are used to.

You should always be careful before moving to a new country, especially one on the other side of the world. Just because Israel has lots of Jews doesn't make it the same experience as your Jewish neighborhood in New York or London.

Why are you the only one?

 Years ago I attended a dysfunctional yeshiva. It's known even today to be a crazy place. Several formers students who are no longer frum have blogs on line where they complain about it. The head of the place, an insurance salesmen who used his uncle's money to start a yeshiva, was a mess of a person. He could not give a class in Gemara or halacha or anything. He had almost no experience in education, was anti-intellectual, viewed all questions as coming from the yetzer hara, and restricted his 'program' to two classes - Chumash and Gemara, even though it was a school for baalei teshuvah. There was no library. Guest speakers were not allowed. It was located on an isolated hilltop. When I asked for classes in Hebrew, halacha, mishnah, history, I was denied. When I complained about the place he said to me, "Why are you the only one?" Since 1/3 of the guys left in my year, I wondered how I could be the only one, but that's what he said to me. 

Decades later a young man was sent to me who also had gone to that yeshiva. This young man was no longer frum. He had bitter experiences with this yeshiva head who deemed himself the wise expert who could fix everyone. When he was ailing in the hospital in his final months, he paid for a taxi to send this young man to his hospital room so he could 'straighten out' the young man, who today is very bitter about the condescending and heavy handed treatment he received. He told me that the yeshiva head said to him, "Why are you the only one?" I said, "He said that to you too?" We laughed. Turns out he said it to all kinds of people. The young man told me of others who were told the same thing. Each one was the only one,

This might be a line used in yeshivas to shame a bochur, to make him feel that there's something wrong with him.  The yeshiva can't possibly be wrong or even wrong for him. And the proof is that he's the only one who doesn't like it there.

There's a school principal in my town that warns olim against moving children above the age of 7 to Israel,  He said, go out to such and such street on Shabbos at night and you'll see all the olim who are now off the derech. The street is full of them. And it's true, I was out late this Shabbos and I saw all kinds of rowdy off the derech American olim. They were too old to be brought to Israel and they got messed up. Are they each the only one? 

The phrase why are you the only one puts the failures of the institution on the child, it puts the failures of the society on the child. It's a horrible thing to say and it's never true. Life is complicated and there are all kinds of reasons why a child might not fit in a certain school, why he might be struggling in life. And there are all kinds of people that struggle in life. Nobody is the only one. 

When a social worker utters a phrase like that you really have a problem because a social worker is where we go to fix the damage done by school heads that say, "Why are you the only one?" When you find out that the social worker worked in a yeshiva, on the rabbinic staff, a light flashes: Oh that's where he learned that phrase. 

Social work is not rabbanus. It's an entirely different profession. It requires listening not preaching. It requires listening, not talking over people. A social worker helps the client to find his own voice. He doesn't critique the client's thoughts. He certainly doesn't shame him by telling him or his parents that he's the only one.

If a yeshiva guy is to become a therapist he has to transform himself. In yeshiva, he argued all day long. He has to drop the arguing. In yeshiva he was taught essentially that bochurim are not much more than a yetzer hara that needs to be fixed by the rabbi. He has to drop that or he is liable to really damage already damaged people. Few make that transition because they don't really respect the profession. They just see it as a decent parnassah. They really want to be rabbis or in full time learning and this will have to do. 

I'm calling the police

This is a national sport in SSOI, calling the police on people. I have a friend who was a day late on his rent. His landlord called the police. 

I was once playing whiffle ball with some kids. We had a nice game going, a whole playground with two teams. Then some teenagers came with a soccer ball and started kicking it around hitting the kids. When I asked them to stop, they screamed at me. At one point I grabbed the ball from them and they threatened to call the police. 

I know a guy who married a girl who was around 18. I don't know her exact age. But a neighbor called the police on them claiming that she was underaged (according to the law), as if that mattered in his life. The policeman knocked on the door and threw him to the floor, kicking him. They then hogtied him and carried him to prison.

A person in my neighborhood called the police on an outdoor minyan during the COVID craze. These men were outside and at least six feet away from one another. One guy was in the middle of the Amidah when the police came and he kept davening. They arrested him. Nicest guy in the world.

A social worker called the police on another guy I know. Are you so and so? Yes. Smash against the wall. Knock to the floor. Handcuffs. On Shabbos. While he was in the police station a woman was brought in with handcuffs and leg shackles. I guess she was really dangerous to the big, tough policemen. They wanted this guy to sign a paper on Shabbos. He refused and the policeman took the guy's hand by force and made him sign. That's Israel.

Ten year old boy forgets to swipe his card on the bus. Two checkers get on (I have commented elsewhere that there seem to be more checkers than drivers in this police state) and finding with their little smart phone scanners that he didn't pay, start howling at him and threatening to call the police.

Guy in wheelchair is being helped on the bus in the back door of a very crowded bus. The driver didn't see him because of the throng of people that are often on the bus and started to close the door. A long-coated guy (one who should know that it's a sin to call the police on a Jew) runs up, starts howling (that's the other sport in Israel) and threatens to call the police.

I know a guy whose daughter was getting relentlessly bullied. He tried numerous times to speak to the neighbors to get their sons to stop. They refused to even come outside to look. One day when the bullying was particularly bad, he knocked on their door to talk to the father about it. The man closed to the door in his face at which time he reacting by pushing the door away (so it wouldn't smash into him) and hitting the door twice in frustration. They called the police on him. These are yeshivish people.

In all my years in America, I only heard of one Jew calling the police on another Jew. It was a crazy lady who kept claiming that her ex-husband violated his restraining order. The police used to apologize to him when they showed up at his door. In Israel, calling the police leads to a beating, shackles, interrogation, and 24 hours without being allowed to take a p..s (use the bathroom). It can also result in years of dealings with judges and lawyers as happened to another person I know for the most innocent of misunderstandings, but I can't get into that here.

This is all a way of bullying somebody, of punching them via somebody else. It's cowardly certainly. I propose that its origin is in taking the land by force against the decree of the Gemara. That led to having to or choosing to police another nation that is equal in size to your own. That turns you into a bully. There's a Midrash which says that you shouldn't speak lashon hara about gentiles because you will come to speak it about Jews. It's the same with violence and bullying. 

Two Stories

I work with two guys who are part Israeli/part American. They are Dati Leumi. And they have two personalities. There's the American personality with which they operate their business. Honest and pleasant. The Israeli personality comes out when they talk of other subjects. They regularly bash Haredim who they depict as dirty, lazy, violent, and worst of all (in their eyes) shamefully unwilling to join their ridiculous military. I ask them to stop. They keep doing it. When they tell me that Haredi neighborhoods are filthy, I open the front door of our office in a secular neighborhood and show them the pile of junk that we have been staring at for two years. I remind them of the pile of junk on the road near the office that we pass on the way to work. This doesn't affect their bad habit of sinas chinam charedim.

Now a second story. One of the guys asked me if I knew of a shiduch for his older unmarried daughter. I said I'd think about it, but I could get a bracha from a tzadick that I was going to see that day. The tzadick gave a nice bracha. I noted that it seemed particularly heartfelt. Four months later my coworker said that he should get a mazel tov because his daughter was engaged. I asked when she met the guy. Turns out, it was a few days after the tzadick's bracha. The tzadick is Haredi of course. I told them about the possible connection, but the Haredi bashing continues.

 

What really happened in Amsterdam

 Audio

Amsterdam mayor says she regrets use of word 'pogrom' to describe attacks on Israelis

Femke Halsema used the term to describe the violence which followed a football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax football club.

The Mayor of Amsterdam has said she regrets using the word 'pogrom' to describe the attacks on Israeli football fans in the Dutch capital following the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax.

Speaking at a press conference on the day following the match, Halsema had said "Boys on scooters crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli football fans, it was a hit and run. I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms."

But Halsema has now rowed back on her use of the term, claiming it had been manipulated to serve political agendas both nationally and internationally.

"I must say that in the following days I saw how the word pogrom became very political and actually became propaganda. The Israeli government, talking about a Palestinian pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam. In The Hague, the word pogrom is mainly used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers, Muslims. I didn't mean it that way. And I didn't want it that way," Halsema told Dutch state media on Sunday.

Asked whether she would use the term again, Halsema said "I did not make a direct comparison but said that I could imagine the feeling. And with that I wanted to express grief. But I am not an instrument in a national and international political fight."

The mayor has criticised local security services for their failure to anticipate the violence, saying "That information was not known to me...The story of a racist club was never properly told to me."

She also condemned Israel for its swift portrayal of the incident as an attack on Israelis, despite prior behaviour by Maccabi supporters in which they chanted anti-Arab slogans and tore down Palestinian flags.

"We were completely caught off guard by Israel. At 3am, (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu was already giving a lecture about what happened in Amsterdam, while we were still gathering the facts," she said in Sunday's interview.

The football match violence has rocked the Dutch government, with country's finance secretary announcing her resignation on Friday following comments by Hard-right Dutch political leader Geert Wilders.

Wilders last Wednesday blamed Moroccans for the attacks on Israeli football fans, claiming that "we saw Muslims hunting Jews" and added it was fuelled by "Moroccans who want to destroy Jews." He said those convicted of involvement should be deported if they have dual nationality.

Announcing her resignation, Morocco-born Nora Achahbar of centrist New Social Contract party said that "the polarising manners have had such an impact on me that I could, or would, no longer fulfil my role as state secretary."

"Polarisation in society is dangerous because it undermines the bond between people. Because of that, we start seeing each other as opponent instead of fellow citizens," she said in a statement.

Amsterdam mayor says she regrets use of word 'pogrom' to describe attacks on Israelis | Euronews

A bad idea

 

"a waste of Judaism"

Tales from the Israeli Cheder

Cheder head orders children into groups and scolds them if they leave the groups. Says, we must teach them to be soldiers. The boys are 4 years old.

Boy says, "I don't want to be here." Cheder head says then leave. Opens the door and shoves the kid outside. Kid cries in terror, let me back in. Cheder head says, we must show them who's boss. Kid is 4 years old. 

Cheder head advocates violence with the kids. Grab them by the ears he tells the workers. 

Welcome to Israel where the culture is cruel militarism. This is what happens when you start a country by violating the Three Oaths and taking the land by force. Hashem leads you in the direction you want to go. You want to be violent?

Israelis in Amsterdam

 

Warning - there's profanity in this one

My grandmother came from the Ukraine. She recalled the pogroms "the goyim came in and hurt people." She didn't like to talk about it. She'd say just that, look off in the distance, and her voice would trail away. She was an aidle yiddisheh woman just living her Jewish life in poverty. She and her family didn't parade into another country, attack people and property and chant genocidal rape fantasies. Don't even dare coopt the word pogrom to describe what happened in Amsterdam.  

No it wasn't a pogrom. 

The Israelis as usual started all the trouble.

Norman was right after all

Historian and critic of the secular state Norman Finkelstein talks about the way the military deals with Arabs. He says it instigates a bit, then some more, then some more, then the Arabs push back, then the military claims it was attacked and slaughters people.

I wondered if this was true. And today I witnessed the tactic in action. I was at a bris in the middle of Meah She'arim. After hearing some commotion, I went outside and saw a troop of police. There were at least twenty of them, armed with rifles and machine guns and stun grenade cannons. 

All the weaponry is a strange sight in Meah She'arim because the people are so peaceful. They walk slowly in long coats and modest clothing. They always seem to be on the way to shul or grocery shopping. Unlike many in this secular state, they don't carry guns. They carry tefillin bags.

The police stomped around, with their glaring eyes, and their dead faces, acting like they owned the place. It turns out they had come to remove Palestinian flags. 

There was only one actual flag, and then two small ones painted on a wall. You would have thought that they were searching for atom bombs. They looked so serious and so angry. I couldn't decide if it was more scary or comical.

The people took it in stride. Nobody spoke to them. Nobody even shouted which surprised me because I keep reading in the papers how those awful Charedim shout the word Nazi at the poor wonderful police. A few people watched as one policeman went into a shul to pull down the flag, and another spray painted over the small picture of a flag on the wall. 

I got this vibe that I often get from Israelis. Ooh we caught you. They love to catch people. The bus ticket checkers relish catching somebody who forgot to swipe his card or who did but his card didn't work and he didn't realize it. Once, a guy from the post office gave me that I caught you attitude when I was about to accept a package for my wife, which is what I thought he wanted me to do. I said, do you want me to sign for it? Ah, he caught me. I'm not her!! 

So the police sprayed over the flag, and I figured this was unpleasant but I guess that's it. But it wasn't over. The police lingered. They marched around the neighborhood looking for more flags. I went back inside to the seudah for a half hour and then heard more commotion. The police were still there, stomping around, storming past people, pointing their guns.

Here's what happens. The police come and the people put up with it. But the police don't leave. They do their best to intimidate until finally a mentally unstable person -- and Meah Shearim has a few -- shouts or tosses something at them. The police rush the person. The Charedim rush to save their friend. And the melee begins.

The police start it all. That was their intention all along. 

I remember something I read from a former soldier, how the police stomp around Hebron with the intention of making the Arabs feel chased. Everything with Israelis is about intimidation.

So right about this time school let out. Was that intentional? Did the police time their little storm trooper march for when school let out? I'll bet they did. So all the children -- and that includes little cheder boys with their payus and little school girls with their books bags -- saw the big mean police grabbing, shoving, arresting.

It was mayhem. And it was all caused by one of the world's most unprofessional police forces. Does it really matter if there are three Palestinians flags in Meah Shearim? Aren't there crimes to solve? Isn't there a war going on? Well, actually it isn't a war, but that's another subject. 

And the world's most unprofessional press -- when it comes to Charedim-- will report that those nasty Charedim attacked the wonderful brave police and called them that dreaded N word.

But I know really happened because I witnessed it with my own eyes. It was twelve hours ago and I'm still furious! I'm told that this goes on all the time.

Jewish state? I don't think so.

Can you imagine what they do to Arabs? I don't even want to think about it.

All the modern conveniences - NOT, part 5

15 desk phones, 8 alarm clocks, 2 fridges, a drier and a washing machine, 6 smoke alarms, a fuse box timer, several sinks and toilets, a hot water dispenser, and a computer - this is what I have had to replace in recent years in SSOI. I'm not talking about batteries here but rather the entire device. At this moment, I have leaks in a toilet and a sink. I already fixed a toilet and a sink. Two doors won't close even though we have had them fixed twice. The doorbell has never worked. 

At the shul where I daven, all the door handles to the toilets are broken as are two of the toilets. The floor keeps flooding.

I have fixed my water heater twice, and even when it works, it doesn't provide enough hot water for a full family to shower within two hours of Shabbos. And you have to remember to turn it off for after a few hours it can explode. Yes, explode.

Because in this land of alleged "all the modern conveniences" the devices keep breaking. In the store, there are few choices, maybe 2 types of alarm clock 4 types of phone, all of which the store keepers know little about. But they all break. They sell junk here. My pants fall apart too. I keep replacing them. And it's more expensive too. Polyester pants that fall apart are $60. In America, cotton pants that last a decade are $20. Computers and cars twice the price. And salaries are 1/4 what I had in America.

I dare say that nothing I buy here works.  

STAGGERING NUMBERS: 12,000 IDF Soldiers Treated Since October 7, Nearly Half with PTSD- theyeshivaworld.com

Since the war began on October 7, the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department reports it has treated roughly 12,000 IDF soldiers, many facing serious physical and psychological impacts. Among these soldiers, around 5,200, or 43%, are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Further figures highlight the severe nature of injuries: 14% have moderate to critical injuries, including 23 soldiers with major head trauma, 60 amputees, and 12 who have lost their vision. Approximately two-thirds of the 12,000 soldiers are reservists.

A notable 1,500 of those treated sustained injuries twice, having returned to service after initial recovery.

Beyond this wave of cases, the Rehabilitation Department continues to care for 62,000 veterans from prior conflicts and projects this number could rise to 100,000 by 2030, with at least half expected to suffer from PTSD.

STAGGERING NUMBERS: 12,000 IDF Soldiers Treated Since October 7, Nearly Half with PTSD – The Yeshiva World

Anyone who continues to promote aliyah is not a gadol, not an ahavas Hashem, not an ahavas Yisroel. They are crazed ideologues and should be shunned and shamed.

Letter from a frum lady

Being a proper chareidi means kosher phone only, no text, no camera, no WA, no internet.  And best not to be on the internet at all (although nearly everyone is to some extent).

You can get WA on your computer, but it will confuse people b/c they will think you are on call constantly and will see your messages immediately and that you have the ability to snap a photo and send 1-2-3.

And if you want to buy a refrigerator, you have to get one from a frum store that has installed Shabbos mode, as the technology today (not just in Israel) has gotten so complicated that there is not just one light bulb to unscrew to use the fridge on Shabbos but rather someone has to install a complicated computer on the back of your fridge to allow it to switch off all the lights/settings that would cause someone to violate Shabbos upon opening the fridge.

So you go to a store in a very frum neighborhood like RBS B, buy a fridge.  The sephardi guy working there has a smartphone but he understands the customers mostly do not.  Yet somehow, he never answers a phone - the only way to reach him is by WA - so if you don't have WA, you have to go there when the store is open.  And like a typical sephardi, opening hours vary between 5 pm and 6:30 and there's always people waiting.

So you buy your fridge, after waiting something like an hour (at least he's nice).  The fridge comes later that day, all is well.  Then some problems occur and now you have to deal with the non-religious fridge company (Shabbos mode apparently was put in by an outside service company).  They NEVER answer their phone and if they do, it's to take a message that is not returned.  Then you find them online and make an appointment but since your hebrew is not so good, you found their sister company and the tech won't do the repair.  Then you finally find the company's WA number and reach them, to be dragged around for about a week before convincing them you bought one of their fridges and there is a problem and it's under warranty.  Then the tech finally comes and says the problem is the Shabbos mode and detaches it.  Then you call the Shabbos mode people who give you a hard time and insist you use your smartphone to take a photo of the Shabbos mode and WA it to them.  You explain you have WA only on your computer but they do not understand until you have explained it 7 times.  Finally your Hebrew speaking teenager manages to get the to agree to come and they say they can come only within 10 business days which means your fridge will be unable for at least 1 Shabbos.

Lesson - do not move to Israel if you are Chareidi.  You have to have a smartphone to manage.  Maybe if you are from a gigantic heimish family who know who to ask for help and who can have you for Shabbos when your fridge is not working, fine.  But for us BT Americans with no family around, no go.

Even the Shabbos mode people do not understand what this is a kosher phone!!!

I learned the hard way

 You think you knew what you had in America until you leave there and come to Israel. A few years here and it really hits you. America is the world's empire. Everything seems to come from America, including the Jets that the SSOI flies over your head on the way to its bombing runs. Certainly, the Internet is all America, from Microsoft to Apple to Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat to Rumble to Zoom. The equipment is half America/half Asia, although it was nearly all invented in America. The Nobel prizes go mostly to America and some Europe.

On the BBC home page half the articles are about America. Even one of the princes of England moved there.

You go to work and service your American clientele. They are so polite and efficient. Then you go and try to deal with Israeli customer lack of service people. You see ads in the paper that say, tired of Israeli customer service, we offer American customer service. 

Then you think, I left that place? And what did I come to? War, fighting, internecine hatred, struggles to earn a living? In America I hardly ever heard a peep of negativity about Charedi Jews, just some from ex-Charedim, nothing from gentiles. Here it's daily. And it's in the newspapers. It's in the Knesset. No American congressperson condemns Charedim. Rather, their religious devotion is praised.

In the SSOI, you are considered less than human "if you don't serve' as they call their slavery in the military. The IDF can't watch a fence and the SSOI can't get enough revenge for its own failure and now it sends boys to die to the West and North. And it insists that Charedim be a part of that. Politicians literally lament that Charedim aren't dying too. That's how crazy these people are.

America is proud of its military. In SSOI they worship it like a god. I have never seen such worship of a secular entity as Israelis of their military, even though it's not such a competent one as we have learned. I think its unarguable that the Zionists hijacked basic Jewish instincts to their project. 

You see spokesmen for the SSOI enter debates on Piers Morgan and other shows. They scream, they interrupt. They sound like utter crazy people. They are self-righteous. They are boring, repetitive, dishonest. They are Cretans. And it's so embarrassing. 

Now you are in the Holy Land you try to rationalize even as it's covered with non-religious and anti-religious crazy people. It's sickening really to see Jews driving on Shabbos in Israel. It makes such a mockery of the religion and it affects you. It lowers your own respect for Torah observance. You can't help but be affected.

Are you tzadick enough to live in a catastrophe of a society with limited health care, with daily battles to earn a living, with poor schools and see it as all worthwhile because you are in the Holy Land? I doubt that you are. I am not. I learned the hard way. I hope that you learn from my mistake.