The Knesset becoming a Bais Midrash? Video

The recent election in Israel resulted in an unprecedented 

change in the makeup of Israel’s parliament. 

Of the 120 members of Israel’s 19th Knesset, 48 are new to the chamber, 27 are women, and 38 are religiously observant; all records.

 Furthermore, a secular woman, Ayelet Shaked, was elected as a member of the national religious party Habayit Hayehudi, and a party that did not even exist a year ago, Yesh Atid, became the second-largest party in the Knesset. All of these are positive examples of the vibrancy of Israeli democracy.

On Tuesday February 12, MK Dr. Ruth Calderon, elected 13th on Yesh Atid’s list, gave her inaugural speech. 

The speech has become somewhat of a YouTube phenomenon with well over 150,000 views.

 In her talk, Calderon described her upbringing in a secular-traditional-religious, Zionist, Ashkenazi-Sephardi home. She received a public school education in the spirit of “from Tanach to Palmach.” 

As a teenager, she realized something was missing from her education and her life. She then began what has become a lifelong quest and engagement with Jewish texts.

Following her passion, Calderon earned a doctorate in Talmudic Literature from the Hebrew University and went on to found Alma - Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv, and then later Elul, Israel’s first open beit midrash (study hall) for religious and secular men and women.

A beit midrash is a house of study, explanation and interpretation. Over 2,000 years ago, the great Jewish learning academies were in Babylonia: Nehardea, Mechoza, Pumbedita, and Sura. 

Throughout our history and until today, when there are more Jews studying than at any time in our history, the beit midrash remains the place - the home if you will - where we engage with our tradition and wrestle to understand our times in the light of its wisdom.

A beit midrash is not a public library where one quietly contemplates a book in solitude. The style of learning in the beit midrash is “chevruta,” where one is actively involved with his or her study partner. Interaction is essential to understanding. The evolving “truth” one arrives at is only a result of the quality of one’s opposition. There are 70 faces to the Torah. “Eilu v’eilu divrei Elokhim chayim”, these and these are the words of the living God.

During her Knesset speech, Calderon taught a section of the Talmud. 

The lesson focused on a story from Ketubot 62b about Rabbi Rechumi. Rechumi was absent from his wife all year, studying at yeshiva. His wife waited for him every year for his annual one-day visit on the eve of Yom Kippur. One year, on that day, he was engrossed in his studies and did not make it home. As she waited in their home, disappointment got the better of Rechumi’s wife and she let a tear shed from her eye, after years of not having cried. At that very same moment, the floor beneath Rechumi, who was sitting in an attic in Mechoza, gave way, and he fell to his death.

What do we learn from this tragedy?

First, Calderon explains, “He who forgets that he is sitting on the shoulders of the other, will fall.”

Furthermore, “being righteous is not sticking to the Torah at the cost of insensitivity to fellow human beings.”

Then, Calderon continued with an important message: “In a dispute, both sides can be right … both the woman and Rabbi Rechumi feel that they are doing the right thing and are being responsible for their home. 

Often, we feel like the woman - waiting, serving in the army, [and] doing all the work, while others sit on the roof studying Torah. And sometimes those others feel that they bear the entire weight of tradition, the culture, and Torah, while we go to the beach and have a blast. 

Both I and my disputant feel solely responsible for the home. Until I understand this, I will not perceive the problem properly and will not be able to find a solution. I invite all of us to years of action rooted in thought, and dispute rooted in understanding and mutual respect.”

For me, personally, the most significant moment in this most memorable speech occurred spontaneously, when acting Knesset chairman Yitzhak Vaknin, from Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party, interjected on a point related to the Talmudic story. According to The Jewish Week, the conversation went as follows:

Vaknin: Rechem has a significant numerological value of 248 (being the number of limbs in the human body, which parallels the 248 positive commandments).

Calderon: Thank you. Yasher koach (may you have strength). Thank you for participating. I am so happy …

Vaknin: I think the idea she is saying is wonderful …

Calderon: I am happy about this participation in the words of Torah.

This was extraordinary. Yitzhak Vaknin is a member of Shas, a party that opposes mandatory conscription of yeshiva students - a position being championed by the Yesh Atid party - and that has never in its history had a female party member. And yet, in this exchange, two members of Knesset from diametrically opposed worldviews on the future of Israel and how to get there found a mutual language from our shared tradition. 

At that moment, the Knesset became a beit midrash.

One week later, with over 30 parliamentarians and staff in attendance, Yesh Atid initiated Knesset Torah Study Tuesday, which will include a rotating schedule of teachers. This group, made up of men and women, from secular to ultra-Orthodox, was led for its first session by who else, Dr. Ruth Calderon.

Rav Shteinman stands alone with "common sense"

There is a sefer online that is called Peninim V'hanhagos. It was actually published to show that Rav Shteinman is not a Gadol but some freak of nature that thinks like a "pusheter baal buse.. 

It goes on to list the sayings and customs of various different Rabbonim, and is actually organized by topics, such as Shabbos, Kiruv etc. 

A blogger that calls himself @GroynemOx actually gleaned and translated some of the comments of this sefer that was supposed to denigrate Rav Shteinman...

Read this and see how practical Rav Shteinman actually is!

1. During the Indian hair wigs situation, when it was learned that hair was used for idol worship, R Shteinman declared that there is no need to worry about this or to change your wig, and about the concern he said, "this is nareshkeit (nonsense)" 
2. R Shteinman opines that the nusach of the siddur isnt exact and therefor when necessary it can be changed. For 'hataras nedarim' on New Year's eve he authored a shorter version so he could save time on that holy day.
3. R Shteinman said, "people make a big deal out of the esrog but it isnt l'shem shamayim, esrog is an acronym (in hebrew) for 'al tavuni regel gavah', people search for an esrog for haughtiness and not for the mitzva.
4. When a young yeshiva student died suddenly, the deceased friends asked R Shteinman  in what matter  they should strengthen themselves as a reaction to the death. R Shteinman responded that it is a normal occurrence that sometimes young people pass away. When the friends asked him about the Rambam who wrote that someone who doesnt mourn death should be worried and investigate what is wrong with himself, R Shteinman replied that the Rambam was referring to major disasters.
5. At a panel discussing education, R Shteinman said that not everyone is capable of teaching (referring to people who obtain positions through nepotism), "we see Avroham had a son Yishmael."
6. Regarding the custom of kissing a mezuzah, R Shteinman asked "what is the purpose of this custom? You think just because you touch a mezuza it makes you holy?"
7. Regarding the statement in Nefesh Hachayim (by R Chaim of Volozhin) that were there to be a second wherein not a single person in the world was learning Torah the world would immediately be destroyed, R Shteinman said that this isnt correct, since fulfilling mitzvos also keeps the world running, even when we eat or sleep it counts since it is done to help in our service of hashem. Its likely that R Chaim of Volozhin was just exaggerating to make a point.
8. R Steinman added we see from two sources (Avos 6:2 and Sukka 45b) that there were times when no body in the world was learning. 
9. While speaking to student R Steinman said that one shouldn't be discouraged that their learning is weaker in middle of the year than it is at the beginning, since this is the nature of things. Even the Rashba's essays get shorter as he gets further into each gemora tractate. 
10. Regarding what it states in Chovos Halevosos and is quoted in Shmiras Ha'lashon that someone who speaks loshon ha'ra acquires the sins of his victim, R Shteinman asked "from where did they get this? there is no source for this idea in tradition and it is very strange and odd to say such a thing."
11. R Shteinman was asked if it can be repeated in his name that that since all kollel students have cell phones that the phones should be kept off during yeshiva hours. He answered that we cant know why someone has a phone, perhaps his wife needs him to have one....a person can decide for himself how to behave here but under no circumstance should it be to the detriment of his wife. 
12. Someone asked R Shteinman whether they should avoid kiruv since they will see immodestly dressed women, he responded by quoting the Talmud: "who is a pious fool? someone who sees a women drowning in a river and says it isnt proper to look at her and to save her"
13. R Shteinman says often that in our time the merit from learning Torah isnt as great as it used to be since we dont learn for its own sake. He added at one occasion, "who says our learning is even considered learning? Perhaps our ideas are wrong"
14. Unlike how most people feel that the world was created for Torah study, R Shteinman says that the world was created to perform kindness. 
15. Several yeshiva heads asked R Shteinman whether they should allow their students to travel to Uman for Rosh Hashana. He replied, "im certain that among all the people, there is at least one minyan of people davening properly, so its certainly a merit if they join that minyan"

Obama to Netanyahu "Stop Killing Iranian Nuclear Scientists!"

A dead scientists that will never work on Nuclear Bombs again

Crazy logic! Only the USA can do targeted murders all over the world, but Israel that stands to G-D forbid lose their country to these scientists, should sit back and wait for Obama to do something! 
What's Obama doing to stop Putin?

CBS News reports that the Obama administration has asked Israel to stop killing Iranian nuclear scientists. 

It was widely suspected that Israel had been behind a series of assassinations of key figures in the Iranian nuclear program, but never quite confirmed--until CBS' Dan Raviv cited sources close to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.

 Israel and the US have both used a variety of unconventional methods to attack Iran's nuclear program.

On the one hand, it is tempting to give the Obama administration a bit of credit here for not leaking the story first. On the other, this is exactly the kind of thing that raises doubts as to whether the U.S. is real serious about stopping Iran. 

Muslim Terrorists Kill 29 in China and the media calls them " Separatists?"

The dead killed by Muslims

The Chinese authorities have blamed the attack on militants from the remote far western region of Xinjiang, which is home to tensions between the government and Muslim separatists.

The state news agency Xinhua, quoting local government sources, said: 'Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces.'

The Xinjiang region borders Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and the Chinese government has blamed several attacks on militants there.

The region is home to a large Muslim Uighur minority who are angry at the treatment of their beliefs by the authorities.

Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists have taken place in Xinjiang itself, but the train station was more than 620 miles away.

A message to those who protested!

My Dear Children 
(My own children were at the protest)
 that protested today in Yerushalyim.

As you and the community descended upon Yerushalayim today to raise your voices against the government, 

I ask you also to open your eyes.

Look at the bus ticket you’re holding. 20 shekel? That was subsidized, in part, by the Israeli government. By taxes that someone had to pay.

If you  came in from Ramat Gan or Bnei Brak, I hope you had the chance to take a look out the window. To the south you would have seen the Burma Road. A little farther down, you would have  seen the metal corpses of armored vehicles that tried to break the siege on Yerushalyim. Those vehicle once held the tormented bodies of soldiers who also had a price to pay.

Not too much farther, on your right you read the signs. Harel Junction. Named after the Harel Brigade that lost 248 Palmach soldiers while fighting to liberate Jerusalem during the War of Independence. 

The brigade itself is named after Mt. Zion. After praying towards the mountain for 2000 years, these men fought to death to approach the mountain. And, they too, had a price to pay.

There’s more though. I hope  your ears were open. On Highway 1, you would have heard  the cacophonic drilling taking place during the never-ending expansion project of the highway. By 2018 there will be 10 million cars on the street, driving hard-working people to work. Many have a three hour daily commute, travelling to work in order to pay their bills, educate their children and maybe, just maybe, have a little bit left over after paying taxes. Yes, they have a heavy price to pay too.

You probably even looked around on the bus. It was Sunday, so you might have seen some soldiers. Some are probably combat soldiers, going back to the military for two weeks and always slightly aware that there is a slight chance that they won’t come back. Their mothers are aware of that too. Again, a heavy price to pay. Other soldiers are just going in for a day at the office, which they do every day for three years. Three of their best years, spent giving back. Quite a heavy price.

You got off the bus in Yerushayim  and you looked around. You listened. You took  in the sights and sounds. You noticed that besides the police officers who you were forcing to deploy, no one was around. No, Jerusalem is not a ghost town. It’s a city of people who need to work, who can’t afford to take a Sunday off in order to demonstrate. You noticed the soaring bridge at the entrance to the city, the light rail, the Intel factory, the burgeoning economy. That, my child, is the reward of Israelis who have paid the price, who continue to pay the price, every single day.

I wish that your school had taught you contemporary literature. I wish that you had read Natan Alterman’s poem, “The Silver Platter”. Because I could talk to you and tell you that Mr. Alterman, way back in 1947, had it all wrong. The silver platter on which we received this country, on which this country flourishes, is not one of death. It is one of life. It is a vibrant pride in our country, a sense of devotion and awareness. This ferocious pride fuels a platter that we cultivate, that we coax into growth, which we can then enjoy. It is not one of entitlement or anger, of self-pity or seclusion.

But, my child, this silver platter of life is heavy. We cannot shoulder this burden alone. When you come to Yerushalyim, open your eyes. You will see a city that is bent under a platter. Bent, but not broken. Yes, we have been staggering these past couple of years. The prices add up. Life after life, bill after bill. And as we shoulder this burden, we are looking right back at you. Waiting for you to join us.

Signed Letter Proves that Rav Hutner, Rav Gedalye Schorr,Rav Shraga Mendlowitz, & Rav Avigdor Miller were planning to build Huge COLLEGE!

Hebrew Theological University Proposal Letter

The blogger Failedmessiah reports the following:

1n 1946, Yeshivas Torah Vodaas and Chaim Berlin planned to merge and create a grade school through graduate school group of schools including a junior college and a university. 

The new institution was to be called the 
American Hebrew Theological University. 

For the first time ever, here are the founding documents of the American Hebrew Theological University, a drawing of its planned campus and a surprising list of rabbis who signed on to it.

In these documents, Paul Mendlowitz – better known as Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaas – and Rabbi Isaac Hutner, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Chaim Berlin, are trying to form the American Hebrew Theological University.

Here is a drawing of the campus!

Chassidishe Draft Dodgers rip out Bus-stop Bench, so ladies won't be able to sit on them in Beit Shemesh!

I hope their  grandmother stands for hours waiting for a bus! 

BEN SHAPIRO CRASHES UCLA HEARING AND BRANDS THEM ALL "ANTI-SEMITES" Video

BEN SHAPIRO

WHAT A KIDDUSH HASHEM!

Tuesday night, the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) considered a resolution calling for the university to divest from businesses that supposedly “profit from the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.”

Braving hundreds of anti-Israel speakers and protesters, Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro, a UCLA alumnus, took the microphone and delivered a fiery lecture to the student council and the protesters, exposing the true motive of the so-called Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement: Jew-hatred.

Here is the transcript of his two-minute remarks:

My name is Ben Shapiro. I'm an alumnus of this university I'm also a local talk show host on 870 [AM] in the morning, and I got out of bed and left my one-month-old baby there when I saw what was going on here tonight. I've never been more ashamed to be a Bruin. I've never been more ashamed to be an alumnus of this university than to see this divestment petition being considered at this level.

To pretend this is about occupation, to pretend this is about peace, to pretend that this anything other than vile, spiteful Jew hatred is a lie!

There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Saudi Arabia. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Iran. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Palestine. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing the vast bevy of human rights violations that happen every day in the Middle East, exponentially worse that what happens in Israel.

Any gay or lesbian that is targeting Israel in this room seems to have forgotten how high they hang gays from cranes in Iran. Every person of liberal bent who suggests that Israel is the problem in the Middle East seems to have forgotten that there is only one country in the Middle East that actually has any sort of religious diversity in it. The countries that are apartheid countries are those that are Judenrein[free of Jews] – like, for example, Palestine.

So, for us to sit here and pretend that Israel is somehow on a lower moral plane is a direct manifestation of anti-Semitism. And to hold Jews to a different moral standard than any other country or group on the face of the earth represents nothing but an age-old and historic hatred for the Jewish people. All the folks here who are pretending that the B.D.S is about anything other than that – I would like to see a poll of those folks, and see how many of them actually believe in the existence of a Jewish state, qua-Jewish state, not as a state like any other, but as a Jewish state. They don't. They don't acknowledge that existence. They don't believe in that existence. They don't believe in peace. All this is about, pure and simple, is a desire to target the Jewish people.

Shapiro’s remarks earned a standing ovation from pro-Israel students and forced the student council leaders to tell anti-Israel protesters to allow dissenters to speak freely. After hours of debate, the student government finally voted on the resolution at 6:30 a.m. By a vote of 7-5, the resolution was rejected. All student government members voted anonymously and told the UCLADaily Bruin that they did so out of concern for their safety. The BDS movement’s defeat led at least some anti-Israel students to the verge of apoplexy.

Prices are going to drop for Apartments in Yerushalyim, Belzer Rebbe says there will be "Mass Emigration"

Can't wait for the "Mass Emigration" that the Belzer Rebbe is predicting, now I will be able to buy an apartment in Yerushalyim for a more reasonable price,
and I will command a better price for my home in Monsey! Win win situation. 

But I don't get it.!!! Isn't it a mitzvah to defend Eretz Yisrael and the lives of your loved ones against an enemy? 

Didn't Moshe dispatch an army to fight Amalek? 

And wasn't it the tzadikim who were usually selected to go out to battle in ancient times? 
Why are they so reluctant to fulfill their obligations of service in one capacity or another? 
How frum can they be if they're so concerned that serving in the army will corrupt their religious values?. 
It's the same battle that we all have to wage against the Yaitzer Harah every minute of our lives.

The “HaMachane HaChareidi” publication delivers the Holy words of the Belzer Rebbe Shlita. 

This week’s edition carries the headline “Prepare for mass emigration” as a result of the draft gezeiros.

 According to the report, a group of American students are committed to assisting chareidi families wishing to receive refugee status abroad. This undoubtedly reflects just how serious the rebbe is regarding threats to compel talmidim and avreichim yeshivos to leave beis medrash to serve in the IDF or a state-approved national service program.

The report states that efforts towards arranging for the first wave of people to leave Eretz HaKodesh have begun. The report speaks of “a wave of mass emigration to the Diaspora” to escape the gezeiros and permit bnei Torah to continue their lives of avodas Hashem.

Lawrence and Five Towns reeling with the firing of Rabbi Dovid Weinberger! UPDATED!

Lawrence is still in shock that Congregation Shaaray Tefila bounced Rabbi Dovid Weinberger from his prestigious position as Moro D'Asreh. 
Rabbi Weinberger is the author of the famous Artscroll sefer "The Traveler's Halachic Handbook! 

UPDATED!!!!

From the popular Blog FRUMFOLLIES

"The word is out that the Vaad of the 5 Towns and Far Rockaway has declared he should not be used as a rabbi. Individual rabbis posted flyers stating:

THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS BEING ANNOUNCED SIMULTANEIOUSLY THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY…

 It is with great sadness that the following announcement is being made to alert our community to a serious concern of which many of members might not be aware.

Recently, RDW [Rabbi Dovid Weinberger], a rabbi, resigned from his position as a rabbi of a congregation [Shaaray Tefila, Lawrence, NY], educator of young women in our community, and counselor to many who sought his advice.

Following that, we learned from professionals of a number of documented cases of his 

unfortunate and unacceptable behavior. It is the collective judgment of these professionals that this behavior may continue.We therefore feel obligated to inform our community of this concern and advise that there be no interaction with this rabbi in any rabbinic, educational, counseling or private setting."

 In 1998, the New York Times reported the following  story about the Rabbi, however, the story in not related to his sudden ouster! 

Mrs. Lightman, a nurse and the mother of four daughters, won a first-round victory on Nov. 18 when Justice David Goldstein of State Supreme Court in Queens handed down a summary judgment against a Long Island rabbi, David Weinberger of Temple Shaaray Tefila in Lawrence.

Mrs. Lightman had gone to Rabbi Weinberger for marital counseling, and complains in her suit that he violated clerical confidentiality by revealing secrets to her husband, Dr. Hylton Lightman, and his lawyer, information that then showed up in papers filed in a custody dispute.

As a result, she said, unfounded rumors began to circulate, including a rumor that she was failing to live by Jewish law and ''seeing a man in a social situation,'' stories that shook her community. Now, she said, she is largely ostracized there and attributes the loss of temporary custody of her daughters, ages 6 to 12, to the suspicions planted about her.

''I am portrayed as an irreligious woman not eligible to be the custodial parent to my children,'' she said.