Chabad Bais Din in Israel Looking into why Wigs are now $16,000!

 After years of complaints about the steady increase in wig prices, a new campaign is taking shape that could bring significant change.

Attorney Nechama Tzivin is advancing an initiative to secure halachic intervention regarding wig pricing, arguing that current prices constitute excessive price gouging that places a heavy burden on many families.

The initiative was sparked by a case in which a wig was reportedly sold for approximately ₪48,000 – about $16,000 USD. According to the organizers, this case illustrates the dramatic rise in wig prices in recent years and underscores the need for intervention by the rabbinical court.

As part of the effort, a formal claim is expected to be filed with Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad in Israel in the coming days. Similar claims are also planned for rabbinical courts serving the Litvish and Chassidic communities, with the goal of developing a broad communal position on the issue.

According to the organizers, the primary request is for the rabbinical courts to examine the matter and consider ways to oversee wig pricing and prevent excessive price inflation, with the aim of easing the financial burden on many families.

As of now, no response has been issued by representatives of the wig industry, nor have they provided an explanation for the high prices of wigs.

Good by "Vasikin" Minyanim in the USA

 There will be no turning back the clock if the House has its way.

The House passed a bill Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent. Proponents, including the White House, argued the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. The vote was 308-117.

Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. States could opt out if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill’s enactment. The Senate would also have to pass the bill before it could be signed into law, but it’s unclear if it will do so.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said Americans are ready to “ditch the switch,” saying that changing the clock twice a year creates unnecessary disruption. More important, he said, it would give families more daylight time in the evening to spend outdoors and support local businesses.

“In my home state of Florida where tourism is a cornerstone of our economy, having more predictable daylight hours is a practical improvement that benefits workers, businesses and visitors alike,” Bilirakis said.

Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings where children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness.

“Millions of Americans will wake up during the winter months in complete darkness with the sun not rising until long after people get up and travel to school or work or have to go about their days,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass, said he supported the bill, but he questioned whether it was the best way for Congress to be spending its time.

“For folks getting crushed by rent, groceries, utility bills and healthcare costs, is this really the best the majority can do?” McGovern said. “Is this really the most pressing issue before the American people at this moment?”

A 2025 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that if forced to choose, most Americans would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening.

If they had to choose one option for the entire country to use, more than half of adults — 56% — prefer making daylight saving time permanent, with less light in the morning and more light in the evening. About 4 in 10 prefer standard time, with more light in the morning and less in the evening.

The White House weighed in before the House vote, calling the “Sunshine Protection Act” a popular, common-sense reform and saying advisers would recommend the president sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed a bill four years ago to make daylight saving time permanent, but it stalled in the House.

Daf Yomi Learners Learn That one can eat a cow without Shechita and would not be restricted by the prohibition of cooking meat and milk

 Vue de Monde restaurant, on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers in Melbourne, is one of the swankiest locations in Australia. Located in what was once the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, the restaurant provides panoramic views of the city, and its menu usually includes 14 to 17 set courses with options like “cured South Australian kangaroo with native mountain pepper.”

However, in August 2015, it hosted the launch of the “Ancient Kosher Ben Pekuah Meat Project,” one of the most ambitious and revolutionary kosher products launched in over 1,000 years.

Ben Pekuah is an ancient Halachic concept that is discussed in Jewish law, the Talmud, and rabbinic literature; it refers to the offspring of pregnant kosher bovine animals that are slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. The surviving premature fetuses inside the slaughtered mothers are not considered to be “alive” according to the Mishna and some rabbinic opinions. This means that although the surviving animals look like regular goats, sheep, or cows, under Jewish law they do not technically require ritual slaughter nor the checking of their lungs or internal organs for imperfections that would render them nonkosher. The hind quarters of these animals—including the fats and the sciatic nerves, which are generally forbidden—may also be consumed, according to some rabbinic opinions.

According to some well respected halachic authorities, the Ben Pekuah is a species (like deer) that is not restricted by the prohibition of cooking meat and milk.

Throughout Jewish history small herds of Ben Pekuah have existed with their special privileges known about and utilized, including the fact that ritual slaughter was not required, with the last of these known herds recorded in the 13th century.

Ben-Teireh Tells Frum IDF Soldier "You will die in Gaza and get burned in your tank"

Woe to the parents that gave birth to these monsters

Woe to his Rebbes and Roshei Yeshiva that brainwashed him 

Woe to Klall Yisrael for not expelling these miserable creatures!

והעברת הרע מקרבך

Yesterday, the graduation ceremony of the Hashmonite Brigade's course took place in the tomb of Shmuel Hanavie in Jerusalem. y Protesters arrived outside the ceremony.

One of the soldiers thanked one of the protesters for learning his Torah, and in response the protester wished him to burn in a tank in Gaza.

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Emotional Solidarity, Even Without Ideological Agreement

by Rabbi Moshe Taragan 

 After forty tumultuous years of leadership in the desert, Moshe finally enjoyed a measure of well-earned peace. The eastern campaign had concluded successfully, and Midian had been brought to justice. The people had been counted and organized into tribes and families, and the process for allocating the Land of Israel had been put in place.

 A potential crisis had been averted, as five women who feared they would be excluded from inheriting Israel were granted their rightful share. 

Most importantly, Moshe’s successor had been appointed, assuring a smooth transition of leadership. 

3year-old finds 3,800 year-old carved Canaanite scarab near Beit-Shemesh

 

A 3-year-old just found something priceless.

Ziv Nitzan, from Moshav Ramot Meir, was hiking with her parents and two older sisters at the foot of Tel Azekah, near Beit Shemesh, Israel, when she bent down and picked up what looked like an ordinary stone. Her mother, Sivan Nitzan, said: "There are thousands of stones over there and it was upside down, but somehow out of all those stones, she picked this one."

Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, an expert in ancient amulets and seals, confirmed the discovery was a Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age, dating to about 3,800 years ago. Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets, found in graves, public buildings and private homes, and sometimes bearing symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status.

In the Book of Samuel, Tel Azekah is explicitly named as the location of the battle between David and the giant Goliath. Archaeologists have been excavating there for nearly 15 years, finding it was once one of the most important cities in the Judean Lowlands.

Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu stated the find "connects us to a grand story, that of the ancient civilizations that lived in this land thousands of years ago," adding that "even children can be a part of discovering history."

The IAA thanked Ziv for her discovery by presenting her with a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship. The scarab will go on public display alongside other artifacts from the Egyptian and Canaanite eras at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.

Yerushlayim in the 1920's coming to life

 

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Bnei-Brak Mainstream Rabbanim now implementing gender-segregated sidewalks

The Bnei-Brak "gedoilim" are becoming more and more extreme, and they are first trying their luck with two main streets that are adjacent to wedding halls!

If this "works" they will no doubt expand this fanatic initiative to all streets.

I hear rumors that they will then ban men marrying the opposite gender! 
 

The Bnei Brak municipality is working to establish gender-segregated sidewalks inside the largely ultra-Orthodox city, according to a report on Monday.

In accordance with a decision by the city’s rabbis, Bnei Brak plans to segregate the bustling Shlomo Hamelech and Ezra streets with barriers and signage to prevent men and women from crossing each other’s paths, Channel 13 reported.

The plan has been in development for several years and is likely to be expanded to other busy streets in the city, municipal officials told the channel.

An official message by the city instructed residents of all ages to abide by the new guidelines, the report said.

The municipality told Channel 13 that rabbis’ instructions are “very clear and speak for themselves. The city’s public, which is committed to obeying the great Torah leaders and heeding their words, will comply with their request.”

Yael Yechieli, the director of the 5050 initiative, which works for gender equality in Israel, decried the move, saying that “religious leaders want to exclude women from everywhere, and if we don’t stop them, it will continue.”

“The monster of segregation is insatiable,” she said, noting that it was only men who made the decision at the Bnei Brak Municipality. “The disaster of segregation must end and the public needs to fight for it.”

In 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the Beit Shemesh municipality to remove “modesty” signs instructing men and women to walk on opposite sides of streets in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

In contrast to Beit Shemesh’s mix of ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox, and secular residents over restrictions on women’s dress and gender-segregation, Bnei Brak’s roughly 231,000 residents are mainly ultra-Orthodox.

Can You Punch a Protester Blocking Your Commute?

 

by Yaakov Wolff

This post will deal with a halachic question and it’s hashkafic ramifications: 

If a person comes late to work due to traffic, and the traffic was a result of a road blocking protest, does the protester need to pay damages? 

A related, juicier, separate question: can the tardy employee get out of his car and punch the protester to get him out of the way? Is this legitimate self-defense?

I usually avoid clickbait and divisive political topics, but this case is directly tied to Shtark Tank. That’s because this sugya is a halachic expression of the Torah’s approach to work.

I want to clarify that this is not meant to be practical halacha, and not a post about the legitimacy of the protesters, police, or anyone else. I am not a dayan, and don’t feel the need to weigh in on political issues. But one of the relevant sources in the gemara will suffice to give us a glimpse into this sugya

A person who damages another person is liable to pay five different payments: nezek (loss of value as if he were a slave), ripui (medical costs), tzaar (pain), boshet (embarrassment), and shevet (loss of work). 

The gemara on Bava Kamma 85b says that each payment could be incurred independently. How could shevet be caused without any other damages? The gemara describes a case where one person locks another person in a room, causing them to miss work.

The Rosh says that this is only true if the damager brings the victim into the room and locks him up. But if the employee was already in the room, that is a grama, and the damager would not have to pay.

The Ramban and other rishonim might disagree with this. 

The Ramban (Kuntres Dina D’Garmi) writes that shevet is not even garmi, since there is no disagreement like in other cases of garmi (where Rebbi Meir disagrees with the chachamim). He explains that at the moment a person misses work, it is considered hezek nikar.

ואי קשיא לרבנן דלא דייני דינא דגרמי היכי מחייב והא גורם הוא לבטלו ממלאכתו וגורם הוא לו שלא ירויח, לא קשיא דכיון דהרזקיה מההיא שעתא הוא דאפסדיה עד דפתח ליה והא אמינא דהיזק ניכר נמי הוא ובין לר”מ ובין לרבנן חייב

The Shulchan Aruch (CM 420:11) paskens like the Rosh. But it’s important to understand the nekudat hamachloket here: what exactly are the rishonim arguing about?

It seems clear to me that the machloket between the Ramban and the Rosh is about the liability of the mazik, not about the existence of nezek.

 My Rebbe, Rav Moshe Stav, used to say that for there to be a chiyuv tashlumin, you need three things: mazik, nizak, and nezek.

Getting back to our sugya, the Rosh doesn’t say that a loss of work isn’t nezek. He just says that if the mazik isn’t active, it is considered grama, and the mazik isn’t directly responsible for the nezek. But it seems clear to me that they both agree with the Ramban’s definition: loss of work has the status of damaged property.

And that’s the fundamental idea: the loss of work is considered nezek. It’s like a smashed window. How could that be?

I would like to suggest that the five tashlumin that are paid when man damages man correlate to four parts of a person. There are different aspects to a person’s self, and each part can potentially be damaged. There is physical damage (nezek and ripui), psychological damage (tzaar), emotional self-esteem damage (boshet), and shevet. We see in the payment of shevet that a person’s ability to work is a core part of his identity, just like the others. 

Therefore, taking away a person’s ability to work is considered actual damage.

This makes perfect sense in light of the fact that man was created and immediately put to work.

ויקח ה’ א-להים את האדם וינחהו בגן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה

We see from here as well that a person’s work is a core part of his mission here on earth.

Based on all this, it would seem to give self-defense rights to the employee running late for work. If we assume that loss of work is nezek, and each moment of lost work is ongoing additional damage, then the damaged person should be allowed to remove this threat that is on him.

Lchora this would be completely independent of any chiyuv. Even if you assume that the protester doesn’t pay (because it’s like the grama of the Rosh, or because the protester isn’t directing his act at one particular person, or any other reason), that should be irrelevant here. 

The fact is that there is a nizak who is experiencing ongoing nezek, and therefore he should be allowed to defend himself.

SHIN BET REVERSAL: New Chief Seeks Fresh Review Of Kahanist Party Ban

 

A dramatic shift in the Shin Bet’s position has prompted the state to seek the cancellation of a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Tuesday after Shin Bet Director David Zini and his deputy concluded that they no longer see a legal obstacle to registering the Kahanist party “Complete and Strong Jewish Israel,” according to a report by Channel 13 News.

The case centers on a petition filed by Yechezkel Yaakov Hasson against the Registrar of Political Parties. The state submitted an urgent request on Monday to cancel the scheduled hearing after Zini and his deputy sent a notice Sunday night expressing reservations about the factual basis that had previously been used to oppose the party’s registration.

Their position marks a significant departure from the stance taken by the Shin Bet under former director Ronen Bar, when the agency supported rejecting the party’s registration over concerns it could promote unlawful activity.

Last month, the Registrar of Political Parties rejected the party’s registration based on intelligence and legal assessments prepared by the Shin Bet during Bar’s tenure. With Zini now distancing himself from those assessments, the report says the Registrar’s position has been fundamentally undermined.

In the urgent filing to the Supreme Court, the Registrar argued that the legal proceedings cannot continue until the original decision is reexamined. According to officials familiar with the matter, the factual foundation on which the decision was based—the Shin Bet’s legal opinion—has now changed dramatically following the intervention of the agency’s current leadership.

As a result, the state is asking the Supreme Court to cancel Tuesday’s hearing while the Registrar conducts a fresh review of the decision to deny the party’s registration.