Life in Israel: Guest Post: Should I go haredi or dati leumi?

Interesting discussion over here:

Life in Israel: Guest Post: Should I go haredi or dati leumi?

If I have time, I'll also comment on that...

CONCERNING THE JEWS ...

"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

Mark Twain

on birthdays and nursery teachers

My daughter just turned 5.

Well, actually, not quite... She turned 5 almost 3 months ago, but that was smack at the beginning of the school year, and being that my daughter is too shy, it was too early to celebrate her birthday then.

My wife discussed it with the nursery teacher at the start of the school year, and it was decided to push off the birthday party until my daughter get's more orientated with her classmates.

Yesterday noon, my wife comes to pick up my daughter from the gan, and low and behold - 'We'll be celebrating Simi's birthday tomorrow!'

'You have to buy 45 prizes, and send with her a picture album with pictures from birth and on.'

Sunday is my wife's longest work day. She teaches in 3 different schools / seminaries. between 8 AM till 7 PM.

How exactly was she supposed to fit in also running out to a store to buy 45 prizes?

And a picture album? Of course, we have pictures of Simi starting from the delivery room, all conveniently on my hard disk...

OK, I actually print some hard copies once every year or two, but they for sure all scattered between all the other family pictures.

Go find a small pocket album, and start reshuffling pictures.

They could have given a few days notice. That would have made all the difference.

___

The same goes for Ima / Abba shel Shabat.

We do all our Shabbos shopping on Wednesday.

Stores tend to be a little less busy then, and my wife anyway cooks on Thursday.

And all of a sudden, on Thursday afternoon the ganenet remembers that Shabbos is approaching. Didn't realize it earlier. Oh, and no Ima shel Shabat yet.

Simi, you're Ima shel Shabat.

Your mother probably doesn't have anything better to do on a Thursday afternoon - why doesn't she go out and buy 45 candy bars.

A little planning is all it takes.

OK. enough kvetching for now.

:-)

no such thing as munchenhausen

Saw this plastered on the pashkevilim in Yerushalayim yesterday;

Professor Ester Hertzog from the prestigious Beit Berel institute
(not known to be to pro-Chareidi, to say the least
(Beit Berel that is; I'm unaware of Professor's Hertzog's views))
claims that recent studies in England prove that
there is no such thing as munchenhausen syndrome by proxy!

Now - what does that say about our medical system?

Israeli society seems slow to learn.

If in England it has been disproved, then why do the Israeli's still hold of it?

don't curse the chareidim

Ynet has an interesting & positive article about all the chessed in the Chareidi community: don't curse the chareidim .

[Article is in Hebrew. It probably is also translated to English; If you have a link, post it in the comments.]

equal-opportunity corruption

"It's nice to see people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds working so closely for corruption and fraud. Syrian Jews, Italian Americans, Afro-American, Hispanics ... it's equal-opportunity corruption".

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1102897.html regarding the massive money-laundering and illegal organ trading case that broke out this week.

more to come...

a new blog on the munchausen mom

http://meidaamiti.blogspot.com/

Chareidi mother - a different angle

Tsofar has a different angle on the story of the Chareidi mother who allegdly starved her son.

What's the truth?

cool pdf search engine

As a developer, I'm constantly in the pursue of documentation & software development related reading material.
I just came upon a cool pdf search engine.
I was a little suspicious - I was sure that once I found what I'm looking for, a little (or big) pop-up would come up asking for money.
But lo & behold, it's a free service!
I'm bookmarking this one!

Latest Chareidi Protest

I, for one, am embarrassed by the violent protest, and by the protesters.

Yes, I see myself as Chareidi. But I believe that there is a more socialized way to protest. (If there is at all a reason to protest - and I'm not sure about that either.)

I am embarrassed by their behaviour. I think it paints us all black & negatively.

On the other hand, I can see sometimes an advantage to there way of protest.
Take the case of Meirav Vizel z"l - the young mother of 38 from Elad, who perished a week ago, unexpectedly. The last Mishpocha edition had it that the police officer refused to release the body for burial, until he heard that two bus-full of Chareidi protesters are on their way from Yerushalayim & Bet-shemesh.

tracht gut, vet zein gut

Famous Lubavitcher quote, in Yiddish.

It translates to:

Think good, and it will be good.

Now, that's a hero!

2 potential murderers walk into a Yeshiva library, and yell 'hands up'.

Elyakim Kovatch, a Yeshiva counselor, pull out his gun and single-handily brings these 2 guys down.

Now, that's what I call a hero!

Way to go, Kovatch!

Yeshiva counselor who killed terrorists lives to tell the tale

Who are you, Abe Cohen?

'v'raita es achorai, upanai lo yerau'.

"And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen." (Exodus 33:23)

We humans can not know Him. We can only know who / what He is not.

And we are commanded to emulate Him & 'follow in His ways'...

I'll tell you one thing: I'm not who you think!

answers

Answers.

Definitely not a Jewish concept.

A Jew answers a question with another question.

It should have been named questions...

Chareidim and the internet

Chareidim don't use the internet.

Or do they?

Officially - it's banned.

But recent polls say that somewhere between 40 to 50 percent of chareidi households have some kind of internet access.

And that's not to mention those who have access to internet in the workplace.

(Chareidim that work? another stereotype broken... but that's for a different post!)

keeping it kosher

no... not the food.

Your computer.

Or to be more precise, the software on your computer.

Several years ago, I hired someone to install some software on my computer (nowadays, I do it myself... ).

"I assume it's freeware", I said, half innocently.

"no", he replied, "it's gneiva-ware"...!

Today, with the abundance of freeware & open source projects, you can get almost any kind of software for little or no pay.

So... Why be a ganef? Is it worth it?

What would the Chofetz Chaim do?

My Rosh Yeshiva was fond of saying, whenever in doubt - just think of what the Chofetz Chaim would have done.

That's a standard I've tried to live up to.

Was I always successful? Not necessarily...

Would the Chofetz Chaim be sitting next to a computer, blogging away?

What do you think?

beutiful scenery

Can you spot the location?

YU Maccabeats - Lecha Dodi

Some Acappella music for the drei voch.

Note: this is not to imply that it is permissable to listen to vocal music during the drei voch. It's actually arguable. If in doubt, consult your LOR.

Madoff & Me

I have nothing to do with Bernie Madoff.

Or do I?

Well... I certainly didn't invest any money by him...

But there's a lesson to be learnt, even for us who've never heard of him before.

Emuna Braverman in a wonderful essay: Madoff & Me.

Twouble with Twitters

A Jewish bus driver

Following a late minyan for Maariv Wednesday night, I was standing in the street shmuzing with a friend. Time was approaching 11:30 PM.

All of a sudden, a bus approaches, and screeches to a halt.

The bus driver opens his window, and yells out to us;

"what time does the fast start tomorrow morning?"...

Only in Israel...

An easy and meaningfull fast to y'all!