Funeral of Rabbi Yehoshua Neuwirth zt"l

Israeli Police Release More Bar Noar Murder Details

There was a gag order up till now. However, almost all of the details that the police released now, and even some that they did not, were posted on the internet in a forum for Israeli policemen. Anybody who knows how to use Google already knew this and more:

Four years after shooting at Tel Aviv youth center where 2 were killed and 11 wounded, police reveal that target of shooting was LGBT community leader who was believed by suspect to have sexually abused his 15-year-old relative.

A 19-year-old man put on a mask and ran into the Bar Noar LGBT center and began firing in all directions, killing two and wounding 11, in an attempt to avenge the sexual abuse of his 15-year-old relative by a grown man he expected to be at the center, police cleared for publication on Monday.

Police also cleared for publication that the whole investigation was cracked after a witness came forward, a man who was a member of the LGBT community and helped plot the shooting. The witness is not the same member of the community who was arrested last week for the abuse of the minor, and whose identity can still not be revealed.

Read the rest over a jpost.com.

I personally was surprised that it took the police so long to solve this crime (if indeed, it has really been solved). I am pretty sure that the area where the murders were committed is just full of surveillance cameras.

It has already been pointed out that following the savage murders in Bar Noar, members of the Israeli Left claimed that the murders were a result of incitement against homosexuals by the religious:

For four years, leftists blamed the religious sector, and especially hareidim, for the 2009 double murder in Tel Aviv's Barnoar club, which caters to homosexual youths. A gunman opened fire on youths at the club, killing a young man and a young woman, and leaving others crippled.

Now, police have arrested four people in connection with the attack. According to leaks, the police have solid evidence that the attack was carried out by a group of young men with criminal backgrounds in revenge for the alleged rape of their relative, a male youth, by ....

Leftists are in no hurry to apologize for laying the blame at then-Interior Minister Eli Yishai's doorstep, and for assuming that the perpetrators were religious people who hate homosexuals.

Meretz head Zehava Galon said that she was “shocked” by allegations that the attack was not a a hate crime. She insisted that the murderers shot club-goers because of their sexual tendencies. She ignored the false accusations over the last four years.

"Taking a weapon in your hand and shooting up a place is a hate crime,” she said. “The scene of the crime was an institute of the (gay) community.”

MK Nitzan Horwitz also refused to retract the repeated accusations he has made over the years against hareidim regarding the murder, preferring to gloss over his off-the-mark attacks on specific populaiton groups, adding “If this is not a hate crime,” he said, “I do not know what a hate crime is. I do not know what passed through the murderer's mind, but the final result is a very grave hate crime against the gay community.”

Mr. Horwitz, it is so much easier to speak the truth than to twist the meaning of words in such a crooked fashion! The murderer did not hate homosexuals. He hated the man who sexually abused his relative!

Rabbi Shai Peron is not Alone!

It seems like Rabbi Peron is not the only parliamentarian to get a case of the giggles while on the podium. Swiss politician Hans-Rudolf Merz also started laughing for no apparent reason in the Swiss Bundesrat:

Aly Raisman Helps Raise Money For Mikvah

Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman continues to contribute to the Jewish community. New Jersey Jewish News reports that Raisman took part in a fundraiser for a mikvah in Livingston, New Jersey:

“I cannot explain how proud it made me feel, competing to the most famous Jewish song in front of Germans, Russians, and people all over the world,” she told the women gathered at the Westminster Hotel in Livingston on May 29 for the eighth annual Mikvah Chana fund-raising event.

In pants and long skirts, v-necks and high-cut dresses, in pumps and flats, representing the spectrum of Jewish denominational life in the area, over 600 women had come to support the Livingston mikva, or ritual bath. Representatives of the facility said it would take several weeks for them to determine how much money was raised. The event was cochaired by Dara Orbach, the great-granddaughter of Annette (Chana) Felsen, after whom the ritual bath is named, and Toba Grossbaum.

Mikvah Chana seems to be a state of the art mikvah:

Mikvah Chana, in a house built on North Livingston Avenue, would have stunned Jewish grandmothers of yore. It offers fluffy towels and robes, a soothing fountain, a spiral staircase, a dome-shaped ceiling, and even selections of kosher chocolates on the way out.

"Mikvahs in the past were in basements of synagogues, and dingy," said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum of Chabad of Livingston. "Today's mikvahs have really gone to a whole new level. They are presented as top of the line, prettier than people's homes -- that's saying a lot for a Livingston mikvah -- and presented with dignity and importance."

Indeed, many of the new mikvahs have unashamedly used their spa-like features for publicity as their numbers have risen from 200 nationally in the 1960s to more than 400 now, according to the Web site mikvah.org.

Congratualtions to Aly for her continued involvement in the community.

Tzippi Livni's "Discrimination and Racism" Hotline - The Second Day

See here first.

I Don't Get It

What in the world was so funny?

Tzippi Livni's "Discrimination and Racism" Hotline

In case you have not heard:

Following the disclosure of separate days for Jewish and Arab schools at the Superland amusement park, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni announced, Thursday, the opening of a hotline, run by the Justice Ministry's legal-aid department, to deal with inquiries about discrimination or racism. Livni's office said the hotline will provide preliminary information about legal issues related to the inquiries and guidance to relevant authorities, as needed.

Ministry Director-General Guy Rotkopf said, "The Justice Ministry and its various departments will continue uncompromising efforts to eradicate the phenomena of racism and discrimination, which harm all of Israeli society."

Well, somebody decided to take advantage of the hotline. I do not think that these are the kind of complaints that Tzippi expected to hear:

Moshe Feiglin Speaks

This is a long clip, over 40 minutes long. I surprised myself by investing the time to listen to him. What can I say? The guy is a thinker with interesting and revolutionary ideas.

Parshat Shlach: Of Men and Grasshoppers

This week's Torah portion deals with "the sin of the spies". Ten of the twelve spies that Moses sent to gather intelligence on the land of Canaan were not strong enough in the "faith" department.

"And the LORD said unto Moses: 'How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them?"

They did not believe that the children of Israel, with God's help, would be able to conquer the land of Israel. They saw the Canaanites and their fortifications, and they did not believe that they had the military might to beat these people. One verse is quite telling:

"And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

Indeed, if a person thinks that he is small and of little worth, it is no wonder that others think of him in the same way.

I myself encountered a "spy" almost eight years ago, in the early days of this blog. To my great sorrow, back then the grasshoppers got their way and the Jews of the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria were expelled from their homes. It was quite obvious even back then that nothing resembling peace would result from this crime. Now, eight years, thousands of missiles and a few wars later, I wonder if the guy from "Ohel Hidrabrut" has had second thoughts. After all of the suffering that the "disengagement" caused, I wonder if he has repented and become a man.

A Test for Yirat Shamayim (The Fear of Heaven)

I heard the following story from a well known rabbi here in Jerusalem recently:

When I was a young man and still a bachelor, I met a girl that I was really enthusiastic about. I was seriously considering marrying her. She was a religious girl, but a certain doubt was preventing me from popping the question: How do I know if she is truly God fearing?

I decided to consult my master and teacher, Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah HaKohen Kook zt"l. After presenting my question, he told me, "See what her attitude is regarding Torah scholars. This will give you a good indication as to whether she is truly a God fearing person."

Armed with this piece of advice I met this girl once again. I asked her, "What do you think of Rabbi X?"

"He's senile", she answered.

"And what about Rabbi Y?" I continued.

"Rabbi Y? Such, a primitive person!"

Needless to say that this was the last time that we went out.

So there you have it! A good way to differentiate between one who is "religious" and one who truly fears God is to check how he/she relates to Torah scholars.

The Al-Dura Affair

The world has been abuzz ever since the Israeli Government released "The France 2 Al-Durrah Report, its Consequences and Implications".

If you really want to understand the Al-Dura affair, the best thing to do is to look at The AlDurah Project. Here the evidence is presented, different scenarios are examined, and one can draw his own informed conclusion.

My conclusion is that we are dealing with a very obvious fraud, Pallywood at its worst. If France 2 had a conscience, they would be ashamed of themselves.

Gilad Shalit Blesses "HaGomel"

[source]

Shavuot Posts Redux

I decided to search my archives and recycle some old posts. Here is what I found:

Tikun Leil Shavuot

Love, Love, Love

Is It Not Wheat Harvest Today?

Killing Time?

Thoughts on Receiving the Torah

Weinergate, Shavuot and the Zohar

Shavuot and Teshuvah

Chag Sameach!

The National Insurance Institute

Bituach Leumi(The National Insurance Institute) has a new sign:

Aren't you glad that I shared that with you?

The Men Who Saved the World From the Nazis

Some of them are still alive. May they live until 120! You can see them here. Read what I wrote about them way back when here and here.

Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi is Right!

Intermarriage is a red line that must not be crossed:

Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, a Bar Ilan University lecturer and brother in-law of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, slammed the government's plan to issue currency with the likeness of Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky. Turning Tchernichovsky into a “national icon” was a terrible idea and would set a bad example – because of his longtime marriage to a Christian woman, he explained.

Be sure to read the entire article. This part of the article was a revelation for me:

Ben-Artzi compared the issue with that of the struggle by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook in the days before the establishment of the state to block the appointment of Max Nordau as the successor to Theodor Herzl to lead the World Zionist Congress. Nordau was married to a non-Jew who could not be converted.

Tel Aviv the Beautiful II

Seen at Rabin Square (Kikar Rabin):

Tel Aviv the Beautiful

Passover Redux

Burning Chametz on Erev Peisach:

Jerusalem Light Train near the Old City during Chol HaMoed:

Damascus Gate:

Seen in the so called "Muslim Quarter":

A monument to yeshiva student Elchanan Atali, who was murdered by Arab terrorists 22 years ago:

The Western Wall:

Minchah under Warren's Arch:

On the way out of the Old City:

Jaffa Gate:

Justice?

INN:

Palestinian Authority resident terrorist Wael Salaman Mohammed el-Arjeh, of Hevron, has been convicted of two counts of murder in the deaths of Asher and Yonatan Palmer.

He will be sentenced in the upcoming days. Arjeh is facing life in prison.

The truth is that even if this low-life murderer would get the death penalty it would not be enough.

א-ל נקמות ה' א-ל נקמות הופיע