Tuesday, October 30, 2018

stun grenades

The results of stun grenades used by Israeli police against Charedim protesting the arrest of a young religious woman who is resisting the draft. Police used over 100 stun grenades. Charedim it is time to leave Israel if you can. Jews in America, Europe, and South Africa don't come to Israel anymore, not for holidays, not for tourism, and certainly not to study or live.

   

  






Sunday, October 28, 2018

the precept of brotherly love

"Alas, to what cruel slander has Judaism, the heritage of the Abrahamites, along with its bearers, the Jews, been subjected through the ages! The "circumcised race" has been accused of regarding itself as the sole chosen people of God. We are told that the sign [of the covenant] which sets the Jews apart from all the others must of necessity rob them of all cosmopolitanism, of all thought and feeling for their fellow men, turning the God of heaven and earth, the God of all human souls, into the narrow, parochial deity of their own particular spot on earth, the national god of their own tribe.

"And now we are shown the first circumcised Jew. He is seated "in the grove of Mamre...." He is still with Abner, Eshkol, and Mamre..." Though Abraham had been circumcised, his relationship with the non-Abrahamite world had remained unchanged. These much-maligned rabbis of old, those most authentic spiritual heirs of Abraham, teach us that the one great concern which motivated Abraham to sit before his door, directly exposed to the burning sun, was the apprehension lest now, following his circumcision, other men might avoid him. Our Sages have pointed this out in order to impress upon the sons of Abraham, through Abraham's own example, the dictum that hospitality to wanderers is regarded as more praiseworthy than standing before the countenance of God. This is true even in the case of wanderers such as those whom Abraham might expect to receive as his guests: uncircumcised idolaters (for what other people could Abraham have expected to see at this point?). And so we are shown Abraham hurrying away from God's presence in order that he may practice with those wanderers the precept of brotherly love."

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch on Bereshis 18:1, parshas Vayera

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Lead story on Human Rights Watch condemns Palestinian authorities

For those who claim that the human rights organizations only criticize Israel, the lead story on the Human Rights Watch website features a new 149 page report that condemns the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for political repression and torture. However, HRW only criticizes Palestinian treatment of Palestinians. I'm having trouble locating a condemnation of Palestinian terror of Israel.


"(Ramallah) – The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas authorities in Gaza routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. As the Palestinian Authority-Hamas feud has deepened, each has targeted the other’s supporters."

Friday, October 19, 2018

TIDE Event in Israel

As I have mentioned, in my view there's little Torah Im Derech Eretz in Eretz Yisroel. Militarism is the biggest reason for this. Draft exemption rules require that a man never work a day in his life in order to be exempted from the draft. So while people like to complain about Charedim not working, they need to know a big cause of that is the draft, perhaps the primary cause. So why don't Charedim just go to the army? Answer is because the environment is not kosher in about 50 different ways. 

One would think that having a country full of Jews would allow for TIDE. However, that would only apply if it's a religious country, which it definitely is not. 

Nevertheless, now and again, little slivers of Torah Im Derech Eretz surface. Next month in Jerusalem, the Taub Center is hosting a series of lectures on the Israeli labor market. The Taub Center is a non-profit non-governmental social policy organization. It seems to be fashioned like an American organization, hence the TIDE. Here are some details on the event:

http://taubcenter.org.il
Date: November 04, 2018 / 8:30-16:30 / Mishkenot Sha'ananim
The Herbert M. Singer
Annual International Policy Conference
Envisioning the Future of Israel’s Labor Market
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem
The conference will be conducted in Hebrew and English with simultaneous translation
Introduction
Motty Elisha, Head of Employment, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services
Prof. Avi Weiss, President, Taub Center
First Session: Productivity, High Tech and the Start-Up Nation
Chair: Prof. Avi Weiss, President, Taub Center
Keynote Lecture: Prof. Eugene Kandel, Hebrew University, CEO Start-Up Nation Central
Discussion:
Dalia Narkis, Chair, Manpower Israel
Michal Tzuk, Former Deputy of Employment, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services
Additional speakers to be announced
Second Session: The Geographical Matching and Concentration of Firms, Workers and Places of Residence
Chair: Prof. Eric Gould, Chair, Labor Policy Program, Taub Center
Keynote Lecture: Prof. Edward Glaeser, Harvard University
Discussion:
MK Itzik Shmuli (The Zionist Union)
Efrat Dagan, Global Staffing Lead, Google
Lunch (Dairy)
Behind the Scenes with an Arab Israeli Start-Up Founder
Taub Center Podcast Launch 
Aziz Kaddan, CEO and Co-Founder, Myndlift
Third Session: Workforce Diversity
Chair: Yulia Eitan, Head of the Employment Administration for Special Populations, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services
Discussion: 
Rivi Beller, CEO, VeHadarta
Moishi Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO, Kamatech
Ayman Saif, Former Head of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors, Prime Minister’s Office
Space is limited, and advanced registration is required

For directions to the event with parking options, click here.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Eretz Yisroel, Zionism,and Medinas Yisroel in the Philosophy of RSRH

Eretz Yisroel, Zionism,and Medinas Yisroel in the Philosophy of RSRH by R' Eliyahu Klugman

1991, Rav Eliyahu Meir Klugman, biographer of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, wrote an article summarizing the views of Rav Hirsch on Zionism. He closed with the following thought:

Yet, after all has been said, Medinas Yisroel is a modern, secular, parliamentary state. Clearly, it is not the Jewish State, projected by our prophets, for which we have been taught to yearn (as Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch so lucidly explains), and that would express our national identity as the Am HaTorah and the beginnings of the Messianic Redemption.

It follows clearly from Rav Hirsch’s teachings, then that we cannot embrace it in its present form with any enthusiasm. Rather it can only be viewed as a political fact and we must work within it to further the true interests of the Jewish people, the Am Hatorah, as we would in any political setting in which we find ourselves – but we cannot recognize it as an expression of the Jewish national identity and the coming of Moshiach.






Tuesday, October 2, 2018

It's not so simple

Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad chief, says that Israel does not face existential threats from any country or group and that Islam is not necessarily a religion of death; it can also be one of peace. He said, “I believe that there is no existential threat to Israel from anyone in the world including the Iranians. I believe that Israel has adequate responses to any threat that the Iranians pose.”

However, it is fair to say that a religious perspective of peace does not apply to Hamas. They revised their policy statement last year. Some excerpts:

Article 20: “Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

Article 25 says, “Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws. At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.”


That's pretty bad by itself. The whole document reads like a threat to the State of Israel. 


I have heard Noam Chomsky say that the Hamas charter was written by a few guys decades ago and is irrelevant. Well, a policy statement from 2017 is not irrelevant. 


This does not mean that teenage boys rolling tires in a field deserve to be shot. But it does mean that Hamas is a serious danger to Jews living in Eretz Yisroel as well as to Palestinians in Gaza.