A small potpourri before Pesach:
1. My son just got home from his first week of basic training. He is in one of those "controversial" machlakot in which yeshiva boys are integrated with chilonim, rachmana litzlan. Two chilonim for every yeshiva bochur. Of the 21 "chilonim", 13 are dati. Two of the three direct commanders (makim) are dati, as is almost the whole junior chain of command above them. Soon the oligarchy will start treating the army like chotvei eitzim and shoavei mayim.
2. I spoke at the Torah uMadda conference yesterday. The most prevalent response was "that wasn't a lecture, it was a shiur klali". I got the message. Next year, I'll prove that evolution is wrong and chazal invented the Internet.
3. Justice Minister Daniel Friedman's proposal to change the judicial appointments committee is utterly worthless and might even make things worse. He wants to replace two of the three Supreme Court justices on the committee with retired Appeals Court judges and add the head of vaadat chukah and a professor(!). Until they add (at least) Knesset ratification, they are wasting our time with cosmetic changes to a fundamentally undemocratic system.
4. Can somebody explain to me why people in million dollar houses can't just throw out or give away twenty dollars worth of noodles and breakfast cereal before Pesach? It drives me bonkers that people spend the GNP of a small country to fly to another time zone for Pesach and then ask shailos about what time the fictitious sale of their soup nuts should take effect.
I am afraid I didn't understand your comment about the Torah u'Madda conference ( I wanted to attend and introduce myself to you, but for some reason, they always schedule it just before Pesach when it is hard to get away from work and home-cleaning duties). When you say it was like a "shiur klali" it sounds like it was "too frum" so I then don't understand why you have to "frum it up even more" and denounce evolution.
ReplyDeleteNot too frum, too technical. They wanted pop.
ReplyDeletepotpourri ...
ReplyDeleteis that Old French for Post Purim?
and does it have to be sold before Pesach?
Elazar Stern and Yair Naveh are the reality hitting the fan regarding the delusional idea that the National Religious would somehow "take over" the State by taking over the army. In reality this agenda produced warped twisted human beings that happen to wear a knitted kippa.
ReplyDeleteThe changes are indeed cosmetic - but one can say "kima'a kima'a". Retired district court judges will undoubtedly show more "independence" - as the recent Zeiler, Winograd, Lindenstrauss reports show. Uzi Strussman is another good example. anyone who has heard retired district court judges lecture can see this right away. Then again the current crop of retired DC judges may just be miffed at Barak and the system for not making the cut. However, as I have shown with the recent disengagement road protest by minors decision and the Yair Naveh decision - both whoch involved the same grouping of "minority" judges and both which resulted in the same decision in favor of the oligarchy - changing the appointments system "fic" the problem. The knesset would have gladly ratified Rubenstein, Levy and Jubarin - irrespective of the coalition at the particular point in time. The problem is fundementally deeper than the appointments committee and the knesset involvement or not.
I menat to write that changing the appointments system won't "fix" the problem
ReplyDeleteNot sure why it drives you crazy that people take advantage of a clearly halachicly approved approach to getting rid of chametz - regardless of what it costs.
ReplyDeleteIf the costs are diminimus than the amount is probably diminimus as well. And it is signficant enough to sell than it really shouldn't be discarded.