Yeshiva Expels Students for Getting Driver Licenses

I found the following story rather bizarre.

The head of the prestigious Be'er Torah yeshiva has announced that he will expel 30 students from the institution after discovering that they hold driver's licenses.

The "expulsion letters" were issued a month ago, yet the yeshiva students refuse to comply with the demand.

A letter issued by yeshiva head, Rabbi Gavriel Yosef Levy, informed the students that as they breached the yeshiva's rules, they should find an alternate place to study in the winter term.

According to the yeshiva charter, holding a valid driver's license is forbidden. The charter's third chapter asserts: "A yeshiva boy shall not drive a vehicle and must not hold a driver's license."

According to the students, the institution's staff looked into the driver's license issue in cooperation with the Transportation Ministry. One of the expelled students told Ynet he was furious that his personal details in a government database were compromised.

The ministry issued the following response: "Entering the Transportation Ministry's database while pretending to be the owner of a license is an offense. The ministry is aware of the problem and seeks solutions that would prevent unauthorized parties from eliciting information about driver's license holders." (YNET)

On the one hand, the yeshiva is allowed to make whatever ridiculous requirements they wish for admission. If you don't like it, don't go there... (perhaps, similar to the weird requirements of certain yeshivot that require all their students to follow strict Ashkenazi customs, even the Sepharadim, even outside the yeshiva). Or perhaps, the Beis Yaakov school that expelled 9 girls for having non-kosher cellphones.

Is the yeshiva like the Belzer Chassidim, who forbid women to drive at all? Why doesn't the yeshiva want them to drive; is the process of learning to drive "bitttul Torah" (a waste of Torah time), is the yeshiva worried they will drive instead of being in yeshiva, or is it that yeshiva guys shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place, because it's not befitting a Torah scholar to drive (and they should be driven around?)

Yet even more distressing is that the Transportation Ministry cooperated with the Yeshiva. In the USA, the ministry would have been sued. Here, there's not much that can be done.

Oh well.

Hoping the yeshiva guys find another yeshiva soon...on the bright side; they can drive there.

Obligatory Joke:

Many years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was being driven to upstate New York to the catskills one Friday. Somewhere along the NY State Thruway, the Rebbe asked his driver if he could pull over. Obviously the Rebbe's driver pulled over at the first opportunity. The Rebbe sighed and said, "How I wish you would let me drive...I've always wanted to drive the car, but I'm always being driven around. Please let me drive the car...even if just for a few miles."

The poor chossid driver had no choice...and he got out, opened the car door for the Rebbe, and sat in the back seat. The Rebbe, gleeful as a child, got behind the wheel and started driving.

It was only minutes before the speedometer's needle crept past 80 miles per hour, as the Rebbe was excitedly, getting into the driving. And then, the siren's wail broke the excitement, as a NY State Trooper called for them to pull over.

The Rebbe's car slowly pulled over to the side of the road, and the trooper got out of his car, and walked over to the driver's side.

A minute later the trooper was back at his car, calling his local commander over his radio.

"We have a serious political problem here boss...I pulled over a mega-serious VIP for speeding, and I don't know how to let him go."

"Who's the VIP?" The commander asked over the radio.

The trooper replied, "I have no clue...but his driver is the Lubavitcher Rebbe..."


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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Rebbetzin Owns the Ponovitch Yeshiva

Progressive Ultra Orthodoxy?

Last week, R' Avraham Kahaneman, the Director of the famed Lithuanian Ponovtich Yeshiva of Bnei Brak passed away at the age of 97.

Voz is Neias reports:

"Avraham Kahaneman took over the yeshiva, but despite his title as president, he has had little involvement in the past decade due to serious illness. That absence left a power vacuum that essentially split the yeshiva into two institutions in the same building.

Now Kahaneman's son, Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz - both of whom hold the title of rosh yeshiva and are fighting over the authority that each says the elder Kahaneman gave them - are waiting to hear the contents of Avraham Kahaneman's will, which followers hope will shed light on his position over the protracted dispute."

The "last will and testament" was revealed yesterday...a tiny piece of paper...which bequeathed the entire yeshiva, building, property, financial assets of the yeshiva...and even the coveted name of Director of the Ponovitch Yeshiva...to...a woman?!

Rebbetzin Rivka Kahaneman the widow of R' Kahaneman is now Director of Ponovitch. (source in Hebrew)

Who says that Ultra Orthodox Litvaks aren't progessive?


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

One To Go

In the space of a few minutes, I heard of two separate (religious) individuals (one type O in Israel, one type A in the US) in their 20s looking to donate one of their kidneys to complete strangers.

I've never heard of this before, so upon hearing this, and learning that (at least) one of the individuals learns in a B”T yeshiva, two thoughts immediately came to mind, either this is a disturbing new cult trend, or the guy is trying to get over some major psychological guilt feelings he has from his past and figures this will help.

I admit it could be they are truly altruistic, and they see this as a natural and obvious outlet for their altruism, but that simply wasn’t among the first thought that crossed my mind.

It all sounded so strange, I started to do a little research.


It turns out that there is actually a Kidney Macher in the Jewish Community. A young woman name Chaya Lipschutz, who she herself donated a kidney to a complete stranger, and now is working hard to get other people to donate kidneys too. And there is a non-profit Jewish organization that is also involved in this called Renewal.

However, I am still personally having trouble contemplating the concept that someone might willingly and voluntarily give up a non-renewable piece of his or her body to a complete stranger. I’m sorry if you all now think less of me, but I simply can’t get my mind around it, even if it is clear that they are saving the life of someone with their actions.

I’m also aware that some readers here will take exception to what I am writing after either donating or receiving a kidney themselves (or knowing someone that did), or because they see only the positive side to the story.

I will whole-heartedly agree that it is clearly an incredible mitzvah to perform, and you are clearly changing and saving the life of the recipient.

So let’s hear what you have to say, because my first reaction when hearing these stories was that something is wrong with these people, while the initial reaction of the person who told me the stories was only the highest of praise.

If you want to read about this (the subject, not the specific people that I heard about) in more detail go to the article on the Aish site.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Despite It All: Rejoicing in Adar

Several years ago during the "height" of the current Intifada, my settlement was not spared the horror of a terror attack.

Shootings on the roads, infiltrations into settlements, bombers on buses, attacks on yeshivot and high schools were the norm. Families would borrow bullet proof vests from the "Gemach" (free loan organization) just to drive around on the roads. All the school buses were quickly bulletproofed and our roads were pock marked by the heavy treads of IDF APCs.

Difficult times.

Our kitat konenut (Rapid Response CTU) was on alert alot those days, and we were all still reeling from the terror attack at home.

And then, one Friday night as we were sitting around the Shabbat dinner table (I believe we were in the middle of soup) there was a knock at the door.

One of our children went to the door to open it, and his eyes widened unexpectedly as the Rav of our community was at the door. Walking through the door, he started singing "misheh, misheh, misheh", the ubiquitous song heralding the start of the joyous Adar month. Trailing after him were about 30 neighbors; men, women, children, all dancing and singing into our home on Friday night...circling our dining room table, they sang and danced. I quickly grabbed our youngest, plopped him on my shoulders, and joined in the dancing, as did all our children, around the dining room table and living room.

After a few minutes, our Rav led the group to the next home on his list, and we joined in.

For close to an hour, we would go from home to home (as our group of dancers grew to close to 80 people), knocking at doors and dancing in -- as our Rav tried to heal some of the sadness and tragedy that affected our community.

That was a few years back; but the tradition continues.

Despite the awful terror attack on Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav this past Thursday night, the ongoing Katyusha rockets, and the bittersweet times we are experiencing these days in Israel, this past Friday night there came the same knock at the door, and dozens came in singing and dancing.

The soup was already cold when we returned home, as our group had grown to almost a hundred people as we continued to make house after house "smile" as we danced around their dining rooms.

I heard on the radio this morning one of the rabbanim from the Merkaz HaRav high school who said, "human beings were created to endure pain...death and mourning is part of life."

No one ignores the pain of the terror, no one forgets the mourning.

But we can't forget the message of Adar. We survived our enemies back then on Purim and we will continue to survive and flourish, today, and in the future.

A Joyous Month of Adar to all of Israel.

Jameel

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד