My friend, the sociology professor A.A., watched together. In the Lev Institute's advertising video, in which a young man appears in the rabbi's waiting room in order to receive a blessing for a successful matchmaking.
The Mashabak (the rabbi's assistant) inquires about the young man's studies, and discovers that in addition to studying Torah (Bava Kama in Bavli, and Birchot in Yerushalmi), he is also studying another field of knowledge - physics, and more specifically quantum mechanics, and zero-point energy.
The Rebbe's assistant, with a handsome appearance, continues to ask whether the yeshiva boy, now a student, has passed the test, and when it becomes clear that he has indeed (Moed A), he rushes to offer him an "excellent match" - "my daughter.".
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The excellent commercial then shows those waiting in line, who have been exposed to the conversation, approaching the young man and competing for his heart by offering him their own daughter.
The narrative of this commercial, we both realized, could not have been told a few years ago. The fact that young, broadly educated, ultra-Orthodox people are filling universities and higher education institutions, from the Open University to the Technion in Haifa, from the Lev Institute in Jerusalem to Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, is not a trivial phenomenon.
A young man, not yet married, with a distinctly Haredi appearance, who becomes a 'matchmaking attraction' through viral advertising, because of his ability to pass a test in quantum mechanics, and not necessarily because of his Torah 'steigen' (perseverance) at the Ponevezh yeshiva, is nothing less than a social revolution. So is the number of 10,000 Haredi students in institutions of higher education.
Is this turn positive or is it a spiritual disaster? The answer to this, of course, is completely subjective.
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Who is a patriot?After 'You need to be rehabilitated,' one of the 'strongest' sentences from the confrontation actually belonged to Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint Arab Party, who quoted the British Samuel Johnson in response to Lieberman: 'Patriotism is the last refuge of the villain.'.
That is to say, the harsh, not to mention racist, statements of the Foreign Minister stem from the character of a villain, under the guise of patriotism.
So what is 'patriotism' anyway? Here's a dictionary of many words: 'A person who loves his homeland, is loyal and devoted to it.'.
That is, loyalty and love for the homeland, not necessarily for the state, not necessarily for the nation. Ayman Odeh also has a homeland, and ironically it is the same as Benjamin Netanyahu's homeland. Also that of Baruch Marzel. Odeh, therefore, can claim to be no less a proud patriot than the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, whose homeland, by the way, is actually in Moldova in Eastern Europe.
Stubborn father. D. Dear Sir, Hello. Your elderly father is diabetic and avoids eating sweet foods. However, like a classic diabetic rebel, he insists on 'stealing' from the family cheesecake, thereby provoking the wrath of your mother, who is already aggressively demanding that he at least 'not bless the poison' he puts into his mouth.
And the law?
Sugar is not poison, of course, not objectively, and yet the great Posk Rabbi Elyashiv in "Hishokei Hemad" forbids your father to recite a final blessing - on the living, or the creator of souls, since the status of a person who harms his health and even seeks to acknowledge it is not that of a "blesser," but of a "menatz.".
Confessing to God an act of self-harm is like mocking the Jewish concept, which sanctifies life and sees maintaining health as a supreme value. Did you eat something dangerous? At the very least, don't say a blessing and say that you enjoyed it (the blessing of enjoyment).
So why should the first blessing (food) be blessed? Because one crumb of cake certainly does not harm, and one should also recite a blessing over it.
You would rightly say that your father, a sweet tooth, will not stop tasting the cake after the first crumb? True, but this is a matter of the psychological field, the satisfaction of impulses, and self-control mechanisms, and for that you would be better off turning to an expert, or someone who has influence over the father, etc.
