Not Kedai for most people--Moving to the secular state of israel (SSOI)

In Israel there are two paths for religious people: Dati Leumi and Haredi. Dati Leumi are less religious than the least religious people in Teaneck. I have been to shivas for soldiers from Dati Leumi families in communities that are purported to be more religious and couldn't tell if I was sitting with Torah observant people or not. The men don't necessarily wear yarmulkas. The women wear pants and don't cover their hair. They carry on at the shiva like it's a pub. There are exceptions, particularly Olim from Yeshiva University who were tricked by the rabbis there to move to Israel while those rabbis stayed comfortably in America. Charedim are no more religious than Yeshivish and Chassidic Jews in Chutz L'Aretz. It's a myth that Jews in Israel are more religious. There are lots of Jews in Monsey and Williamsburg and Monroe who are just as religious as those in Meah She'arim. There might even be more.  However, the not actually so religious so-called Charedim...

There isn't a significant purchase I have made in Israel from an Israeli where some kind of ripoff wasn't involved. Whether it be appliances, computers, real estate, insurance, trade school, anything, there's always trouble. There's trouble with smaller purchases too, for example taxis. With Anglos you can get a fair deal, but not with Israelis. Actually, with the Anglos it depends how long they have been here. You can't even trust a dentist if he has been here for a while and absorbed the attitudes. I dealt with a dentist like that. So here's the latest. I bought a fancy mattress with a bed frame and headboard, from this store: עולם המזרונים רוזנפלד בית שמש, Nachal Zohar St 10. It was more money than I wanted to spend, but I went for it anyway for a member of family. Since the mattress was expensive, it was thicker than the usual Israeli mattress, and the headboard on display at the store seemed too low to fit it. The salesman assured me that at the factory the...

  You know a man is something special when Charles Barkley gets choked up talking about him. In 1991 an orphanage worker in Romania told Ernie Johnson's wife, "Don't take this boy, he's no good." Ernie said, "Then bring him home." Their son Michael had muscular dystrophy and lived on a ventilator. For years Ernie bathed him, shaved him, and told him he loved him every single day. Michael passed away in 2021 at 33. That is what kind of man Ernie Johnson is. That is what true love looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a gentleman. Ernest Thorwald Johnson Jr, August 7, 1956, Milwaukee, Wisconsin , U.S. https://x.com/ohnohedidnt24/status/2115566430879961564/video/1

I grew up in New York. There, you see no soldiers. You see monuments to World War veterans who fought and died across the ocean. Any references to the Revolutionary War are quaint and the Civil War wasn't fought in New York. But in Israel, it's war, war, war.  Recent wars, ongoing wars. And terrorism too. Soldiers everywhere. You see plaques like this that talk about arms caches in synagogues.   Maybe that thrills you, but it makes me feel sick. Don't move here unless it thrills you, and if it does study some mussar.  And side note, how about not rebelling against the nations as the Gemara instructs? If they had to hide weapons in basements to oppose the ruling power then they rebelled against the nations in an attempt to force the end of exile. 

Ben Gurion. First thing you see is some kind of promotional poster about soldiers. Then you see more soldiers, and guns. At other airports you see excitement about the city, its history and activities, its new projects. You see none of that at Ben Gurion, just flags and flags and flags and pictures of soldiers. Israel really does come across as a military dictatorship. On the approach in we get instructions that Israeli authorities require everyone to be seated 1/2 hour before landing, no exceptions. Already they start with the military dictates. No other country does this. It is obvious that this is a security measure, fear I would suppose of terrorists commandeering a plane and crashing it into something, as if that ever happens here. Is this the geula that Professor Hershel Schachter speaks of? It amazes me that Professor Schachter, who flies to Israel several times a year, goes through the New York airports, which are quite impressive in scale, accommodations, and technology (at le...

 We are boarding now for the flight to Tel Aviv and are required to go through a second round of screening. This includes a wand scan over the body, several checks of the passport, and some kind of chemical test on the bags. Already my tension is back up to 7. You know that the Newark Airport personnel are only following directives given by Israeli security. And of course they separated us from our bags and wallet. American and European security are sensitive to the fact that you want to keep an eye on them. Israelis go out of their way to make you uncomfortable. Is this what Hershel Schachter means when he says the golus is over? Wouldn't there be no screening if the golus were over? Will this deranged man and the 1000s like him continue to talk out of their asses, if you'll pardon my language?

 I'm at Newark airport now. The friendliness had diminished, mostly. The guys coming onto the plane to clean it don't say hello. The other passengers at the airport don't look at you, except maybe the ones from out of town. But some of the staff is helpful. Some are bossy, like the Asian lady at the TSA who barked, "Show me your checkin." That same lady in Korea would have said, "Please sir, may I ask to see your checkin ticket?" In Ohio she'd say, "Sir may I see your checkin ticket." But it's all way better than Israel where the security people stare you down like they want to kill you and then stab you with sarcastic remarks. But there's excitement in the air. It's a bigger airport with flights all over the world. You are near Manhattan  with all the celebrities and corporate headquarters, Broadway, Wall St, the Met. All that stuff. It's a tradeoff. I prefer friendly, and my life choices should reflect that, not just manda...