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

Sat behind a yeshiva bochur on the bus today. Not such a Harerdi but sort of. He spoke the entire time about violence, how to beat someone up, kick him in the face,etc. Then he talked about car accidents and explosions. Is that just Israel? Are yeshiva boys in London talking this way?

A guy at wedding asked me how long I have been in Israel. 10 years I said. How long for you? 7 years he said with a look of pain on his face. How's it going I said. We have no family here he said. It's tough.  I didn't ask him what wasn't going well. I asked a neutral question and he replied with pain. Keep that in mind. 

So Rabbi Jeremy Wieder of YU is making aliyah. How do I know that? It's because any time a rabbi in the Modern Orthodox world makes aliyah they bring out the brass band to celebrate as if it's the biggest event in his life, as if nothing has mattered until then. Same when Yosef Blau made aliyah. Tell the world, it's so exciting.  What kind of message is that? Have they ever finished Shas, married off a kid, done a chesed, had a spiritual epiphany, wrote a book, engaged in kiruv? None of that matters, only moving to Israel matters. I think they look at it as evidence of tzidkus, because how could anyone not live in Israel, so all the good people come. That's the philosophy. And that philosophy is shallow. A Jew is judged by the mitzvos he does. Where can he do more? Living in Israel isn't even obligatory. There are many mitzvos that are more important. So what we have here is yet another trick of the yetzer hara, a trick to get people away from mitzvos. 

Went to a wedding in Jerusalem last night. Only 18 miles away, it took 2 hours to get there and 3 hours to return home. I left the office at 5 PM and arrived to the wedding at 7. Stayed two hours, leaving at  9 PM. Returned home at midnight.  This is what happens when you don't have a car. And I took a taxi from the bus station to the wedding. Driver ripped us off of course, saying it was far and there was lots of traffic, so he would only do it for 100 NIS. We offered 80. He said he'd only do it for 100. Note: it is easier to bargain with the Arab drivers. Taxi trip took 10 minutes. There was no traffic and it wasn't far. Coming back, we couldn't find a taxi so we had to hunt for a bus, which took 20 minutes and the trip took 1/2 hour, and then at the Central Station we waited 45 minutes for a bus, even though the sign said one was coming in ten, but that one never showed. Entire trip of 7 hours for a wedding where we only stayed two.  I could have driven from New York...

  Number of universities in the top 1000: US: 154 UK: 94 China: 59 Italy: 49 Germany: 49 Australia: 44 India: 38 Spain: 36 France: 36 Japan: 33 Canada: 32 Iran: 29 Saudi Arabia: 18 South Korea: 18 Taiwan: 16 Russia: 15 Switzerland: 15 Pakistan: 14 Netherlands: 13 Egypt: 13 Finland: 12 Belgium: 12 Sweden: 11 Turkey: 10 Portugal: 10 South Africa: 9 UAE: 8 Ireland: 8 Austria: 7 Hong Kong: 7 Brazil: 7 Norway: 7 Malaysia: 6 Denmark: 6 Greece: 6 Thailand: 5 New Zealand: 5 Romania: 4 Ghana: 4 Israel: 4 Iceland: 4 Poland: 4 Lebanon: 4 Serbia: 3 Jordan: 3 Czechia: 3 Chile: 3 Thailand has more top universities than Israel, which is incredible since 6 million Jews are here and Jews are in the top universities in America and other countries. So Jews normally are part of great universities. Something in Israel holds them back.

THE WORLD'S MOST INCREDIBLE MUSEUMS: 1. The Louvre → Paris → the world's largest and most visited museum 2. The British Museum → London → the entire history of human civilisation 3. The Met → New York → one of the greatest art collections ever assembled 4. The Vatican Museums → Rome → Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel alone is worth it 5. The Uffizi → Florence → the finest Renaissance art collection in existence 6. The Prado → Madrid → Goya, Velázquez and El Greco under one roof 7. The Rijksmuseum → Amsterdam → Rembrandt and Vermeer in their home city 8. The Hermitage → St Petersburg → three million objects across 350 rooms 9. The Egyptian Museum → Cairo → Tutankhamun's treasures where they belong 10. The Acropolis Museum → Athens → ancient Greece told perfectly 11. The Smithsonian → Washington DC → twenty-one museums, all completely free 12. The Natural History Museum → London → the blue whale stops everyone who sees it 13. The Guggenheim → Bilbao → the building is as impo...

Not only do Israelis generally not speak English, even the signs listing the departments in the hospital are all in Hebrew. If you don't speak the language you are lost. However, the donor plaques are all in English because Israelis don't or can't donate. The money is all from chutz.