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

In Volume VIII of his A Study of History (published in 1954), British historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that "the Israeli has become an entirely 'new man' because he has divested himself of his Jewish past." Context: Toynbee was making an argument about Zionism and Jewish identity. His view was that: The Israeli represented a complete break from Diaspora Jewish history and tradition By creating a secular, nationalist, territorial state, Israelis had transformed themselves into something fundamentally different from "the Jew" of the preceding 2,000 years He described Israelis as "half American farmer-technician, half Nazi sicarius" ( sicarius meaning assassin) I can affirm that this is true. Can you deal with it?

 

 Trying for two days to wire money via an Israeli bank account: זמנית לא ניתן לספק את השירות. אנא נסה שנית מאוחר יותר. תודה על הסבלנות The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Thank you for your patience.

I am far from the frummest person in any respect, and maybe part of the proof for that is that I know of the Swedish pop music group Abba and like their music. However, it seems to me that in a kosher supermarket for Orthodox Jews we should not hear sultry female voices singing, "Looking out for a lover, anyone will do," as I just heard in a Dati Leumi store in Israel. But who cares? As you long as you live in Israel, all sins are forgiven. In fact, there are no sins other than not living in Israel. Do I have the Dati Leumi position correct? So you might hear that song in a Modern Orthodox supermarket in America? Yeah, but they support Israel no matter what it does. Again, all sins are forgiven is you "support Israel", and not supporting it no matter what it does is the only sin. Which Abba is the Dati Leumi world interested in? Not the one in heaven. And so it will be if you move to Israel because the Dati Leumi are attached to the government and together they cond...

A for mer pilots’ union chairman sparked outrage after posting footage of the filthy condition israeli passengers leave planes in after flights to Israel. A United flight attendant named Natalie says she’s seen the same thing repeatedly—and sometimes even worse, saying I can confirm that this kind of chaos only happens if the passengers are exclusively Israeli. The flight was from the United States to Tel Aviv, and he said this is what happens if the Israelis get off. https://x.com/bitcoins1stlady/status/2104901936441168369/video/1 I witnessed this myself on a Lufthansa flight where an Israeli youth soccer team drove the flight attendant crazy for hours with their antics, wrestling, shouting, and pouring garbage and ice on the floor. They even put the flight at risk by throwing off weight balancing as they jumped from starboard to port (right to left) of the plane.  Do you want to live in a country full of people like this? You want your kids to become like this?

  A friend of mine who lives in a different part of town intended to meet up with me to travel to Jerusalem. However, his local bus didn't come for 45 minutes so when the second bus to Jerusalem came to the spot where we were to meet I boarded the bus after phoning him and telling him I'd meet up with him later. I had suggested to him that we take the privately operated haimish bus because the ticket checkers on the corporate-government bus tended to be very harsh. He still thought to take the latter bus because the ride is quicker. The heimish bus doesn't hire people like that and sells tickets anyway. When I got to Jerusalem I got on the light rail, after a wait, but none of the card readers worked. So I got off because I feared that if a ticket checker got on, telling him or her that the machine wasn't working would not suffice as an excuse because, I am sorry to say, that anybody associated with the law, police, or authority in any way in Israel is sort of mean or c...

  Yes, there is currently a severe rodent infestation throughout the Gaza Strip, particularly affecting displacement camps and tent settlements. According to recent reports, over 80% of displacement sites surveyed in April 2026 experienced regular infestations of rats and pests. The infestation has reached crisis levels, with rats and parasites spreading through tent camps, biting children and adults as they sleep, and gnawing through possessions. Health officials have reported that every day hospitals record cases of patients being admitted due to rodent-related incidents, particularly among children, the elderly, and the sick. The World Health Organization has recorded more than 70,000 cases of ectoparasite infections and rodent-borne illnesses in Gaza since the beginning of 2026. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, four displaced people have died from skin diseases directly linked to rodent infestations. The crisis stems from the widespread destruction of infrastructure, i...

Comments about Ron Wyatt's claim of finding chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea. Here's what a normal human says: “Wyatt Archaeological Research.” I didn’t know Ron Wyatt and I have no animosity towards him. However, the following information makes me question his claims: Ron Wyatt was not an archaeologist (he was a nurse anesthetist). This, in and of itself does not mean that he could not make a discovery. Many archaeological digs have volunteers helping them; some of these volunteers even make important discoveries. The interpretation of the discovery is done by trained archaeologists, however. One archaeologist has said archaeology is 10% excavation and 90% interpretation. Ron Wyatt had no training to interpret the discoveries he says he made. Here's how an Israeli comments on it : Ron Wyatt was never carried out a systematic excavation that was licensed by the Israeli government. Joe Zias, the former Curator of Archaeology and Anthropology for the Israel Antiqui...

Beit Shemesh, Israel 6 bedrooms 2 million dollars. Small bedrooms likely because they are not shown in the photo. This is common with Israeli apartment ads. They show you the view but not the rooms. One all purpose room. No yard.  Compare to Milwaukee, 6 bedroom house for $474,000, 1/4 the price. And you get a yard, porch, dining room, living room, den. You can find a job that pays you 4x what you'll earn in Israel.  and here they show the bedroom 2,153 square feet vs 3,312 square feet And did i mention that there’s no military draft in Wisconsin? Oh, and the government gives tuition tax credits for parochial schools. Oh, you are minutes from a hospital rather than an hour. Oh and you are minutes from a Great Lake. Oh and you are living with polite people.

Declarations that the future for Jews is in Israel is not limited to Mizrachi or Dati Leumi people. In 2017, a yeshivish American Rosh Yeshiva declared at an Agudah convention that the future was in Israel because “the center of limud haTorah and psak halacha” had shifted there.  Is that even true? Beis Midrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey is likely the largest yeshiva in the world and there are many large yeshivas in the New York area.   An AI search revealed the following: The number of yeshivas in New York depends on how they're counted, but here are the estimates from different sources: ~450 yeshivas in New York State (as of 2020, per Times of Israel), with approximately 160,000–163,000 students enrolled ~120 yeshivas in New York (per ByteScraper business database) Brooklyn alone has 62+ yeshivas , representing over half of the state's total The variation comes from different definitions — some counts include small independent religious schools and Hasidic institu...

"Harav Yisroel Reisman, shlita, insisted that the future of Klal Yisrael is in Eretz Yisrael, as we are currently witnessing the shift of the center of limud haTorah and psak halachah to Eretz Yisrael, a phenomenon that has not existed since the times of Rav and Shmuel, 2,000 years ago. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to support the mosdos and citizens of Eretz Yisrael financially and emotionally, and give proper respect to those who come collecting from Eretz Yisrael." https://web.archive.org/web/20211206090356/https://hamodia.com/2017/01/06/midwest-agudath-israel-convention-begins/ Why is the future in EY before Moshiach arrives? How does he know that Israel will even exist tomorrow? The Shema tells us we will be kicked out for not observing the commandments and 4.5 million Israelis violate the Sabbath every week and have performed millions of abortions. Reisman, who lives in NY, doesn't know what goes on in Israel.  How is Torah centered in EY? America has plen...

Here's the house I visited yesterday, a relative who 'made aliyah.' Sounds so noble when you hear it, no? Made aliyah. One of the non-materialistic good guys. Here's a house just like theirs in their neighborhood: You don't know the backstory. You just hear that they made aliyah. So let’s see, they have lots of family here, are intensely Zionistic, speak Hebrew from day school (one has a surgeon for a father), are Modern Orthodox so they don’t have the battle with the army, and they have 2 million dollars for a big house that would be fancy in Monsey. Are they retirees with a lifetime of savings? Nope, they came when they were twenty. Are they lucky business owners? Nope. He works in the government and she has an online job for a marketing company.  Somebody handed them millions of dollars. Oh they try to play that down by saying 'they got a good deal' and 'they bought it used.' Meanwhile it looks brand new. I know many stories like this, people who ...

  Q: Is Hashem also Elokei Yisroel of the assimilated Jews? A: Now you must know that Yisroel means only those who are ma’aminim baHashem , ma’aminim in Matan Torah , ma’aminim in briyas ha’olam yesh me’ayin .  Although there’s a maamar that says ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא, it doesn’t mean Yisroel who’s an apikores .  No. שחטא means he sinned; let’s say there’s a Yisroel who did certain sins, but he’s a Jew who believes in everything. And therefore he’s a Yisroel.   But once he stops belonging to the Klal Yisroel that believes in Elokim, in briyas ha’olam yesh me’ayin or in Matan Torah , then he doesn’t belong at all to the Am Yisroel.  Of course he can come back if he does teshuvah , but in that state of meridah, of rebellion, he does not belong to the Am Yisroel.   The truth is, we’re not even mechuyev to worry about his life.  If he’s in danger, we’re not interested in saving him.  I don’t want to say it in public, but...

On a car at the airport in Israel. This is the most important issue to some of these people. Not healthcare, not housing, not the economy, not even safety but getting Haredim in the military. That's what matters to them. The sticker says "Military conscription should be for all." So if you are Yeshivish or Chasidic, how can you possibly move here? They consider you the enemy over here. If you are sane, how can you move here if this is what concerns these people? What kind of society is it going to be if this is the #1 goal? The goal of Zionism, said Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, is to destroy the Torah. 

A local yeshiva is sending out Succah decorations to its donors, most of whom live in America. The only donors here are a few Americans. Israelis don’t give. So the staff stuffed 300 envelopes and took them to the post office, after making an appointment as is required and waiting three days. Guess what? The post office which is located in one of those so-called Anglo communities only had thirty international stamps, each of which needed to be licked. There were no self-adhesive sticker stamps So now the yeshiva clerk must make a new appointment for when the stamps that were ordered come in. Who knows if that will happen before Succos. I asked the woman who is handling all this for the yeshiva what her view is of Hershel Schachter's declaration that Israel has "all the modern inventions." She said the following: "It's ridiculous." I asked, "Why does he say it?" She thought a moment and said tentatively, "He wants it to be true, maybe. But it i...

 

A Mississippi man served 15 years for a murder his own DNA disproved. Kennedy Brewer sat in prison since 1995. The test came back clean. Someone else's semen. Someone else's crime. The district attorney had a choice. Admit the mistake. Or protect the record. He picked a third option. An accomplice, he said. No accomplice existed. No evidence backed it. The theory kept Brewer's file — and the prosecutor's win — intact.  Psychologist Carol Tavris studies this exact moment. Not the lie people tell others. The one they tell themselves. She calls it self-justification. The DA didn't see himself as corrupt. He saw himself as right. Reality had to bend to match.   Same mechanism that buried Ignaz Semmelweis in 1847. He proved handwashing cut childbed fever deaths. Colleagues rejected the data — not from ignorance, but from the horror of admitting they'd been killing patients for years by coming to the delivery room directly from morgues without washing their hands.  Sa...

My friend called up the Qumran National Park to inquire about it's hours. He was told "I don't know," by the employee who picked up the phone. He asked for someone who would know. After a half hour wait, another person got on the phone and said, "I don't know." Welcome to Israeli customer service and pride (or lack of it) in one's work.  Welcome to the experience of trying to pursue any of your interests here. My friend, who is intellectual, also tries to order books since books in English are not sold here. However, the mail service is atrocious in Israel and it's an ordeal to have books shipped to you. You wait for months. It's also expensive, and many sellers don't sell to Israel. Most of eBay does not ship to Israel. I am trying to arrange a visit to the Rockefeller Archeology Museum in East Jerusalem. The website says "The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum is temporarily closed to visitors." The same website provides a link...

I had a dentist in America  who builds his practice around what he calls sedation dentistry. He says that people are anxious about visiting the dentist and he doesn't want fear to hold them  back from getting the care that they need. He offers sedation dentistry to improve the experience. Primary among his techniques is the use of nitrous oxide to sedate nervous patients, including those with a gag reflex. He wrote in response to my inquiry, "Yes, we can use a few different techniques for patients who have a strong gag reflex. We have many patients with this issue and we have successfully treated them for over 25 years." This dentist was my family's dentist in America. We went to him because of his dedication to sensitive care as we have sensitive children. When we told him that we were moving to Israel, he told us that his brother is a dentist in the city to where we were moving and that we could go to him. However, his brother does not practice sedation density. The...

Israeli dentists are notoriously rough, which is not who you want poking around your mouth with sharp objects. So you think, I'll hire an American dentist, assuming that you'll get American care. One such dentist recently installed mercury filled amalgam fillings into a patient without telling him, as is customary, that the fillings are 50% mercury. Dentists all over the world notify their patients about the mercury and have them sign disclosure and permission forms. Why didn't the American trained dentist do this? It's because he lives in Israel and is affected by the Israeli mentality of militarism. Call it bossiness if you will. You just order people around. There's no sense here of respect or allowing people to make their own choices. There's no sense of giving them information. You just make declarations like a military commander. That is, after all, the religion here.  The environment got to him. So don't assume that there are Anglo enclaves in Israel....