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

A recent article on a   Chabad website   discussed a complaint from Lubavitch soldiers who were promised by the army that they could take mivkahs daily, as is customary in Chabad, but as it turned out the army broke its promise and doesn't allow it. This week I learned that a Chabad bochur from a family I know had been promised that he took that he could wear white shirt and black points in his army support job. Yet, in the end, the army makes him and his colleagues wear the goyish green army fatigues.  So please know, the army lies all the time in its promises to Haredi soldiers. And once you are in, you are stuck for three years, being pressured to violate Shabbos, to sit in small transport vehicles with pretty young women, etc.  https://chabadinfo.com/news/the-new-charedi-brigade-chashmonaim-dismisses-chabad-soldiers-over-mikvah-dispute/ In recent days, a controversy has erupted within the ranks of the Chabad soldiers who enlisted a few weeks ago in the newly...

  The IDF Intentionally Destroys Religious Jews Question: Can you say something else about what you just said, that  how many religious boys (in the Israeli army) have given up being religious, is that because they're sick of the religion or they're sick of the everything? Rabbi Chananya Weissman: No, it's because they are forced to violate Shabbos. There's a pamphlet. I mentioned this last time. There's a pamphlet here, I want to share this more in detail, maybe in one of my emails. I scanned the whole thing. It talks about what the soldiers are subject to in the IDF. Hazing rituals, forced to violate Shabbos. They are treated abusively by their commanders, even if they're in the so-called religious units, the people who really give the orders just do whatever they want with them. They force them to violate Judaism. They are so abusive to them that many of them at some point they just give up. And also, the temptation. They are surrounded by pretty Jewish girls...

Rabbinic counseling and the decision to move to Israel   For years I asked rabbis their opinion on whether or not I should move to Israel. I got two types of responses. The Modern Orthodox rabbis always said to go as if there were no factors in the decision. It could only be good. This reflects their childhood conditioning, their misunderstanding about the optional nature of the mitzvah of living in Israel, their ignorance about the place, and their refusal to listen to even Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik who advised most people not to move there. Yeshivish rabbis would only ask, “Can you earn a parnassah there?” That seemed to be the only issue that they knew of. But there are so many more. “Do you speak Hebrew?” would be a good question. You cannot function in a society whose language you don’t speak. If you are above the age of forty, you aren’t likely to learn conversational Hebrew. Even after thirty it’s difficult. You will not be able to earn a decent parnassah if you don’t speak ...

A friend of mine is at the grocery store. The casher is talking on her Whatsapp while he waits and waits. He says to her finally, "Hello, I'm here." She says, "I'm not interested in you." He says, "Aren't you supposed to be working?" She says, "If you don't like it there's a Yesh (another grocery store) across the street." That's what they call Israeli chutzpah. You think it's funny? You want to minimize it and say, "Oh that's Israel." No harm, no foul? Really, no harm? Do you want to raise your children around people like that? Would you raise your children around evangelical Christians or Sabbath violating Jews? What about people who mock gadolim? What about people who aren't machsiv Torah study?  This is just as bad. I know aliyah pushers who keep raving about the advanced Torah study in Israel, even though it isn't more advanced. It's just a lot of shouting. But to them, their (erroneous) ...

Some parents take work at home jobs doing Internet work in English. The children see them sitting all day long staring at a computer screen and clamor for Internet access of their own. If they go to Haredi schools, they hear about the evils of the Internet. As a result, either their respect for their parents decreases or they just experience confusion, or both. Israeli Haredim don’t have this problem because they can get local jobs speaking Hebrew. This is yet another example of the unforeseen complications of inserting yourself into a different culture. And certainly, none of the aliyah evangelists are warning you.  

After having a difficult experience with the shaved head clerk at the post office (and one with the bus ticket checkers last night), I had equal fun with the shaved head bus driver en route to work. I pressed the button for the stop and didn't as I usually do press also another button which I do because the electric sign that indicates that the button has been pressed doesn't light up around half the time and the stop bing sound also doesn't sound around half the time. Feeling worn out by the postal work (and the guy who cut me on online), as well as observing a screaming match outside the bus, I just spaced out and forgot to press a second button. So it turns out that the one I pressed didn't work-- no shock there. I got up and stood next to the door and the driver figured out that I want to leave, and started yelling at me that I didn't press the button. If my Hebrew were better, I would have told him that the problem was not with me but with his crappy bus and hi...

  Read A shocking act of vandalism has struck the soon-to-open  Chabad Etchalta Center  in Afula’s industrial zone. In the dead of night, unknown perpetrators defaced and destroyed the newly erected signs announcing the grand opening, sending shockwaves through the local Jewish community.     A shocking act of vandalism has struck the soon-to-open   Chabad Etchalta Center   in Afula’s industrial zone. In the dead of night, unknown perpetrators   defaced and destroyed   the newly erected signs announcing the grand opening, sending shockwaves through the local Jewish community.   Rabbi  Amir Halevi , the Rebbe’s Shliach and director of the new center, arrived at the site in the morning, only to be met with a scene of devastation. “This is not just an attack on property. This is an attack on everything we stand for—love, unity, and kindness, ” he declared.  “Whoever did this has harmed the Rebbe himself!” Read full article And you...