heart
There is justice in the claim that Haredim who do not study core studies do not come to adult life with enough tools to enable them to support themselves, and therefore fall into a burden on the working public. I think that those who do not learn any teaching that trains a person for work should be excluded from the state's payment system. Didn't study? Your problem. If you've made an effort and you're still struggling, we'll help you.
But I would like to highlight the lack on the other side, the side that requires the ultra-Orthodox to study core studies. And the lack is the complete absence of heart learning in the secular system. Because this core is very important, but a heart is necessary. I watch the hate scenes that come up every day in the secular space and say to myself: Is this the only tool you know how to use? Look at the ultra-Orthodox for a second, you come to them with hatred, they accept you with love. Time and time again, your waves of rage break on the rocks of Jewish warmth, on the trays of pastries and kegel in Bnei Brak, and you don't learn.
My heart churned when I saw that the secular front in Tel Aviv had succeeded in thwarting the move of the Ma'ale Eliyahu Yeshiva from its miserable home to a permanent residence, a few blocks away. Why was this general hatred helpful? What bad have yeshiva students done to you, who are busy studying and doing good? Only rejection and alienation did you learn in school? How sad.
Secular education transmits knowledge. At best. It does not teach any connection to the soul, Jewish or general. There is no lesson about the goodness in every person's heart, there is no conversation about man's role in the world, in the community, in the family. Garlic and nothing. Therefore, when a difficulty arises, there is no way to deal with it except by exerting fiery hatred, and this is still in a camp whose slogan is diversity and acceptance of the other. After that, as long as he's just like me.
I had the privilege of teaching an introduction to the Torah of Yamima to youth in pre-military preparatory courses. Every year it's the same. They are shocked that there is such an area in the world, practical spirituality, they have never encountered. And after the shock there is fascination, internalization and profound change. After one year of lesson per week, they are different. And every year I am so happy that I have been privileged, and I mourn all the youth who do not get to be exposed to the Jewish inner Torah, or to any other Torah that brings a person closer to his soul. Have mindfulness, meditation, it doesn't matter. Everything ends up being the same. So I propose the deal of the century-core-for-heart. This is how a model society can bloom here.
Razer
This week, the Ministry of Transport announced that it will now allow the import of larger, more powerful and huge-bodied off-road ATVs into Israel than has been permitted so far. Absolute madness. I don't know what this firm is going through, but it seems that of all the firms, it is the largest specialist in making decisions opposite to what needs to be made.
These monstrous tools have taken over Israel's green spaces, forests, mountains, open spaces. Just last week I went for a walk in the forest in the Jerusalem hills, everything was perfect, it was still green and there were flowers, and birds, but two ATVs with "young" drivers ruined the whole stay there. They ran wild on the trails, went up and down, drove dangerously near hikers, filmed themselves in a variety of performances, and especially made a noise that horrified the entire forest and its inhabitants. After I realized that it wouldn't stop, and if I woke them up I would find myself wallowing in my blood among the pine trees, I packed up and went home.
Not only does the little nature in the country destroy these tools, but also the quality of life in the moshavim. The internal roads in the moshavim have become racetracks for teenagers, who receive such corrupting tools from their parents and do squeaks without supervision, without protective equipment, without a license, and especially without consideration for the neighbors. I've received several calls from moshavim members saying - our lives have become hell because of the racers, we no longer allow kids to go outside to play because they're afraid they'll be run over by some bully on a huge engine.
And of course, it is impossible not to say what is happening in the Arab and Bedouin space, where reckless driving is the standard, and these tools are a force multiplier and an image triple, like a good weapon that can be carried openly. Recently I was a guest in an Arab village in the Galilee. Even in the middle of the night, the growl of the engines of the Shabab traveling back and forth did not subside. And in the Negev - Allah, what will happen.
So instead of banning the import of such tools, or at least limiting them to slow electric vehicles only, the ministry is opening up the import of more enormous tools. No foresight born. Total lawlessness. I'm betting that some centrist member holds an import franchise, otherwise can't explain it.
When they started bringing electric scooters to Israel, I bothered myself with the Ministry of Transport and begged the CEO and the minister - think again, enact regulations, set rules, require helmets. Browse me. How many have died or become disabled because of this browsing? Now we again prefer the good of the minority that uses these tools to the good of the majority of the public, which suffers greatly from them. Where is majority rule when it is needed?
Shavuot
Happy holiday. Shavuot arrived. The holiday that was hijacked by the dairy industry and turned into another holiday, in which we are convinced that without the consumption of one product or another we will not be able to fully experience the holiday. From all sides, cheesecakes, quiches, pies and portraits of happy cows are pushed in our faces, just waiting for us to milk their shape for the sake of fulfilling the holiday mitzvah, which, by the way, is not written anywhere and is a complete invention of recent decades.
If you don't have the strength for moral matters, skip on. But there's a problem here. The practice of producing cow's milk is really problematic, and includes frequent pregnancy and littering, after which the calf is immediately removed from its mother and transferred to the tender calf industry, and its heartbroken mother is milked without any consideration for her situation. Machine. This situation is cruel to a degree that makes me extremely uncomfortable when it comes to observing the holiday customs.
So what? Milk substitutes? Rice milk? Soy? Oat? The truth is that the substitutes have come a long way and some of them are reasonable in taste, but they do not have nutritional values like real milk, and in general it is water with a tiny amount of the substance after which the milk substitute is named. Good for conscience, less for health.
So we got to the corner. What will we drink and what will we eat? Or. Here I was a few days ago at Rom Farm in Kamon, above Karmiel. There goats are raised for the local dairy, and they manage not to separate the goats from their mothers and also produce enough milk for their good cheeses, and still take the goats out to pasture and do not imprison them for life in a pen.
It's possible. True, it is more expensive, and on a huge scale such as that of the cows' milk industry it is not really possible, meaning that taking out a million cows every day to graze will greatly challenge the green spaces in the country. But it just goes to show that if you make a deal with the animal out of consideration and compassion, you can create an equation in which the milked animal, whether a goat or a sheep or a cow, gets a little more for its milk and is not violently robbed - and then gets a picture of it happy in the dairy's campaign.
The world won't be vegan anytime soon, that's clear. I wish lab-produced milk with all the nutrients of regular milk would soon reach the markets, as promised. Until then, it seemed no exaggeration to ask for some consideration for cows. It is not nice to rob such innocent creatures.
avrigilad@gmail.com
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