One Hundred Thousand Jews Visit the Kosel

This past weekend was a time of great emotion here in Israel. In America, you are accustomed to celebrating a Yom Tov for two days, but in Eretz Yisroel it is a fairly uncommon phenomenon. This past Thursday was erev Yom Tov; on Friday, we celebrated the Yom Tov of Mattan Torah, and then we went directly into Shabbos, which was delightful. I can personally attest to the experience in my neighborhood of Givat Shaul: All the shuls that I saw were packed with men and boys learning Torah until sunrise, as were the yeshivos in the neighborhood—and there are quite a few yeshivos in Givat Shaul. Of course, one of the most major focal points in Yerushalayim was the Kosel Hamaaravi. I did not personally walk to the Kosel, but the local residents who did make the trek were deeply moved when they returned. Tens of thousands of people made their way to the Kosel on Shavuos. Many of them walked from more distant areas of the city, while others managed to spend the Yom Tov in apartments in the Old City or in nearby hotels, including thousands of American visitors. Various tents were set up for the benefit of visitors to the Kosel, some state-sponsored (there were four tents in different neighborhoods sponsored by the Ministry of Yerushalayim Affairs) and others organized by chessed organizations and private individuals.

I asked the people at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation for some statistics concerning this Yom Tov at the Kosel. To their credit, this organization likewise arranges for visitors to the Kosel to be able to make Kiddush after davening and have something to eat (for Kiddush b’makom seudah). They shared the following information: Over 100,000 people visited the Kosel over Yom Tov and the Shabbos that followed it. The number of visitors peaked on the morning of Yom Tov, when a crowd of over 20,000 people gathered for vosikin, filling the plaza. After davening, a major Kiddush was held, with tens of thousands of individual Kiddush kits distributed to the mispallelim. Throughout the night of Yom Tov, thousands of people flocked to the Kosel plaza and the adjacent shuls to learn Torah and recite the Tikkun Leil Shavuos and Tehillim. The flow of mispallelim continued throughout Shabbos, with tens of thousands of people present for the tefillos of Friday night and Shabbos morning and for the Kiddush held after davening.

To this overview of the Yom Tov, I would like to add that many yeshivos traditionally visit the Kosel on the night after Shavuos together with their roshei yeshiva, and many chassidish communities visit the Kosel along with their rebbes. The annual visits were held on motzoei Shabbos and included thousands of participants.

A Lesson from the Chazon Ish

Before we move on to more mundane matters, I must quote a comment of Rav Gershon Edelstein, whose yahrtzeit falls this week. Anyone who reads Rav Gershon’s shmuessen and drashos will note that he often quotes the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (6:4), “This is the path of Torah: Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure, sleep on the ground, and lead a life of hardship while you toil over the Torah. If you do that, you will be happy and it will be good for you: You will be happy in this world, and it will be good for you in the World to Come.” Rav Gershon often pointed out that while it may be understandable to expect pleasure in the World to Come as a result of such a lifestyle, it seems highly incongruous for the Mishnah to suggest that such a person will be happy in this world as well. How can a person be happy while experiencing such privation? But Rav Gershon always responded to his own question, “Yet that is indeed the case. A person who learns Torah in poverty is the happiest person in this world.”

I was often puzzled by Rav Gershon’s statement, which seemed to imply that it is preferable to learn Torah in poverty. However, the Bartenura states in his commentary on the Mishnah, “This doesn’t mean that a wealthy person should lead a life of suffering to learn Torah. Rather, it means that even if a person has nothing but bread with salt to eat … and he has no pillows or mattresses and can sleep only on the ground, he should not refrain from learning Torah.”

One year, in a shmuess in advance of Shavuos, Rav Gershon discussed Chazal’s statement, “Anyone who engages in learning Torah lishmah will merit many things. Not only that, but the entire world was worth being created for him.” Rav Gershon first discussed the concept of lishmah, quoting a Gemara in Nedarim to elucidate the meaning of the term. Next, he questioned whether the Mishnah’s statement that such a person “will merit many things” refers to the long list of qualities that follows it or it should be read as a separate statement, implying that a person is rewarded with “many things” for learning Torah lishmah, in addition to the many qualities the Mishnah goes on to list: “He is called a friend and beloved, he loves Hashem, he loves people….” Regarding this statement, Rav Gershon said, “The Chazon Ish once told me that Hashem loves those who learn Torah in poverty. If a person learns Torah in poverty, he is beloved to Hashem. When young kollel yungeleit with families learn Torah, how much material wealth do they have? They learn Torah amid privation, which is a tremendous source of merit.”

The Ohr Hachaim echoes this idea in his commentary on Parshas Naso, explaining that the name of Nesanel ben Tzuar alludes to the fact that the Torah is acquired through suffering. (The name “Tzuar” is derived from the same root as the word tzaar, the term for distress or suffering.)

One of the qualities that the Mishnah attributes to a person who learns Torah lishmah is the tendency to forgive those who insult him. Rav Gershon’s son-in-law, Rav Avrohom Yeshayahu Adler, once related on that note, “I don’t know if this was a sign of forgiveness or if my father-in-law, with his good heart, did not even feel insulted at all, but there is a famous story about a particular bochur who caused him great distress and later became engaged to a girl from a family whose members were not aware of that detail of his past. When the kallah’s father discovered that his future son-in-law had antagonized Rav Gershon Edelstein, he asked Rav Nissim Karelitz if he should proceed with the shidduch or call it off. Rav Nissim replied that he was not able to answer that question and that it should be posed to the rosh yeshiva himself. When they approached the rosh yeshiva, he replied immediately, ‘It was nothing; it was merely the act of a child, and there is no need to take it into account.’ In fact, he even personally attended the engagement celebration to make it clear that there were no hard feelings on his part.”

Now that we have covered some spiritually uplifting topics, it is time to move on to more mundane matters. As usual, I have many things to report to you. The Hezbollah drones are continuing to cause fatalities among IDF soldiers in the north, and the dollar is continuing its precipitous decline in relation to the shekel. Above all, we are all waiting for the next development in the conflict with Iran as we tensely monitor every word, every move, and even every sneeze from President Trump. The big question now is whether we are about to begin another period of running to bomb shelters (at least, for those who have shelters in which to take refuge) or we are about to witness the signing of an agreement with Iran—and whether that agreement will be good or bad for the Jews. But as always, I will have to forgo some of the items that I would like to include in this column for the sake of staying within my allotted space.

Knesset Approves Bill to Dissolve Coalition

It might seem as if I am repeating myself, but that is not the case. Last Wednesday, the Knesset put aside almost all of its business for the day—and the original agenda contained over 50 bills for discussion—leaving only four or five urgent matters and the 11 bills to dissolve the Knesset. Every party or even half a party introduced its respective bill in turn. What, you may ask, was the point of submitting 11 different bills for the same purpose? The answer is that the various parties were vying for bragging rights; every party wanted to claim that it was the one responsible for bringing down the Knesset. What actually happened is that only the coalition’s proposal was approved, by a huge majority of 110 votes, and the remaining bills were removed from the agenda by a majority vote of the coalition. The bill sponsored by the leaders of all the coalition parties, from the Likud and Religious Zionism through UTJ and Shas, has now been transferred to a committee for further discussion, and the coalition will be able to control the timing of its progress.

Ofir Katz, the coalition whip, delivered the address explaining the bill and ridiculed the opposition in the process. He pointed out that the Knesset isn’t actually dissolving far ahead of schedule. Even without the law being passed, the 25th Knesset was always scheduled to end its term at the beginning of the month of Cheshvan. And even if the law is passed, there is a minimum ninety-day waiting period before the next election, which means that the election cannot be held before Elul. Therefore, dissolving the Knesset now will mean only that the election will be moved up by about a month. In effect, that means that the 25th Knesset has survived its term, and there can be no greater shame to the opposition—or to any opposition, for that matter. Hence, Ofir Katz mocked Lapid and his colleagues.

“This morning, I saw that the opposition was planning major events and press conferences to celebrate the law to dissolve the Knesset, organized by Yair Golan and with Gadi Eizenkot and the entire opposition promising to attend,” Katz said sharply. “They are holding a press conference over a law dissolving the Knesset, when we are discussing a difference of only a month or so. They make it sound as if they achieved some great accomplishment by triggering the Knesset’s dissolution. But I really haven’t managed to understand why they are celebrating. I think that no one has notified the opposition that this coalition lived out its days. Someone ought to tell them that we aren’t just at the end of the first year of the term; we have been in the Knesset for a full term. They make it sound as if they have some connection to dissolving the Knesset. The chairman of the opposition has been releasing notices and posting that they prevented things, they blocked things, and they managed to avoid certain laws. Yair Lapid either lives in a parallel universe or has been creating his own imagined reality. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand the gap between what he has written and the reality on the ground, in which there is actually no connection between the opposition and what is happening today. Yair Lapid should be reminded that they are the only opposition in history that caused the coalition to expand from 64 seats to 68 members. No other opposition ever accomplished that. We passed nine budgets and 520 laws in this term. If there are laws that we did not pass, it was on account of differences of opinion within the coalition. We did it smoothly, without any interference from you. And the truth is that for the past four years, we have faced no real hurdles at all. It was like kicking a ball into an unmanned goal.”

The events of the rest of that day demonstrated that he was absolutely correct. The opposition’s motions to dissolve the Knesset were removed from the agenda, each by a margin of ten votes or more. The coalition certainly proved its supremacy in the Knesset.

Chareidim to Netanyahu: “We Are Not Interested in the Draft Law”

What actually prompted the dissolution of the Knesset was the issue of the draft law. The chareidi parties informed the government and the coalition that it is impossible to continue in the present fashion, and if the government falls, it will not be their problem. Rav Dov Landau declared unequivocally that the chareidim no longer have faith in the current bloc. And while it’s possible that the same bloc will return to power after the election, the current situation, in which yeshiva bochurim are consistently being arrested and persecuted, is no longer tolerable.

As a result, the coalition decided to dissolve the Knesset while maintaining control over the timetable and the election date. Meanwhile, the prime minister is still attempting to pass the draft law. This, of course, leads us to the question of whether this is a political move: Does Netanyahu consider it politically unwise to attempt to run for reelection after passing a law exempting chareidim for army service? Would the move work against him when the country goes to the polls? And is he therefore dragging his feet on passing the law? Many believe that this is precisely the calculation he has been making, and that he would prefer to delay the draft law until after the election. Personally, however, I disagree with this hypothesis. On the contrary, I believe that Netanyahu would prefer showing up at the election with the draft law behind him. Of course, some elements in the country will be irked by the law, but once it is passed, it won’t be the main issue of the election. On the other hand, if the law hasn’t passed yet, then all the anti-religious elements will frame the election as a battle over the draft law, and Netanyahu could easily lose much more as a result. Some voters might cross the lines and vote for the opposition to prevent the draft law from passing after the election, and their votes might alter the balance of power between the blocs. Therefore, in my opinion, Netanyahu should be interested in passing the law now, before the country goes to the polls. In addition, he will appear more trustworthy if he has the law passed now; since he made a promise to pass it, he must show the country that he is keeping his promise as well. For now, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Boaz Bismut, is working hard to advance the bill as quickly as possible.

I mentioned that Netanyahu should be concerned about the balance of power between the blocs; I should note that that is exactly the issue on which this election hinges. There is the right-wing bloc and the bloc of change, which consists of Netanyahu’s opponents. The battle for power in the Knesset will be fought between these two camps. Most of the polls indicate that the election will end in an impasse, but most experts claim that the polls are bogus (similar to what America experienced when Trump ran for the presidency against Harris) since Israel has a distinct right-wing majority. Any stalemate between the right and the left will never accurately represent the ideological divisions in the country, since the left can rival the right’s power only when it is propped up by the Arab parties. And the Arabs have never been a factor in any calculations of what is good for the country. Therefore, the polls are doing a disservice to Israeli society by framing the election as a close competition. Furthermore, the imbalance between the right and the left becomes even wider when we take into account that both Bennett and Lieberman, who have aligned themselves with the anti-Netanyahu camp, consider themselves right-wing. Lieberman, in fact, has always been on the extreme right. Therefore, everyone would agree that there is a strong right-wing majority in Israel today, and if the right does not control the government, then the will of the people has truly been distorted.

In any event, as in previous weeks, we are once again discussing the election on the horizon and the draft law that still seems to be on the table. As soon as the draft law passes, everything will change: The lost government funding will be restored, the detained bochurim will be released, and the country’s yungeleit and yeshiva bochurim will be freed from the stranglehold that is currently constricting them. The passage of a law could easily give us breathing space for a year or more, since no one will expect the Knesset to change the law during an election period, and then it will take time for a new government to be formed. Perhaps, in the event that the draft law is passed during this Knesset, there will even be a miracle, and the Supreme Court will not strike it down. These might be good reasons to push the law through the Knesset at this time; however, the chareidim notified Netanyahu this week that they have no interest in his draft law, and the election is therefore being moved up from Cheshvan to Tishrei.

Arrests of Bnei Torah Can Have Life–Threatening Consequences 

The attorney general, as you are likely aware, has constantly been calling for an increase in arrests of yeshiva bochurim, acting on the orders of the justices of the Supreme Court. At first, yeshiva students who did not report for the draft faced arrest only at the airport, but the attorney general demanded arrests in their homes as well. And while the arrests were concentrated at first on the periphery of the country, Baharav-Miara insisted that the phenomenon must expand to include chareidi population centers in Bnei Brak and Yerushalayim as well. She even called for arrests to be carried out in yeshivos, which has indeed begun happening in recent times. In addition, she has demanded that the civilian police collaborate with the military police; however, she wasn’t especially successful in achieving that. For a while, the police claimed that they lack the manpower to take part in arrests of draft evaders and that it isn’t within the realm of their responsibility. They also argued that they have their hands full simply dealing with massive protests on the streets (both the Kaplan protests and chareidi demonstrations).

Last week, however, Police Commissioner Dani Levi announced at a meeting of the senior police command staff that he was issuing new instructions for the police to comply with the attorney general’s demands. “When a police officer happens to encounter a draft dodger,” he said, “the officer must detain him, report to the military police, and wait with the detainee until their representative arrives. A representative of the military police is required to report to the scene within half an hour of receiving the call. If the representative does not show up within this time, the detainee will be released and will be given a summons to the military police.” This marked a dramatic about-face: Until last week, the police commissioner took the position that chareidi draft dodgers who happened to be apprehended for other reasons were to be released immediately. The police would simply give a chareidi youth a summons to appear at the military police headquarters, and he would be free to go on his way.

Now, there is no question that the police commissioner was under pressure from the attorney general, but that didn’t prevent the chareidi parties from being outraged over his decision. The chareidim accused the police of channeling their resources in the wrong direction: “At a time when crime and violence are on the rise and murderers are roaming the streets freely, the police, instead of dealing with the country’s security, have decided to divert resources to persecute our precious bnei Torah as if they were the lowliest criminals.” The Shas party issued a statement addressed directly to the commissioner: “It is a shame and a disgrace that this is happening in the state of the Jews. Mr. Commissioner, do not fall into the political trap being laid by the attorney general and her team, whose entire goal is to bring down the government. Do not raise your hand against the bnei yeshivos and Torah learners!” MK Moshe Gafni added, “The attorney general has brought Israeli society to the deepest abyss, and the police commissioner will now be compelled to fight against lomdei Torah. This will not be a source of honor for him.”

Let me add two more points. First, on Shavuos and the accompanying Shabbos, ten bnei Torah were languishing in military prison. Our society will never grow inured to such a painful phenomenon. Second, this situation has the potential to lead to life-threatening danger. A chareidi man who is involved in a traffic incident or who is harmed or assaulted by a criminal will be afraid to call the police, since he might find himself facing arrest for draft evasion instead of being aided by law enforcement. The situation is both maddening and absurd.

Is the Election for State Comptroller a Political Maneuver?

This Tuesday, an election will be held for the position of state comptroller. The comptroller, who regularly releases reports criticizing various bodies, has a position whose importance must not be overplayed but should not be understated either. The state comptroller has a certain degree of influence and can certainly become a nuisance to any government. In extreme situations, the comptroller even has the authority to relay his findings to the police and to call for a criminal investigation. One thing is clear: Whenever a state comptroller is chosen, it is a serious test of the power of the government and coalition. This time, it is also a personal test for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who picked the coalition’s candidate on his own. The election is held in secrecy, similar to a presidential election, which means that there can always be surprises; there is nothing to prevent the participants from lying about their choices and defecting to the opposite side of the aisle.

The deadline to submit candidacies was last Wednesday, and there are two candidates in this election. One is retired Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron, and the other is Michael Rabello, a personal attorney of Prime Minister Netanyahu who represented him on several occasions, including quite recently, in the Supreme Court case against the appointment of David Zini as head of the Shin Bet. Rabello also represented Netanyahu in the debate over establishing a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7. A nominee for the position of comptroller must receive the signatures of ten members of the Knesset in order to participate in the election; both Elron and Rabello were easily able to collect those signatures. Elron had his position on the court and the support of the opposition to back up his candidacy, while Rabello was supported by the members of the Likud and the chareidi members of the Knesset. He wears a yarmulke and is a highly desirable candidate from a chareidi standpoint. Benny Gantz immediately announced his support for Elron, calling on all the members of the Knesset to vote for Elron, whom he hailed as “the most fitting candidate and the one accepted by all parts of this institution.” Judge Elron, Gantz added, has all the talents and abilities necessary for a state comptroller; his legal, professional, and personal backgrounds create a “strong foundation that will enable him to perform the job with dedication, integrity, and autonomy.”

Parenthetically, there was a third individual who was planning to vie for the position: Professor Daniel Herskowitz, who serves as Israel’s civil services commissioner today and likewise wears a yarmulke. Herskowitz began collecting signatures and recruited two or three supporters within the chareidi parties, but when he failed to reach the threshold of ten signatures, he dropped out of the race.

At this point, the election for state comptroller has become a battle between the coalition and opposition and a personal matter for Prime Minister Netanyahu. But if you ask me, I wouldn’t be surprised if this situation was another of Netanyahu’s clever ploys. The coalition originally supported Elron, who was considered a highly conservative judge (Elron dared to run for the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court against Yitzchok Amit, who was considered entitled to the appointment due to his seniority on the court) and was therefore embraced by the right. However, Netanyahu may have feared that Elron would lose to a candidate favored by the opposition, and therefore decided to nominate Rabello as well. As soon as Netanyahu backed Rabello as his candidate of choice, the result was as predictable as it had been unthinkable before the nomination: The opposition in its entirety rallied around Elron. At this point, the Israeli left has become passionate about supporting the onetime conservative, pro-right Supreme Court justice. If a few coalition members secretly cast their ballots for Elron as well, he will win the election in a landslide.

If I am right, this maneuver would be very typical of our prime minister.

Herzog Cancels a Trip to New York

President Yitzchok Herzog was scheduled to visit New York this week as a guest of the Conservative movement, which invited him to a ceremony marking the ordination of Conservative clergymen. However, Herzog decided to cancel his trip. These are the facts, which leave us with the simple question of why he decided to change his plans. I would not be surprised if Herzog decided that it was improper for him to show support for the Conservative movement, which, like the Reform movement, has had a destructive impact on American Jewry. Some claim, however, that Herzog was also concerned about encountering some sort of trouble with American immigration officials upon entering the country. Everyone knows that a traveler arriving in the United States might be surprised by a confrontation with the immigration police, who are known to be extremely rigid. This would be a deeply embarrassing situation for Herzog, even if it entailed nothing more than a delay of an hour or two.

Now, why would Israel’s president be concerned about that scenario? Well, he knows very well that President Trump is not pleased with his reluctance to pardon Netanyahu. And Trump has the capacity to do the most unexpected things. Someone in Trump’s inner circle indirectly conveyed the message that anyone who creates political hurdles in Israel should expect to encounter bureaucratic hurdles upon arriving in America. I am sure that you, too, would not be eager to travel to the United States after receiving a veiled threat of that nature.

The official explanation from President Herzog’s office, however, was that his trip to New York was scrapped because of his overly intense travel schedule—the president has recently visited countries including Kazakhstan, Panama, and Costa Rica—and because of tensions in the Middle East. At the same time, one Israeli newspaper reported, “An official involved in planning the trip to New York believes that the cancelation was due to the president’s concern over Trump’s reaction. According to that source, officials in President Herzog’s circles were concerned about the possibility that the American president might order him to be arrested or detained, or that he would be summoned to a meeting at which he would come under heavy pressure to pardon Netanyahu. The source pointed out that Herzog’s trip to the event in New York was scheduled a year ago, and that officials in the president’s office waited for Trump’s possible visit to Israel in honor of the Yom Haatzmaut festivities in the hope that they would be able to smooth out the differences between them. According to an official involved in the particulars, it was believed in the president’s office that if Trump’s visit to Israel in honor of Yom Haatzmaut went smoothly, Herzog would be able to travel to New York. However, Trump ultimately canceled his visit to Israel, and this left the president’s office in a quandary over the scheduled trip to New York. An official involved in the planning claimed that there was a genuine concern that if Herzog traveled to the United States at this time, it would result in great embarrassment.”

An official statement from the president’s office claimed that the newspaper’s interpretation of this incident was incorrect: “This is fake news. It never happened. Anyone who publishes this theory is lying and taking the risk of facing a libel suit. When the invitation was publicized several weeks ago, it was clarified that the trip would not take place. This distorted article completely ignores the fact that the president is scheduled to visit communities in the United States in the coming months. It was simply decided that he would forgo this trip in light of his busy schedule and the tense situation in the region.”

I leave it up to you to decide whom to believe.

The Gabbai’s Solution

On Shavuos, I discovered that the gabbai of our shul, Rav Chaim Yehuda Lieder, is actually a Yaakovson. When two sifrei Torah were brought out during the minyan, I noticed that one of the seforim had been gifted by the mispalleim of the Toldos Shmuel (Tausig) shul and the Lieder family in memory of their parents, Rav Yitzchok Eizik Lieder and Rebbetzin Yocheved, the daughter of Rav Chaim Yehuda Yaakovson. (Rav Chaim Yehuda was a well-known melamed and author.) The couple lived in the Sorotzkin neighborhood of Yerushalayim and enjoyed a distinguished pedigree; the Lieders are descendants of Rav Moshe Leib Sassover, and the Yaakovsons trace their lineage back to the Vilna Gaon. Both parents passed away on the same day—the 20th of Kislev 5770—just a few hours apart. Their son, Rav Chaim Yehuda, often remarks, “Amazingly, our parents also got married on the same day.”

Our gabbai is not only witty but extremely dedicated to his job. Every day, around the clock, he makes sure that everything in the shul is properly arranged and cared for. He knows the names of the mispallelim and their parents by heart, he has committed every yahrtzeit in the shul to memory, and he functions as a leader of a kehillah in every sense. And his chessed extends not only to the living but to the deceased as well, as he is a member of the Prushim chevra kaddisha. Anyone who has attended a burial on Har Hamenuchos has seen him involved in his holy work, jumping into the open grave to help bury the deceased. He has occasionally been seen by thousands of people at funerals that were broadcast live. He was the one who took responsibility for the burial of Rav Shmuel Auerbach, as well as for the young boy Yosef Eisenthal. In short, he is a righteous and affable man, beloved to his fellow men and to Hashem. On Shabbos of erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan, he remembered to call me up for Maftir. I was supposed to lead Mussaf as well, but I motioned to him that my voice was failing and that I would forgo the privilege. He looked at me kindly and said, “Don’t make me crazy; just daven at the amud.” With the confidence that he infused in me, I decided to comply.

But my main point is about Shavuos. On Yom Tov, a debate erupted in the shul regarding whether the mispallelim should stand during the reading of the Aseres Hadibros. The shul was packed with people from numerous communities and places of origin, and the dispute rocked the entire room. Someone quoted Rav Elyashiv, who held not to stand for the Aseres Hadibros (or for the reading of Az Yoshir, for that matter), and that a person should either sit or stand throughout the leining but should not rise specifically for the Aseres Hadibros. “The ayin in the phrase achos Timna is just as holy as the aleph of anochi,” Rav Elyashiv reportedly said. To resolve the issue, Lieder suggested that anyone who wished to stand for the Aseres Hadibros should remain standing throughout Krias HaTorah, and that anyone who wished to sit for it should be seated throughout the process. However, one man decided to make a show of announcing that he planned to stand throughout the leining and then to sit for the Aseres Hadibros, simply to drive home his position. One can always find someone in any minyan who is determined to prove a point. However, in this case, he was outsmarted by the unflappable gabbai. When the time came for the fourth aliyah, the gabbai called up that particular congregant, thus forcing him to stand for the Aseres Hadibros as well.