Earning a Favorable Judgment

The Ashkenazic community began reciting Slichos on motzoei Shabbos this week, receiving another wakeup call about the approach of the Day of Judgment. We have already heard the shofar and have been reciting L’Dovid since Rosh Chodesh, and now the daily Slichos are another reminder of what lies ahead of us. And we are all beginning to tremble as the days of Heavenly judgment rapidly approach. It is striking to contemplate the fact that everything that befell us throughout the year 5786 was decreed on Rosh Hashanah last year. Had we known what lay in store for us at the time, we surely would have begged and pleaded with Hashem to avoid our troubles. We all know these things, but still, as Rosh Hashanah approaches, it is important to remember them.

Many of us already have the simonim in our homes. This week, I read that it is extremely important to recite the designated yehi ratzon prayer aloud before each simon. My family’s minhag is to recite each supplication with Hashem’s Name. Verbalizing these requests can have a significant impact.

In fact, the power of a verbal tefillah can be gleaned from the Mishnah Berurah’s discussion of the halachos of preparing for Shabbos. The Chofetz Chaim (whose yahrtzeit fell this week) writes, “It is proper to say about everything one purchases that it is for the honor of Shabbos, for speech has a great impact on kedushah.” And on the night of Rosh Hashanah, a verbal prayer can have a major impact on the kedushah of the simanim, paving the way for us to have a good, sweet year.

On that note, Rav Chanoch Karelenstein (who was the subject of a tribute I wrote in last week’s newspaper) explains in his sefer, Eitzos Lizkos Badin B’Yomim HaNoraim, that everything that Hashem does is for the best, for He is the ultimate good, and it is the nature of someone who is good to do good for others. However, some of the things He does, despite being truly good for us, sometimes appear, from our limited perspective, to be bad. Nevertheless, we retain our faith that everything Hashem does is good. But that is why we pray to Hashem for a year that is both good and sweet—in other words, that all the good that we receive from Him will be sweet for us as well. Not only should we know in theory that it is good, but we should actually experience the sweetness as well.

At this time of year, I always remember my years as a bochur in the Yeshiva of Beer Yaakov. Elul and the Yomim Noraim in the yeshiva were simply beyond description. The shmuessen delivered by the mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, and the uplifting tefillos of the rosh yeshiva, Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, left a powerful imprint on my soul. Last Tuesday, I visited the yeshiva with the goal of recapturing some of the experiences of those days. I attended a shmuess delivered by the current mashgiach, Rav Moshe Dovid Lefkowitz, and I was indeed reminded of my experiences as a talmid, years earlier. Rav Moshe Dovid stood before the aron kodesh with his eyes closed as he spoke. It did not matter to him how many bochurim had already entered the bais medrash after supper; he simply communicated what he had to say. Parenthetically, when Rav Wolbe delivered his weekly shmuessen, he, too, had no way of knowing which of the bochurim were present, since he began speaking on Shabbos afternoon after seudah shlishis, when darkness had already descended. Rav Moshe Dovid quoted Rav Eliyohu Dessler’s chilling words: “To understand what Rosh Hashanah is, we must look at the year that has passed … how many children suffered, how many babies suffered, and how many adults suffered, and we must remember that it was all decreed on Rosh Hashanah.” He added that Rav Dessler also discussed the requirement to practice extra stringencies during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. “One might ask: What is the purpose of that? Is it all for show? Are we pretending that we have suddenly become tzaddikim? But anyone who asks this question lacks belief in the Divine conduct of baasher hu sham—the fact that Hashem judges every person in the state in which he exists at that moment.”

Rav Moshe Dovid also quoted a comment of Rav Aharon Kotler on the posuk “For Your judgment they stood today, for all are Your servants” (Tehillim 119:91). “The fact that we present ourselves to be judged is itself enough of a reason for us to earn a favorable judgment, as Chazal state, ‘If there is judgment below, there is no judgment above,” he explained, quoting the Midrash Rabbah. “Rav Aharon teaches us that if a person doesn’t awaken himself and make an effort to be worthy, it is considered an act of refusing Hashem’s judgment,” he continued. “And as we know, if someone refuses a summons to be judged by a bais din, he is placed in excommunication. For that reason, we declare before Hashem, ‘Neither with kindness nor with good deeds do we come before You; like paupers and the destitute we knock on Your doors.’ We approach Hashem like impoverished beggars and we present ourselves and accept His judgment, and that is a reason for us to be judged kindly. And we must approach Him with joy,” the mashgiach added. “The Nefesh Hachaim quotes the Zohar, which states that the way a person approaches Hashem is mirrored by the way Hashem relates to him. Our task on Rosh Hashanah is to accept Hashem’s Kingship with joy.”

Growth Against the Odds

As always, I have so much to write about that it is hard to know where to begin. For instance, there is much to say about the wave of travelers who plan to visit Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Last year, the people who take great care to visit Rebbe Nachman’s kever in Uman every year encountered great difficulties—or, in the words of Breslov, “menios.” There were many hurdles facing them on their journeys, and we all saw the heartrending images of crowds of men and small children waiting for hours for the borders to open. After all, the many travelers came to Uman, which is in a state of war, from all sorts of neighboring countries. Let us all daven that this year’s group of travelers will return to Eretz Yisroel in peace after Rosh Hashanah.

I should also write about the incredible growth of the number of children enrolled in religious schools. I am reminded of the Midrash that states that when Pharaoh and the Mitzrim schemed with the words pen yirbeh to prevent Bnei Yisroel from multiplying, Hashem responded, “Kein yirbeh.” They plotted to limit the Jewish people’s growth, but the Master of the Universe decided that the nation would grow and flourish—and, of course, His Will trumped theirs. There are some cities in which there are more children in the first grade in chareidi schools than in government-run schools, both because chareidim have more children and because of the phenomenon of baalei teshuvah. Chinuch Atzmai has also reported an increase in the number of students in their schools. And there has been a surge in the number of students from secular homes who were enrolled in kiruv schools thanks to the devoted efforts of Lev L’Achim and Keren Hasaot. We can clearly see Who is running the world, as religious schools flourish despite the many roadblocks placed in their path.

There is another story that deserves to be covered in these pages, on a much more somber note—the story of the Military Advocate General. It is unbelievable, yet it is happening. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was a major general in the IDF who leaked information to the press about an investigation into soldiers who were accused of abusing imprisoned terrorists. She also leaked a video that purportedly proved the veracity of the allegations. When the Supreme Court called for an investigation into the leak, the MAG herself—the actual culprit—was appointed to head the investigation, and she informed the court that she had determined that it was impossible to ascertain the leaker’s identity. This response was delivered to the Supreme Court on her behalf by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. But then it was revealed that Tomer-Yerushalmi herself had leaked the video and then had covered up her actions.

The MAG, of course, was dismissed from the army, but two things have recently come to light. First, the investigation is still stalled, and some believe it is because the attorney general and others in her orbit fear that the MAG might incriminate them and are therefore protecting her. They have accomplished this by insisting that they are the only ones suited to oversee the investigation, even though they personally have a serious conflict of interest. This week, it was also revealed that the chief of staff decided that Tomer-Yerushalmi will receive the severance pay and other benefits due to her as an officer in the army, even though she was discharged because of criminal actions.

No one has any doubt that there is something very rotten happening here.

Anyone Who Fights the Torah Will Not Endure

As of this writing, we are in the final stretch before the party lists must be submitted for the upcoming election. At this point, everything is shrouded in ambiguity, and speculation and disinformation are rife. By the time this newspaper is published, however, we will already have passed the zero hour—midnight on Tuesday night, which is the final deadline for the submission of lists. At that point, anyone who has signed up on a list for the Knesset will be running in the election, and anyone who has failed to submit their candidacy will be left out.

By then, we will have the answers to all of our questions, such as whom Netanyahu will decide to place in his reserved spots on the Likud party slate. As I mentioned in the past, Netanyahu has already decided on three candidates for those slots, and there was much speculation that he planned to add other candidates who failed to secure realistic spots in the primaries. The most notable such person is Zeev Elkin, who is ostensibly the only potential Likud candidate who is recognized as an immigrant, or at least a Russian. At this point, however, Netanyahu fears that if he promotes Elkin to a realistic spot, then other party members who didn’t make it very far in the primaries—such as Chanoch Milwidsky, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee—will erupt in outrage. Some believe that Netanyahu plans to appoint Elkin as a government minister (without his serving as a member of the Knesset) if and when he assembles the next government. There was also a conflict between Netanyahu and MK Tally Gottliv, who transferred to Otzma Yehudit with the agreement of everyone concerned; however, the story is too long and bizarre to discuss here.

We will also know whom Gadi Eizenkot chose to include on his list of candidates, and whether he is merely handing out spots as favors to his friends or he has actually recruited candidates who he believes will attract voters (of which there aren’t many people). The polls indicate that Eizenkot is worth more than 20 mandates, which means that a placement somewhere within the first 20 spots on his list is a surefire path to a seat in the 26th Knesset and possibly a ministerial portfolio as well, in the event that Eizenkot is the one to assemble the next government or that he partners with the Likud party.

The candidates of B’Yachad, the joint party of Bennett and Lapid, were already announced on Sunday. In fact, Lapid announced his own choices for the list last week, but he has only four of the first ten slots, and it is widely believed that the party will not receive more than ten mandates, which means that anyone below the tenth slot will not receive a seat in the Knesset. Parenthetically, the downfall of Yair Lapid and Yesh Atid, which is similar to the fate suffered by his father, is astounding, but let us put that aside for a moment. Lapid and his cronies are proof that anyone who fights the Torah world and the things that are sacred to the Jewish people will not stand. In any event, these are the candidates on the B’Yachad list: Naftoli Bennett, Yair Lapid, Keren Terner, Merav Ben-Ari (of Yesh Atid), Liran Avisar Ben-Chorin, Noam Tivon (Yesh Atid), Michal Hirsch Negri, Eitan Ginzburg (who defected from Benny Gantz’s party, Blue and White), Merav Cohen (Yesh Atid), Yonasan Shalev, and Bruria Naim Arman (also of Yesh Atid). The rest of the list, as I explained, is irrelevant.

Of course, once the party lists are submitted, we will finally know what is happening both on the right and on the left. As of this writing, Gilad Erdan has already announced that he has disbanded his party due to its failure in the polls and the disintegration of his talks with Benny Gantz. Erdan, who previously served as a minister in the Likud and as the Israeli ambassador to America, called his party Achdut and launched it amid great fanfare, but its success quickly fizzled. Erdan was the head of the party and was joined by Yuli Edelstein, Oren Smadja (a well-known sports figure in Israel), and former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch. “The reality has shown that the vast majority of the public wants a clear decision as to the identity of the prime minister before anything else, and the need for a broad unity government is not high on their list of priorities,” Erdan said. His platform was based on fighting to draft chareidim, and he failed. With the departure of Erdan and Edelstein from the political scene, it seems that Netanyahu has been relieved of a major headache.

Will Netanyahu’s Opponents Unite?

The submission of the party lists will also shed light on what is happening with Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White party. Gantz was once on the verge of becoming prime minister, but today his party doesn’t even seem to be capable of crossing the electoral threshold. Most of his running mates have given up and gone home. Gantz has been involved in talks with other contenders, such as Gilad Erdan, Chili Tropper, and Yoaz Hendel, in a search for allies. But it is most likely that Gantz will be completely out of the picture in the next election. Gadi Eizenkot sent an unsubtle message to Gantz when he announced, “Any party that is in danger of falling below the threshold should follow Gilad Erdan’s example.” At this time, there is much talk of the possibility that all the elements who are opposed to Netanyahu might unite as a single bloc. This would include politicians ranging from Eizenkot to Bennett, Lapid, and even Gantz and Tropper. Of course, the bloc would be led by Eizenkot. The “bloc of change,” as they call themselves, prefers to present voters with a stark choice between the Likud and a single alternative, rather than running as a collection of splintered parties opposing Netanyahu.

Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel launched a new party known as the Reservists, which was initially very successful in the polls but slowly lost its popularity. They, too, based their campaign on drafting chareidim. But despite the media and the populist narrative, it has turned out that there is no one interested in buying what they have to offer. As the days went by, it became increasingly clear that the party was treading water far below the electoral threshold. This week, Tropper announced that he was jumping ship, abandoning Hendel to run with Eizenkot, who placed him in the sixth position on his slate. This gives Tropper an excellent chance of making it into the Knesset, and three of his colleagues joined him in transferring to Eizenkot’s party. At this point, we already know more or less who will be on Eizenkot’s slate, which will include Shaul Meridor, Elazar Stern (who bolted from Yesh Atid), and Yoram Cohen, a former head of the Shin Bet, among others. However, we do not yet know what position each of these politicians will hold on the list, which is also an important factor. As for Yoaz Hendel, we will know on Wednesday morning whether he has accepted defeat and gone home shamefacedly or he has decided to stay in the race. For now, Hendel has announced a merger with Yaron Zelicha’s economic party, which is performing below the electoral threshold in the polls. If they stay in the race until the end, they will certainly cause a loss of votes to the anti-Netanyahu camp.

Avigdor Lieberman, the chairman of Yisroel Beiteinu, presented his list on Sunday, which turned out to be quite surprising. Lieberman himself tops the list, with the following slots occupied by Rafi Ben-Shitrit, a bereaved father; Talia Lankry, a senior officer in the army; MK Oded Forer; MK Yulia Malinovski, and then, in the sixth slot, Sharon Sharabi, whose family was killed in Gaza and whose brother Eli was a hostage. Next on the list is the Druze MK Hamad Amar, followed by MK Evgeny Soba, then Elvira Kulichman (a candidate whom we know little about), and then, in the tenth slot, Dan Illouz, who defected from the Likud. Lieberman is an enigma; he maintains far-right views but is also one of Netanyahu’s most ardent political foes. No one understands how he could possibly sit in a government with Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats, who is about as far to the left as possible. Will their shared hatred for Netanyahu unite these polar opposites? Only time will tell.

As for the Democrats party, we already know the composition of their list. They were the first party to hold primary elections. At this point, the roster of candidates in all the left-wing parties—or, more accurately, the anti-Netanyahu parties—is therefore fairly clear. It is hard to imagine that Eizenkot, Bennett, and Lapid will announce an alliance by Tuesday night; there are too many egos at play for that to happen. On the other hand, I find it easier to believe that Gantz will join Eizenkot, since, after all, the two have been full partners in recent years.

Smotrich and Feiglin Unite; Winter Is a Wild Card

Let’s move on to the political right—that is, to those who are to the right of Netanyahu. There are a number of individuals whom we should watch, with the hope that they will not cause damage. First of all, there is Avi (Avigdor) Maoz, a talmid of Rav Tzvi Tau of Yeshivas Hamor. Maoz is believed to be capable of securing one and a half or even two mandates in an election. While he can’t cross the electoral threshold on his own with that number of votes, he could potentially join another party and thus boost its performance as well. Netanyahu is interested in seeing him join Betzalel Smotrich’s party, Religious Zionism, but if there is no alternative, he may place Maoz in a reserved spot on the Likud slate. As far as he is concerned, it is most important to prevent Maoz from running alone and causing the right to lose a mandate or two. This concern is supported by precedent: The Oslo Accords were passed by a left-wing government that came to power solely because a right-wing party chose to run in the election and failed to cross the threshold, resulting in a significant loss of votes for the right. The trauma of that failure has remained seared into the country’s collective consciousness, especially on the right. Parenthetically, the same thing happened in the last election, albeit to the detriment of the left: When the Labor party refused to join forces with Meretz, the latter party did not cross the threshold and therefore caused a loss of three or four mandates to the left. The result was that Netanyahu was elected as prime minister almost by a margin of just one mandate.

Next on the right is Smotrich, who seems, according to the polls, to be in danger of falling below the electoral threshold. Then there is Moshe Feiglin, leader of the Zehut party, who is unanimously agreed to be worth anywhere from one to three mandates. Fearing that Smotrich would fall below the threshold and waste critical right-wing votes that might be crucial to forming a government, Netanyahu begged Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) to run jointly with Smotrich as they did in the previous election, even if the parties separated after the election. Ben-Gvir turned him down, arguing that his research indicated that running together with Smotrich would harm his party’s performance. In fact, this is a reasonable supposition, since Ben-Gvir is much more popular with right-wing voters than Smotrich. But while Netanyahu failed to convince Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to merge, he succeeded in bringing about a union between Smotrich and Feiglin. This was a source of relief to the incumbent prime minister, since the two parties will probably cross the threshold now that they have merged.

There is another player on the political field who is causing a headache for Netanyahu—a celebrated former IDF officer named Ofer Winter, who even served as Netanyahu’s military secretary at one time. Winter wears a kippah serugah, and his progress through the ranks in the army was halted solely because of his yarmulke, with the accusation that he was “messianic.” Here, too, there was an interesting development: As soon as Winter announced that he planned to run independently, the polls showed him receiving seven or eight mandates, but he quickly began to fall in the polls and is now hovering near the threshold. Fearing that he would be washed out of the race, Winter adopted the same tactic that others have used: attempting to build his popularity by opposing the chareidim. He announced that he considered draft exemptions for bnei Torah a red line (adding that he would only support Netanyahu), but those declarations turned out to work to his detriment. Compounding the challenges he faces, Winter has a long history of proclaiming that the army does not actually need or want chareidim in its ranks.

The big question is therefore what will ultimately happen with Ofer Winter. Will he merge with Smotrich, as Netanyahu wants, or will he run on his own, mainly because of his own ego? Or will he drop out of the race altogether? We will know the answer to this important question only on Wednesday. For the time being, as of Sunday, Winter seemed to be going about his business as usual. He presented the four candidates following him on his list, none of whom are particularly well-known, and then he took advantage of the opportunity to attack the chareidim again. “The Amcha Yisroel party brings a new spirit that will represent the entire spectrum of the Israeli populace and will lead to genuine right-wing policies and military victory on every front, along with integrating chareidim into the IDF and giving full, uncompromising backing to its soldiers. We are not willing to serve as Goldknopf’s political flak jacket at the expense of those who serve,” he asserted.

Gafni and Maklev to Leave the Knesset

Of course, I cannot fail to write about what is happening within the chareidi parties, which are experiencing major drama. The two longest-serving members of Degel HaTorah will not be returning to the Knesset after decades of political activity. Moshe Gafni has been in the Knesset for 38 years and Uri Maklev has served there for 20 years. As Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, Gafni wielded tremdeous power and was instrumental in directed tremendous funds to Torah institutions. Maklev was consistently recognized as one of the hardest working Knesset members who worked diligently to help people. Yaakov Asher and Yitzchok Pindrus will move up into the party’s top slots. They are followed by Moshe Rosenthal, Yehuda Weissfish and Dudi Zaltz.  It is reasonable to assume that Degel HaTorah will have at least four of the seats in the upcoming Knesset that will be won by United Torah Judaism, the list that it shares with Agudas Yisroel.

In Agudas Yisroel, the Belz representative Yisroel Eichler, who was a Knesset member since 2003, was replaced with Elyokim Stark.

Once again, we will have answers to these questions only at the last possible minute.

The Shas party has likewise begun the process of refreshing its ranks. Those decisions are made by the Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah, which met on Sunday evening. The party includes representatives of various sectors, such as the Yemenite community, the Tunisian community, and the community of baalei teshuvah (a position usually chosen by Rav Reuven Elbaz), but those differences are typically less pronounced. At the end of the meeting of the Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah, a short statement was released informing the public that the rabbonim had heard the suggestions made by the party chairman, Aryeh Deri, and that the composition of the slate would be decided by Tuesday. The list that was submitted included, in the following order, Aryeh Deri, Yinon Azoulay, Michael Malkiyali, Yoav Ben-Zur, Chaim Biton, Dror Amos, Moshe Abutbul, Uriel Buso, Yosef Taieb, Yonatan Mishraki, Yosef Elnatanov, Erez Malul and Semion Moshiashvili.

But that is enough political news for now. Let us move on to a couple of other stories.

Burned Sifrei Torah Brought to Burial

In Adar 5786, a terrible tragedy struck the city of Beit Shemesh, when an Iranian missile landed on the Tiferes Yisroel shul, killing nine people. On that day, Mayor Shmuel Greenberg announced, “The city of Beit Shemesh is in mourning. This is an incident on an unprecedented scale, with major destruction that spread to a radius of over one kilometer.”

The Tiferes Yisroel shul was an iconic element of the city’s landscape. After standing for decades, the building was reduced to rubble in an instant. Eyewitnesses attested that they saw sifrei kodesh strewn about, parchments from sifrei Torah that had been thrown through the air by the blast, and scorched parchments that had landed on the roofs of nearby bomb shelters. Nearby homes were damaged, and many people were suddenly left without a roof over their heads. The fatalities in the blast included three children from a single family: Yaakov, Avigail, and Sarah Bitton. At the time, I published an interview with their bereaved father. Another child was killed in the missile strike as well: Gavriel Baruch Revach, who frequently came to the shul to learn with Yaakov Bitton.

Last week, the sifrei Torah that were damaged in the tragedy were buried in an emotional ceremony. Community leaders, families of the murdered victims, and the gabbaim of the shul participated in the event. Before the burial, speeches were delivered by Mayor Shmuel Greenberg, city council member Nati Gabai, and Tzion Revach, the father of Gavriel Revach and the donor of one of the destroyed sifrei Torah. The Tiferes Yisroel shul is in an advanced stage of reconstruction and is due to reopen to the public in advance of the Tishrei holidays.

Tzion Revach said, “This is a difficult day for me. It brings me back to the tragic blow I received this year, when I buried my son. Today, I am burying the sefer Torah for which I diligently raised money, one shekel at a time. But I am comforted by the rebuilding of the shul, which will symbolize our revival and rising from our grief.”

Mayor Greenberg said, “Today, with great pain and respect, we are burying the sifrei Torah that were burned in the missile strike that hit our city during Operation Roaring Lion. The shul that was struck and destroyed is now being rebuilt, and with Hashem’s help, it will be ready in time for the holidays. May this year and its curses be brought to an end, and a new year and its blessings begin.”

Nati Gabai said, “Another painful chapter in the city’s history has come to an end today. For Tzion, this is a second burial, after he lost his son. We are now rebuilding the shul that was a miniature Bais Hamikdash, and, with Hashem’s help, it will merely be a temporary solution before a permanent building is completed and the community is returned to its shul.”

Who Is the Most Prolific Lawmaker?

There are certain topics with which I have some familiarity, and I sometimes scoff at articles written by others who have no knowledge of the subjects. I recently read a report on the number of proposed laws submitted by all 120 members of the Knesset over the course of their careers, and I found some surprising revelations in the study. “By the measure of completed legislation, the chareidi MKs are the most outstanding parliamentarians by a wide margin,” it reported. “The 18 members of Shas and United Torah Judaism are 15 percent of the Knesset, but they have spearheaded nearly a third of the legislation that was completed: 172 out of 546 bills…. The seven members of UTJ introduced 114 bills that were passed, more than twice as many as the 24 members of Yesh Atid, who spearheaded 51 bills altogether…. Moshe Gafni is the most prolific legislator, with 67 bills, including the National Library Law and other laws concerning rehabilitative day care centers, health care, consumer protection, aid for victims of hostile acts, and tax benefits for communities in southern Israel—not exactly bills for chareidim alone.”

I wasn’t especially surprised by the diligence of the chareidi representatives. What surprised me was actually the researchers’ ignorance. For one thing, why did they measure the lawmakers against each other based on their respective achievements throughout their careers in the Knesset? How can one possibly compare the achievements of a veteran Knesset member with those of a new arrival? The researchers added, “A member of the Knesset who is also a government minister naturally has less time to introduce legislation.” This line, too, indicates their lack of basic knowledge of the Knesset rules. It isn’t that a government minister has less time to pass laws; on the contrary, ministers are legally barred from introducing legislation. Therefore, the list of the dozens of MKs who introduced no bills at all (most of whom are from Yesh Atid) includes all the ministers of the government. That isn’t because they are lazy, as the researcher suggests; it is because they do not have the right to introduce legislation. As members of the executive branch of the government, they are legally prohibited to spearhead new laws, which is the work of the legislative branch.

The study also praises Yariv Levin for passing 40 laws. But if that is the case, then he probably deserves the title of most prolific lawmaker, since he spent only a couple of years as an MK who is permitted to pass legislation, in contrast to Gafni, who passed 67 laws in 35 years in the Knesset. Levin has been in the Knesset for 17 years and has been a minister for most of that time. That puts Gafni’s legislative achievements at an average of 1.91 bills per year, while Levin’s rate of passing laws would stand at 2.3 per year if we took his entire career in the Knesset into account. And if we discount the years when he served as a minister, his legislative achievements would stand at an average of about 8.5 bills annually. It should be noted, though, that Gafni spent some time as a deputy minister as well.

In any event, if we count the number of laws passed by an MK according to the number of years in which he served in the Knesset, we will reach the conclusion that Erez Malul of the Shas party has a fairly outstanding record. In his 2.6 years in the Knesset, he has passed five laws. This type of calculation would yield several additional champion lawmakers as well: Yaakov Margi, who passed 15 laws in 20 years while spending much of that time as a minister; Yinon Azulai, with 13 laws passed in eight years; Yossi Taieb, who passed seven laws in five years, and Yonatan Mashriki, with six laws in three and a half years. And while the members of Agudas Yisroel typically hold ministerial posts and are not permitted to introduce new laws, there are a few highly prolific legislators within Degel HaTorah as well: Yaakov Asher passed 21 laws in his 12 years in the Knesset, and Uri Maklev passed 17 laws in 14 years. And if we take into account only the period when Maklev wasn’t a deputy minister, it is quite possible that he would earn the title of champion lawmaker.

The bottom line is that the study I quoted does not truly reflect the reality and tends to reflect the ignorance of its authors.

Water Supply in Danger

The State of Israel has been suffering from a water crisis over the past couple of weeks, a stark reminder of the mention of “who by water” in Unesaneh Tokef. Who would have believed that the State of Israel (in this case, the Ministry of the Economy) would call on residents of the country to conserve water in the year 2026? But we are in the middle of a serious crisis, which is accompanied by fierce debate over whether this is a failure on the part of the relevant authorities or a calamity that no one could have foreseen.

On Sunday, Minister Eli Cohen, who serves as minister of energy and infrastructure, called on water consumers throughout the country—which means everyone, and farmers in particular—to limit their use of water as much as possible. This was an update on the state of the water sector and the fact that the crisis affecting it had not yet passed. It was also reported that teams from the Water Authority, the Mekorot Water Company, and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure are continuing to work around the clock to manage the situation and to guarantee the resilience of the water industry and the continuity of the water supply to all citizens. This is the first time in many years that the public has been asked to conserve water.

The current crisis began because of algae. A wave of algae arrived from the direction of Egypt into the eastern Mediterranean and caused extensive damage to Israel’s desalination facilities, clogging the filters through which water enters the plants. Out of the six desalination facilities on Israel’s coast, only one is currently operating at full capacity. The rest are either completely shut down or only operating partially. Last week, the authorities began using a substance to deal with the algae, but no definitive results have yet been achieved. At the same time, the ministry decided to purchase a dedicated stock of membranes for the desalination facilities. A membrane is a general term for a thin layer that separates two things and that may be natural or artificial. It is a widely used component of many of the technologies developed for water filtration and treatment.

Meanwhile, Israelis still have water in their homes. There were a few isolated places in the country last week where there was a shortage of water, and people were miserable. According to the Ministry of Economy, the stability of the water supply systems has remained unchanged. Water is still reaching all citizens, as well as farmers, thanks to a combination of supplies from several sources: operational facilities, the Kinneret, and the many wells located throughout Israel. At the end of the week, the national reservoirs were replenished by the Mekorot company to maintain a sufficient quantity of water in case the crisis continues. At this time, there is no information about areas suffering from interruptions in the water supply.

But these events have given us a small sense of the true powerlessness of man—and of the State of Israel as well.

A Miracle on the Way to the Airport

The following is a true story about a yungerman from Givat Shaul who is in need of Divine salvation. This man davened Maariv at the Zupnik shul one night and encountered a Litvish yungerman who was collecting money for his father-in-law, who was in the process of marrying off a child. Our protagonist wanted to contribute to this mitzvah, but he did not have even a single coin in his pocket, and the family credit card had been left with his wife, who was busy shopping that day. Lacking any other way to help the young man, he said simply, “You should be applauded for fulfilling the ideal of being nosei b’ol im chaveiro—sharing another person’s burden. I would be fortunate if my own sons-in-law assisted me in this fashion,” he added. The other yungerman revealed that all the sons and sons-in-law in the family had pledged to raise significant sums.

After returning home, the man told his wife about his experience, and she advised him to complete the mitzvah. “Take money from the drawer, go back to the shul, and give it to him,” she advised him. Like Manoach in the Tanach, this man followed his wife’s advice, even though his time was very limited. After all, he was scheduled to fly to Lithuania at 6:00 the following morning as part of the trip organized by the Kupat Ha’Ir, in which the participants, led by Rav Shimon Galai, daven at the grave of the Vilna Gaon. He left for the airport at 4:00 in the morning, but the drive took an unexpected and perilous turn when the car hit a patch of oil on the road and entered an uncontrollable spin. As a wheel exploded loudly, the yungerman was certain that he was staring into the eyes of the malach hamaves—and then the car came to a sudden stop. He emerged from the accident completely unscathed.

Sensing that the merit of tzedokah had spared him from death, he called a tow truck and prepared for the likelihood that he would miss his flight. But within minutes, he received a phone call from a traveling companion informing him that takeoff had been delayed until 8:00. In the end, he made his way to Lithuania, while his car somehow found its way back to Givat Shaul without him, and his tears at the kever of the Vilna Gaon flowed as he davened with passion to the Creator.