A Collection Of Weird Haredi Stories

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The Living:

New haredi eyeglasses marketed in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem are meant to blur vision to prevent men from seeing women on the street.


The new glasses blur the vision of the men who wear them, so these men cannot clearly see anything ten feet or more away, Yediot Achranot's Hebrew website Mynet reports. For men who already wear regular glasses, the company offers stickers which can cover the lenses to create the necessary blur.The glasses and lense stickers are being marketed specifically to help men avoid seeing 'immodestly' dressed women on the street.(HT: FailedMessiah)* Late edit - After I posted this story yesterday, I've slightly had a change of heart. In truth, no one has ever seen a Haredi Man wearing these glasses. As such, all liklihood is that this is the brain child of a single person - and not representative of any real "haredi" chumrah. This is more a case of everyone - myself included - being too quick to jump on a weird story. 

The Dead:

Family of man who died 8 Years ago, complain people buried nearby not religious enough, allowed to move body.A haredi man who died eight years ago was exhumed from his grave last Thursday and reburied on the Mount of Olives, because his children felt the people buried next to him had not been sufficiently observant of Jewish law to allow their father to be buried alongside them.

According to the haredi news website Be’hadrei Haredim, the family received permission from several leading rabbis to rebury the man – including the late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a week before he was hospitalized in February this year.
Clearly those buried next to the Haredi Man were not wearing their Tzniut Glasses. 

Views On The El-AL Ticket Fiasco

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Due to a computer error, El-Al accidently sold flights from New-York to Israel for $400 (normally $1200-1600). What should the 5000 people who bought tickets at the low rate do?
Rabbi Yair Hoffman

...

In the United States itself, domestic carriers are not allowed to have these two separate fees, but international carriers are allowed to do so  It is this author’s view, the fact that it is technically not part of the sale itself, has implications both ways too – and one would not be forced to undo the deal from a halachic perspective.

...

Is there an obligation of going beyond the letter of the law here and return it anyway?
It is this author’s opinion it is recommended that one go beyond the letter of the law when there are individuals who would undergo financial distress in such circumstances.  Here, however, each individual should make the choice himself.

I hate these kinds of answers. Firstly - you don't really understand what the final decision is. Would El-Al - a large company - enter financial distress in these circumstances? Secondly, how much Torah learning do you need to figure out you are not supposed to abuse someone's honest mistake? (funnily enough, he actually reached the opposite answer).

Moment Magazine asked Randy Cohen, the former New York Times Ethicist and author of the new book Be Good: How to Navigate The Ethics of Everything.

El Al should offer to honor all those tickets, and the customers should decline the offer....However, even if El Al offers to make good on the tickets, we are not supposed to exploit someone. If you see someone’s wallet on the ground you are supposed to return it, not keep it

I recommend you read the entire answer. It is clear, concise and does not go into needless Pilpul to state the obvious answer, that you shouldn't be profiting from someone's honest mistake.

The Offensive Rebranding of "Hardal" (Chardal - חרד"ל)

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The term "Hardal" (חרד"ל) is Hebrew initials for Charedi Dati Leumi (חרדי דתי ל×�ומי), and is used to describe an ever growing sub-group in the Religious Zionist movement that has embraced certain characteristics of the Haredi community: the rejection or minimum necessity of non Torah studies; empowering Rabbis as the all encompassing communal leaders; living in closed communities and rejecting the "torah Ve'avodah" belief. They are still seen as being a part of the Dati-Leumi group as they continue to see a religious significance to the state and usually still serve in the army.

Over the weekend I noticed not one, but two different articles which were using the term "Torani" instead of Chardal - both by self professed members of the Chardal community. It can be surmised from the fact that in both cases the author felt compelled to explain the term by adding in brackets "Chardal", that this is a new term - or at least one that has yet to catch on. 
I understand why the Hardalnicks would want to rebrand themselves.Haredim are not popular in any part of the society - not even the Religious Zionist. Even more so, associating them with Haredim has the implicit undertone that they are no longer part of the RZ movement - a movement that rather than trying to disassociate themselves from they are increasingly trying to influence and even lead. 
However, if Hardal was offensive to "Hardalnickim" the new term they are using "Torani" (Literally "those of the Torah") is even more offensive for those of us who consider ourselves true Religious Zionists. Torani implies that the rest of us are somehow less religious than they are  - that somehow they are closer to the Torah. The Religious Zionist movement is sensitive to these arguments - its exactly the attitude we can't stand from the Haredi community. It is that adoption of a superior smugness, coupled with a disregard for the religious world of others, that makes the term Torani even closer to the image of Haredim that Hardalnickim are trying to avoid. 

Why is the Religious Zionist Kosher Phone Different Than the Haredi One?

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I think most readers of the blog are familiar with the Haredi "Kosher" mobile phone - basically a phone with no internet connection and no SMS. However I was somewhat surprised to see an ad in "Makor Rishon" for a (apparently) Religious Zionist version:


(The Ad was a full page, so I couldn't scan the top)
The Ad starts with a letter from "Rabbis and Educators" warning of the dangers of smart phones. This is a fairly routine warning. Now lets notice the big differences between a RZ phone and a Haredi one. It seems that while Haredim are not allowed to have SMS the RZ kids are. Also it appears RZ kids are allowed to listen to music, but not watch videos. 
So why the differences? My understanding is that Haredim are not allowed to have SMS because it was both a distraction, and because it might be used to communicate with girls. Both reasons would seem to be as legitimate for RZ kids - at least ones whose parents are inclined to buy "old" phones disguised as religious phones. 

The Classic Word Processor

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Can you guess to which community this classic word processor was marketed to? Hint: They like black hats.

No its not Haredim. This is an ad for the Amish  - "Plain People". This is how the blog "Amish Internet Blog" explains the marketing:

The flyer’s creator knew his audience. Unlike ads for the new Apple product of the moment, this downplays the computer’s tech touting it as “just a workhorse for your business.” It would provide “unequaled safety” because it had “no modem, no phone port or Internet connection, no outside programs, no sound, no pictures, no games or gimmicks.”

Hmm...when its descibed that way, he really could have sold it to the "other black hats".