See this recent post on Hirhurim which asks the question: Is Hinduism Avodah Zarah, which raises questions about whether Hinduism is to be considered a full-fledged form of idolatry (it seems to involve many gods, and idols) or not (a deeper examination of Hindu theology reveals that they may believe in one overall God, and their worship may be directed at the same time to one of the gods as well as the supreme God).

Though the post does not come to any conclusion (while raising an interesting question), it does remind me of a story that I heard from two different people. The same incident happened to these two people, one in a kosher Chinese restaurant in Israel, and one in a Indian Vegan restaurant in New York City: They were sitting in a position so that they could see the waiters as they were leaving the kitchen with food that was to be served to the patrons. Right next to the kitchen was a small shrine with little buddha statues. The waiter would take the dish, put it down in front of the idol, either offer a prayer or a little bit of the food to the idol, and would then pick up the food again and bring it to the patron who had ordered the food. When the people then proceeded to eat their food, they were eating food that had been used as an offering to idolatry, something that at the very least violates a Torah-prohibition.

So just remember, even if all of the ingredients are kosher, the food might be completely forbidden. (After the the incident was reported to the local rabbanut, the Chinese restaurant was closed down while the entire place was completely kashered, all of the dishes were replaced, and presumably the wait staff was given some stern instructions on what is and is not permitted to bring into a kosher restaurant).

Check out this article in the NY Times (Batteries Not Included) about Project Better Place, an Israeli company that is seeking to introduce battery-powered cars into the mainstream market in Israel. Their innovation is that they will introduce kiosks all over the country (Israel, Denmark and Hawaii are the pilot markets) that will feature automated robots to switch your used battery for a new one.

Unlike most electric-car technologies, which generally require you to plug your car into a power source and recharge an onboard battery for hours, the Better Place robot is designed to reach under the chassis of an electric car, pluck its battery out and replace it with a new one, much the same way you’d put new batteries in a child’s toy.

You pay for the miles like you pay for minutes on your mobile phone plan (and the company and tax breaks subsidize the car). No more oil, just solar energy.

“You always have to start with the science,” Agassi says, riding shotgun in his sister’s hybrid. “There’s nothing better than taking a photon, converting it to an electron and converting that to motion. Physicswise, you can’t beat that. The rules of energy conservation say that the minute you turn energy into a molecule” — into oil — “you’ve lost.

“Everybody says we have an energy-dependency problem,” he continues. “It’s not true. We have an oil-dependency problem. We can’t make oil. But all the rest of the energy we know how to make. Seriously. We know how to make it.”

Awesome idea, and a few decades ahead of its time (just wait until the oil starts to run out in a few decades).

And speaking of solar energy, did you know that Israel is the world’s leader in solar energy per capita (3% of total enery, as of 2007) thanks to laws in the early 80’s requiring all new homes to be built with solar panels). My only complaint is that while solar panels for heating water in homes is common-place, you still cannot line your roof with solar panels to supply your own energy for all household needs, and pump electricity back into the grid, as you can do in many other countries. The Feed-In Tarrif approved last year is a good start, but I would like to see the same thing approved so that solar energy can be produced and used on a private level as well.

Banks in Israel are pretty annoying. And that is if you are lucky. Coming from the US (where I used to enjoy such luxuries as being able to deposit my money into an interest free checking account where the bank can use it to earn money for itself, and not be charged for the privilege), many aspects of the Israeli banking system have required some reeducation on my part. That said, there are some things that they have done adequately – Internet accessibility. On the web site of my bank (Bank haPoalim), I can view all of the details of my accounts, and can pay just about any bill that I have to pay. It is not done perfectly, but at least I can avoid going to the actual bank, and I am not charged for using the site.

Bank haPoalim has also been pretty good sending official communications to me electronically. When I first opened the account, I would tend to receive a few envelopes per month, none of which I actually needed, all of which wasted money, paper and resources (this is pretty common). However, a couple of years ago, haPoalim started a service whereby I could opt to receive all bank communications through the bank website. They even gave me a 50 NIS gift card for signing up (good move on their part, since they saved more than that amount in postage alone over the first half year).

Nothing has changed with this setup until today – I logged onto my account (as I do at least 3-4 times per week) and saw a piece of incoming bank correspondence that told me the following (rough translation):

You use our Doar-Net service to receive bank correspondence electronically through the web site, in place of receiving it through snail mail. However, this service can only be provided if you sign onto your account at least once every 90 days. It you do not sign on to your account again before May 2, 2009, the Doar-Net service will be canceled, and you will begin to receive bank correspondence through the post office. So please sign in again before that date.

Well, it is strange that the letter implies that I have not signed on to my online account since February 2 (90 days before the threatened cancellation), as I have signed many times since then. However, the really strange thing is that they are sending me a letter telling me that I need to sign on to my account, using a service that I can only access after I have signed into my account. If I really hadn’t been on my account since Feb 2, and wasn’t going to sign in until after May 2, there would be no way for me to know that this would affect anything. And once I do sign on to my account then message itself becomes irrelevant. Quite puzzling.

Go and read the Shuk Machane Yehuda Kashrut Report on The Yeshiva World website.

Short Version:

• If a store does not have a valid teudah (kashrut certificate), don’t assume that it is kosher.
• If a store says that they are Mehadrin but they can’t prove it with a valid teudah, then they probably are not Mehadrin.
• If a salesperson is wearing a kippah and has peyot, it does not mean that they are kosher.
• If the store has a teudah from a bad certifying authority (like Keter haKashrut, Nachlat Yitzchak, Nezer haHidur, Nezer haKashrut) then it means nothing.
• If the teudah is expired, a photocopy, a letter that is copied, don’t trust it.
• Be vigilant. Insist on seeing the teudah and reading the small print.

Oh, and b’teavon.

I saw a link to this Israeli Election Position Analyzer on Muqata. As it turns out, it says that I favor haIchud haLeumi across the board, followed by Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud, Kadima, Shas and Habayit Hayehudi. It is pretty interesting, though I think that one obvious topic was never really addressed for the political parties (it was for Prime Ministerial candidates): do you trust the party, to what degree do you believe they have some degree of integrity. In my case, my answer probaby wouldn’t have changed my number one pick, but it almost certainly would have moved Kadima and Shas out of my recommended top five.

I was walking back from dropping Moshe (now 3.5 years old) at gan this morning. A young man in his twenties approached from the other direction (after dropping off his child at a different  gan). Short beard, pe’ot, wearing his tzitzit out and his tefillin on his head. Huge smile. As he came close to me, he gave a bigger smile and said “boker tov, Hashem yevarech otcha” (good morning, God should bless you) and continued on his way. (Note: Although I have seen him around, I have never actually met this person – I think that he greets everyone this way).

Only in Israel (and did I mention that it was sunny and in the mid 60’s? In January!).

I just received this picture via email (I don’t know who came up with it).

I don’t think that it needs much explanation, but it does represent Hamas’s own admitted ideology pretty well:

A number of human rights groups released a press statement accusing Israel of using bullets against Hamas militants in Gaza. “We have received word from several reputable contacts who are currently under assault within Gaza that they have seen Israeli soldiers using bullets as a weapon against Hamas” said John Jones, a human rights activist who lives in Toronto, Canada. “They have claimed that the Israeli soldiers are firing these bullets from a variety of different firearms, including assault rifles, pistols and sawed off shotguns, and at times have done so with the intention of causing harm to other human beings”.

Human Rights Researchers in Israel witnessed hours of alleged gun fights between Israeli forces and Hamas freedom fighters in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. However, they could not confirm the actual use of firearms and bullets by Israeli soldiers because they have been barred from entering the territory. An emergency room technician at Shifa hospital in Gaza told this reporter that he had treated several victims for wounds that looked like they were caused by bullets. However, due to Israeli closures on Gaza, he lacked the resources to say for certain what or who caused the injuries.

Military spokeswoman Maj. Ehud Levine refused to comment directly on whether Israel was using bullets, but said the army was “using its munitions in accordance with international law.” In response to this, human rights groups said that even if Israeli forces have been acting in accordance with international law, they are still worthy of condemnation. When asked about alleged use of bullets by Hamas, the human rights groups said: “well, what do you expect them to use?”.

Israel used a whole lot of bullets in its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The U.S. military in Iraq used the bullets during a November 2004 operation against insurgents in the city of Fallujah.

Note: The article above is written with satirical intentions (see this article for similar reports condemning Israel for using incendiary weapons in Gaza, something that even the ICRC admits is legal according to “international law”).