On People and Values

A recent story I heard about a popular (Orthodox / neo-Chareidi) magazine with an English (primary distribution in the U.S.) and Hebrew (primary distribution in Israel) version:

The English version had a picture of Auschwitz, with some faces blurred. This caused an outrage because the faces blurred were of women. The magazine’s apologetic response was that the tempered picture was initiated by the Israeli magazine, who blurred the images of women according to their policy. When received by the U.S. counterpart, it was assumed that the blurring was done to protect the privacy of those individuals, and not because of other factors that are not in line with the U.S. branch’s policy.
The story could just as easily have read the following:
The Hebrew version had a picture of Auschwitz, with some faces blurred. This caused an outrage because the public has the right to see who was there. The magazine’s apologetic response was that the tempered picture initiated from the American magazine, who blurred the images of people to protect their privacy, according to their policy. When received by the Israeli counterpart, it was assumed that the blurring was done to blur out pictures of women, and not because of other factors that are not in line with the Israeli branch’s policy…

The Newer “New” Israeli Shekels

Aside from the cruel evils of the official counterfeiting and inflation itself, and maybe more, the newer “New” Israeli Shekels are a nuisance, to boot.

The design is changed far too frequently (supposedly so as to stop private counterfeiting, but probably to deify more people). Worse, the color scheme is constantly altered. What was once green (20) is now pink, too similar to the red 200, and so on.

Fake Conditions

Making a Tenai you know won’t ever happen is worthless, see Taz’s proof (O.C. 450:4):

יש מי שמתיר, הוא דעת הטור שמביא ראייה לזה מדתנן שכרו לו לעשות מלאכה אחרת אע”פ שא”ל העבר לי יי”נ ממקום למקום מותר וי”ל דשאני התם דאינו מוכח מלתא כלל שירצה ממנו העברת יי”נ דיש הרבה מלאכות אחרות משא”כ בתנור דודאי לא יעשה בו העכו”ם רק חמץ ה”ל כאלו השכירו בפירוש לחמץ ותו ק”ל טובא דהא כתב בסימן רמ”ו ס”ג אבל לא מהני אם מתנה עם העכו”ם שתנוח הבהמה בשבת שאין העכו”ם נאמן על כך וכ”ש כאן שוודאי יאפה בו חמץ וצ”ע.

This has bearing on Heter Iska and many fictitious sales.