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Rav Tzemach Mazuz, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Kisei Rachamim, sharply criticized Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over the decision to cancel this year’s central memorial gathering for Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l, accusing her of continually seeking new ways to harm bnei Torah.

Speaking during his weekly address at Yeshivat Kisei Rachamim on Motzoei Shabbos, Rav Mazuz invoked a posuk from Bereishis while condemning the attorney general.

“That poor attorney general — her mind all day is ‘only evil all day’ (Bereishis 6:5). Every day she thinks, ‘What can I do to the bnei Torah? How can I harm them?’ Every day she thinks of a new decree,” Rav Mazuz said.

Rav Mazuz then described seeing a newspaper headline on Friday reporting that Baharav-Miara had barred the annual memorial gathering honoring Rav Ovadia Yosef.

“I saw a headline in the newspaper on Friday: ‘The attorney general prohibits holding the hilula of Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l.’ Yes, why? (She even has reasons…) ‘Because it could influence people to vote Shas. No! We want pure elections. Everyone should vote according to the dictates of his conscience.’ How ‘pure’ she is… Yes.”

Rav Mazuz continued his criticism, sarcastically referring to Baharav-Miara as “holy” and comparing her to the wicked biblical Queen Izevel.

“Almost every day, look at the front page of the newspaper — what this ‘holy’ attorney general, this wicked Izevel, thought of and came up with that night. Yes, she is unfortunate!” Rav Mazuz said.

The controversy erupted after reports Thursday that the attorney general had directed that this year’s memorial gathering for Rav Ovadia Yosef be canceled, despite legislation providing for the event.

According to the stated reasoning behind the decision, Rav Ovadia Yosef is closely identified with the Shas party, and holding the gathering could therefore amount to election propaganda even if no explicitly political statements were made during the event.

Critics have pointed to what they describe as a glaring double standard involving the annual state memorial for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was directly identified with the Labor Party, they argue, yet the official state ceremony commemorating him continues to be held even when its date falls in close proximity to Election Day.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s judicial complaints commissioner has upheld a complaint filed by a man who said a bais din warned him that refusing to sign a proposed divorce agreement could result in NIS 10,000 in legal costs, finding that the warning could have been perceived as improper pressure to accept the bais din’s proposal.

Retired Judge Asher Kula, the Commissioner for Complaints Against Judges, released summaries Sunday of several recent decisions involving complaints against judges and batei din, including the case involving the NIS 10,000 warning.

According to the complaint, the man was appearing in proceedings involving a divorce claim filed against him and was not yet represented by an attorney. During the hearing, the head of the bais din allegedly warned him that if he did not sign the divorce agreement, his refusal would “cost” him NIS 10,000 in legal expenses.

The man maintained that, at that stage, he did not understand the implications of the agreement being presented to him. He therefore asked not to sign anything until he could obtain legal advice and have the terms and consequences of the agreement explained to him.

After reviewing the circumstances, Kula determined that the complaint was justified.

According to the commissioner, raising the possibility of imposing NIS 10,000 in costs immediately after the man said that he was unwilling to sign the agreement or proceed with the divorce before obtaining legal counsel could have been understood as pressure to accept the bais din’s proposal.

In a separate decision, the commissioner addressed the handling of a case in small claims court. A complainant said a senior registrar had failed for approximately six months to rule on a municipality’s request to dismiss a lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction.

A decision dismissing the lawsuit was ultimately issued only on the morning the hearing was scheduled to take place, less than four hours before the proceeding was set to begin.

The complainant said that because of the delay, he lost a day of work and was forced to prepare unnecessarily for a hearing that ultimately never took place.

The commissioner acknowledged that on the morning of the scheduled hearing, the registrar acted efficiently in attempting to notify the parties and prevent them from making an unnecessary trip to court. Looking at the case as a whole, however, Kula concluded that greater consideration should have been given to the litigant’s time.

Another complaint involved the issue of equal treatment between the parties during proceedings in a bais din.

A woman complained that the man’s attorney was permitted to question her at length, while her own attorney was not afforded a comparable opportunity to question the man.

The review found that the bais din itself had extensively questioned both parties and concluded that the factual record necessary to decide the case had been sufficiently developed.

Nevertheless, the commissioner observed that once the attorney representing one side had been permitted to question the opposing litigant, the bais din should have considered granting the other side’s attorney a similar opportunity. Doing so, he said, would help preserve procedural equality between the parties as well as the appearance of justice.

Nicolás Maduro has released the first photos of himself from a New York federal detention facility, eight months after he was captured in a special U.S. operation and brought to the United States.

The images show the ousted Venezuelan president smiling, dressed in athletic clothing and flashing a victory sign with his hands. They are the first photos of Maduro to emerge from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held since January alongside his wife, Cilia Flores.

“I want you to know that we are standing firm,” Maduro wrote in a message accompanying the photos.

In another post, Maduro said he was sending the pictures as a “small gift” to his grandchildren and supporters, thanking them for “every word, every gesture and every blessing.”

According to those close to Maduro, the photographs were actually taken on June 25, around Father’s Day, but only reached his family by mail this week.

Maduro is facing four charges in the United States related to narco-terrorism and has denied the allegations against him.

During his first court appearance in January, Maduro declared, “I am innocent. I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country.”

He subsequently described himself as a “prisoner of war.”

Maduro and Flores are expected to go on trial in June 2027.

The release of the prison photographs comes as Venezuela and the United States have reached a massive oil agreement under which the U.S. will control 65 billion barrels of the country’s oil reserves.

{Matzav.com}

Hundreds of bnei Torah gathered outside the gates of Prison 10 on Sunday evening for a large atzeres chizuk and protest following the arrest and imprisonment of yeshiva bochur Yisrael Guchafi of Bnei Brak.

The gathering, attended by rabbonim, roshei yeshiva and hundreds of members of the Olam HaTorah, was held following an unusual joint call issued by Rav Moshe Maya, senior member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, and Rav Shlomo Machpud, a member of the Moetzet, who urged the public to attend and protest the arrests of bnei yeshiva.

Rav Machpud addressed the gathering with an impassioned speech, sharply condemning the latest arrests.

“This is nothing new. For 78 years, the state has fought against everything holy in the Jewish people. But the latest decrees have surpassed them all.”

“They built the state only to destroy Judaism. They do not really want soldiers. They do not want them in the army. They are not interested in the yeshiva students who are in the yeshivos.”

“What interests them? To uproot Judaism from the Jewish people!”

“They know that the Jewish people are not a nation except through their Torah. The Torah is our life, and they cannot move us even a hairsbreadth.”

The joint letter issued by Rav Maya and Rav Machpud was headlined “Lech Kenos Es Kol HaYehudim” and expressed a forceful protest over what the rabbonim described as “the degradation of the honor of Torah and the persecution of those who learn it.”

The letter declared that “it is incumbent upon every individual to participate and protest the arrest of Torah scholars at a gathering honoring the Torah,” following the imprisonment of the yeshiva bochur, who, the letter said, had been jailed “for the sin of toiling in Torah.”

The rally comes amid a growing wave of arrests of bnei yeshiva in recent days. Among the cases that have drawn particular attention is that of Guchafi, a talmid at Yeshivas Kfar Chassidim, who was arrested in Haifa after becoming involved in an incident with an inspector over a malfunction with his Rav-Kav transit card. He was subsequently turned over to the military police.

Another recent arrest involved Motti Mishkovsky, a grandson of Rav Nosson Zochovsky, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Gaon Yaakov. Mishkovsky was arrested near the Ben Shemen Forest and transferred to military police custody. He was subsequently tried and sentenced to 20 days in Prison 10.

Avraham Angel, a talmid at Yeshivas Nezer Yisrael, was also transferred to Prison 10. Angel was initially arrested on Route 443 on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. According to the report, police officials had explicitly indicated that he would not be transferred to the military police, but he was ultimately handed over and imprisoned.

Officials with the Tzeva Shachor system reacted angrily to the developments, warning that the manner in which the arrests are being handled could have serious consequences.

“The lack of trust in the police and law enforcement system will lead directly to anarchy and a complete loss of control during future attempts to arrest yeshiva students in the field.”

Rav Yitzchok Yosef also addressed the arrests during his weekly shiur, recounting an incident involving a yeshiva bochur who had previously been imprisoned in a military facility and endured severe spiritual challenges while incarcerated.

“The prisoners, the poor yeshiva boys who were arrested. One of the prisoners told me that they took him to a detention facility, and the television was on the entire time. He was there for several days. He begged the guards — I am a yeshiva student, I am a ben Torah, why are you showing television, all kinds of immodesty, all kinds of things. They did not listen to him, as though they were forcing him.”

{Matzav.com}

Community leaders, bereaved families and the gabbaim of the Tiferes Yisrael shul in Beit Shemesh gathered Sunday for the solemn kevurah of the remains of Sifrei Torah that were burned in the missile strike that devastated the shul and claimed lives earlier this year.

Before the kevurah, remarks were delivered by Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg, City Council member Nati Gabay and Tzion Revach, who had donated one of the Sifrei Torah and whose son, Gavriel Baruch Hy”d, was killed in the same tragedy.

The Tiferes Yisrael shul, where the Sifrei Torah had been housed, was completely destroyed in the missile strike. The shul is now at an advanced stage of reconstruction and is expected to reopen to mispallelim in time for the upcoming Yomim Tovim.

For Revach, the kevurah carried an especially painful significance. After having buried his son, he was now taking part in the kevurah of the Sefer Torah for which he had painstakingly saved, shekel by shekel, in order to have it written.

“For me, this is a difficult day. It takes me back to the terrible blow I suffered this year when I buried my son, and now I am burying the Sefer Torah for which I collected shekel by shekel in order to have it written. But I find comfort in the rebuilding of the shul, which will symbolize our revival and our ability to rise from our mourning.”

Mayor Greenberg spoke about the pain of the kevurah while pointing to the rebuilding of the destroyed shul as a source of hope and renewal following the tragedy.

“We are burying here today, with sorrow and honor, the Sifrei Torah that went up in flames at the site of the missile strike that hit the city during the ‘Operation Lion’s Roar’ war. The shul that was completely damaged is at an advanced stage of reconstruction, and with God’s help, the site will be ready in time for the Yomim Tovim. May the year and its curses end; may the year and its blessings begin.”

City Council member Nati Gabay described the kevurah as the closing of another painful chapter for Beit Shemesh, while noting the extraordinary anguish endured by Revach.

“Another painful chapter in the history of the city came to an end today. For Tzion, this is a second burial after losing his son. We are now rebuilding the temporary miniature Bais Hamikdosh, and with Hashem’s help, it will only be an interim station until the permanent structure is built and the community is returned to the shul.”

{Matzav.com}