On chol hamoed Pesach, an avreich happened on an event in Haifa where, to his horror, chometz was being freely sold, including beer and pizza.
The avreich approached the seller and offered him full price for all his wares. After he handed over the more-than-NIS 80,000 that was involved, the avreich told the workers to burn all the chometz and to pour all the beer into the gutter.
We got several calls after that for the name of the avreich involved. in order to know who was willing to spend such a huge sum of money just to save people from eating chometz on Pesach.
There were others who raised a halachic question: was he allowed to buy all that chometz on Pesach? Was he not transgressing bal yeiro'eh? One quoted a Rambam that seemed to prohibit what he did, but another one said that it is clear that the avreich did not want to acquire the chometz. We can assume that his payment was not to buy the chometz but merely to acquire the right to burn it.
In short, among its over virtues, the story increased Torah in the beis medrash. Lehagdil Torah uleha'adirah.
Ashreichem talmidei chachomim shedivrei Torah chavivim aleihem beyoseir. (Menochos 18)
Biased Enforcement of the Law
In a hearing which took place in the Knesset this past Sunday, participated by Baharav Miara, the attorney general, on the subject of unequal enforcing of the law. Ms. Baharav Miara said: "The system of enforcing the law operates systematically, professionally and relevantly, according to the permanent determined parameters which are implemented in each instance according to its circumstances."
It was not reported if those present burst into laughter at the not-so-successful joke or simply remained with impassive expressions. But what can be said about the system of law enforcement of the State today is the fact that there are those who are more equal and those who are less. There are those whom the system deals with in boiling oil, so to speak, and those who do not even get a cold shower of enforcement.
Can anyone begin to imagine how the law enforcers would react if Right-Winger demonstrators were, for example, to stand in front of the home of the head of the Security Service, or, alternately, the head of the Democrat party, or anyone else from the 'right' camp, holding — again, just for example — a noose with a display showing the connection between it and the man against whom they are demonstrating? Is there any doubt that enforcement officers would carry out the letter of the law against the demonstrators and accuse them of incitement for murder?
To say nothing of those Knesset members rolling their eyes righteously, protesting loudly against this overt provocation to murder, and demanding at the top of their lungs from the opposite camp to denounce the demonstrators.
Even up till now, they use every chance to remind us of the famous demonstration in Jerusalem against the then Prime Minister Rabin in the course of which the Security Service secret agent, known as Champagne, was sent to incite against the Rightist camp, with photos of Rabin in full Nazi military regalia, . Netanyahu, the then head of the Opposition, who participated in the demonstration and stood on a balcony at a distance from the dispersion of the photos, fully denounced the cries of 'Traitor' aimed against Rabin. He has explained, time after time, that he had no inkling of the inciteful photo, but this did not help a whit in stopping the wild agitation campaign against him.
Today, "traitor" is one of milder accusations hurled at Netanyahu. At the last Saturday night "kaplanist" demonstration, there was a picture of a beheaded Netanyahu. This joins numerous calls for his murder and many pronouncements that he is a danger to the State and to its citizens, climaxing in calls to stop him in any way possible. None of the political opposition says anything in even mild protest at all this, and the state institutions do not lift a finger since all know that as long as they pick the correct target they have guaranteed freedom of expression and freedom to incite.
