In today's day and age, everybody has a voice. Like it or not, freedom of speech is a reality, even in countries where there is officially no freedom of speech. Twitter and Facebook have even been used to overthrow governments in countries where such sites were blocked and officially inaccessible. That's just the way it is.

A month ago, Rabbi Avi Zarki, a rav in north Tel Aviv and a popular mohel, made the news when he used his Twitter account to comment on the unusually small size of a baby's genitalia along with a recommendation of changing the procedure of circumcision.

Rabbi Zarki is in the news once again, and again it is for his use of Twitter.

Rabbi Zarki seems to be in a fight with Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. I don't know how it began, but according to the Maariv article on the matter, Rabbi Zarki turned to twitter after Rabbi Amar asked him to stop acting as the rabbi of north tel Aviv. He also threatened Zarki that unless he were to sign such a commitment, Rabbi Amar would work to get him removed from the list of rabbis approved to perform wedding services. Rabbi Zarki adds as well that Rabbi Amar has pressured Radio Kol B'Ramah to cancel his radio program.

I obviously don't know all the details of this, but it seems the fight is because of his tweet last month about there no longer being a need for "preeya" (he claims to have developed a method of mila that renders preey to be redundant. he claims to have rabbinic approval, including from Rabbi Amar himself). Rabbi Amar called a committee to investigate and decide whether Rabbi Zarki is making changes to the traditional circumcision procedures. According to Rabbi Zarki's twitter updates, the committee was loaded with Rabbi Amar's men, people appointed by protexiaץ Despite that he claims he had a knockout punch for the committee when he pulled out rabbinic letters, including one from Rabbi Amar himself, saying that they had investigated his method and found it to be halachically acceptable.

In response, Rabbi Zarki has turned to Twitter to vent his frustration. He posted numerous "tweets" on his twitter account in which he accuses Rabbi Amar of intimidation, being a liar, deceit and calls him all sorts of names. I guess it is understandable, considering the attack he has been under, for unclear reasons, but I must say it is very unbecoming.

Not only has Twitter empowered the world with an unprecedented level of freedom and ability of speech,m giving a voice to people who had none, Twitter is also becoming the platform of rabbinic fighting.


------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

In a very strange incident, Rav Avi Zarki, a popular mohel in Tel Aviv, tweeted two tweets on his twitter account  that have him in hot water.

1. According to my professional opinion, today we can do the circumcision according to halacha without doing the traditional "preeya". tweet
2. Today I did a circumcision on a child with the smallest penis I have ever seen - a micro penis. You should undertand, it was slightly thicker than a matchstick. At 1st I thought it was a girl. Zeh HaKotton Gadol Yiheyeh (play on words saying this small one should become big). tweet

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

Tweet of the Day

Neturei Karta with the help from the almighty will be attending the global march to Jerusalem in Jordan Lebanon and Palestine and more

-- Neturei Karta USA twitter account - yes, this is real.

One of the basic tenets of the Neturei Karta is that the Jews returned to the Land of Israel "as a wall", which is a rebellion against God, and is breaking one of the three oaths made between god and the Jewish people. Ironic that the Neturei Karta themselves will now come to Israel "as a wall", as part of a march on Jerusalem...
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

The funniest thing to happen on Twitter, in a very long time, is the recent account opened under the name of Angry Charedi Guy. He is the crazy driver from the video of the news report that spoke about how we are healthy and they are sick and how his rav said they should spit at kids.

Consider this a public service announcement. You will enjoy. It will make your day pass with more smiles.

This is just absolutely ridiculous. Somebody passed by a house and thought the exterior design of the house, the location of the windows, the shape of the roof, the doorway, etc. all resembled the face of Hitler. The person snapped a picture and then placed the image next to a face shot of Adolph Hitler, yemach sh'mo, and posted it to twitter. Jimmy Carr noticed the tweet and passed it on, and form there it went viral.

What do you think? Are people out of their minds? It looks more like the pizza delivery guy if you ask me!

The Telegraph has the story along with imagess of other "Hitler lookalikes":

Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed or shared the link to a photograph of the house after it was published on Twitter, the social networking site.
The slanted roof was said to resemble the Hitler fringe, the door lintel was the moustache and the small top windows were seen as the dictator’s piercing eyes.
The joke took off when it was tweeted by Jimmy Carr, the comedian, but the owner of the house in Port Tenant, Swansea, a man in his 70s, said he had never even heard of Twitter.
The tweet was first posted by Charli Dickenson, 22, a youth worker, who spotted the bizarre similarity as she drove past.
“I walk past the house all the time, but I had never noticed the Hitler likeness before,” said Miss Dickenson. “But then, at the weekend, I was in the car with my boyfriend and we were stuck in traffic and I just said to him, 'That house looks like Hitler.’ We both laughed. I took a picture and posted it on Twitter.


“It was picked up by Jimmy Carr. Now everyone is talking about it!”
A neighbour, Lyn Thomas, 25, said: “I can see a resemblance now. I’ve lived here for two years but have never noticed anything before. I don’t know why it would be designed in such a way. It is uncanny.”
Another neighbour said: “People are joking that the house is the third on the Reich and that we live on the Western Front. You have to see the funny side of life sometimes.”

A Guest Post By Mrs. G

I recently had the honor of attending quite an unusual affair. It was a wedding in Jerusalem. That in itself was not unusual – there are weddings in Jerusalem all the time. What was unusual – I think- was the guest list. Every guest at the wedding aside from the Rabbi and his family, had never met the chassan and kalla before the night of the event (or at least not until this trip to Israel). All the guests 'follow' the bride and/or groom on twitter – and that was how they knew each other. The whole wedding was organized, from afar, over twitter. This seemed to be an amazing thing and references to twitter were made from beginning to end. The Twabbi officiated and the Twittnesses twittenessed….The whole thing was one long twitter success story and the wedding that took place at the beautiful location, in the manner that it did all because of Twitter. And isn’t that amazing?

I would like to argue that while twitter was the medium – it was not the reason the wedding was so beautiful, it is NOT the reason that the guests attended a wedding of someone the never met, it was NOT the reason the wishes were heartfelt and the chuppa was so moving, it was NOT the reason behind the success story.
Years ago I attended a wedding. WAY before twitter. The bride and groom knew one family in the neighborhood. The wedding took place in their home. None of the guests knew the bride and groom – and if I remember correctly there was something like a 2 day warning to those guests to attend. The catering was all done by the people of the neighborhood- the chuppa was moving the guests were enthusiastic and the event was a success. Some of the main aspects of these two weddings were the same – but wait then there was no twitter – so how did it happen?

I would like to argue that it was the Jewish people that were behind it. The Jewish people who love each other, come through for each other and in a perfect example of true Ahavas Yisroel, help pull together a wedding for a couple. The guests may not have ever met the bride and groom , in reality or in the virtual world of cyberspace – but when there is a simcha to be made – they come through to make it a Simcha in every meaning of the word.

Mi k’amcha yisroel!

The Internet provides tremendous opportunities for reaching out at levels never before possible. It also provides the ability to be unique and creative in all sorts of realms in life. When these two opportunities are combines and taken advantage of, the results can be amazing.

Alon Nir, a 25 year old guy working on a secondary degree in economics, was interested in behavioral economics, internet based entrepreneurship, and of course - making a change. One day Alon comes up with the idea of how he was going to make this change - he joins Twitter and offers a service - tweet your prayers to the Kotel, with his twitter name being @thekotel. This also led to Alon opening his own website, called Tweet Your Prayers.The truth is the service is not SO unique, as for years already you could have sent in various ways prayers to the Kotel - fax, chabad, thekotel website, etc. However, the medium and form used was unique, and the energy brought to the project was especially unique.

I have found Alon to be an intriguing person with an even more intriguing project. Over the time I have followed him and his project, Alon has been interviewed in news media around the world, his story has been carried all over the place, and he has touched thousands upon thousands of people, giving them the opportunity to have their prayers sent to the Kotel from wherever they are.

Among all the interviews I have read with Alon, the questions always seemed pretty similar, and I had questions I would have liked to have seen asked but they never were. I asked Alon if he would be open to an interview, and he happily obliged.

So here goes, the interview with Alon, a.k.a @TheKotel...


@TheKotel: Thank you for asking me questions I was not asked before! Had been interviewed dozens of times - and finally - new questions!

1. How much of your time does this project take up? Are you able to keep your regular job while doing the Kotel Project?

@TheKotel: It consumes a lot of my time, a great portion of it. I was not able to hold a steady job and do the Kotel in the same time. I decided to go with Tweet Your Prayers because I realized that I was fortunate enough to be given such an amazing opportunity, an opportunity to help many, touch lives, and make a change. Money has been tight, I'm still living with my parents and have to borrow money to make University payments. In October I had to forgo going to a conference in LA, in which I was asked to speak and present TYP, and there's another conference in NYC in April, and I hope to be able to make it there. If anyone out there can help in any way, help is direly needed and would be immensely appreciated.


2. Of all the possible altruistic projects a person can take up, how did you come to tweeting prayers rather than a soup kitchen or assisting the elderly, for example?

@TheKotel: That's a good question. I'm an internet savvy guy, and have been involved in different online activities for a good few years now. I guess it was just natural for me to give from myself through an internet based activity. It's not the first time I've done something like that - I used to have a website that encouraged people to live "greener" lives by suggesting small, hardly felt, changes in their lifestyles and presenting them with the monetary incentives to do so. By the way, I also volunteer, on occasion, at a dog shelter in Tel-Aviv.

3. In the video of your presentation, I noticed that you do not appear to be religious - I didn't see a kipa - though of course appearances can be deceiving. Are you religious? traditional?

@TheKotel: This service has nothing to do with what I believe in - it's all about what the users believe in.

4. How often do you go to put the prayers in the wall? Does it get to be such a big project that it keeps you from your normal activities? or has this become your main activity?

@TheKotel: As mentioned, it takes a LOT of my time. Regarding your question, I think this post says it all: http://www.tweetyourprayers.info/2009/10/i-needed-a-bigger-box/

5. rubber bands - tape - what have you found to be the best way to keep them closed? How long does it take you - how many can you roll an hour?

@TheKotel: Regular adhesive or tape are my preferred solutions. Rubber bands are much more time consuming and quickly hurt your fingers. Incidentally, if anyone needs 2000 rubber bands - I have a few left over :) .

6. What about privacy.. you read em - right? Are there any issues of people asking you to keep certain things private? is there a promise of confidentiality? Are people concerned about you knowing their most private concerns?

@TheKotel: I take people's privacy and the sanctity of their prayers very seriously, and I don't read the prayers (mind you, some people prefer having their prayers out there for the world to see).

7. What is the most inspiring story you can think of, you can remember offhand, that you have experienced since you took on this project?

@TheKotel: There are so many, some of them I shared in the presentation I have (NOTE from RG: the video was embedded last week, and is embedded again at the end of the interview), and since then more amazing things happened. Feel free to mention any of the stories I spoke about in the "keep the faith" part of my presentation (especially the first two).

8. In what way has this Kotel project affected you the most on a personal level?

@TheKotel: It has completely changes my life and touched me deeply. I can express in words how grateful I am that all this happened. Whatever happens to me in life next, I will always know that when I was 25 I created something that touched literally thousands and thousands of people worldwide. I'm so happy for giving people hope, self-belief, confidence. I also know that one person can truly make a difference and that we should never think that our capabilities are limited. Look at me - with a 89 cents investment I created something that made worldwide news and gave thousands a service they will remember and cherish for a long time. I just hope I'll manage to keep going (as mentioned, money is tight) and spread my message to as many people as possible. I encourage all of the readers to watch the video of my presentation - and they'll know what message I'm talking about.

9. How do you find enough cracks in the wall in which to stuff all the thousands of notes?

@TheKotel: take a look at the photos - there's one big crack that can fit a whole lot of notes :)

Check Alon out on Twitter, at Tweet Your Prayers, watch his videos, peruse the many pictures of "The Kotel" activities on his website, donate to his project (via his website), and most of all, Alon's message is be inspired to make change in the best way you can. You can also contact Alon by email at tweetyourprayers@gmail.com

Rush Limbaugh, while on vacation in Hawaii, was rushed last night to the hospital in critical condition with chest pains.

Even though I don't like him, I wish him well.

the best line I heard about his situation was on twitter from @judahe - he said "we both know it's a ploy to get into the hospital to look for the [Obama] birth certificate!"

That is a great line.

Alon nir is the mastermind behind what has become a massive project on Twitter. His name on Twitter is @thekotel, and he has been featured in press around the world.

Alon basically asks you to send your prayers to him in a tweet (or via his website) and he will put them in the Kotel for you.

Here is Alon's recent presentation at the #140 Conference in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli government representatives have spoken a number of times about fighting Israel's battles in cyberspace. They actually wanted to recruit bloggers to do so (for free of course) and provide them with training and talking points.

While that has not really panned out, the IDF has taken the initiative.

After starting the newest battalion of shadchanim, the latest is a battalion of tweeters, youtubers and facebookers... It brings the army into a whole new era of the digital age. "Push the Button" no longer just means to send a smart bomb to a remote location while sitting in a Lay-Z-Boy smoking a pipe and sipping bourbon, and it no longer refers to a song by Tipex..but it refers to pushing the button to publish your tweet and your youtube video.

Ya gotta love our hi-tech army!

While I still don't really "get" the purpose of Twitter beyond other forms of social networking, I must say it does provide some very good links...

Here is something I got off of Twitter today.... that would be Benjamin Netanyahu at age 28...