Interesting Posts and Articles #70

1. JNUL posts Yeshuos Meshicho, from Abarbanel. This is often a source quoted to show that mashiach can arise from the dead. The place where he discusses this, within the context of discussing the Yerushalmi about Menachem ben Chizkiyah, is on pages 32-35. Has this been translated and made publically available? If not, perhaps I will put it on my queue.
   
   
2. Oh, and they also post the Kuzari.
   
   
3. Emes VeEmunah finds a heartening letter/article by a Lubavitcher about whether the Rebbe is mashiach, but swiftly becomes disheartened. One topic of the letter is how pashut peshat in the Rambam has given way to drasha, something I wrote about earlier in my post about how Ben Gurion is a better messianic candidate than the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
   
   
4. A Microsoft KnowledgeBase article on how to insert random text into your Word document.
   
   
5. Via Hirhurim, a shiur by Rabbi Willig about women rabbis. (part one and part two)
   
   
6. Over at Mystical Paths, a post responding to my earlier comment on a post about Yisurin, and whether the gemara can be read to refer to emotions rather than actions. And my comment in reply, also posted on the main blog. The discussion perhaps continues, when I get the chance...
   
   
7. Shirat Devorah excerpts Faith and Folly, about Palm reading, and whether palmistry is kosher. The conclusion: way back when, it was a real thing, transmitted to the Sages, but then the knowledge was concealed. Nowadays, palm readers have turned it into a silly thing, and Rav Shach said that it is a violation of tamim tihyeh im Hashem Elokecha.
   
   I would disagree somewhat. While I think that today it is silly and a violation of tamim tihyeh, way back when, palmistry and face reading was similarly nonsense, but it was regarded as science, just as much nonsense was regarded as science. Back then, perhaps people including Rabbis practiced it, but that was no violation of tamim tihyeh, as it was a science. Then, with kabbalah and practical mysticism, this was garbed in mysticism. Nowadays, it is not science, and it is often not practiced as part of a systematic theological system, and so it is indeed often a violation of tamim tihyeh im Hashem Elokecha.
   
   Unfortunately, she also posts something purportedly by an autistic, from a methodology, facilitated communication, which is also likely a violation of tamim tihyeh.