Interesting Posts and Articles #91

1. On the sheitel front, kallahmagazine posts her article -- "The Advent of the American Sheitel."
   
   And here is an online collection of sources on kisui harosh.
   
   
2. Overlawyered posts about Obama's mandatory volunteerism at change.gov -- 50 hrs a year of community service from middle school until the end of high school, and 100 hrs a year in college. Then, they changed change.gov to take out the "required" language.
   
   
3. Shirat Devorah sees Obama in many of the descriptions DreamingOfMoshiach had given in describing Gog (while claiming Bush was Gog). Great minds think alike! I said the same thing before the election as well, with the same sources, though I developed it a bit more. Of course, I was showing there how this is a partial quotation of sources, and how I did not believe that any of the candidates (nor George W. Bush) was Gog, by showing how it could be interpreted any way one pleased.
   
   
4. And perhaps I am just ignorant of the Jewish literature on this messianic subject, but I was astounded to see the following words from Joel Gallis and Robert Wolf, of the now clearly incorrect Redemption5768, also cited at Shirat Devorah:
   

   Exactly 5 years after Rav Kaduri met Mashiach, a descendant of Yishmael, an evil anti-Semite, was elected as the 44th President of the United States. He is the anti-Mashiach, also known as Gog.

   This in an article called "The Anti-Mashiach." For those in the know, "Christ" is Greek for mashiach. So anti-Christ is anti-mashiach. As far as I am aware, the antichrist is a Christian, rather than Jewish doctrine. And a search on anti-mashiach in Google yields many christian and Jews for Jesus websites. Saying Obama is Gog is one thing -- an incorrect thing, IMHO, but it is one thing. Saying he is the antichrist is another.
   
   Perhaps someone can correct me in the comments. Or else correct them.
   
   Update: Thanks! to Yaakov Nathan, of {?} Yiddishkeit.org, who writes in the comment section:
   

   This is from the midrash אוצר המדרשים ע' 390, which is also included in "Tzipisa Lishua" compiled by the Chofetz Chayim.
   
   Armilus, however, is not Gog.
   
   

   האות השביעי, הקב"ה בעל נפלאות עושה מופת בעולם. אמרו שיש ברומי אבן של שיש ועליה דמות נערה יפת תואר, והיא אינה עשויה בידי אדם אלא הקב"ה בראה כן בגבורתו, ובאין רשעי אומות העולם בני בלייעל ומחממין אותה ושוכבים אצלה, והקב"ה משמר טיפתן בתוך האבן ובורא בה בריה ויוצר בה ולד, והיא מתבקעת ויוצא ממנה דמות אדם ושמו ארמילוס השטן, זה שהאומות קורין אותו אנטיקרישטו, ארכו שתים עשרה אמה, ורחבו שתים עשרה ובין שתי עיניו זרת והן עמוקות אדומות ושער ראשו כצבע זהב, פעמי רגליו ירוקין ושתי קדקדין יש לו. ויבוא אצל אדום הרשעה ויאמר להם משיח אני, אני אלוהיכם, מיד מאמינים בו וממליכים אותו עליהם ומתחברים בו כל בני עשו ובאים אצלו, והולך וכובש כל המדינות ואומר לבני עשו הביאו לי תורתי שנתתי לכם, ומביאים תיפלותם ואומר להם אמת היא שנתתי לכם ואומר לאומות העולם האמינו בי כי אני משיחכם, מיד מאמינים בו. באותה שעה משגר לנחמיה בן חושיאל ולכל ישראל ואומר להם הביאו לי תורתכם והעידו בי שאני אלוה, מיד מתפחדין ונתמהין.
   

   
   http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/haraayon/otot-2.htm

   I wonder at the date of this midrash though. It makes me quite uncomfortable, as it refers explicitly to the Christian belief by the Christian name. (And presumably thus at least accidentally endorsing the Christian interpretation of Scriptures which yield this.) However, read this article in the Jewish Encyclopedia about Antichrist from the Jewish perspective. And another one about Armilus.
   
   
   
   
   And Yeranen Yaakov notes sources that connect Armilus to Gog, pointing to footnote 9 here.
   
   While it finds expression in certain midrashim, it does not mean I am now comfortable or accepting of it. The JewishEncyclopedia article on Armilus gives some interesting details of how this midrash arose, and ends with the statement that:
   

   The alleged descent of Armilus from a stone is a Jewish version of the wide-spread legend connected with the name of Virgil and referring to a statue that became a courtezan among the Romans (Güdemann, "Gesch. des Erziehungswesens . . . der Juden in Italien," pp. 221 et seq., 332, 333). It is indeed not improbable that this borrowing from the Virgil legend was due to Christian influence. The antithesis, Christ and Antichrist, which is the distinctive feature in the Christian legend of the Antichrist, led already in the tenth century to the opinion that Antichrist also would be the offspring of a virgin and, of course, of Satan (see Bousset,"Antichrist," p. 92, and the description of St. Hildegarde, lib. iii., visio xi., ed. Migne, pp. 716 et seq.).

   
   
5. That same essay refers to the reference to Obama in Yechezkel. Also pointed out to me by my parents, and seen at Mystical Paths and Yehudi Yerushalmi and Yeranen Yaakov:
   

   יחזקאל פרק לח

   
   

   ויהי דבר-יהוה, אלי לאמר. ב בן-אדם, שים פניך אל-גוג ארץ המגוג--נשיא, ראש משך ותבל; והנבא, עליו. ג ואמרת, כה אמר אדני יהוה: הנני אליך, גוג--נשיא, ראש משך ותבל. ד ושובבתיך, ונתתי חחים בלחייך; והוצאתי אותך ואת-כל-חילך סוסים ופרשים, לבשי מכלול כלם--קהל רב צנה ומגן, תפשי חרבות כלם.

   The reason I am not so impressed is my near-certainty that had McCain been elected, someone would have found a similarly impressive code for him being Gog. It is a question of motivation, and the malleability of the sources -- which is why they were able to come up with a McCain-Palin Torah code matrix, which was making the rounds before the election.
   
   And what of Gog Bush, that certain quarters were so sure of, and had a "firm" basis for? (We'll finally be able to put that to rest on Jan 20th.) We will see how an Obama presidency shapes up -- may it be for good! -- and whether there is any more basis in this than for the proof that the end of days must come in the days of Olmert.
   
   Meanwhile, in the comment threat at Mystical Paths, devash says it is not a legit Torah code since it lacks other detail. (Perhaps devash means other codes crossing it.)
   
   
6. Already, proposals for a national holiday in honor of Obama. Heh.
   
   
7. An interesting example of "objectivity" in the classroom: