Interesting Posts and Articles #160

1. New at HebrewBooks, a concordance of midrash rabba; Saul Leiberman's commentary on Yerushalmi; and Jastrow, part one and part two; and Aruch HaShulchan HeAtid, parts one, two, and three; Sefer Chassidim by Rav Yehuda Hachassid; Chafetz Chaim; and Chafetz Chaim al HaTorah; the Gra's perush on Zohar, Hechalot, Raya Mehamna, Zohar Chadash -- I don't believe on Tikkunei Zohar, though.
   
   
2. Rationalist Judaism on respecting Rishonim.
   
   
3. Menachem Mendel posts about the war over the bracha on Bamba.
   
   
4. Frum Satire has the complete guide to the sit-down shuckel.
   
   
5. Achas LeMaalah is now promoting conspiracy theories. Not such a big leap, since he previously supported autistics since they say what he wants. Anyway, in another post, he clarifies.
   
   
6. I did not realize that Tamar Yonah's show on autistics and facilitated communication was going to be this Sunday. It was postponed from last Sunday. Anyway, no one called in. The show was nonsense. He pretended to respond to the points people made on Tamar Yonah's blog by referring to his introduction section. I've heard all that garbage and nonsense before. It did not answer it.
   
   In the intro, Tamar described FC as someone holding someone's wrist up as they typed, or helping them point to a chart. While this may be a good description of some FC, it does not do justice to the stuff these folks are doing.
   
   Daniel:
   
   
   another autistic:
   
   
   and another:
   
   
   
   Rabbi Sachs describes the gemara of those giving "prophecy" as referring to shotim vetinokot, which he did not translate as lunatics and children. And a lunatic shouting at the street corner, meanwhile, is the example explicitly given by the gemara. Instead, he misleadingly translated it as people who are retarded and brain-damaged. And he did not note that the gemara also mentions rabbis. He connected it to non-Jewish use, even though the way they use it is far different than the way he does, and their rationale is quite different. This is misleading nonsense.
   
   Tamar Yonah said that the reason she is doing this show is that whether one believes in FC or not, they are saying exactly what would say in the Torah; what we should be doing it in any case. She must not be reading the messages of the autistics too clearly. Doesn't she wear a sheitel? It seems from her picture that she does. Plus their words are full of sinas chinam and instructions not to listen to rabbanim on the issues the "autistics" take issue with them on. There are many problematic aspects of their messages, but unfortunately some people do not read carefully enough or comprehensively enough, or else lack the Jewish education necessary to spot what is wrong.
   
   And that what they are saying can be found in Jewish texts is just because many different messages can be read into Jewish texts.
   
   Anyway, listen to the show and form your own conclusions.
   
   
7. As I noted yesterday, Divrei Chaim has a post about whether one should restore the "true" text of Tanach, in accordance with the Rishonim's masorah, or stick with the erroneous masorah that developed due to a fairly recent corruption in the time of the Acharonim. An interesting question, but I address whether it truly is a recent corruption, and whether the variant is really the nusach of the Rishonim, in this post on parshablog.