Interesting Posts and Articles #209

1. The latest Haveil Havalim is up, at David Says Things.
   
   
2. An article in Hakirah on the Maharal's innovative approach to aggadah, and the climate that sparked it.
   
   
3. Life in Israel posts a (tznius) chumrah of the month, not braking for female pedestrians. Poe's law for tznius. And a pashkevil on behalf of the Burka Lady, saying that whoever can get her out of jail should act. And about having your cake and eating it too, about a publicly funded school in Israel which is controlled as if it were private. I don't know how the situation typically works in Israel.
   
   
4. Rationalist Judaism posts about the academic approach to determining what Torah scholars mean.
   
   
5. Wolfish Musings considers the story of Revital Avraham, who died a terrible death of cancer because she insisted on looking beautiful, which wasn't tznius. This after Rebbetzin Jugreis reposted the letter. See it in Hebrew here. Even if all the depicted events happened, rather than merely being an urban legend created by a pious idiot -- but rather, that she had such an accident, and dreamed such a dream, that does not mean that this should be mainstream Jewish belief. How awful the story is, and if fiction, how screwed up the person must have been to consider this an inspirational story. I left a comment there at the Jewish Press, presently pending moderation, expressing my disgust. If you are similarly disgusted, I would encourage you to let Rebbetzin Jungreis know by leaving a comment there as well.
   
   
6. Here at parshablog, considering the credentials of the Tsunami Kabbalist, who predicted an atomic blast between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. What a joke, that people consider him authentic!