Interesting Posts and Articles #222

1. Life In Israel about a brief kidnapping in Meah Shearim. At a Simchas Beis Hashoevah,
   

   "She was approached by a hassidic guy who screamed at her for being on the wrong side. She responded that it was a mistake and that she was leaving to go to the womens side.
   
   The hassidic guy grabbed her kid from the stroller and ran."

   It was likely just as Yoelish Krausz explained -- that the fellow was taking the kid towards the women's side, so that she would follow. Think about the midrash involving the Plishtim and sending back the Aron.
   
   Regardless of his motivations, and his intent to give the kid back promptly, the behavior is inexcusable. (Is he chayav misa for kidnapping?) Meanwhile, the fellow probably still thinks he is a big tzaddik.
   
   
2. One third of dinosaurs may not have existed.
   
   
3. The New York Times' seeming obsession with making Jews look silly has them writing about Shabbos elevators on the front page, as a human interest story. Meanwhile, much more accurate and comprehensive information available at Vos Iz Neias.
   
   
4. Schlock Rock offers a download of their latest album, where you get to name your price.
   
   
5. Conversations in Klal on the Olden Age of Shidduchim, part one and two.
   
   
6. Wolfish Musings on his joy in leining on Simchas Torah.
   
   
7. Rabbi Ari Enkin at Hirhurim on sources on praying with a minyan. He writes:
   

   One of the sources for the importance of ten people joining together in the service of God is derived from the episode of Avraham and the city Sodom.[9] We find that when Avraham realized that there weren't even ten righteous people in all of Sodom in whose merit the city could be spared from destruction he ceased pleading with God not to destroy it. He figured that if Sodom was a place where even a minyan couldn’t be gathered together for productive purposes then the city was not worth saving.[10]

   He is basing himself on Ibn Ezra's commentary there, but I am not sure I agree with his seeming spin on it. That Ibn Ezra is:
   

   ויש אומרים:
   למה לא הפחית מעשרה?
   בעבור היות שנים בכל עיר, כי חמש ערים היו. וזה איננו נכון בעבור שאמר בסדום לבדה, ואף על פי שחכמינו ז"ל העתיקו שאין תפילה בצבור פחות מעשרה, גם זה הפסוק יחזיק ידי אמונתינו:

   
   
8. Here at parshablog, a roundup of my posts for parshat Bereishis.