Interesting Posts and Articles #247

1. Bloggers joining, or helping establish, portals. ADDeRabbi with Jewish Ideas Daily, and Streimel at Unpious.
   
   
2. Life In Israel notes a video (obtained by Bechadrei Chareidim) of an anti-Internet event which purportedly had 300 attendees:
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
3. At the Seforim blog, considering what was bothering... the censor.
   
   
4. At BeyondBT, why does it matter how we dress?
   
   

   
   

   I think I was fifteen that summer. I got all dressed up in the nicest dress I had with me. Actually I think it may have been the only dress I had with me. It was a sleeveless blue one, and I was even careful to wrap a crocheted shawl around my arms. Our counselors had told us that there was a big sign in Mea Shearim that said that we had to cover our arms when we were there. 
   

   
   

   
   

   That Saturday morning I got thrown out of the synagogue. The women in the little shul in Mea Shearim started screaming at me and calling me names in a language I didn’t understand. I found out afterwards what they were shouting at me. And, when I found out what the words meant, I realized that they had really made me feel like the low words they were shouting at me. They pushed me out of the shul and chased me away, from Judaism. It hurt a lot. I just kept thinking, “Could this be God’s world?”
   

   
   

   I've heard a similar story, with a girl wearing a denim skirt who was pointedly ignored in Meah Shearim, and didn't know why. Related, at Life in Israel:
   
   

   Granovitch describes something that has happened to this fellow who just wants to be careful to daven with a minyan in his father's memory and say kaddish - just as he successfully gathers the minyan and starts the service, one of the people in the minyan state a protest and say they cannot be part of the minyan. The protest is often something like "Somebody with a trimmed and combed beard cannot lead the services." and sometimes it is that "someone who wears a blue shirt, his prayers will not be heard."
   

   
   
5. Yeranen Yaakov is doing some serious dybbuk blogging. (Here, here, here, here.)
   
   
6. Emes veEmunah points out that the rabbi who called for a cherem of the meshichist Lubavitchers who feasted on the 10th of Teves is himself a meshichist.
   
   

   But is Rabbi Telsner really opposed to the idea of the Rebbe as the Messiah? I doubt it. Back in about 2004 he signed a document entitled Psak Din. It is available for view in pdf. His name is in the middle of the 2nd line.
   

   If so, why the condemnation? Perhaps it is PR. As the statement said:
   

   To present such conduct as being in accordance with the Rebbe’s teachings and message is a complete fabrication, and can only serve to destroy the good name of Chabad in the general community.

   Perhaps it is the moving from mere belief to practical action, where the action seems antinomian. He concludes that every Lubavitcher is a meshichist.
   
   Also, in the comment section, what seems a plausible explanation, if accurate:
   
   

   i also founf out the letter was printed originally in 1991 and was reproduced in 2004 with out some of the people  persmisions.
   

   The Rebbe, meanwhile, died in 1994. On the other hand, here is a photo of him speaking in front of a meshichist banner. And a comment at Vos Iz Neias states:
   

   Just to note these few nutjob crakos (like an empty pushka makes lots of noise) are ostracized by the Meshichisten as well as anything against HALACHA is seen as against the REBBE. Rabbi Telsner btw is the Lubavitcher Rov in Melbourne and personally is a strong advocate for the belief that Moshiach can be min hameisim

   This reminds me of the halachic discussion about whether someone who is meshuga ledavar echad is meshuga lechol haTorah kulah. There was a fellow who thought he was mashiach, and walked around naked, etc. And the question was whether he was of right enough mind to grant a get. And a certain Godol (I don't recall whether it was Rav Soloveitchik or Rav Feinstein) said that it was just this one meshegas, and everything else stemmed from it. That is, he walked around naked because he felt that he was like Adam haRishon before the cheit. Similarly here, if mashiach is indeed here, then it is straightforward rational application of the relevant gemaras, so why condemn?
   
   
   
7. A giant Middle-Eastern spider discovered, now endangered.
   
   
8. A ban on purchasing tefillin and mezuzot from those connected to the Internet.
   
   

   This time the newspaper quotes HaRav Yisrael Hager Shlita, the son on the Vishnitzer Rebbe Shlita, who calls on the tzibur not to buy tefillin and mezuzos from anyone connected to so-called chareidi websites. The Rav’s comments come at the start of the Shovavim period, beginning with parshas Shemos and ending with Mishpatim.
   The Rav connected his message to a dvar Torah from the Ksav Sofer, as well as quoting his father the Rebbe Shlita, adding that mosdos should not accept children from homes with internet connectivity
   
   

   
   
9. At Revach, an idea I had independently. Rav Wosner says technically it should be allowed, but then suggests against it:
   
   

   You make a transparent overlay with Nikudos and taamim and place it on the words of the Sefer Torah.  This way you are reading the actual Sefer Torah and any amateur can become a professional Baal Korei without mistakes.
   

   
   
10. Here on parshablog, is the derivation of the name Putiel knowable?