Interesting Posts and Articles #243

1) Shirat Devorah with people who say that the judgement / major catastrophic war has been delayed until Hoshanah Rabba. I assumed that people would say this, eventually.

2) Lazer Beams with a new message from Rabbi Shalom Arush.

3) And Mystical Paths weighs in, about the week of warning.

4) Meanwhile, Life In Israel reports that Rav [sic] Nir Ben Artzi is upsetting Breslovers, by saying that anyone who leaves Eretz Yisrael on Rosh Hashanah is bringing shame to Eretz Yisrael. Also, the following predictions (cut and paste from the post):

• Turkey will soon be destroyed. Expect a major earthquake with many killed and major destruction.
• Even if Turkey sends 20 ships to destroy Eretz Yisrael, God forbid, within minutes Israel will destroy all of them.
• Within 12 months all the holy and righteous in chutz laaretz will come to Israel, to daven by the Me'aras HaMachpela.
• The Americans will at some point allow Israel to bomb the Iranian nuclear reactor.
• Israel will discover great stores of wealth of oil beneath the ground. Israel will be protected while the evil around the world comes apart and the world goes crazy

I am not holding my breath. What is "soon"? And does anyone recall this, from a year ago?

"God will cleanse the world and erase China from the world this year, and there will be rough winds there," Nir Ben-Artzi, a local kabbalist rabbi, told a conference on Yom Kippur held in Telamim.

People will remember the dubious successful predictions and forget, or explain away, all the ones which were way off the mark. We will see whether within 12 months all the holy and righteous in chu"l will come to Israel. If not, I guess they were not holy and righteous. And we already know about the great stores of oil wealth beneath the ground in Israel. It is called shale.

5)  Also at Life In Israel, an interesting letter discovered from David Ben Gurion.

6) At Hirhurim, R' Gil Student considers whether the kosher switch will bring mashiach. He discusses the halachics of it, according to various rabbis, and briefly considers the strength of their rabbinic approbations. And R' Aryeh Leibowitz has a brief, 10 minute shiur about it. In the comment section at Hirhurim, R' Daniel Eidensohn promulgates Rav Sternbuch's objection to it. Also, on his own blog, Daas Torah. This in contrast to the company's website which has an endorsement, or seeming endorsement, from Rav Sternbuch. (It is possible to misconstrue well-wishes or statements about gerama in general as endorsements.) It seems that Rav Belsky has, as well, clarified that he does not endorse it, and they have removed his endorsement from their site.

And more about the problematic haskamos, described in a letter from Tzomet. For instance, Rabbi Neuwirth wrote by his signature that this is only for refuah and bitachon (medical and security) purposes, and the claim is (I think -- check there to be sure) that this caveat was deleted. And Rav Nevenzahl says he does not recall signing on to any such thing, etcetera.

Related, about problematic haskamos, this time regarding the recent special election. I backed David Weprin, and Bob Turner won. One major reason for this was a letter put out, signed by many rabbonim, that it was forbidden to vote for Weprin because of his support for gay marriage. Here is such a letter, by a bunch of Flatbush rabbonim, [plus several non-Flatbush signatories] including Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky and Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen. One local Democratic booster contacted the Agudah asking about this letter. (At least, I think this is the letter in question.) They said they would get back to him. Later, they told him that they asked many of the signatories, and about half said that they never signed upon such a letter!

If this is true, then this is just awful. People are being led, once again, not by rabbonim but by printers of kol koreihs. And if so, they should get to the bottom of this, find out who is behind the letter, and expose them.

7) At Wired and the Wall Street Journal, the Psychology of yogurt.

8) A new finding of the closest human ancestor may rewrite steps in evolution.

9) Here on parshablog, Torah is accessible to all and Torah on the moon.