Interesting Posts and Articles #386

1. Via Life in Israel, In the Year Tav Shin Ayin Gimel, if mashiach chas veshalom still hasn't come down from himmel, etc., etc.


This was based on the song "In the year 2525", by Zager and Evans.



However, I think Life In Israel's reference to Back to the Future coming to be was based on a hoax.

2. DovBear is still stirring the hornets nest with no breastfeeding in shul posts. I agree with him. Here is why.

A kohen with a disfigurement which will distract the tzibbur is not supposed to duchen. However, if the tzibbur is used to him, it is not a problem. Thus, on Megillah 24b:

(a) Despite the fact that Rav Huna disqualifies a blear-eyed Kohen (who constantly sheds tears) from Duchening, and Rebbi Yochanan, a Kohen who is blind in one eye - they both opted to remain silent (when a blear-eyed Kohen Duchened in the vicinity of the former, and a Kohen who was blind in one eye in the vicinity of the latter - because in both cases, the people of the town had gotten used to him, and would not look at him anyway (which is the real reason for the prohibition).

Should a woman be allowed to nurse in shul, if others will view it as a breach of ettiquette and thus such actions will distract them from davening? Sure.

Do you want to argue that nursing is non-sexual and should be brought into the public sphere? Go ahead and argue it. I'll even agree with you.

Still, society still are idiots. Wage this war outside the shul. Until the war is won, and people internalize an acceptance of the practice, it still will have negative repercussions on the kavvana of other people, and it might be considered somewhat selfish to disregard the feeling of others, and disrespectful to shul decorum.

Saying this does not mean that breastfeeding in public is inherently evil or wrong. But neither having such an eye-mum in public.

3. Crown Heights.info brings us news of some meshugenas, who are interacting with the Rebbe's chair as if he were there. Fine, so there are meshuggenas. The Chabad posters there seem embarrassed by it all. And if the vast majority of mainstream Chabad are really closet meshichists, which certainly sounds plausible to me, this new unit of craziness does not really add much.

4. At the Yeshiva World, when an IPhone is discovered in a Bnei Brak yeshiva.

“We are going to fulfill the mitzvah of וביערת הרע מקירבך”

Rather than smashing IPhones, the real evil in their midst is ignorance coupled with intolerance.

5. At COLLive, We're Stronger Than The Internet, by Rabbi Manis Friedman. Follow the link for article and video.

6. At Hirhurim, a time to defer.

7. Here at parshablog, a review of the recent English translation of Shadal's commentary on Chumash.