Interesting Posts and Articles #191

1. Rabbi Slifkin will be in Kew Gardens Hills this coming Sunday night, giving two lectures at Etz Chaim:
   

   Lectures by Rabbi Natan Slifkin in Kew Gardens Hills this Sunday, August 9th
   
   7:45 pm (following mincha at 7:30 pm)
   One People, Two Religions: Rationalism vs. Mysticism
   
   9 pm (following maariv at 8:45 pm)
   Worlds in Collision: The Dynamics of a Ban
   
   Congregation Etz Chaim
   147-19 73rd Ave, Kew Gardens Hills, NY 11367
   The lectures are for men and women
   Entrance Admission: $10 for one lecture, $15 for both
   
   Download a flyer here

   
   
   
2. A politically correct children's story: The Actualized Dragon:
   

   A friend recently directed me to Berkeley Playhouse’s “content preview” for its current production of Peter Pan. It warns concerned parents about the show’s “emotional intensity” and “anguish expressed through acting and song,” and points out that the pirates make “poor choices” and many characters “use weapons.” I actually think it’s good to talk about problematic characters and scenes in classic children’s literature. But I started to wonder: What would an absolutely politically and socially perfect modern-day children’s book look like? Perhaps something like this.

3. Eruv Online makes a "startling discovery"
   

   Entering the fray is a startling discovery — a teshuvah by one of the most major of Roshei haYeshivos that has just now surfaced. In the newly published Otzar Reb Chaim Berlin, Shu"t Nishmas Chaim (p. 1) there is a teshuvah from Rav Chaim of Volozhin to an unidentified recipient... What is startling is: Rav Chaim declared that because the Mishkenos Yaakov accepted the opinion of the Ramban, who maintained that we pasken asu rabbim umevatlei mechitzta like Rav Yehudah, carrying in an area encompassed by a tzuras hapesach was a matter of a d’Oraysa. However, Rav Chaim argued that Tosfos, who paskens lo asu rabbim umevatlei mechitzta like the Rabbanan, maintains that the matter is not more than that of a d’rabbanan. This teshuvah basically places Rav Chaim in the Bais Ephraim’s camp regarding the issue of asu rabbim.

4. On the Main Line on a pseudo-reference to America in Radak.
   
   
5. An interesting website, Garfield minus Garfield.
   

   Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

6. A rhinestone ban, due to the CPSIA.
   
   
7. Hashkafah notes a sold a yid for a quarter story in the latest Chazaq. I discussed the Christian origins of that story here, as a commenter there notes.
   
   
8. On a related note, via Life In Israel's roundup, an inspirational chulent story which turns out to have been adapted from an inpirational secular story about rocks, gravel and sand.
   
   
9. Frum Satire posts a funny YU - Stern shidduch video.
   
   
10. Shirat Devorah on the latest tall tale of Rav Kanievsky saying moshiach is coming within the year. I have a post in the works -- I would guess it is bunk, and that Rav Kanievsky said no such thing.