Interesting Posts and Articles #238

1. Bluke has an image of the latest random segulah from kuppat haIr, about a special eis ratzon in which they will pray for you. The segulah is taken from Bris Menucha, by Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak of Grenada, and can be found on the top of the page of the sefer at HebrewBooks. (look a few lines down, to the line which begins Vayigash Eliyahu.) In terms of who the author was, see here (also copied below). He might be an early Rishon, but on the other hand if he quotes the Zohar, he might be later, such as 13th century or later:
   
   

2. Avraham ben Yitzchak of Granada		(Rimon). Although it is disputed among scholars, some authorities identify him with Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak of Narbonne. He is one of the earliest kabbalists to quote the Zohar. [However, passages he quotes are not found in the extant versions of the Zohar.] He is the author of Brit Menucha (published in Amsterdam 5408 / 1648 CE) an early kabbalistic treatise regarded by the Ari zal as a significant contribution to the literature of the Kabbala.
   Avraham ben Yitzchak		of Narbonne. 4870-4939 (1110-1179 CE), Av Beit Din of Narbonne, author of Sefer HaEshkol. Student of Yehuda ben Barzilai of Barcelona, from whom he learned Kabbala. He is also reputed to have received secrets of Kabbala from Elijah the Prophet. He is sometimes referred to as Raavad II (Rabbi Avraham Av Beit Din). Some identify him as the kabbalist Avraham ben Yitzchak of Granada, the author of Brit Menucha.

   Life In Israel on kabbalah red strings and the tooth fairy.
   
   
3. The Lakewood Scoop on a date-by-video-conference studio opening in Lakewood, using an expensive T1 line rather than Skype for quality but more importantly because it doesn't use the traife internet, and is able to get haskamos. And R' Malkiel Kotler about it. And DovBear and his commenters comment.
   
   
4. At Vos Iz Neias, still more about the tragic case of the chareidi infant in Israel who doctors say is brain-dead. Everybody takes sides, but still, it appears that one side is simply ignorant about the medical facts.
   
   
5. At Rationalist Judaism, Rabbi Slifkin notes the publication of a book by Rabbi Feldman, which contains the unchanged essay from a few years back opposing Rabbi Slifkin's work.
   

   I recently acquired your newly published book, "The Eye of the Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues." It was with great surprise that I saw that it includes the essay of several years ago, "The Slifkin Affair: Issues and Perspectives," entirely unchanged from its original form. This was even though a number of rabbis and academic scholars publicly pointed out the many, many factual errors and serious flaws that this essay contained. Especially disturbing was that in describing the "discarded minority view" that Chazal occasionally erred in their statements about the natural world, you omitted any mention of the more than three dozen further sources which I sent to you a few years ago, in a letter to which you never responded. Attached is the letter, along with the most comprehensive of the critiques of your essay that were circulated.

   
   In response, Rabbi Slifkin is considering publishing a complete book about the controversy.