Interesting Posts and Articles #240

1. Rabbi Feldman responds to Rabbi Slifkin about his essay:
   
   
   

   Thank you for your e-mail. I do not recall any “factual errors or serious flaws” in my article, “The Slifkin Affair,” which were brought to my attention; otherwise I would certainly have corrected them...
   

   
   
2. Hirshel Tzig on Rebbeshe Inyonim, with a video clip of the Tosher Rebbe making Hamotzi. Apparently, he has done this consistently since when he was a bachur, and does not do this for other brachot. Which might well indicate that this is not the result of old age, or OCD. Presumably he has certain kavvanos when saying this bracha. Not my cup of tea, of course:
   
   
3. In the Coffee Room at The Yeshiva World, all about how Yaakov Avinu was not frum, because he helped out Rachel's sheep and spoke to her, and then asked to marry her without using a shadchan. Let us be thankful that Lavan was not frum! Sorry, that was my summary.
   
   The actual story:
   
   
   
   
   

   A friend of our's has a son who was driving home from yeshiva a few weeks ago on Sunday and he saw in the curb lane a car with the hazard lights flashing, and two "dressed up" girls standing beside it. Since he was raised properly by his parents (sorry, I am editorializing here), he pulled over and asked the girls if they needed help. They had a flat tire, told him that they had called for help, but that the towing company said it would be an hour and they were going to be late for a vort. So (because this is a boy whose parents taught him well), the boy (let's call him Dovid) offered to change the tire for them. The girls were kind of astounded, but they actually took him up on the offer; he changed the tire.
   

   While he was changing the tire they made small talk and it turns out that one of the girls knows his aunt, and we figure that she used that information to obtain his address later that week, and she (the driver of the car) and the other girl sent him a thank you note with a gift certificate to a local seforim store - they explained they would have probably spent four times that much on the towing company, and they really appreciated his help.
   

   So, one thing leads to another, the boy calls his aunt, gets the girl's number, and calls to thank her for the gift.
   

   Nice story so far, right? Gets better.
   

   They have a nice conversation and agree to meet for a coffee. And this is where the craziness starts.
   

   Two nights later Dovid gets a call from the girl, who tells Dovid that she cannot meet him. Why? Because she was about to be redt to a very choshuve bochur, and the shadchanis told her that if word got around that this girl was going to go on a date with a guy she had met WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF THE SHADCHAN, (a) the choshuve bochur would not meet her, and (b) the shadchanis would no longer help her because "my clientele does not talk to boys who have not been checked out and cleared." Of course, Dovid is upset, because he liked the girl and thought it would be worthwhile to meet with her; the girl is upset because she is torn between wanting to meet Dovid again, but not sure she wants to risk her relationship with the shadchanis if the Dovid thing doesn't go anywhere.
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Moment Magazine has an article about Rabbi Slifkin:
   
   
5. Matzav on Sefardic girls and the shidduch crisis.
   
   
6. Life In Israel writes of a lack of understanding regarding the secular protests:
   
   
   
   

   R' Goldknopf, head of the rabbinic committee for guarding the sanctity of shabbos, doesn't understand them. He says we are all Jews, and how can they protest for chilul shabbos. We all heard the same commandments to keep shabbos. "I don't understand how any Jew can protest against the shabbos".
   

   
   
   
   

   That might actually be a large part of the problem. They don't understand. The secular are not protesting against shabbos. They are protesting against people who are trying to enforce their way of life on others who do not want to be bound by that lifestyle.
   

   
   
   
   
7. The latest Haveil Havalim.
   
   
8. Here at parshablog, a roundup of previous years' posts for parshat Vayishlach.