Interesting Posts and Articles #241

1. A segulah for speedy birth:
   
   

   “Where did you find this segula?  Reb Shmuel replied, “When we say Yizkor in shul one time all the children and even some adults run out, so when it would be said seven times, surely the child would come out quick!”
   

   I wonder how many segulot began like this.
   
   
   
2. Frum Satire reports that Shaindy.com has closed.
   
   
3. On Vos Iz Neias, a film crew chased out of Meah Shearim. What a kiddush Hashem!
   
   

   
   

   When they stepped outside to film a scene of a man and woman talking, Ofer said young men quickly gathered around them and began cursing them and demanding they leave.
   

   
   

   The neighborhood's modesty police patrol then arrived and began shouting and threatening to break their equipment if they did not leave immediately. At one point, members of the mob threw the camera and boom on the ground, but the equipment was not damaged, Ofer said.
   

   
   

   
   
4. At Matzav, doctors at Schneider Hospital refuse to treat a brain-dead girl.
   
   

   “During the course of the legislative debates you led to determine the time of death, several Knesset members claimed as long as the heart is beating the person is not dead,” wrote Rabbi Gafni. “And there have been cases where a patient whose brain stopped functioning later recuperated.”
   

   One question is whether those old cases were the result of misdiagnoses; and whether "brain stopped functioning" is the same as brain-death.
   
   
   
5. Should doctors to be lecturing their patients about global warming?
   
   
6. At the Seforim blog, some egregious errors about Judaism found in a "scholarly" book put out by National Geographic. E.g.:
   
   

   “In orthodox Judaism, a tefillin [prayer belt and jacket], …..are worn during prayer”.
   

   We know that they got these things wrong. But what about the things they write about other cultures, religions, countries, etc., where we don't know enough to spot the ludicrous errors?
   
   
   
7. In terms of the segulah of the nines, see Yeranen Yaakov and The Cool Jew. Also, this parshablog post.
   
   
8. The Jewish Worker discusses whether the existence of free-loan gemachs are a good or a bad thing, in two posts.
   
   
9. Menachem Mendel on the Geonim and lighting Shabbos candles.
   
   
10. Vos Iz Neias on the status of Ben Sirah, and also The Alphabet of Ben Sirah. I have a post planned about it, but in the meantime, there is this introductory post.
    
    
11. Also, here on parshablog, sources for studying parshas Vayishlach.