Month: August 2007
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Good Old Auntie
In America they have the ADL. In Britain they have the BBC. (Those 3 letter initials are catchy). Impartial as always, the Beeb reports on wanton destruction of artifacts on (so called?) Temple Mount. Apart from the headline (priceless) I particularly like such phrases as:“Muslim authorities at al-Aqsa mosque, also venerated by Jews as the… Read more
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wikipedia deletions
It is still too hot to function. Maybe life would be better if these entries had remained on wikipedia (unfortunately they were deleted). Still, if you can’t laugh, think about it again and then maybe it will be funny! Water on Mars “There is water on Mars” Evidently, there is also glass and a plastic… Read more
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Have a pleasant Elul
Of course during Elul we are all doing everything we can to improve ourselves and work on our relationship with G-d. But how about our relationships with other humans? Are we also working on improving that? One simple suggestion that will make you much more loved in the eyes of everyone who shares the bus/office/house… Read more
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Yarzheit – Ben Ish Chai
Today, Monday 13th Elul is the Yarzheit of R’ Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, one of the most prolific and influential recent Rabbis of the Sefardi world. He wrote books on almost every topic, from Talmud to Kabbalah to Halacha to Chumash. Wikipedia writes about him: The Ben Ish Chai (בן איש חי) is a standard… Read more
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Yarzheit R’ Tzadok HaCohen
I don’t know if it is the heat, or what, but I was too exhausted yesterday to post this. But I can’t let R’ Tzadok’s yarzheit go unmentioned. Yesterday, 9th Elul was his yarzheit. He was one of the few original Jewish philosophers of the 19th century. His thought is a crossover of Lithuanian and… Read more
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Yarzheit – Reuven Margolios
Today (7th Elul) is the Yarzheit of one of the most brilliant and prolific (and interesting) scholars of the 20th century. R’ Reuven Margolios wrote on such a wide variety of topics, often those that were not normally dealt with by the yeshivish community. However, his Maroglios Hayam is one of the standard Yeshiva books… Read more
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Its not easy to convert
Statistics show that it is difficult to convert!! The latest recommendation from the Imigration Ministry to the Israeli government is speed up the conversion process. Look at these facts: 300,000 non-Jews living in Israel:I thought it was twice that number – 1 million people made Aliya from the former Soviet Union, of whom 60% were… Read more
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Gedolim and the music ban
Yesterday someone got very cross with me and accused me of not listening to the Gedolim. I wanted to use this blog to clarify, to him and to the world, that of course I listen to the Gedolim, and have the utmost respect for them and their Torah knowledge and opinions. I have heard stories… Read more
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Music not banned!
Even though the ‘Gedolim’ (or at least the people who write the signs and posters on behalf of the Gedolim have banned people from attending the Avraham Fried and Yaakov Shwekey concert in Yerushalayim, I notice with some surprise and a lot of relief that they have not commented at all on the forthcoming Jethro… Read more
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Apikoros and Epicurus
Is idolatry logical? By that question I mean, if we would not have witnessed the revelation at Sinai (or personal revelation in the cases of the Avos and others), would the intelligent person be worshipping idols, or G-d?? This may sound like a silly question. Didn’t Avraham prove in the midrash that it makes no… Read more