Month: December 2007
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Blood on their hands?
I always thought that Ynet was a leftist website. At least that doesn’t prevent them laughing at the craziness of the current political situation in Israel. This could have come straight from Israel Satire Laboratories! Blood on whose hands? Avi Rath describes imaginary government session on release of Palestinian murderers Published: 12.31.07, 00:07 / Israel… Read more
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Puff’s not about drugs
Apparently Puff the Magic Dragon is nothing to do with marijuana. According to Peter Yarrow who wrote the song, it is really about rites of passage, and Jackie Paper becoming Bar Mitzvah. Here is part of the the article from the Jerusalem Post St. Louis – Peter Yarrow wants to make something clear: “Puff the… Read more
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Kosher electricity
I wrote last week about the kosher internet, and decided that that it was part of a chareidi conspiracy. The one obvious flaw in this kosher plan, is that according to many poskim, the electricity in Israel is not kosher and may not be used. So you will have to have a wind up clockwork… Read more
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‘Kosher internet’
YNet is reporting on a new Haredi initiative to approve internet use. Obviously the approval is very limited, and only for essential business use. And only through an approved internet company with an approved filter. The rest of the world has had filters on their internet for a very long time. A discerning person has… Read more
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Mei Shiloach – Yarzheit 7th Tevet
Today (8th Tevet) is the beginning of the three days of darkness. Look at my torahlab.org blog (the story so far) for more details. Yesterday was the yarzheit of the Izhbitzer Rebbe, R’ Mordechai Yosef Leiner. He was a Chasidic Rebbe and a radical thinker, taking the classical views of Chasidut (based on the Baal… Read more
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Erev Shabbos viewing
This doesn’t really have anything at all to do with Judaism or Parshat Vayigash, but I was just reminiscing (again) about old TV shows. I was wondering whether there were any ‘Vision On’ clips on YouTube. While looking for that I found this clip. Blue Peter is a long running British children’s TV show (famous… Read more
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Graphic Chanukah images
I saw this picture posted on hashkafa.com. It shows a chanukah crime scene, with a sufganiya (jelly donut) brutally attacked and murdered. However, without wishing to justify violent crime, I would like to suggest that it may have been self-defence. I only ate one of them, and this is what they did to me! (Picture… Read more
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Demons and rationalism
Someone asked me last week about how to view a machlokes in hashkafic reality. For example, there is a disgreement about whether reincarnation is true or not (or more specifically, whether it is an acceptable Jewish belief or not). R’ Saadiah Gaon, and others, are explicit that there is no reincarnation. The AriZal, the Ramchal… Read more
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Yiddish words – a reply
Gzuckier posted a comment on Digg to my Top 10 Words that Sound Yiddish (But Aren’t) with a link to a great article. Some poor geezer got his knickers in a twist over the use of the word Kaffufle in an article, which led to an anti-Israel/ antisemitic diatribe. What does “Israelization of American culture”… Read more
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Microsoft Menorah in the Window (TM)
My neighbour has just put up Mezuzot on all the doors of the elevator (on every floor – don’t even ask what the halachah is – (as Nike would say) just do it! Because apparently frumkeit is nothing to do with halachah or bein adam l’chaveiro). That set me thinking. What other chumras are we… Read more