Issues with the new "Ichud" leader.

I recently came across a blog authored by Rabbi Dovid Teitelbaum and found it quite illuminating. Here is a response to Nechemiah Gottlieb's article in the FJJ. To read the original please go here.

"He is criticizing the position of all of Gedolei Yisroel and (almost) all Rabbonim and Mechanchim in Klal Yisroel."

Classic appeal to authority. Simply means that he has no real counterargument.

"Just the fact that one does not understand their thinking and can write a few paragraphs outlining the opposing view does not represent a serious challenge to their position."

True enough. But its a totally different case when said writer give strong reason for that as well.

He (NG) then goes on to totally misrepresent TD's published views. I won't detail it here but you can all see it on the blog.

"By attributing a ludicrous (and Luddite) position to mainstream Torah thought it becomes much easier to attack it."

Also true. But what happens that said 'luddite' possition is indeed the 'mainstream' thought. (I shudder to write 'Torah thought')

"The fallacious comparison to the ban on video is a classic example of the thinking employed by those who believe Gedolei Yisroel to be dim witted, out of touch and naive."

You can't call an argument fallacious unless you can explain why its a fallacy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy) You fail. You also trying to directly compare DT to "those who believe Gedolei Yisroel to be dim witted, out of touch and naive".

"When a special machine (VCR) was necessary to view videos it was practical to keep it out of the house and also reasonable to believe that once the expense was incurred to buy the machine its use would not be restricted to the occasional Chasunah video. With the advent of CDs and now DVDs these reasons no longer apply."

False. These reasons still apply and Rabbonim are still against it. They can't do much about it so you just made that reason up.

"This well-worn cliché again misses the point. Nobody is interested in a philosophic discussion on whether technology is good or bad."

Well-worn doesn't make it obsolete. It's still true and very relevant to the discussion; which is not philosophic at all.

And so on. I don't have the time to fisk the whole article. But I hope you get the point.

YeshivaGuy Leaves The Blogosphere

Goodbye to Yeshiva Guy, and thanks for the ride. It was a good one.

Hopefully we'll find someone to replace the special niche you filled.

Mazel tov and hatzlachah!

Rumors Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Our dear Tzigelleh, instead of writing a proper obituary on the great blogger Not Brisk, decided to have a 'guest post' written by Not Brisk himself.

The only problem is that the post very much mimics Tzig's own writing style, as opposed to Not Brisk's.

Another curiosity is that Not Brisk hadn't bothering posting the finale on his own blog.

The clincher, however, is that NB does a complete turnaround to support Tzig's movement.

You decide.

Some choice quotes.

I tried to mimic Tzig’s unique style, failed, and developed one of my own.

A juicy one:

I also expressed dismay that Mr. Harry Marlyes can wake up every morning and spend hours cutting and pasting articles from Der Sturmer וכו' וכו'.

All in all, I think this was meant tongue in cheek. Harry, however, thought otherwise, and made his opinion known:

please be moichel me b'peh mohley.

In your dreams! Do you realy think you can insult me like that and expect me to give you any Mechila? You were Melaben Pnei Chavero B'Rabim! You will have to answer for that kind of insult in the Olam Ha'Emes. Enjoy the consequences!

So we have Tzig handing Harry a good one and Harry getting mad at NB.

I gotta hand this to Tzig.

...And I'm Back

I've been out and busy the past few weeks, and my blogging severely suffered as a result.

Aside from the occasional post, I've been silent. While this little corner of the  'sphere was quite, nobody seemed to notice.

Expect some new rants that were bottled up for a while and aged.

Haveil Havalim - Geulah Edition - March 14, 2010

Welcome to the first HH I'm hosting. As a newish member, please excuse any gaffes I make. Otherwise, its still Adar, so take it in good humor.

Another lesson learned; after typing up most of this post, I found the handy carnival page to create it easily. Well, there's always a next time.

"רבי אליעזר אומר: "בניסן נגאלו, בתשרי עתידין ליגאל", ואילו רבי יהושע אומר: "בניסן נגאלו, בניסן עתידין ליגאל
Like anytime else, every chance for another hope should be properly utilized in order to eventually produce it. May we soon be zochah.

To recap,

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs — a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It’s hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term ‘Haveil Havalim,’ which means “Vanity of Vanities,” is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other ‘excesses’ and realized that it was nothing but ‘hevel,’ or in English, ‘vanity.’

Torah - Always first and foremost.

• Batya at Shiloh Musings compares Aharon's calf to Shaul's failing with Amalek. Nice thought. Not sure of the derogatory remarks about our great king, though.
• NGOmeter writes on Understanding Idolatery, and how it compares to todays philanthropic endeavors. Although I don't think that God gets "seriously pissed off".
• The Rebbethins Husband has two views on Koreich from Rav Kook.
• Josh Waxman at the ParshaBlog explores whether a word might be missing from our Torah.

Kashrut - Is something fishy?

• Batya @ Shiloh Musings questions whether moral values can work without a Kosher backbone in the supervision arena. There might be a case to keep the two separate, since values often change, among other reasons.

Humor - No comment needed, ('cause I can't think of any).

• Frum Satire has an exclusive interview with a certain Monsey Rabbi (ahem) of female Rabbis.
• A Quick History of... Everything, by Tikkun Olam.
• Benjy gives us another good one. How about a blog entry with your blog?
• Snoopy the Goon want you to Please help the Dubai police chief. And follows up with Iranians and Turks with fake passports as well. Gosh.

Culture - Well, this is a carnival.

• Chabad.org represents Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew, what some call "required reading for all social service workers".
• Doctor, Lawyer, Broker, Loser. A great piece from Esser Agaroth on marriage, racism, etcetera.
• Do Orthodox men wear suits 24/7? How about hats? Jew In The City takes his time to explain different flavors of Judaism to a non-Jew.

Judaism - Something that, I think, we all relate to.

• Jacob Richman presents an excellent list of Passover resources.
• Advice on kids and Passover, without judgment.
• Fear No Question write another opinion on Female Rabbis.
• Ex taking your kids to Church? Here's an excellent discussion in the comments @ In the Pink.
• Vacation from blogging due to Pesach cleaning? I fully agree. Some (below) don't.
• Achas Lema'alah on controversial Eruvin. A must-have for every self-respecting kehillah.
• Lion Of Zion has an excellent writeup on Breast Freeding and Abortion among Holocaust Survivors in Czechoslovakia, along with a great overview of R" Issac Oelbaum.
• Rabbi Eliyahu Fink, discusses The Real Orthoprax Issue. A very real issue which needs to be addressed. Although I think that the bunching of them both into one group is untrue.

Israel - We love ya!

• The state of religion and state in Israel, March 8. And section 2.
• Boycotts still work sometimes. Israelity reports that Metallica lowered the price of show tickets after a boycott campaign. Also, Sharav Do's And Dont's. You can always ride the Einstein express, though.
• Photos from the A.H.A.V.A. Readathon in Israel. By Jacob Richman.
• If the Peace talks are called off, are you happy? Someone is!
• Bibi won't attend the re-dedication of the Churva Shul. A mistake?
• At MyRightWord, Yisrael Medad, debunks Biden's charge. Assuming he said it. And some post Islamic fashion. Translucent veils. Wow. And some fame.

Politics - We are Jews, after all.

• Satire is sometimes for real. Shiloh Musing on catching the leftist bug.
• Josh Waxman of the ParshaBlog, examines whether Sarah Palin's dvar Torah is correct, and his own take on hand-writing.

Personal - Ego and stuff.

• Batya @ Me-ander writes that blogging must go on.
• Danger signs. Discussion on how to protect little children. By the Rebbetzins Husband.
• (Pesach) Cleaning Spawn Memories. All kinds. And Pesach Cleaning Finding STUFF.
• Dolfin examines different approaches to learning Hebrew.
• Hadassah Sabo Milner has an eighth guest post in the series "My Judaism". And on the importance of watching children. They're too important to neglect.
• Chabad.org. How to recover emotionally after a robbery.
• Bored Jewish Guy say that he's, Well, I'm packing up my game and I'm a head out........East? Lots of luck!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Faith & Philosophy, RYE and Kaballah, EXIF Extractor, Moshiach, Jewish Resources, Math[Roundup]

• Hirhurim writes a review, discussing whether philosophy harm, or builds, faith.
• OnTheMainLine has a great post discussing a censored letter, among other things. Written there, regarding R' Yonasan Eibeschutz,

"By my life, I heard in my youth from the mouth of the great kabbalist, who knew the Zohar and all the works of the Ari by heart, the rabbi, my master, Rabbi Jonathan Eybeshutz ZZ"L, that he used to say to his audience when they were hesitant to accept a kabbalistic teaching, 'if you don't believe it, it's no matter, because it isn't from the fundamentals of faith.' So he used to say to those who brought kabbalistic teachings to explain a piece of Gemara or Midrash, 'I don't desire this. What's the use? According to kabbalah you can explain anything you want to; just tell me the simple meaning via "niglah"' -- it's completely true!"

This is very interesting for multiple reasons. One: What value is there in learning Kabbalah if there's no defined rules of logic? Also, what would this make of the "proof" found more recently regarding the kamei'ah he wrote?

I'm no expert, but is it possible that he had a reason for writing this even if not true?

• An online EXIF extractor, useful for uncovering a hidden thumbnail in cropped pictures posted online. Can be quite fun.
• Unpious posted a nice piece on Moshiach. Not their norm, I guess.
• OnTheMainLine has an excellent list of resources for online research of Jewish text.
• An interesting series from the NYTimes; relearning mathematics.

Final Thought On Copying Music

BlogInDM has a rambling post today, mostly decrying the lack of halachik sources in my posts.

As I noted in the first post, to quote myself...

I'm not going to turn this into a halachic argument.

It was not my intention to do so at all. I don't pretend to know all relevant halachos. All I did was note that many rabbonim permit copying and they are never being mentioned. So I stood up and did so.

As I noted before, there are these who indeed don't allow copying. One instance is R' Moshe, (here, although he doesn't give a rationale).

So, to clear things up. I posted that there are many differing opinion, while clearly stating that its not in my interest to discuss them. BlogInDM attacked that and tried to turn it into an halachik argument. I'm simply not interested in doing that.

To summarize. When someone tells you that copying is absolutely assur, just tell them its not so simple. And ask your posek for his decision. Just because another blogger, that works for the music industry, doesn't want you to do so doesn't mean you're not allowed.

A freilichen Purim