Vanity (Plates)

@azigra

Spotted this in Cedarhurst yesterday:

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Jewish Innovation

@azigra

Spotted in Cedarhurst:

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Rabbi doubts evolution, “but not because of religion”

@azigra

Jerry Coyne, author of "Why Evolution is True" (which I believe I learned of through a recommendation by DovBear) has written a response to Rabbi Avi Shafran's Tablet article "Skeptical About Evolution—And Not Because of Religion".

Coyne: "The title of the article at issue is a masterpiece of dissimulation, because if you read the piece you’ll find that its author, a rabbi, is skeptical completely because of religion."

Links to both articles:

Shafran: here

Coyne: here 

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Prayer Rally to News Media Directors Planned This Sunday

by @Azigra

The Hamodia is reporting on an upcoming prayer rally to be held this Sunday in the Wall Street area. I guess this means all that praying and street dancing by 600,000 Charedim in Israel didn't work? (There were in reality only 300,000 people in attendance, but a Ben Torah is as 'chashuv' as two people, hence the 600,000 number in charedi media sources.) 

Aside from the logo for this rally, which is a Torah scroll set behind what can pass as barbed wire and obviously meant to heinously evoke images of Auschwitz, my biggest problem is one huge lie it has:

Since the state of Israel’s inception young men engaged in full-time Torah study have been deferred from military service. Those avreichim and their families have willingly accepted the consequent relative poverty and the limitations thereby placed on their ability to eventually enter the workforce. In recent years, political and legal efforts have been made to change that modus vivendi and pressure talmidei hayeshivos to join the military.

Are all the yeshiva students and kollel men who attended the rally really living the life they absolutely chose for themselves? Did they have the option of becoming lawyers or techies with the possibility for riches but still only choose the poor life of Torah and Zionist handouts? I certainly don't think so. 

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Picture of the Day

@azigra

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Top 10 Saying of R. Shteinman *w0w* *h0t*

by @azigra

A pamphlet released under the name Peninim V'hanhagos became available on line recently. The pamphlet is presented in the fashion of a certain kind of  book which is very popular nowadays, listing interesting sayings or customs of famous Rabbis organized by topic, such as Shabbos, Teffila, Kiruv, etc..

This pamphlet was not meant to be serious, it was published by someone as a way to denigrate the subject rabbi Yehuda Leib Shteinman. In many ways this compilation of statements, sayings, and practices has had the opposite affect by displaying the, sanity, and practicality of Rabbi Shteinman.

There are certainly many parts which would  rub people the wrong way, as many do for me, but they don't have to detract from his better statements. What follows is a selection of items which I find refreshing to hear from a person of this status and stature. I will post more in a later post. I've tried to translate each entry as closely as I am able to.  ht @GroynemOx 

Here is why opponents of R Shteinman think you should oppose him too:

1. During the Indian hair wigs situation, when it was learned that hair was used for idol worship, R Shteinman declared that there is no need to worry about this or to change your wig, and about the concern he said, "this is nareshkeit (nonsense)" 
2. R Shteinman opines that the nusach of the siddur isnt exact and therefor when necessary it can be changed. For 'hataras nedarim' on New Year's eve he authored a shorter version so he could save time on that holy day.
3. R Shteinman said, "people make a big deal out of the esrog but it isnt l'shem shamayim, esrog is an acronym (in hebrew) for 'al tavuni regel gavah', people search for an esrog for haughtiness and not for the mitzva.
4. When a young yeshiva student died suddenly, the deceased friends asked R Shteinman  in what matter  they should strengthen themselves as a reaction to the death. R Shteinman responded that it is a normal occurrence that sometimes young people pass away. When the friends asked him about the Rambam who wrote that someone who doesnt mourn death should be worried and investigate what is wrong with himself, R Shteinman replied that the Rambam was referring to major disasters.
5. At a panel discussing education, R Shteinman said that not everyone is capable of teaching (referring to people who obtain positions through nepotism), "we see Avroham had a son Yishmael."
6. Regarding the custom of kissing a mezuzah, R Shteinman asked "what is the purpose of this custom? You think just because you touch a mezuza it makes you holy?"
7. Regarding the statement in Nefesh Hachayim (by R Chaim of Volozhin) that were there to be a second wherein not a single person in the world was learning Torah the world would immediately be destroyed, R Shteinman said that this isnt correct, since fulfilling mitzvos also keeps the world running, even when we eat or sleep it counts since it is done to help in our service of hashem. Its likely that R Chaim of Volozhin was just exaggerating to make a point.
8. R Steinman added we see from two sources (Avos 6:2 and Sukka 45b) that there were times when no body in the world was learning. 
9. While speaking to student R Steinman said that one shouldn't be discouraged that their learning is weaker in middle of the year than it is at the beginning, since this is the nature of things. Even the Rashba's essays get shorter as he gets further into each gemora tractate. 
10. Regarding what it states in Chovos Halevosos and is quoted in Shmiras Ha'lashon that someone who speaks loshon ha'ra acquires the sins of his victim, R Shteinman asked "from where did they get this? there is no source for this idea in tradition and it is very strange and odd to say such a thing."
11. R Shteinman was asked if it can be repeated in his name that that since all kollel students have cell phones that the phones should be kept off during yeshiva hours. He answered that we cant know why someone has a phone, perhaps his wife needs him to have one....a person can decide for himself how to behave here but under no circumstance should it be to the detriment of his wife. 
12. Someone asked R Shteinman whether they should avoid kiruv since they will see immodestly dressed women, he responded by quoting the Talmud: "who is a pious fool? someone who sees a women drowning in a river and says it isnt proper to look at her and to save her"
13. R Shteinman says often that in our time the merit from learning Torah isnt as great as it used to be since we dont learn for its own sake. He added at one occasion, "who says our learning is even considered learning? Perhaps our ideas are wrong"
14. Unlike how most people feel that the world was created for Torah study, R Shteinman says that the world was created to perform kindness. 
15. Several yeshiva heads asked R Shteinman whether they should allow their students to travel to Uman for Rosh Hashana. He replied, "im certain that among all the people, there is at least one minyan of people davening properly, so its certainly a merit if they join that minyan"

More later. 

War of the Worlds

@AZIGRA 

War of the Worlds was an episode of a radio series directed and narrated by Orson Welles which aired on October 30, 1938. The first 2/3 of the 62-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. 

This event is something we've all heard about. Millions of people tuned into this show which caused a mass hysteria all over the country. A recent PBS documentary on the event claimed that “upwards of a million people, [were] convinced, if only briefly, that the United States was being laid waste by alien invaders”. NPR's latest episode of its show Radiolab opened with the claim that “The United States experienced a kind of mass hysteria that we’ve never seen before." 

There should be nothing new or surprising to anyone about this claim, we all have heard it and likely accepted it as a fact of history. 

But as Michael Soclow has written for Slate this week, "There’s only one problem: The supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast. Despite repeated assertions to the contrary in the PBS and NPR programs, almost nobody was fooled by Welles’ broadcast."

Following this article Radiolab added this correction to their show notes: "In this program, we referred twice to the fact that 12 million people heard the "The War of the Worlds" broadcast when it was first aired in 1938. However, no one knows for sure how many people were listening."

Soclow goes on to say that the legend grew exponentially in 1940 and gained acceptance when "an esteemed academic solidified the myth in the public mind. Relying heavily on a skewed report compiled six weeks after the broadcast by the American Institute of Public Opinion, The Invasion From Mars, by Princeton’s Hadley Cantril, estimated that about 1 million people were “frightened” by War of the Worlds."

Here is a case where most people have come to believe that millions of people heard, panicked, and were filled with terror throughout the country for a short time but this never actually happened. What does this say about the Sinai Proof if anything?

This was a show which very few people listened to and therefor no country wide panic occurred and yet only two years later someone wrote that 1,000,000 people heard it and panicked. How did this claim gain acceptance? Didn't the people of 1940 say this only happened two years ago and we didnt see this happen? And didn't the children of the 1940s and 50s say our parents never told us this happened to them so how can this be true? But that didn't happen, by 2013 NPR can claim that 12,000,0000 witnessed Welles' show and  panicked because of it. Anyone who heard the Radiolab episode before NPR made the correction likely believes now that 12 million people witnessed the radio show live on radio, despite the fact their grandparents were alive then and they never told their families about it. 

Is the main factor in the acceptance of this myth that people later than 1940 came across the claim in a book that 1,000,000 heard War of the Worlds live on radio and had no reason to doubt it? If they wanted some verification, there were certainly people who gave it, like at CBS who had a vested interest in this myth being propagated. (See Soclow's article about how media in general has benefited from perpetuating this false history). 

Could a book claiming mass revelation before 3,000,000 people have come to be accepted the same way. The book is written after the supposed event, the people did not witness it themselves so they ask the priests and scholars about this claim. "My grandfather never told me about this, but the story claims our ancestors were there, did this really happen?" And the priests (CBS) would have of course said yes. There are likely a myriad of other scenarios over different times spans and places that we can come up with to compare Sinai to War of the Worlds. 

The primary take away is that a mass revelation was claimed and despite the lack of familial tradition the myth was accepted. 

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Coffee Talk with Linda Richman

@azigra

I'm a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic: Chasidish clothing is neither Jewish clothing nor clothing. 

As my HS Rosh Yeshiva once put it in a speech, "have you ever noticed how much clothing Chasidim wear? There are a lot of layers, undershirt, tzitzis, shirt, vest, bekesha, over coat, scarf, long socks, yet despite all this clothing they wear, they have no pants."

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My Master, My Husband

@azigra

Posted on Facebook by Rachmuna Litzlon:

This gem brought to you by Hamodia - The Daily Newspaper of Torah Jewry.

Question: "May a woman call a husband by his first name?"

New Square Redux

@azigra

In 2004 2002 David Twersky, the Rabbi of 'Skver', and a few hundred of his serfs came to the 5 Towns area for a shabbos. I was interested in seeing him for familial reasons. An ancestor of mine (d. NYC, 1928) from the southern Ukraine published a book in NYC in 1926 which contained a lot of stories and homilies he heard from members of the primary Rabbinic family in the Ukraine, the Twersky family. This author was the rabbi of, what I imagine to have been, a town of thatched roof huts and met these people on their travels. For some reason this somewhat of a 'connection' caused me to be interested in meeting various member of this family, and so when Twersky showed up in my neighborhood one week I went to see him. 

square rabbi in lawrence 2002

On Saturday night following havdala some sort of parade was held with a local money-bag driving the rabbi in his Bentley behind a metal contraption topped with about six torches, all lit. Hundreds of people walked alongside and behind the car while loud music was blasted from a second car. While walking in this crowd I tripped and tens of people eager to see and keep up with the rabbi walked on top of me dragging me several feet. Clothing torn and bruised I went home. 

I was never so disgusted at a display of honor before or after. To be walked home wasn't enough, there had to be a Bentley. A Bentley wasn't enough, there had to be FIRE accompaniment  Fire wasn't enough, there had to be blasting music and a major local thoroughfare had to be closed down for an hour by police. 

That was when I gained repulsion for this guy, the incident a few years ago involving the attempted fire bomb attack on a New Square family certainly didn't help my feelings. Since that incident I've learned more and more about the Twilight Zone type of society Twersky runs in his village. 

This week a terrible tragedy occurred there when a woman who was sexually abused, separated from her children, and disowned and hated by her own family committed suicide. You can read more about this elsewhere. You may want to say that the hellish village of New Square and David Twersky are ultimately responsible for this.  

The Jewish Daily Forward has written an article about the funeral arrangements of this poor woman. Even in death there is no rest. The JDF reports that "members of the New Square community said that [her] family chose to bury her elsewhere with only immediate family present due to the shame she had brought upon the family and the community." The article continues, "“Who wants to be buried next to this lady?” New Square resident Menashe Lustig told the Forward in a phone interview. “It’s very difficult to know where to put her. I hear they called up the rabbonim in Israel and they told them the decision” that she should be buried elsewhere. Of Tambor’s life and death, he said, “The family is ashamed. They’re very ashamed.”

Lest you think she wasn't allowed to be buried in the local cemetery due to some halacha about suicide, a family member told the JDF, "that the decision not to bury Tambor in New Square’s cemetery was not because she was a suicide." 

So why was the serious halachic concept of a very quick buriel neglegted in this case? "Lustig said she was buried far away because she had strayed from religion. In public they say it’s because she wasn’t shomer Shabbos. But my friend told me it was because she has relations with strangers and everything. It’s like she was free.”

It's like she was free.

She was free. Free from this village, of this rabbi, of the community he made intolerable for her. Free of the people who demonized her for being a victim, free of the people who stole her children, free of the people who mark a persons value by how they look and how they affect public opinion of ones family.

She was free and so her body laid unburied while her terribly 'embarrassed and ashamed' surviving family, rabbi, and community decided where to hide her.

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Jewish American Genealogy

by @azigra

When my uncle asked his parents one summer to send him to a yeshiva instead of public school that coming fall my grandparent brought him to a psychiatrist. They lived in Pelham Parkway in the Bronx which at the time had a large Orthodox community with what still remains the largest Young Israel in the country, though not in numbers anymore. 

Shlomo Payes

My uncle had befriended some local orthodox kids who introduced him to a local Hasidic Rebbe called Kosson. These friendships and his association with this Rebbe brought him to Orthodoxy and after consultation with the psychiatrist my grandparents sent him to that yeshiva. 

My grandfather had grown up on a farm in Kingston, NY. Aside from speaking Yiddish in the house there wasn't anything Jewish about his childhood life. His father was essentially an atheist and all of his four sisters intermarried. 

My grandmother grew up in the East Bronx, then a heavily Jewish neighborhood, in a very traditionally Jewish family. Her grandfather (pictured at right) emigrated to New York from Warsaw in 1892 with his wife and five children. Both he and his wife were dead by 1895 leaving the children, ages 5-20, orphans. His son Isaiah, my great grandfather (pictured below with my grandmother), was 16 when they arrived and likely spent some years in a Cheder or at least had a formal Orthodox childhood. 

His two youngest brothers were taken into the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York, an orphanage located on 1st Avenue and 57th Street. The older children lived together at 220 Delancey Street in a building that is no longer standing. 

Isaiah went to shul daily and despite working on Saturday the family ate shabbos meals together. 

Following my uncles first year in yeshiva my grandparents decided to send their younger son to yeshiva as well. Subsequently, my grandmother became kosher and shabbos observant. Her husband remained an atheist the rest of his life although allowed his family to turn his life upside down. By the time my mother was born the the house was completely kosher and religious. 

my grandfather and two uncles

I remember one Sunday morning, I must have been in first grade, showing my grandfather an alpeh beis chart and asking my mother afterwords to write me a "mitzva note" that I taught my grandfather how to read Hebrew. Of course that idea didn't go over well and that mitzva went unannounced. 

my uncle at his sheva brachos with kosson rebbe (l)
and unknown rabbi (r)

I grew up with very little family. I never met a relative of my father's or at least none that I can remember and my mother's family was small since my grandmother slowly cut off ties with her cousins and relatives, afraid of their influence on her children. It is certainly very upsetting to me in hindsight that she did that. I've managed to connect with relatives all over the country who have lots of details about my grandmother's brothers, uncles, aunts, etc... but nobody really knows much about my branch. Everyone has vague memories of my uncles from childhood, but the connection ended there. Despite the difficulty I have been able to amass a family tree of over 1,200 people (not all blood related) and the most enjoyable and rewarding part is always connecting with people, Jews, Secular Jews, Non Jews, who share a common ancestor with me.

I'm not sure what made my grandparent agree to my uncle's request. That single decision though they may not have realized completely changed the course of their lives and the lives of their descendants.

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Summer Camp

BY @Azigra 

This weeks This American Life consists of several recorded stories about sleep away camp. There are two stories with Jewish content, one at 21:24 about a Wisconsin Zionist Camp and one at 29:59 about an IDF camp for both American and Israeli kids. 

The rest of the show is worth listening to as well.

• Do you think camp is necessary? 
• Should there be an age limit for people attending camps?
• Should 22 year old yeshiva boys and girls still be going to camp?
• As a parent would you rather have your son or daughter get a job and experience some real responsibility as a young adult?
• Is summer camp just another part of our society's infantilization of young men and women?
• Is there anything creepier than a grown man being excited for summer camp?

I was never a camp person, I never enjoyed or cared about organized sports. When I reached high school I went to a camp which is no longer extant called Heller which had the reputation of being a "learning camp". I thoroughly enjoyed the camping experience there, which may be because it was popular then to seem indifferent to the camping experience. Sneaking out of meals, skipping activities, and ignoring lifeguards was a daily occurrence and that's what made the whole thing enjoyable.

The camp I attended while in elementary school, Romimu,  was more sports oriented. If I were on this weeks show I would have shared this story from then:

For some reason it was a huge honor to claim you knew someone working in the canteen. If you had an "in" with someone on the staff there you might as well have been James Dean, you were cool. One year I knew the head of the canteen, he let me work behind the counter on one or two occasions and I would have done it every day, for free, if he let me.

One year a friend of mine in a different bunk who we all knew to have a canteen connection came into our bunk after curfew to take orders. It was all very thrilling and illegal and we all put in orders and gave him our money. I ordered a frankfurter. About an hour later he came back with a box of food claiming he was only able to fill the frankfurter orders, anything else ordered was not available and he put the box down and left.

There was certainly something fishy about the whole thing. For one the frankfurter was cold and burnt, secondly, there were no buns, and thirdly, how could the canteen be out of onion rings?

I decided we should sneak out to James Dean's bunkhouse a few doors down to investigate the matter. When we got there we learned that he never even went to the canteen. His bunk had a BBQ the night before with many uneaten frankfurters leftover. What he did was turn on his gas BBQ in the shower stall in the back of their bunkhouse to heat up un-refrigerated 24 hour old meat and sold that to us.

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NYT: When Italians Chat, Hands and Fingers Do the Talking

by @azigra

Today's NYT is carrying a story about the history of gesticulations among Italians:

ROME — In the great open-air theater that is Rome, the characters talk with their hands as much as their mouths. While talking animatedly on their cellphones or smoking cigarettes or even while downshifting their tiny cars through rush-hour traffic, they gesticulate with enviably elegant coordination.

 The article may be of interest to Jews as well from an anthropological or sociological standpoint, since gesticulations have been apart of Jewish communal life as well. The habit seems to be most manifest when studying Jewish texts, and one theory quoted by the Times seems very apt:

Another theory, advanced by Adam Kendon, the editor in chief of the journal Gesture, is that in overpopulated cities like Naples, gesturing became a way of competing, of marking one’s territory in a crowded arena. “To get attention, people gestured and used their whole bodies,” Ms. Poggi said, explaining the theory.

 There is a story repeated about Shimon Shkop, a Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS (Yeshiva University) in the 1920s that whenever he lectured he kept his hands under the table since he didn't want any arguments or theories he was proposing to be aided in any way by his hand motions. For some reason, and it works, waving hands while discussing a topic helps with other people's willingness to accept or ability to understand an argument.

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More Three Weeks Tragedies

by @ The Agudath Israel of America 

In a long line of insults and attacks on the Jewish people comes this new war on holiness and sanctity. Today the Supreme Court knocked down DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, paving the way for legal homogaysex marriage across this once G-d fearing country.

Read the Supreme Court's decision here (and weep): http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf

We now recommend that all Jews obtain storm, wind, and flooding insurance since lots of hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis are sure to hit all of us.

In the next week or so we will be issuing a new Kinah to be recited by Achenu Bnei Yisroel lamenting this new catastrophe.

Please keep your daughters indoors at all times since we fully expect caravans of lesbians to be out on recruitment patrol. Additionally, you must be vigilant in keeping an eye on your sons. If there is the slightest hint that he may turn homogaysexual  PLEASE report him to your nearest orthodox rabbi. If he has briefs that are any other color than white or black or if he begins buying ties with floral prints or if  his voice starts to get a bit too soft REPORT him.

Now that this marriage can be legal, family life of straight people is over as we know it. Once marriage is legal  nobody will will want to marry someone of the opposite sex anymore. That's science.

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Balak, Hitler, Lapid

by @azigra

The Chardedi propoganda machine is in full effect, I received this email from a friend last night:

I almost threw my siddur at the guest Rabbi speaking from the pulpit this past week in the Agudah of Highland Park. Visiting from Israel, Shmuel Bloom, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America, had the following outright outrageous remarks for the audience. He started by comparing Balak, king of Moav, to Hitler. OK, this part of the speech was not terrible, they both wanted to dehumanize and kill the Jews, but then he totally lost any semblance of sanity. 

Are you ready for this (and I'm sure you know what's coming)? Then R' Bloom went on to say that we have our modern day Balak and Hitler today in Israel doing the same thing to us. They are trying to dehumanize us by calling us parasites. They are trying to pull us all out of the Beis Medrash . . . .

How does he have the gall to compare Lapid to Hitler. Has Lapid even scratched one Charaidi Jew, let alone 6 million? Is the army, in Bloom's eyes, comparable to gas chambers?

Aside from a friend of mine who was livid, the rest of Shul sat there impressed by his somewhat charismatic speech. What a shame.

And here is a heart-wrenching video showing what the Zionists are doing to the Jews in Israel:

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The Timeless Man of Faith

by @azigra

From the printed on paper new-source Yeshiva World News comes this report:

"HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita gives many people a bracha and advice when they visit with him seeking just that. The rav also frequently requests that they accept upon themselves something to uplift themselves spiritually, such as growing a beard and peyos. It appears that of late, Rav Kanievsky has also instructed people seeking his bracha not to wear a wristwatch to avoid “לא ילבש”. He points out that the Chazon Ish and his father, the Steipler, did not wear wristwatches because of the prohibition.
Longtime talmidim of Rav Chaim are quoted as saying this is not news, explaining they have been familiar with the rav’s position regarding a wristwatch. 

Clark Gable  in 'Gone
with the Wind'  with
pocket watch

Kikar Shabbat adds that last week, Rav Kanievsky was shown photos in which Rav Shach ZT”L and Rav Elyashiv ZT”L were wearing watches. Rav Kanievsky reportedly responded explaining that he too used to wear one until he received reliable eidus from Maran Chazon Ish that it is prohibited."

1) It seems we finally have an explanation for why the Charedim oppose joining the IDF: soldiers must were
watches and this will threaten their faith.

2) How many weeks till we see a Kosher Pocket Watch ad? Or rabbinically approved wristwatches?

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Satmar

by @azigra 

Members of the Satmar community gathered in NYC today to protest the founding of something which has been founded for 70 years already. Apparently they still believe the vote is ongoing at the United Nations; don't tell them or you'll spoil their fabricated victim-hood which might corrupt their delicate system. 

"Satmar" is a portmanteau for Saint Marie, as this sect is believed to descend from Saint Marie Magdaline, wife of Jesus Christ. And just like in Islam there are the Sunnis and Shiites, in Satmar there are Zalis and Aronies. Each one believes something or other about Jesus Christ with these difference often leading to violence. 

It's hard to explain the mentality of these Satmars, since despite this rally, they don't really care about today's particular issues, they just hate Israel. This current political debate is just something they can use to protest Israel like they've been doing for decades. It is also result of the confluence of their said hate for Eretz Israel and with the Chasidish need for excitement and entertainment since they have no other means of experiencing any. Rebbes, Hasidic leaders, realize they need to keep the men fat and happy, so they host huge gatherings of people to watch them eat dinner, they organize exceptionally large weddings, they wear Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoats like they are in a Broadway show (they are in an off off Broadway show), they roll their eyes back into their heads while they hum a tune, and they wave their hands and dance for the people's amusement and enjoyment.

Wachtfogel at the podium 

For some reason a fellow who is not Satmar, and not Chasidic by any means attended and spoke at this event. Elya Ber Wachtfogel is the Dean of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of South Fallsburg and one of the most "Litvish" people in American rabbinics today. If you can picture a place that is thoroughly anti-chasidic in style, behavior, and thought, it would be this man's school. 

That is why it came as a surprise to me that he spoke there. Was his Daas Torah-dar out of wack? Did he not think a sign such as this (see right) would be found there? I'm not apart of Wachtfogel's community but I belive his community should make him answer and apologize for having taken part in this event. The sign attacks the vice leader of worldwide Lithuanian style Charedi Judaism.  

Lithuanian Jews: Satmars are not your friends, they dont care about you, they are just an extremely powerful and rich lobby who will use and abuse you for their purposes and dispose of you when done. Joel Teitelbam wasnt your friend, he would despise your Lakewood lifestyle. 

Another issue is the media's attention to the fact the Zali and Aroni leaders would both be attending this event. These are two siblings who do not speak to each other because of a fight  over money, real estate, and power Religious leaders, supposedly positions which should be held by the most pious, are filled by petty bickering money and power hungry fascist loons and we're supposed to be impressed that they put aside their petty differences to unite over hatred for other Jews? So the IDF you cant join but to fight in one of the two Satmar armies is permissible? Talk about sick and twisted. 

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A New Low in Modesty

@azigra

A deeply disturbing video has come to light recently of two well known rabbinical wives. The fact they would both so brazenly disrespect their husbands and the Torah they stand for should be of grave concern to all Yarei Shomayim. Think of the lessons to be learned by the bachrim in each of their respective yeshivas, it's nothing but chilling.

This past summer, Reb Moshe Feinstein of MTJ visited Reb Yaakov Kaminetzky of YTV at the latter's summer camp. For some reason their wives came along, though they knew they were entering a boys only camp. These two women deliberately and brazenly walked around in clothing so far from the modesty that is expected of a holy Bas Yisroel that it boggles the mind.

 Skirts above the ankles!

 Sleeves above the wrist!

Light colored clothing!

The undersigned hereby place Mrs. Feinstein and Mrs. Kaminetzy in Cherim.

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Cancelled: Agudah Prayer Rally Against Charedi Conscription

by @azigra

The Jerusalem Post reported that, "Agudath Israel spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran confirmed YWN’s report of the event’s cancellation  but said it was due to “security concerns in the wake of the terrible terror attack earlier this week in Boston.""

Over on N. Slifkin's R.J. blog he wrote about the Agudah's rational for cancelling what would have been a large gathering of Jews "to daven for rachmei Shamayim in the face of this impending gezeira" (-CD Zwiebel).  

Slifkin argues:

"Surely, Agudath Israel, you can't be serious! Why can't their Torah protect them?
...............let's make a comparison. The Boston attack.....was the first such attack in over ten years. The odds of another terror attack taking place......are absolutely minimal.  And yet a concentrated gathering of the top Gedolim in America, accompanied by the avreichim and bochrim of the kollelim and yeshivos, devoutly immersed in tefillah, nevertheless still isn't good enough to merit Divine protection. But they are insisting that their Torah is good enough to merit protection against the ongoing, very real, vastly more serious threat of not just one or two terrorists, but many thousands of terrorists inside Israel and entire armies outside of Israel?!"

What Slifkin fails to understand, perhaps, is that the Lithuanian Torah view is that Jews will only survive and succeed in this world through its observance and study of the Torah. The Chevron Yeshiva is essentially a behind the lines office for the IDF, they are contributing to Israel's safety by ensuring IDF operations succeed by studying and observing. Their view is that if Torah study were to cease, the IDF would no longer succeed in its protection of the State. 

Slfkin's argument makes sense logically, but this debate is occurring on a different plane. He hasn't one upped the Charedim. 

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Your Gay Chavrusa

@azigra 

Many people may recall the December 2009 panel held at Yeshiva University titled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World". It was thoroughly covered event with dozens of print and online sources writing about it, including our gracious host DovBear, see here and here and here.

This week another panel on the same topic will occur at Queens College. It was apparently spurred by an anonymous essay published in a student-run Hillel publication titled Growing Up Gay in an Orthodox World: My Final Game of Tag.

The editors of this student magazine have decided to host a panel discussion on the same topic which will be moderated by Mordechai Levovitz (one of the speakers at the YU panel). Here is the flyer that has been shared around Facebook:

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