A few links worth mentioning!
1) Thanks to DovBear/Rafi G for posting up the newest list of Newsweek's 50 Influential Rabbis. Once again, not too many Orthodox rabbis on the list, but that's to be expected, I think. Yasher koach to all the rabbis out there on the list! If that's not a good enough article for you, then, you know, there's always the Third Annual "Hottest Rabbi" list ... yikes.
2) The newest Haveil Havalim is up over on Ima on the Bima! Give it a look, mmk?
EDIT: Also from DovBear: The Dirty Little Truth about the Sun Blessing (Birchat HaChamah). My bubble is burst. But I suspected there was something fishy about it. I mean, seriously. How can we calculate such things!?
And since it's making its way around the intertubes:
Apr 5, 2009
A couple o'links!
10:02 PM
Chaviva Gordon-Bennett
3 comments:
I wouldn't go so far as to call birkas hachama a fraud . . . At the very least, if the rabbis established this as the date to celebrate the event, even if it was an arbitrary one, we are fulfilling their decree . . . and thus G-d's will.
That we use the calculation that a day is 365 and 1/4 . . . even the Rabbis of the talmud were well aware that it was an approximation -they use a more accurate number elsewhere.
Whatever the reason aside, the mitzvah remains.
Those that are poo-pooing the excitement are merely nay-sayers that wish to dampen the excitement and fulfillment of others when it comes to Judaism and mitzvos.
No worries, the "hottest rabbis list" is just the Newsweek staff's nickname for the "Most Influential" list. Regardless, it's fairly exciting to know the numero uno guy pretty darn well. We're all so excited; he, of course, is very embarrassed. I've seen lots of complaints that there aren't enough Orthodox rabbis, and I agree; it's pretty weird how they determine all of those. I do think folks are taking it wayyyy too seriously, though - some of the nasty commented across the Interwebs are absurd!
@Mottel Okay, I won't go so far as to poo poo it, but the skeptic in me is intrigued. I think its a beautiful mitzvah, I just worry about those who are strictly literal about the whole thing.
@Kate That's rad that you know the ichiban! I was bummed to not see Rabbi Lopatin of Chicago on the list! He was on last year, and he was the rabbi @ the Orthodox shul I went to there. Really rad, open, forward fellow! I wonder why he got knocked off?
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