"My father is Li Gang": China’s Censors Misfire in Abuse of Power Case:

NYTimes

 One night in late October, a college student named Chen Xiaofeng was in-line skating with a friend on the grounds of Hebei University in central China. They were gliding past the campus grocery when a Volkswagen sedan raced down a narrow lane and struck them head-on.

The impact sent Ms. Chen flying and broke the other woman's leg. The 22-year-old driver, who was intoxicated, tried to speed away. Security guards intercepted him, but he was undeterred. He warned them: "My father is Li Gang!"

Learning from a heretic is prohibited - even though R' Meir did it

Shach (Yoreh Deah 246:8): … Chagiga (15b) states that the reason why R’ Meir learned Torah from a heretic — despite the requirement that a teacher be like an angel — is because that prohibition applies only to those who will be influenced by the teacher. R’ Meir and others who are capable of withstanding the influence are in fact permitted to learn from a heretic… The question is why didn’t the Rambam note this distinction that the gemora makes between adult and child—between those mature enough not to be influenced and those who might be influenced? It is possible that the Rambam agrees with Tosfos (Chagiga 15b) who notes that in Moed Koton (17a) R’ Yehuda excommunicated a certain scholar because he had a bad reputation. Tosfos explains that the reason that no differentiation was made by R’ Yehuda is that he felt all the students would be influenced. Thus, we see that even in Talmudic times the older students were considered as susceptible to bad influence and had to be protected. So surely, in our days, everyone is considered as susceptible to bad influence and thus the distinction of the gemora is not relevant for actual Halacha. An alternative explanation is that most poskim do not accept this distinction because it was only held by R’ Meir and not the majority of our Sages.

When beis din arbitrates a deal which secular laws says is illegal

Haaretz

Had they not been so greedy, the ultra-Orthodox real estate developers Aharon Eisenberg and Avraham Tzeinwirt could quite possibly have been benefiting today - one from a large sum of money promised in return for withdrawing his bid on a parcel of land at the last minute, the other from the building he could have constructed on that land for a sizable profit. The parcel in question, located in downtown Jerusalem, was sold by the Jewish Agency.

But Tzeinwirt, the winner of the tender, reneged on the shady deal he'd signed with Eisenberg and refused to pay him the sum he'd promised in return for the latter's withdrawal from the tender.

Throughout the three years that have elapsed since then, the two men have continued to fight over the money. They first applied for arbitration to an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court (known in Hebrew as a "Badatz" ), which ruled that Tzeinwirt had to pay. But Tzeinwirt refused and in an unusual step applied to the Tel Aviv District Court, which then reversed the arbitration ruling. Now the entire deal is liable to be canceled. [...]

Lying for Peace - The Halachic Caveats

Five Towns Jewish Times - Rabbi Yair Hoffman

“Of course, I did my homework, Mom..”

“No, honey, that donut wrapper belonged to a co-worker to whom I gave a ride.”

“Yes, I will go on the treadmill this afternoon as soon as I come home while you are shopping.”

“No, dear, that dress does not make you look fat.”

We have all heard the expression before – mutar leshanos mipnei HaShalom – one is permitted to, well, “change” or obscure the truth in order to maintain the peace.  And lately, it seems that we hear it more and more.

A number of questions arise about this concept.  Is it still something that we should avoid doing – or is it possibly a Mitzvah?  Is it an across the board heter?  Do people have complete carte blanche in these areas?  Or are there, perhaps, some caveats? [...]

Bison vs. Bear goes viral:Changing role of public media

KTVQ

BILLINGS - It is the little story that just won't quit. It's the number one story of all time on this very website. Millions of people have seen these pictures-and that number is still growing.  It has reached well into all 50 states and has been shared in 136 countries. And to think, it kind of all started right here. Fifteen days ago, we first reported on a picture that caught our eye on Facebook. Once we uncovered the details behind the story, a tidal wave of sorts ensued. It's now known as "bison versus bear".

Some don't get healthier from exercise

NYTimes

Recently, researchers in Finland made the discovery that some people’s bodies do not respond as expected to weight training, others don’t respond to endurance exercise and, in some lamentable cases, some don’t respond to either. In other words, there are those who just do not become fitter or stronger, no matter what exercise they undertake. To reach this conclusion, the researchers enrolled 175 sedentary adults in a 21-week exercise program. Some lifted weights twice a week. Others jogged or walked. Some did both. Before and after the program, the volunteers’ fitness and muscular strength were assessed. At the end of the 21 weeks, the results, published earlier this year in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, were mixed. In the combined strength-and-endurance-exercise program, the volunteers’ physiological improvement ranged from a negative 8 percent (meaning they became 8 percent less fit) to a positive 42 percent. The results were similar in the groups that undertook only strength or only endurance training. Some improved their strength enormously, some not at all. Others became aerobically fitter but not stronger, while still others showed no improvements in either area. Only a fortunate few became both fitter and more buff. As the researchers from the University of Jyvaskyla wrote with some understatement, “large individual differences” exist “in the responses to both endurance and strength training.” [...]

Rav Moshe Chagiz - concerning authorship of Zohar

משנת חכמים (ס' של"ב): ובגדר אהבת החברים ומעלתה נקבלה האמת ממי שאמרו. כי האמת יורה דרכו דמסדר ומחבר ספר הזוהר הקדוש, דודאי אדם גדול היה דבאו לידו הקונטריסים, ומן השמים זכו אותו להוציא לאור תעלומות חכמה רמה ונעלמה והא סדרי הקונטרסים על סדר הפרשיות. אך לא חלילה רשב"י, או רבי אבא, עשו סדר זו הנמצא בידינו. כי זה טעות ושטות מפורסם, כעין אותם הסוברים שאנו מאמינים דבר שאינו. שהתלמוד כמו שהוא מסודר אצלינו, היה אצל אברהם אבינו דבר שלא עלה במחשבה אצל עם ה' נושא משך הזרע, ואנו תל"י יודעין שלשלת ספר יוחסין של כל התורה שבע"פ איך ומה נשתלשלה ובא לידינו מיד לפה אל פה, עד משה מפי הגבורה.

משנת חכמים (ס' של"ג): ומה שתמצא לרז"ל שאמרו דאברהם אבינו קיים כל התורה אפילו עירובי תבשילין אינו אלא על האופן שכתבתי בהקדמתי הראשונה לספר אלה המצות. שהכל נתגלה לאברהם אבינו כמרז"ל על פסוק וה' אמר הכסה ני מאברהם עי"ש. כדי לסתום את פיהם של המקנטרין שחושבים אותנו לשוטים ולפתי מאמין לכל דבר, וחלילה לעם חכם ונבון להבין הא דאמרו על פסוק ואתנ' לך לוחות, אלו עשרת הדברים תורה, זה מקרא והמצוה זה משנה אשר כתבי אלו נביאים וכתובים, להורותם זה גמרא שכולם נתנו לשמה בסיני. דר"ל כך כמו שהוא אצלינו במכתב דזה שקר מפורסם. דהרי קודם רבינו הקדוש כל דברי התורה שבע"פ לא היה רשאי להעלותם בכתב, א"כ נתינה זו שנתן למשה אינו אלא דפה לפה גילה לו הקב"ה דור דור ודורשיו. וכל מה שתלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש, ורוב כל אותה קבלה היא מה שנשארה ומצויה אצלינו מאומתת ומאושרת ומקויימת אשר אין לנו במה להסתפק עליה הכל כמו שכתבתי שם בהקדמה הנזכר.

משנת חכמים (ס' שלד): אף הכי בחבור נורא זה מספר הזוהר אין להסתפק בעיקרן של דברים כהוויתן שיצאו מפי רשב"י וחבריו, ולכן המהרהר אחריו כמהרהר אחר השכינה, אך המסדר  עשה התקשרות הדרים כאשר עליו ובאו לידו על נכון כדחזי במאמר שהבאתי לעיל בסעיף שכ"ט.

The Animators of Life:Molecular animation

NYTimes

Pachad Yitzchak - Definition of faith

Pachad Yitzchak (Emuna): Faith is that which is necessary to believe in order not to be called a heretic.

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פחד יצחק ד"ה אמונה. אמונה היא דבר שצריך להאמין כדי שלא להקרא כופר

Child & Domestic Abuse book - Buying in Europe or Israel

My plan of shipping copies to Israel - is simply not practical. It isabout the same price for shipping whether I send bulk quantities fromCreateSpace or whether you pay for shipping directly from Amazon. Consequently those outside of America who want the book should order directly from Amazon. It is cheaper per volume if two books are ordered at a time.

This Is Your Brain on Metaphors

NYTimes

Despite rumors to the contrary, there are many ways in which the human brain isn’t all that fancy. Let’s compare it to the nervous system of a fruit fly. Both are made up of cells, of course, with neurons playing particularly important roles. Now one might expect that a neuron from a human will differ dramatically from one from a fly. Maybe the human’s will have especially ornate ways of communicating with other neurons, making use of unique “neurotransmitter” messengers. Maybe compared to the lowly fly neuron, human neurons are bigger, more complex, in some way can run faster and jump higher.

But no. Look at neurons from the two species under a microscope and they look the same. They have the same electrical properties, many of the same neurotransmitters, the same protein channels that allow ions to flow in and out, as well as a remarkably high number of genes in common. Neurons are the same basic building blocks in both species.

So where’s the difference? It’s numbers — humans have roughly one million neurons for each one in a fly. And out of a human’s 100 billion neurons emerge some pretty remarkable things. With enough quantity, you generate quality. [...]

The Infamous Shabbetai Tzvi

The Infamous Shabbetai Tzvi by Rabbi Dovid Rossoff

Jewish history has its list of heroes and villains. Many of the latter have been forgotten over the course of time, perhaps for the betterment of all. However, one of the most treacherous culprits of the last thousand years to have aspired to stand up against God was a man by the name of Shabbetai Tzvi. Unfortunately, his name has been enamoured with a false mystique of some esoteric righteousness hidden behind acts of blatant sacrilege. There is no doubt, however, that he caused one of the greatest uproars within the Jewish rank and file. And it is sadly true that he caused large numbers of fellow Jews to apostatize and thereby forfeit all the eternal gifts awaiting every faithful Jew in the world to come.

This is not the place to unravel the complex historical and ethical parameters concerning Shabbetai Tzvi as a false messiah. Instead, we shall take a brief look and what brought him to the road of disaster. [...]

Brooklyn Rabbi Is Convicted of Extortion Attempt

NYTimes

NYTimes

A prominent Orthodox rabbi who founded a respected Jewish day school in Brooklyn was convicted on Wednesday of trying to extort millions of dollars from a giant hedge fund

Man Who Claimed to Have Dybbuk Now Admits it Was All a Bluff

Matzav

The fellow who claimed to have been possessed by a dybbuk and garnered the attention of the Jewish community worldwide last year has now come forth and admitted that it was all a hoax. The man, a resident of the Jewish community in Brazil, has apologized for his shenanigans and says that it was all one big show.

He has also expressed his regret that Rav Dovid Batzri, the noted mekubal, was asked to attempt to chase the dybbuk twice, including once via video conference. [...]