Hirhurim responds to Kosher Switch's harsh criticism

Hirhurim - Rabbi Gil Student

The Kosher Switch saga continues. KosherSwitch Technologies, Inc. (“KSTI”), the maker of this clever device (discussed in this post: link), has published a response to the critiques his invention has received (link). He deserves the right to speak in his defense and raises many important points for consideration. However, in his understandable frustration he has also lamentably lashed out personally at some of his critics.

 I am honored that KSTI felt this blog sufficiently important to be the subject of one of the sections of his response. He offers a number of criticisms of my essay. He lists a few inaccuracies in my technical description of the device’s function, important points that, I believe, fail to move the halakhic dial but are worthy of mention. As I wrote in my original post and KSTI seems to agree, his device is built on the misnamed “Gerama switch” but breaks new ground with added features. While the Kosher Switch satisfies some of the criticisms facing the “Gerama switch,” it fails to answer some of the most important concerns and is therefore forbidden according to many significant hakakhic authorities. [...]

Kosher Switch attacks its critics & defends its position

 Kosher Switch
[...]

Clearly the poskim gave written statements.  The vicious attacks by bloggers and others have caused some poskim to back pedal.  Some have disavowed any knowledge, while some others have qualified their previously issued written statements.  Others have not disavowed a thing.  However, the actions of the accusers have made some rabbanim appear irresolute and others appear inconsistent or forgetfully incompetent.  Yes – the first rev of the KosherSwitch web site had some problems in that links to all poskim’s written statements did not operate, so users could not immediately see that some poskim had given qualified approbations or mere blessings.  Rather than contacting us for correction of the link and review of the actual written statements from the poskim, the accusers ran to the poskim and sought their wholesale repudiations of KosherSwitch.  In some cases, these accusers successfully persuaded or intimidated the authors to revoke or revise their prior written statements.  The accusers have thus cast their mentors into the shadows of incredibility, memory lapse, or worse.  Is this the Torah way? [...]

Cancer treatment becoming unaffordable in many developed countries

 Reuters

An explosion of new technologies and treatments for cancer coupled with a rapid rise in cases of the disease worldwide mean cancer care is rapidly becoming unaffordable in many developed countries, oncology experts said on Monday. 

With costs ballooning, a radical shift in thinking is needed to ensure fairer access to medicines and address tricky questions like balancing extra months of life for patients against costs of a new drug, technology or care plan, they said. [...]

The Lancet report pointed to Dendreon's Provenge prostate cancer treatment -- which costs more than $100,000 for a three-dose course and was found in trials to improve survival by several months in patients with few other options. [...]

Economic terrorism of gay rights advocates

NYTimes

A handful of advocates, armed with nothing more than their keyboards, have put many of the country’s largest retailers, including Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Wal-Mart, on the spot over their indirect and, until recently, unnoticed roles in funneling money to Christian groups that are vocal in opposing homosexuality. 

 The advocates are demanding that the retailers end their association with an Internet marketer that gets a commission from the retailers for each online customer it gives them. It is a routine arrangement on hundreds of e-commerce sites, but with a twist here: a share of the commission that retailers pay is donated to a Christian charity of the buyer’s choice, from a list that includes prominent conservative evangelical groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. 

The marketer and the Christian groups are fighting back, saying that the hundred or so companies that have dropped the marketer were misled and that the charities are being slandered for their religious beliefs.[...]

The interdependence of faith in G-d and faith in Sages

Sefas Emes (Vayikra Pesach): And they believed in G‑d and His servant Moshe –It is known from seforim that by means of faith in the sages (emunas chachomim) a person can come to have faith in G‑d. That is because faith in G‑d is a higher level than faith in man. However this is from the perspective that “I am first and I am the last.” That is because in reality, faith in G‑d both precedes and causes faith in the Sages. But it is only after having faith in the Sages that a person is able to have true faith in G‑d. This order is what we see here. The Torah first says that they believed in G‑d and then afterwards they believed in Moshe. After that they sang “az yashir…” Thus we see by their singing the praises of G‑d by the sea, they were brought to true faith.

Chassidus: The Shpoler Zayde's Seuda - Saving the rebbe by dying in his place

Crownheights.info

The Shpoler Zayde, traveling in a sled, safely crossed the Ros River on his way to the Bris. However, upon his return, the ice broke, endangering the lives of everyone riding in the sled. At this moment, the Zayde saw, that in Heaven, a terrible decree was proclaimed against him. He cried out to all the Chassidim present: “Whoever wishes to replace me, I promise him ”Olam Haba“ (the world to come)!” Whoever would give his life for the Shpoler Zayde would be guaranteed a place in the world to come.

“I wish to replace the Zayde!”, shouted his “Gabbai” (beadle) Yollek. And so it was; his “Gabbai” Yollek drowned and the Shpoler Zayde was spared.

KosherSwitch removed false assertion that Rav Sternbuch gave haskoma

In apparent response to my posting that Rav Sternbuch had not given a verbal haskoma to Kosher Switch - their false claim to the contrary has been removed. 

kosher switch endorsements

Contrary to what had been cited on their page of endorsements - Rav Sternbuch did not say that their switch was better than gramma. In fact a rabbi who was present at the meeting said that Rav Sternbuch said that it was worse than gramma.  Thus this was not a case of Rav Sternbuch reversing his position because of pressure or misunderstanding the question or giving approval for a narrower domain than the Kosher Swtich claimed. Rather it is a clear misunderstanding on the part of Kosher Switch. Baruch HaShem they have removed their claim regarding Rav Sternbuch.

Abuse: Person is responsible if he did something clearly wrong - even if told by rabbi

Rav Moshe Sternbuch told me that when dealing with child abuse - that if a rav tells you not to go to the police when it is obvious that one needs to - you should not listen to the rav but to ask another rabbi (if there is no danger to the children by the delay). A clear support for this idea of each individual needing to be responsible to do that which is obviously correct - even if told the opposite by a rabbi - is the following Ba'al HaMa'or. This broadens the obligation to use your seichel and knowledge and focus on doing the right thing. When something is a dvar mishna - clear and obvious - you can not use the excuse that an authority told you not to do the right thing. This is clearly opposed to the idea of blind obedience to authority.

Ba’al ha-Ma’or(Sanhedrin (p. 12a in the Rif:):“If you were to ask: We hold [the prevailing view] that cases of garmi (damages resulting from direct and predictable cause) are liable for court adjudication. Why then do we say that when a judge errs in something stated explicitly in a Mishnah, he simply reverses his ruling but is not responsible for any losses, even if the damage incurred by the litigant due to his error is irrevocable? [For example,] the case of the cow of Bet Menaḥem whose meat can not be returned because R. Tarfon [the judge] had already [caused it to be] fed to the dogs [by those who followed his ruling]. “The answer is: The litigant was negligent. Since the error is in that which is stated explicitly in a Mishnah, the error is obvious, and the litigant should not have relied upon him and should not have acted upon what he was told. He should have questioned [the judge] and demonstrated the error, for this was as obvious as an explicit Mishnah. Therefore it is the litigant who was negligent; the judge’s ruling is superfluous. This is what is meant by: It is as if the judge never issued the ruling; he did nothing at all [to the litigant].”[Translation Rav Nachum Rabinowitz Chakira Magazine #5]

Computers can see (almost) what you are thinking

Time Magazine

That's a video of the process up top. A test subject is undergoing an MRI while watching random video clips from Hollywood movies. On the left side, you see clips from what the subject viewed. On the right, you see the fMRI results of "quantitative modeling" using "a new motion-energy encoding model," essentially a matchup of brain activity with the viewed images. As you can see, at worst, it's capable of reconstructing what was viewed in terms of the video image's elemental geometry, e.g. broad shapes, lights and darks, etc. And at best, you can make out identifiable human forms and even vague facial features. (Interestingly, the human-related images seem the least abstruse, which, perhaps—wild speculation on my part here—says something about species-related bias in our recognition patterns.)

Rav Amnon Yitzchok versus Neturei Karta

100 rabbis[headed by Skulener Rebbe & Rav M. Solomon] meet to solve the Internet Problem

bhol

רבנים קבעו: יש למצוא פיתרון לאינטרנט

בארה"ב הוקם 'איחוד הקהילות לטוהר המחנה' • המטרה: למצוא פיתרון לסכנות הרוחניות הטמונות בטכנולוגיה • בחודשים הקרובים - כנס הסברה ענק • ויש תמונות 

בניו-ג'רזי שבארה"ב התקיים אתמול (ד') כינוס היסטורי, בו נטלו חלק רבנים ואדמו"רים מכל החוגים.

מטרת הכינוס היתה הקמת 'איחוד הקהילות לטוהר המחנה', שיפקח וימצא פיתרונות לסכנות שמציבה ההתפתחות הטכנולוגית בימינו - ובראשה האינטרנט הלא מפוקח.

עוד בנושא:
• שיתוף פעולה חסידי-ליטאי: כך נכשיר את האינטרנט

בראש הכינוס עמדו האדמו"ר מסקולען והגאון רבי מתתיהו סלומון, משגיח ישיבת לייקווד, והשתתפו בו ונשאו דברים, בין היתר, האדמו"ר מנובמינסק, הגאון רבי שמואל קמינצקי ראש ישיבת פילדלפיה, הגאון רבי משה גרין ראש ישיבת מונסי, הגאון רבי אליהו ברודני ועוד. 

Texas School Punishes Boy for Opposing Homosexuality

Foxnews

An honors student in Fort Worth, Texas, was sent to the principal’s office and punished for telling a classmate that he believes homosexuality is wrong.

Dakota was in a German class at the high school when the conversation shifted to religion and homosexuality in Germany. At some point during the conversation, he turned to a friend and said that he was a Christian and “being a homosexual is wrong.”