Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity

Friday, December 3, 2010

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel: A violent husband should be excommunicated

YNET

On the same day that the Jerusalem District Court convicted self-proclaimed rabbi Elior Chen for a long list of abuse charges, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel published a ruling asserting that a man who abuses his wife should be barred from participating in a prayer or any other Jewish activity.

The prominent rabbi, who heads Tzohar, a union of Zionist Religious rabbis, also ruled that a violent husband should be excommunicated – a tough and unusual punishment reserved by the Jewish law for those committing grave religious and moral violations. [...]

Rav Sternbuch: Refusing Compromise

Rav Sternbuch: Reconciling Suffering

Rav Sternbuch:Chanuaka - battling Yavan

Israel:Fire disaster: World offers help, Turkey sends planes

YNet

International community offering its help: Israeli authorities are expecting to receive more than 20 firefighting aircraft Thursday night from Britain, France, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia, Azerbaijan and Russia to help in the effort to contain the northern blaze that claimed at least 40 lives.

Despite the great diplomatic tensions vis-à-vis Israel, Turkish officials announced that they too will be sending two firefighting airplanes. Egypt also pledged to send a plane to help battle the blaze. Later Thursday, Jordan and Bulgaria said they are willing to send firefighting teams to help contain the fire. Italy also said it would offer assistance. [...]

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Operating theater accident sets pregnant woman alight

Haaretz

A woman suffered burns during a cesarean operation when a fire broke out in the operating room at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer in 2008, a report by a Health Ministry inquiry committee reveals.

Hospital staff had washed the woman with various chemical solutions to sterilize her before the operation and then dried her off. But when she was brought to the operating room, the surgeon asked that the relevant areas of her body be washed down again with an alcohol solution, just to be doubly sure.

The surgeon then cut into her with a diathermic needle. But the instrument, which uses an electric current, emitted a spark, and when the spark touched the alcohol on her body, it burst into flame. [...]

Baclofen: New Version of an Old Drug Could Treat Autism (and Addiction Too)

Time

One night in 2006, Kathy Roberts rushed her autistic daughter, Jenny, to the hospital. Nothing had been able to stop the young woman, then in her mid-20s, from vomiting. Jenny had recently suffered several major seizures and her entire gastrointestinal system was going haywire.

To try to calm Jenny's GI tract, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital prescribed baclofen, an antispasmodic drug that is also being studied as a potential treatment for alcoholism and other addictions. The drug relieved Jenny's vomiting, but it did something else too — a completely unexpected and welcome side effect. (More on TIME.com: Could Anorexia Be a 'Female' Form of Autism?)

"Within 24 hours, I saw a change," says Roberts. "Right away, I saw that it was globally calming. I've always described a state that she would get into where it seemed like she wasn't comfortable in her own skin, and was trying to crawl out. I saw that calmed down."

Roberts, founder of the Giant Step school for children with autism in Southport, Conn., called Mark Bear, professor of neuroscience at MIT and advisory board member of Giant Step. In 2005, Bear had co-founded a drug company called Seaside Therapeutics to develop treatments for autism and other developmental disorders. Roberts told Bear about baclofen's effect on her daughter, and a new line of research was born. (More on TIME.com: Picky Eating May Be Early Sign of Autism). [...]

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Is Israel ‘a rogue state’? You’d better hope so

An expectation-defying speech delivered at a Cambridge University student debate last month.

Background information JPost

JPost by GABRIEL LATNER

This is a war of ideals, and the other speakers here tonight are rightfully, idealists. I'm not. I'm a realist. I'm here to win. I have a single goal this evening – to have at least a plurality of you walk out of the "Aye" door. I face a singular challenge – most, if not all, of you have already made up your minds.

This issue is too polarizing for the vast majority of you not to already have a set opinion. I'd be willing to bet that half of you strongly support the motion, and half of you strongly oppose it. I want to win, and we're destined for a tie. I'm tempted to do what my fellow speakers are going to do – simply rehash every bad thing the Israeli government has ever done in an attempt to satisfy those of you who agree with them. And perhaps they'll even guilt one of you rare undecided into voting for the proposition, or more accurately, against Israel. [...]

Self-declared Israeli rabbi convicted of abusing eight children

Haaretz

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday convicted a self-declared rabbi for abusing the eight children of the woman with whom he lived.

Last week, four of Rabbi Elior Chen's followers were sentenced to lengthy prison on similar child abuse charges. [,,,]

Conjoined Twins See Through Each Other's Eyes

AOL News

Twins share a unique bond, often claiming to know each other's thoughts and frequently finishing each other's sentences. But one set of sisters has taken twin powers to a whole new level: They can see through each other's eyes.

Meet Tatiana and Krista Hogan of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada -- 4-year-olds conjoined at the head, known as craniopagus twins.

"They are very interconnected. They share a lot of things normal conjoined twins don't. They have the special ability to see what each other's seeing through each other's eyes," Felicia Simms, the girls' mother, said in a television interview with ABC News. [...]

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Novominsker Rebbe publicly discusses child molesting at Aguda Conference

The following is a link to a recording of this year's Aguda Convention. Between minutes 31-35 the Novominsker Rebbe publicly announces that it is time to take the issue out from under the rug. While he places the main responsibility on parents and does not acknowledge any responsibility of the yeshivos or community - accept to praise the Aguda and Torah uMesora for producing behavioral standards for teachers in conjunction with their lawyers and fighting against the Markey Bill - it is clearly a small step forward that is long overdue.

2010_Thur_Night_Session_01 - 01 - Track 1.mp3 9.55 MB

Child Abuse:October 17 JBAC program - corrected audio links

the links in the previous post stopped working - here are new ones.

I have tested several links. All the ones I tested did work.

Latest medical reversal: High levels of Vitamin D & calcium not needed!

NYTimes

The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories — and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed.[...]

Child Abuse:October 17 JBAC program in Chicago- audio & video download links

Received the following announcement with permission to post

Rabbi Eidensohn,

All the video files are on You Tube. Search on "JBACChicago" (one word). Some of the content will not show up unless you create a You Tube Account and are logged in.

anyone who is having technical difficulties to contact us at chicago.awareness@gmail.com,

Here are the links to the audio versions of the files. These are stored so anyone who has the link below can access them. They can be downloaded (right click on link) or played directly from where they are (left click on link):

Download link                                                           Filesize
http://boxstr.net/files/6909461_5zqo9/01_Dorron_Katzin_intro.mp3            2 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909462_gtdvn/02_Vivian_Skolnick_intro.mp3         10 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909463_8ulgt/03_Elliot_Pasik_intro.mp3            23 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909464_fbvjv/04_Rabbi_Gedalia_Dov_Schwartz.mp3    22 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909465_sfeca/05_Mark_Weiss.mp3                    25 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909466_hnylq/06_Pinny_Taub.mp3                    33 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909467_qpszc/07_Patricia_Sudendorf.mp3            14 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909468_nsjfq/08_Vivian_Skolnick.mp3               20 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909469_cbxm3/09_Rabbi_Mark_Dratch.mp3             25 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909470_ofhd1/10_Asher_Lipner.mp3                  19 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909471_9oiul/11_Rabbi_Moshe_Soloveichik.mp3       15 MB
http://boxstr.net/files/6909472_0gnig/12_Elliot_Pasik.mp3                  23 MB

Here are the links to the video versions of the files. They can be downloaded, but not streamed, from this location. People who want to stream without downloading should use You Tube.

Download link                                                            Filesize     Min Sec

http://boxstr.net/files/6910153_aqqoi/01_Dorron_Katzin_intro.mp4            36 MB       01:22

http://boxstr.net/files/6911461_7mxac/02_Vivian_Skolnick_intro.mp4         180 MB       06:53

http://boxstr.net/files/6911462_lohmu/03_Elliot_Pasik_intro.mp4             69 MB       02:38

http://boxstr.net/files/6911463_agtlg/04_Rabbi_Gedalia_Dov_Schwartz.mp4    411 MB       15:46

http://boxstr.net/files/6911504_4gyfy/05_Mark_Weiss.mp4                    474 MB       18:14

http://boxstr.net/files/6911525_umkxz/06_Pinny_Taub.mp4                    622 MB       23:56

http://boxstr.net/files/6911708_pr6f9/07_Patricia_Sudendorf.mp4            268 MB       10:14

http://boxstr.net/files/6911709_ffw4k/08_Vivian_Skolnick.mp4               377 MB       14:28

http://boxstr.net/files/6913025_7pjsn/09_Rabbi_Mark_Dratch.mp4             482 MB       18:30

http://boxstr.net/files/6913026_5ta7q/10_Asher_Lipner.mp4                  368 MB       14:09

http://boxstr.net/files/6913617_ywrfa/11_Rabbi_Moshe_Soloveichik.mp4       289 MB       11:06

http://boxstr.net/files/6913618_8auhe/12_Elliot_Pasik.mp4                  436 MB       16:44

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Rav Zev Leff recommends my 3 books on Child & Domestic Abuse

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