here are a few links to some interesting articles...

1. Chabad boy chooses tzitis over playing

2. a tour and census of Palestine in 1695..

3. The Israel Longhorn Project

I know it has been a while since my last "interesting posts" post... I hope to get back to doing that soon..

In the meantime, I just wanted to point a few relevant links

1. last year I wrote a book review of "Journey of Faith" by Rabbi Yonasan Arenias.. with the beginning of the book of Bamidbar, that review is once again relevant. I have heard people who bought it really enjoyed it...

2. a digital tour of Jerusalem

3. the entire 93 page psak din of the beis din of Tzfat's psak to free an aguna whose husband was in a coma. It turns out, as controversial as the method used is, it was approved by Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg

4. Kosharot's kashrut simulator

5. a new bike park is being planned and constructed over in Modiin

6. I have taken a liking to Kickstarter, and I have a speciall affinity for Israelis promoting their stuff there.. here is an Israeli inventor, living in London, who created a cool kitchen utensil... with a pretty good video

Here is a bunch of articles of interest that I have been collecting in the past couple of weeks and just have not gotten to posting... I am just posting this now to clear my browser tabs...

1. man skips seder to go to casino, wins $1million

2. Portland drained 38 million gallons of water, because one person peed in it - what would they do with the Kinerret???

3. Let my people work by MK Rabbi Dov Lipman

4. pair acting suspiciously near Kate and William - Jews or only dressed up as Jews?

5. a moment of truth for Haredi leaders

6. the bias against black-hatters

7. Chicago also headed into Passover with a shortage of gefilte fish

8. 14 anomalies found only in Israel

9. kosherZumba craze in Brooklyn

10. leadership lessons learned in the IDF

11. a wafalafel - really? where do I get it?

12. an ultra orthodox perspective on army service

13. to my haredi brothers

14. a rabbi makes aliyah

1. Geerz in Mishpacha magazine (pdf) - fabulous write-up

2. an exchange - Rabbi Pruzansky on the draft law

3. I still have hope

4. aren't you scared?

5. what can be done to reach our best students

6. in prison for learning torah

7. Labor as the new savior of the Haredim

8. NBN turns immigrants into pioneers

9. Shaar HaGai - history

10. the Shaked draft bill

11. the Waze conundrum

12. March Madness: Purim, now Jerusalem Marathon

13. Will good fences make good neighbors in Bet Shemesh

14. when being a mentsch is the exception

15. renouncing US citizenship, part 2

16. be transformed

starting off with an ad, of sorts (affiliate link, not an actual ad) - if you will be coming to Israel for the holidays are are already planning a summer trip or coming for school for the coming year, consider Nes Mobile for your mobile phone and Internet needs..

1. Prenups Save Kneecaps: International Agunah Day

2. Guatemala and Lev Tahor - saddest part is when they show a picture and say if you see anyone dressed like this call the police.. anybody hassidic is gong to be reported to the police, just because his attire bundles him with Lev Tahor..

3. Achdut, Achdus and Unity

4. how running changed me - a friend of mine is now famous

5. as IDF controversy swirls, entrepreneurship thrives in bet Shemesh

6. what Purim means to me

7. what converted this Reform rabbi?

8. getting real about Internet addiction

9. love and faith

10. short cuts - cute, but Palm Pilot? really?

11. what's the line in the wall?

12. Israel - a major part of Judaism

13. good news for the Jews

14. drinking on Purim

15. a "war" in the jewish Press

16. shul unity opportunities no Purim

17. plan to take over the world

18.  Oleh Problems

19. Its all about the beauty

1. chronic electile dysfunction returns I am going to excerpt part of this good article relevant for those of you who will be voting in the upcoming Bet Shemesh elections:

Beit Shemesh is a great place. Daily life here is normal. Kids go to school, play outside, ride bikes and generally cause havoc. Parents work or learn (or both), take care of our families and race towards Shabbat. All of us have regular concerns like education, recreation, quality of life, and keeping our kids safe.
We want programs, parks and opportunities. We want safe, clean streets, access to health care and open spaces. We want schools with good education, in proper buildings in good condition. We want smart city planning and enough parking for residents. We want public spaces to be garbage free, parks that are age appropriate and in good repair.
We want the city to be a place we can live in and enjoy. We want new neighborhoods built with enough open spaces, schools, and shopping to serve the residents.
However, there are people who don’t want us to think of these things when we go to vote. They don’t want us to vote based on issues that concern us, our kids and our city. They don’t want us to consider who will be best at management, planning, allocating resources and improving quality of life.
They want us to see this election as a religious war and they use language from our holy books to portray it as such.

[...] 

What could be better for the residents than to hear from each candidate what they plan on doing for us? What possible reason could he have to refuse to let us hear directly from them their plans for Beit Shemesh and vote accordingly?
Bet Shemesh needs a mayor who cares for his citizens not one who sees them as sheep to be fed with fear and slander of his opponent.
Bet Shemesh needs a mayor who takes responsibility, has principles and guts. Bet Shemesh needs a mayor who will run a corruption free, nepotism free, backhand-deal free municipality. Bet Shemesh needs a mayor who can balance budgets, preserve our open spaces, build responsibly, prioritize education and youth, clean our streets, and focus on all that is good and positive in this city.

2. the rally: kiddush hashem or chilul hashem?

3. being really smart

4. return from Odessa, mashiach is at the doorstep

5. golus vs geulah

6. machane haredi and I do not share the same God

7. chilul hashem on the road

8. vintage minhogim

9. a tale of two grandfathers

10. jew against jew is nothing new

11. weird in Israel: cracking the sherut code

12. protesting against the protest

13. protesting a disgrace

14. is pizza a snack or a meal?

15. charedim, Israel and daas torah

16. shabbos with children: lets not lose the beauty

17. I found it!

18. womens access to healthcare coverage in tzniyus war

19. social upheaval in Israel

20. is serving in IDF really a Torah commandment?

21. first marathon runner was Jewish, not Greek

22. wet hot Israeli summer

yes, I know, I know.. I should have made a section for posts about the rally/protest and bundled them all together there...

1. final scream - beautifully written. many feel the same way...

2. lady pants

3. a shmittah dilemma

4. cancer: an equal opportunity provider

5. top ten sayings of Rav Shteinman

6. cholov yisrael milk in the UK.. is better?

7. exact text of new Israeli draft law.. or not

8. why the churban in Pkudei

9. he will kill us all!

10. the Ghostbusters analogy

11. violating the "aisle rule" in the Holy Land

12. new signs in Jerusalem

13. Jerusalem is now a break-dancing mecca - they mention someone who says he skipped out on the army so he could concentrate on dancing. he doesnt say how he got out of the army service, and I am curious..

14. Captain Sunshine to run for President - I think I am now one of the few people who have not announced candidacy..

15. is TOV good enough?

16. what we like about Kiryat Shmuel

17. do you really want German work visas that badly?

18. Jerusalem to teach taxi drivers English

1. what's with your Nachal Charedi army son?

2. going to prison for doing a mitzvah

3. a prayer for Purim in Bet Shemesh - this writer is very talented

4. the biggest shul in the world

5. QWERTY keyboards and Jewish traditions

6. not attending a reunion

7. walking the bridge

8. Colorado kidney donation to stranger sets off life-saving chain reaction

1. Yasher Koach and Tizkeh lMitzvos to those who have sponsored me in the Lemaan Achai Bowl-A-Thon.. you can still register as a sponsor, for me or for other bowlers, and donate at http://www.smartchesed.org

2. business, politics, and disgracing torah scholars

3. Palestinians deprive their own people of clean water for propaganda

4. fighting smoking is a battle worth fighting

5. the parameters and paradoxes of being an orthodox jewish woman

6. dystopia

7. images of Jewish-Muslim unity

8. the end of the snow day is nigh

9. spiritual gentrification

10. who moved Abutbol's cheese?

11. products that are kosher only without a hechsher

12. interview with a MasterChef

13. What Israel means to Natalie Portman

1. are yeshivahs letting boys be boys

2. an escape plan from Israel

3. with Jewish friends like these...

4. 10 great things about being a jewish dad

5. what can one do for someone who has died?

6. who owns this land?

7. what luxury car will the Skverer Rebbe ride in Chicago?

8. Rav Schachters missive, and response

9. they stab their rabbis

10. Palestinians: the Western Wall is ours

11. women, tefillin, and rise of the Rav

12. Super Mashgiach: Rabbi Chaim Goldzweig

1. Sponsor me in the Lemaan Achai Bowl-A-Thon - bowling for tzedaka

2. Israel Programs: The case for Tel Aviv - I agree with Benji. Tel Aviv is a great city and it should take a more prominent place in the Israel experience

3. Erika's happy avalanche - the HappyLanche

4.  going to fight rather than going to fight

5. losing and rediscovering my religion

6. why is US Ambassador Dan Shapiro's boss such a moron?

7. the success of charedi kiruv

8. the rabbi relationship requirement

9. Facebook and football, do rabbis and shuls belong?

10. one get case closed, another get case opened - in this new case the father of the recalcitrant husband said “she will remain an agun [chained wife] until my son dies.”  - the problem is very serious, and when the father is quoted as saying such things, I think it might be time to propose a new solution. Considering that we believe in prayer, as does the husband who refuses to give a get and his father and family and community, that we pray for the death of the recalcitrant husband. Hold prayer vigils, mass tefillah rallies, all for the death of so and so. It is his father who brought it up as an option - if that's the only way she'll become free, maybe the community needs to put forth the effort to make it happen.

To that effect I am reminded of the story of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, who called in a recalcitrant husband and urged him to give his wife a get. When he continued to refuse, Rav Eiger warned him that the mishna states there are two ways for a woman to become free - by divorce or by death of the husband. After letting the implicit warning hang in the air for a moment, the husband stormed off. The story goes that the husband died upon leaving Rabbi Eiger's house.

I think having mass tefillah rallies with communities around the world, including his own, holding tefillah sessions davening for the recalcitrant husbands death would put immense pressure on them to give the get.

11. Bibi's new demands

12. the Internet is posek acharon

13. why is it so hard here?

14. random acts of donuts

15. MK Feiglin is even more awesome than I thought - Feiglin has been opposed to the Yesha Council (akak Moetzet Pesha) for a long time.. this really isn't a new thing..

16. charedi suicide squads

17. Dodelson and the Facebook shtetl

18. friends of Israel must speak up now

1. the new book "People of the Book" is on sale at Feldheim. it looks really interesting, so now would be a good opportunity to buy it at a discounted price
described as:
The invention of the printing press created a revolution for Jews everywhere. Who could imagine at that time the extraordinary benefits that printing would bring to world Jewry?

“People of the Book” vividly describes the invention itself, and then takes us through five hundred years of Hebrew printing, from the earliest products of fifteenth-century printers to those of modern times.

Author and teacher Akiva Aaronson introduces us to the first printed editions of the classic sefarim: Talmud, Rambam, Arba’ah Turim, Shulchan Aruch, and many more. Meet the famous Hebrew printers of previous generations: Soncino, Bomber, Romm, Heidenheim, Bak and others. Visit the Jewish communities where Hebrew printing took place, from its earliest days until the present: Venice, Salonika, Prague, Amsterdam, Slavita, Warsaw and Vilna, to name a few.

Weaving lively text with over two hundred magnificent, full-color photographs of original Hebrew volumes, “People of the Book” is truly a journey through time- Jewish time- over five centuries of Hebrew printing. Follow its odyssey, from persecution and censorship to survival and triumph, set against the phenomenal history of the times in this beautiful coffee-table edition.

2. a Yiddishe Mama in every Israeli

3. Sherlock Homes, Tzohar style

4. whose memory is a blessing? - Rabbi Adlerstein's brilliant critique of a letter to the editor in Hamodia.. best line? "The reader has a point. When Sharon ignored orders and led his troops across the Suez Canal within striking distance of Cairo, thereby singlehandedly turning the course of the Yom Kippur War back in favor of Israel, he could not have been acting as a proud Jew. Chances are, he was just in the mood for some treif pizza, and Cairo seemed like a good place to pick it up."

5. a park for Stella

6. if you need someone to do something, ask someone who is already busy

7. about the round Noah's Ark

8. a nation connected by fishing line

9. how schools can help students find meaning in tefillah

10. can you identify this ship?

11. irresistible, immovable, investigation imminent (super bowl related)

12. how would you like to be called the bdieved ideal?

13. being there for others

1. a nice article (in Hebrew) in the real estate section of Ynet describing the neighborhood of RBS

2. Haredi women want to run marathons - this woman is Chabad, which is not necessarily the same as the classic Haredi woman, but she is a personal trainer. There are other women that are, some more some less, Haredi that also run that are not the subject of the article.

3. will Israel Railways finally reach Eilat?

4. Patience is a virtue

5. 10% of Haredi teens in Bnei Brak are OTD

6. Ben Greenfield came to Israel for the Israman Iron Man as part of a sports blogger tour.. here are some of his interesting posts: 1, 2, 3 - and no, despite his Jewy sounding name, Ben Greenfield is not Jewish

7. donate to Eli Cohen's campaign for the upcoming elections

8. NY Post made a splash with their recent sensationalist headlines about Stark's murder.. now they are back with the sexiest rabbis of 2013

9. the warped perspective on tzniyut

1. the mixed shul kiddush

2. Belzer Rebbe: avreichim should learn a profession while in kollel

3. marry younger, my son, marry younger

4. charedim and the gap

5. Tu bShvat and Jerusalem Transitions

6. origins of the Tu bshvat seder

7. RBS shul declared "politics free zone"

8. hagbah as a weight lifting contest

9. why people dont wear tcheiles

10. its none of our business (Caleb Jacoby)

11. book to the future

12. did Ibn Ezra meet the Rambam

13. interview with Glory, cashier and cook at Kinneret Kosher Pizza in Cleveland - interesting interview.

14. tshuva with a mehadrin fridge

15. the hard kind of kindness

16. it is not a spectator sport - good story

17. even the traffic signs are Jewish

18. girls just want to have fun

19. Artscroll promotes destruction of old chumashim

20 . Yair Lapid vs Israel's Chief Rabbis

21. raising an Israeli

a lot of posts here, but it has been a while since my last..

1. does Rabbi Steinsaltz speak for us?

2. moving to Israel? you know your children will have to go to the army?

3.  ex Lev Tahor members tell of abuse

4. Habayit Hayehudi cannot remain silent over Rabbi Drukman

5. a bad call by the Chief Rabbinate

6. judging a buchir by his cover

7. 8 female Israeli soldiers who shattered barriers in 2013

8. the missing guest

9. kids as korbans

10. a year has passed

11. what's your red line in parenting?

12. why are parents praying for their non-orthodox children to die?

13. how the NY Times reported the genocide in the Holocaust

14. is "gemara only" right for anyone?

15. the gadol and the snail

16. Israel's next president should be Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks

17. regulation of gmachim in Israel.. why are haredim so afraid?

18. life imitates art

19. universities standing strong for academic freedom and against bigotry

20. a bit macabre, but if you are looking for updated news, someone made this website tracking if Ariel Sharon has died yet or not. just keep hitting refresh if you are bored and really want to know..

some articles:

21. seeking a buyer for home full of creatures from times of Noah

22. Israeli youth spread good will at Mahane Yehuda

23. Mahane Yehuda - a window into Israel's hungry soul

24. Technion's pre-university program for ultra-orthodox

25. why do Jews hate mayonnaise

26. what it costs to cover your noggin in Jerusalem

27. a fundamental misunderstanding of religious freedom

28. interview with Professor Haym Soloveitchik

1. Whisky Live comes to Israel

2. wages and attitudes in Lakewood

3. line-item lexicon libricide

4. Bethlehem: prohibited to Christians and Jews

5. the rebbes are coming

6. the strength of the convert

7. national holidays minyan schedule

8. I never thought to consider my foot fungus as a badge of honor..

9. Israel moment

1. Rav Shmuel Eliyahu on the snow

2. what's a rabbi doing on a show called "Church Rescue"?

3. Jewish elders lift 6000 year ham ban (the onion)

4. the truth about the draft of Haredim

5. dear sir: this may be why you are not married yet

6. lies, damned lies, and the Taub report

7. empathy, snow and Moshe Rabbeinu

8. Satmar rebbe is honest about draft for haredim

9. the flipped beit medrash

10. Manning's monumental marks

11. 10 days on the ipad

12. freedom of irreligion

13. Neshama Carlebach: "aliyah" to Reform Jewry  and still no longer an Orthodox Jew

14. bring morality back into entertainment

15. ultra-orthodox service in Israel

16. cell phones have plans. people dont have plans

17. where have all the modern orthodox teachers gone?

18. let's call them modern chassidim

1. Simplifying Shabbos meals

2. Fear! - the biggest problem facing the orthodox world? and here is part 2

3. Jesus the Palestinian

4. rightly identified - at last!

5. a havdala consciousness baal teshuva

6. Israel's snowstorm damaged Christmas tree crop

7. the power of the Penn

8. Sean Penn finished the mitzva he started

9. learning to run slow

10. a tiny picture from a secular public school in Israel

11. Rav Motty Elon sentenced

12. to be or not to be annoyed

13. paam shlishit glida

14. messed up

15. soup, anyone?

16. Rabbi Wallerstein's response to the Chicago community

17. Jerusalem snow clean-up time

1. controversy swirls over Lipa's beard song

2. the 12 million shekel symbol

3. global warming, brrr.. impossible to prepare

4. things Rabbis are not

5. so was the eiruv in Yerushalayim up or not?

6. change the raunchy playlist

7. Mandela

8. Women of the Wall attacked by... Jordan?!

9. sad Haveil Havalim

10. but did you say thank you?

11. Reb Yaacov's Torah scroll

12.  why the Internet is amazing

13. Weiss-Dodelson - primary problem is to convince couples to work on their marriage

14. how giving an aliya to a Reform Rabbi changed his life

it's been a while, so there is a lot to sift through...

1. The Truth of Satire, by Rabbi Berel Wein

2. when Israel's Prime Minister stopped beneath my balcony - fascinating story

3. does Dov Lipman want to outlaw flowers at funerals?

4. Orthodox singing sensation, Ofir Ben Shitrit

5. what's in your top drawer?

6. Jerusalem fall covers under snow

7. frum papers almost ignore giyus issue and arrests

8. tzniyus as it was meant to be

9. advice for shuls: get yourself a gan

10. A Bizarre Denunciation of a Denunciation of a Denunciation

11. the truth behind the legend of Serach bas Asher

12. sharing the mitzvah (about serving in the IDF)

13. a boycott is not just political.. it is personal!

14. make your Shabbos table more meaningful

15. why are the Israelis so damn happy?

16. news flash! it's raining!

17. rant about school channukah chagiga

18. on patrol with Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg

19. tribute to a kollel

20. are they really resha'im?

21. a modern tragic aspect to the tenth of Tevet

22. the blatantly bad Jew

23. A Shabbat experiment

24. the Jew... and his wife