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Of Making Many Books

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12) A pdf version of this essay  can be downloaded here [*] Years in brackets refer to an individual’s or book author’s year of birth Thought experiment for the day: Anyone born 1945 would be pushing towards 80 and mostly past their prime. So name any Charedi sefer written by someone born post war that has or is likely to enter the canon, be it haloche, lomdus, al hatorah or mussar. Single one will do for now — IfYouTickleUs (@ifyoutickleus) July 27, 2022 A tweet in the summer which gained some traction asked for a book by an author born from 1945 onwards that has entered the Torah and rabbinic canon or is heading in that direction. I didn't exactly phrase it this way and some quibbled about 'canonisation'. The word does indeed have a precise meaning though in its popular use it has no narrow definition. Canonisation, or ‘entering the canon’ is generally understood to...
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On the dangers of mobile phones

The following relates to reports of a man arrested in Stamford Hill for alleged child abuse (or for buying tzitzis for a child, if you believe local reports). I picked this up on facebook and I can’t vouch for its veracity. We do mass produce urban myths round here but it’s still a nice one.

There's no big news in this one, but it does have an interesting twist... There's a little scandal going on in (Stamford Hill) London, since yesterday afternoon. A chasidisher 'kollel' yungerman was arrested for molesting young kids/kid. The police arrived at the Kollel and asked the Rosh Hakolel if he knows 'ploini ben ploini'... the Rosh Hakolel said "No" (of course he wouldn't be a musser and give over a fellow jew to the police...). So the police told him "We know that you do know who he is... but it's o.k." Then they had two policemen block the entrance of the Kollel from both sides so no one would escape, and they placed a phone call to the yingerman's cell-phone, when the phone rang they knew exactly who the guy was and they took him away... I guess now there's more proof of the ‘danger’ of having a cellphone...!

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  1. Anonymous28 June, 2012 16:07

    Seeing as the 'Jewish' Chronicle hasn't reported the follow up, I thought it prudent to mention that the yungerman in question has been released without charge.

    As an aside, the father of the alleged abused is obsessed with molestation, going so far as to home school his children so as not to expose them to any dangers.

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  2. Anonymous19 July, 2012 22:15

    Given the way the so called community turns on anyone that does report things are you really surprised? Perhaps if people put their kids before brownnosing Rabbis and keeping in line there would be less abuse - as the abusers would fear facing justice. If anything its a shame the Rosh wouldnt cooperate I believe youre meant to respect the law of the land.

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