Rabbi Kook on the Zohar’s Authenticity – Rabbi Bar Chaim Transcript

169) A RECENTLY DISCOVERED DOCUMENT SHOWING RAV KOOK’S POSITION ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE ZOHAR:

While many believe the Zohar to have been authored by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai during the second century CE, the fact is that authorship of the Zohar has been disputed by many Torah scholars over the centuries. Some believe the Zohar to have been written around the 13thcentury.

INTRODUCTION:

See Mysteries Behind the Origins of the Zohar.

In this article, we will look at a hitherto unknown document which was discovered relatively recently in a library in Jerusalem. It apparently gives unprecedented insight into Rav Kook’s (1865-1935) position on the issue of the authorship and age of the Zohar.

Rabbi David Bar-Hayim describes how some thirty odd years ago while looking through the National Library in Jerusalem – which contains a smaller library, specializing in matters relating to Kabbalah and known as the Gershom Scholem Library – he came across what appeared to be a nondescript file.THE STORY:

This file contained just three photocopied pages which had been stapled onto a piece of cardboard. The title read “Meyuchas leRav Kook” – attributed to Rav Kook.

  1. Bar-Hayim got permission to copy the three pages and immediately identified the handwriting as belonging to the foremost student of Rav Kook, R. David Cohen known as theNazir.

Continue reading…

From Kotzk Blog, here.

Why Should Anyone Take Neturei Karta Seriously?!

I heard the following story from a reliable source (although I may have misremembered some minor detail):

Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen, who later co-founded “Neturei Karta” with Rabbi Amram Blau, once unexpectedly travelled to Bnei Brak, interrupted the Chazon Ish’s Torah learning, banged with his fist on the table, and loudly demanded the Chazon Ish publically denounce… something or other.

First, his host pointed out making too many proclamations renders each less valuable. Then the Chazon Ish tried to cheerfully change the topic. But Rabbi Katzenellenbogen was adamant in his demand: You must do this “for the sake of Judaism”. Eventually, the Chazon had no choice, so he asked: Well, why don’t you denounce it yourself? To which Rabbi Katzenellenbogen responded: Me?! No one listens to me! To have an effect, the statement must issue from a respected personage, like the Chazon Ish.

Here the Chazon Ish brought down the hammer: If no one else listens to you, then why should I myself listen to you?!

How Fake News Is Produced

Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on 

Diane Farsetta and Daniel Price, Center for Media and Democracy
April 6, 2006

This report includes:

  • Video footage of the 36 video news releases documented in this report, plus footage showing how actual TV newscasts incorporated them and/or a related satellite media tours.
  • A map showing the locations of the 77 television stations throughout the United States that aired this fake news.
  • An itemized list of the 77 television stations that aired this fake news, by state.

Note: This report is also available in PDF format, at www.prwatch.org/pdfs/FakeTVNews_Apr2006Rpt.pdf

In Brief

Over a ten-month period, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) documented television newsrooms’ use of 36 video news releases (VNRs)—a small sample of the thousands produced each year. CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs or related satellite media tours (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers. Collectively, these 77 stations reach more than half of the U.S. population. The VNRs and SMTs whose broadcast CMD documented were produced by three broadcast PR firms for 49 different clients, including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One. In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients’ messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety.

Report highlights include:

  • KOKH-25 in Oklahoma City, OK, a FOX station owned by Sinclair, aired six of the VNRs tracked by CMD, making it this report’s top repeat offender. Consistently, KOKH-25 failed to provide any disclosure to news audiences. The station also aired five of the six VNRs in their entirety, and kept the publicist’s original narration each time.
  • In three instances, TV stations not only aired entire VNRs without disclosure, but had local anchors and reporters read directly from the script prepared by the broadcast PR firm. KTVI-2 in St. Louis, MO, had their anchor introduce, and their reporter re-voice, a VNR produced for Masterfoods and 1-800 Flowers, following the script nearly verbatim. WBFS-33 in Miami, FL, did the same with a VNR produced for the “professional services firm” Towers Perrin. And Ohio News Network did likewise with a VNR produced for Siemens.
  • WSJV-28 in South Bend, IN, introduced a VNR produced for General Motors as being from “FOX’s Andrew Schmertz,” implying that Schmertz was a reporter for the local station or the FOX network. In reality, he is a publicist at the largest U.S. broadcast PR firm, Medialink Worldwide. Another Medialink publicist, Kate Brookes, was presented as an on-air reporter by four TV stations airing a VNR produced for Siemens.
  • Two stations whose previous use of government VNRs was documented by the New York Times, WCIA-3 in Champaign, IL, and WHBQ-13 in Memphis, TN, also aired VNRs tracked by CMD. The March 2005 Times article reported that WHBQ’s vice president for news “could not explain how his station came to broadcast” a State Department VNR, while WCIA’s news director said that Agriculture Department VNRs “meet our journalistic standards.”

Continue reading…

From PR Watch, here.

התועלת בשואה

ספר “מאחורי הפרגוד” בשם הרב אהרן יהודה ליב שטינמן זצ”ל (צוטט ע”י נדב שנרב):
כולם חושבים על האסון שנהרגו הרבה מכלל ישראל, אבל יש כאלו שבאמת היה עדיף שיהרגו, כי היו מחללי שבת ועל ידי שנהרגו עשו פחות עבירות. היטלר הרג את כל המשומדים שהתבוללו בזדון, וזה דבר אחד טוב שיצא מהאסון הזה, שנהרגו כל המשומדים.