My Daughter, the Not So Virginal

In the post My Daughter, the Virgin, I mentioned the prevalent custom of including the phrase "the praise-worthy virgin bride" on chareidi wedding invitations. So what is a poor girl to do if she strayed before marriage and doesn't want the chosson to know? It's Gigimo to the rescue with their Artificial Virginity Hymen! "When your lover penetrate, it will ooze out a liquid that look like blood not too much but just the right amount. Add in a few moans and groans, you will pass through undetectable." [sic] Made in Japan, the world leader in sex toys.

Conservatives in Egypt are apparently up in arms about this device, as it is "an assault on Islamic and Arab values."

No word yet from our gedolim.

Why Are You Testing Me, God?

Moshe Bernstein discussing Biblical Scholarship*:

What if anything would cause me to say, well maybe I'm wrong? So the answer is if somebody showed me a piece of J from the 8th century BCE and there was no P with it, and I was convinced that it was from the 8th century and that this was an individual thing... and I believed that, so I'd look up and I'd say, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, why are you testing me? ... If it's a question of emunah, I am perfectly willing to be a fundamentalist... and to say that those are the parameters within which I operate. I may push the envelope as far as I can, I may choose to operate in a broader way than many others whom I know, but that's where I draw the line.

A true OrthoFundie can never be challenged with facts that contradicts his beliefs. Regardless of how overwhelming the evidence is, one can always brush it aside as a test of one's faith. And this, of course, is true of any fundamentalist, regardless of religion.

*Unfortunately, I cannot find the original web source for this audio lecture. I believe that it was from YUTorah.org, but if so, it is no longer available there.

Find the Jew...

Doonesbury from 9/27/09:



Here is a closer look at the panel in question:




Not only does it appear that Trudeau added a couple of "Jewish graves" as an afterthought, but he apparently doesn't even know how to draw a 6-sided Magen David!