*Religion and Spirituality In The DotCom Age

I realize there are live feeds of sermons going on, it's the natural progression from televangelism. I also realize there are numerous blogs, websites and myriad interactive online religious communities. For those who wish to practice their faith from home, or are otherwise required to do so for whatever reason, it's a wonderful thing. (You may not believe it based on previous posts, but I'm a proponent of people openly practicing their faith so long as their beliefs do not include infringing on others' rights, violently or otherwise).

But this is new. This is a story that at first made me laugh, and then made me scratch my head in disbelief. Apparently an Orthodox Jew in Brazil believed (or claimed to believe) that a Dybbuk had entered his body. His family contacted Rav Chaim Kanievsky, a well-known Kabbalist, in hopes of having an exorcism performed. The only problem was, Kanievsky was in Israel. So what was the solution? Attempt to perform the exorcism via Skype.

Kanievsky himself was skeptical, believing there was a critical need to actually be physically present. but he attempted the digital rite anyway. Check out the story and video here.

It seems the Brazilian man will now be traveling to Israel to have this done in person. I wonder if the airline will charge him for an additional passenger.

Oh yeah (almost forgot) - there were no reported sightings (that I could find) of Bubba the Brown Bear this week. Maybe he's moved on - somehow I'm sure he'll be returning.