EZ Reads: Pesach Cleaning - Torah, Mussar, & Judaism

• BeyondBT on actualizing the predictable. The post is a fantastic message, learned from Purim, applicable to Pesach and all year round. It's also a perfect response to the widely criticized and mind-boggling article by R' Avi Shafran essentially praising Bernie Madoff while criticizing Captain "Sully" who saved the lives of the people on Flight 1549. As I noted in the comments on Orthonomics' criticism of the piece, I cannot understand what good was even intended to come out of the article, even if R' Shafran had made the points he was attempting to make well. His piece has come off as a true chillul Hashem, which is especially sad as he represents one of the most important constituencies within Judaism.
  
• On the flip side, Eytan Kobre's excellent piece on Cross-Currents immediately after R' Shafran's explains just how perfect Sully's preparation for that incident was, and what mussar we can learn from that.
• A good piece on BeyondBT on the importance of tradition and ritual, something I think we see especially on Pesach.
• Neil with another beautiful lesson from R' Salanter:
  

  Rabbi Yisrael Salanter use to say: When a child plays with a piece of wood in the bath, and he pretends that it is a ship, if we take the piece of wood away from him he has the same experience as an adult would have if a real ship of his sunk. For the child, the piece of wood is like an adult's ship. When an adult interferes in a child's play, he steals something from the child.

• Chana on the idea of surrendering one's mind to God.
• Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on probability and faith.
• A pair of interesting text message psak posts from R' Aviner.