Yes, shamefully late posting this month- in fact, I missed the end of the month- don't believe the date on top.
Of course, there's a wonderful excuse: A new addition to our family, young Nesyah Yonit. All three of us are over the moon. Pictures and more to follow, but in the meantime head over to Facebook and read all my posts- no time to copy them all here. I'll accept your friend request, I promise. Just mention the blog.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Monday, February 29, 2016
Happy Birthday, Frederick!
About six and a half years ago, my brand-new roommate asked if I'd like to come to a rehearsal for "The Pirates of Penzance"with him. That happens to be my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, so of course I went. I was blown away by the company, and that led to new friends, a new chevra, jobs, and ultimately marriage. Not bad for a whim. Happy birthday, Frederick!
Of course, exactly *which* birthday it is seems to be the subject of some scholarly debate. (It centers on the fact that there was no February 29 in 1900.) Isaac Asimov, a favorite of this blog, wrote a whole short story on the subject:
http://www.obooksbooks.com/ScienceFiction/Asimov34/27231.html
A collection of posts from Facebook:
The city billboards were redone recently and remained empty for a while. This morning, one of them is covered with eight posters- four (on the bottom) from the Chief Rabbinate of the State itself, and four (on the top, in red) from some ad-hoc "Emergency Committee for the Kotel" or something.
(Note very well: When you see multiples of the poster, you know that they're not legal. Kind of shocking that the Rabbinate would brazenly violate the law. [Contrary to popular belief and Charedi practice, you can't just put up posters on municipal boards, and you can't put them anywhere else either.] And when you see a 4/4 neat split like that, you know that one is a front for the other.)
Anyway, the posters scream on and on about "Reformim" at the "Kotel". Taking no opinion on the matter here (the posters contain so many howlers and such a lack of nuance that that would take more time than I have), I will just point out that they are really, really over the top, which is enough to make me dismiss them.
OK, I'll take one opinion: If only the Rabbinate could muster a similar amount of passion about the much bigger problem of Muslims on the Har HaBayit. But it's all about fiefdoms.
---------------------
Wow, this piece is depressing. I have no doubt it's true, which is *why* it's depressing.
Because a Facebook friend is a member of the academic elite, I was recently treated to the sad/funny spectacle of a bunch of professors reassuring each other that Hillary will triumph over Sanders. (The DNC doesn't need no stinking voter rights.) Of course, they like Sanders, but like winning better, but I was amused at least for the moment to consider that some of them may constitute the only people in the country who actually *like* Hillary.
Of course, it's all fun and games until a country implodes. Although maybe that's what's needed. That and some perfectly logical and legal steps Congress should have taken long ago but never will.
http://www.steynonline.com/7441/the-math-and-the-map
----------------
A great video:
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-shuk-gallery/
Here's a funny one:
https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153534833916939/?fref=nf
----------
I've written about the old sefer torah in my shul's building before. It was taken down again last Thursday, and they posted photos from the last time:
--------------
A number of years back, my family spent a Pesach in Israel, staying at a place across the street from the Erlau yeshiva in Kataman (or the Greek Colony, whatever it is). My father would daven there; at one point a cousin joined us and he did as well.
Erlau is a somewhat unique group- although named after a city in Hungary, they were essentially created in Jerusalem in the 1950's. While they look and act somewhat like chassidim, they are headed by a descendant of the decidedly non-chassidic Chatam Sofer. They are officially a part of the Agudah but tend to avoid political entanglements. (When Sharon came to the rebbe to get his support for the Disengagement, I'm sure with some, ahem, arguments metallic or otherwise, as Sherlock Holmes would put it, the rebbe refused to see him.)
My father, like pretty much every Jew in Israel (and myself, of course), including the Erlau, does not put on tefillin on Chol HaMoed. The aforesaid cousin, who comes from my mother's side of the family, follows the somewhat more halakhically grounded but very rare practice of wearing tefillin then. When he came into the yeshiva, they politely asked him to daven in the (otherwise empty) women's section if he was going to wear tefillin. This is, by the way, specifically mandated in the classical sources as a way of preventing open divisions in a beit knesset. It might be a bit less pressing in these days, but some still insist on it.
My father came in and noticed that the rebbe was not there. He asked some of the chassidim where he was. "Oh, the rebbe," they answered, "He puts on tefillin and so we make him daven in the women's section." Now *that's* a rebbe.
The rebbe passed away last week, at the age of 93. תנצב"ה.
------------
Wow, this is harsh, but hard to argue with.
(Of course, one could challenge Powers'- and Smith's- ideas and ideals, but by her own standards...yuck.)
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/197727/the-ambassador-from-hell
---------------------
"I am Boutros Boutrous-Ghali. Put down your gun, and listen to Bob Marley."
R.I.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5P9J1wCgNM
----------------
I'm on the email list of one of Israel's leading, ahem, "human rights" organizations. It comes with the territory and I comfort myself by thinking that my inbox is probably one of the very few that gets both their posts as well as the Kahanists'. Often job postings for their ideological kin are sent out by them.
Alliance 90/The Greens is a far-left (and major) party in Germany. Its very name indicates that fabled "red/green alliance" that makes us conservatives so wary of both, but that's another story.
Today the aforesaid Israeli organization sent out a job posting on behalf of an "independent foundation affiliated" with that party. They're looking to hire a nearly full time, paid Office Manager, who will work with the (presumably full time, also paid) Director and supervise their interns out of their "Tel Aviv Office."
The question that came to my mind, of course (after confirming that, as I am not fluent in German, I shouldn't bother applying), was, "What is a German political party doing maintaining an office with a paid staff in Israel?" I know that both the American Republicans and Democrats have branches here, but they are run by volunteers out of their own offices and homes and exist mostly to raise political activity and garner support for candidates among American Israelis, while appealing to the occasional visiting politician and issuing occasional statements. I'm pretty sure they get little to no funding from the American parties, certainly nothing on this scale. And there are very, very few Israelis who vote in German elections, certainly not enough to interest the fourth-largest party in Germany.
Oh, and why are they in bed with a local Israeli organization?
I know the answers. But it's good to remind people of these things.
--------------------
All of us were walking back from gan together today when a chassidish man coming from the opposite direction stopped us- he'd just noticed a man lying on the ground, his head under a car. There was a lot of blood. I told him to call 101; apparently not from this area, he asked me where we were and then called:
"I'm at the corner of...Ben Maimon and Arlozorov. There's a man on the ground; his head is under a car. He's bleeding...no, I don't know him...about fifty or sixty?...yes, I think he's conscious...Sir, please don't move!...Ben Maimon, on the corner of Arlozorov."
Of course, exactly *which* birthday it is seems to be the subject of some scholarly debate. (It centers on the fact that there was no February 29 in 1900.) Isaac Asimov, a favorite of this blog, wrote a whole short story on the subject:
http://www.obooksbooks.com/ScienceFiction/Asimov34/27231.html
A collection of posts from Facebook:
The city billboards were redone recently and remained empty for a while. This morning, one of them is covered with eight posters- four (on the bottom) from the Chief Rabbinate of the State itself, and four (on the top, in red) from some ad-hoc "Emergency Committee for the Kotel" or something.
(Note very well: When you see multiples of the poster, you know that they're not legal. Kind of shocking that the Rabbinate would brazenly violate the law. [Contrary to popular belief and Charedi practice, you can't just put up posters on municipal boards, and you can't put them anywhere else either.] And when you see a 4/4 neat split like that, you know that one is a front for the other.)
Anyway, the posters scream on and on about "Reformim" at the "Kotel". Taking no opinion on the matter here (the posters contain so many howlers and such a lack of nuance that that would take more time than I have), I will just point out that they are really, really over the top, which is enough to make me dismiss them.
OK, I'll take one opinion: If only the Rabbinate could muster a similar amount of passion about the much bigger problem of Muslims on the Har HaBayit. But it's all about fiefdoms.
---------------------
Wow, this piece is depressing. I have no doubt it's true, which is *why* it's depressing.
Because a Facebook friend is a member of the academic elite, I was recently treated to the sad/funny spectacle of a bunch of professors reassuring each other that Hillary will triumph over Sanders. (The DNC doesn't need no stinking voter rights.) Of course, they like Sanders, but like winning better, but I was amused at least for the moment to consider that some of them may constitute the only people in the country who actually *like* Hillary.
Of course, it's all fun and games until a country implodes. Although maybe that's what's needed. That and some perfectly logical and legal steps Congress should have taken long ago but never will.
http://www.steynonline.com/7441/the-math-and-the-map
----------------
A great video:
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-shuk-gallery/
Here's a funny one:
https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153534833916939/?fref=nf
----------
I've written about the old sefer torah in my shul's building before. It was taken down again last Thursday, and they posted photos from the last time:
--------------
A number of years back, my family spent a Pesach in Israel, staying at a place across the street from the Erlau yeshiva in Kataman (or the Greek Colony, whatever it is). My father would daven there; at one point a cousin joined us and he did as well.
Erlau is a somewhat unique group- although named after a city in Hungary, they were essentially created in Jerusalem in the 1950's. While they look and act somewhat like chassidim, they are headed by a descendant of the decidedly non-chassidic Chatam Sofer. They are officially a part of the Agudah but tend to avoid political entanglements. (When Sharon came to the rebbe to get his support for the Disengagement, I'm sure with some, ahem, arguments metallic or otherwise, as Sherlock Holmes would put it, the rebbe refused to see him.)
My father, like pretty much every Jew in Israel (and myself, of course), including the Erlau, does not put on tefillin on Chol HaMoed. The aforesaid cousin, who comes from my mother's side of the family, follows the somewhat more halakhically grounded but very rare practice of wearing tefillin then. When he came into the yeshiva, they politely asked him to daven in the (otherwise empty) women's section if he was going to wear tefillin. This is, by the way, specifically mandated in the classical sources as a way of preventing open divisions in a beit knesset. It might be a bit less pressing in these days, but some still insist on it.
My father came in and noticed that the rebbe was not there. He asked some of the chassidim where he was. "Oh, the rebbe," they answered, "He puts on tefillin and so we make him daven in the women's section." Now *that's* a rebbe.
The rebbe passed away last week, at the age of 93. תנצב"ה.
------------
Wow, this is harsh, but hard to argue with.
(Of course, one could challenge Powers'- and Smith's- ideas and ideals, but by her own standards...yuck.)
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/197727/the-ambassador-from-hell
---------------------
"I am Boutros Boutrous-Ghali. Put down your gun, and listen to Bob Marley."
R.I.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5P9J1wCgNM
----------------
I'm on the email list of one of Israel's leading, ahem, "human rights" organizations. It comes with the territory and I comfort myself by thinking that my inbox is probably one of the very few that gets both their posts as well as the Kahanists'. Often job postings for their ideological kin are sent out by them.
Alliance 90/The Greens is a far-left (and major) party in Germany. Its very name indicates that fabled "red/green alliance" that makes us conservatives so wary of both, but that's another story.
Today the aforesaid Israeli organization sent out a job posting on behalf of an "independent foundation affiliated" with that party. They're looking to hire a nearly full time, paid Office Manager, who will work with the (presumably full time, also paid) Director and supervise their interns out of their "Tel Aviv Office."
The question that came to my mind, of course (after confirming that, as I am not fluent in German, I shouldn't bother applying), was, "What is a German political party doing maintaining an office with a paid staff in Israel?" I know that both the American Republicans and Democrats have branches here, but they are run by volunteers out of their own offices and homes and exist mostly to raise political activity and garner support for candidates among American Israelis, while appealing to the occasional visiting politician and issuing occasional statements. I'm pretty sure they get little to no funding from the American parties, certainly nothing on this scale. And there are very, very few Israelis who vote in German elections, certainly not enough to interest the fourth-largest party in Germany.
Oh, and why are they in bed with a local Israeli organization?
I know the answers. But it's good to remind people of these things.
--------------------
All of us were walking back from gan together today when a chassidish man coming from the opposite direction stopped us- he'd just noticed a man lying on the ground, his head under a car. There was a lot of blood. I told him to call 101; apparently not from this area, he asked me where we were and then called:
"I'm at the corner of...Ben Maimon and Arlozorov. There's a man on the ground; his head is under a car. He's bleeding...no, I don't know him...about fifty or sixty?...yes, I think he's conscious...Sir, please don't move!...Ben Maimon, on the corner of Arlozorov."
Pause.
"Yerushalayim Ir HaKoydesh!"
It's a scary way to find this out, but I hope you'll be generally reassured to learn that about ten first responders, on scooters, on foot, and in private cars, were on the scene within a few minutes. Sure that he was in good hands- far better than ours, for sure- we headed home. Refuah shelema.
-----------------
[February 12] Happy birthday to Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest humans who ever lived. Here is Leo Tolstoy's beautiful story about the fame and character of Lincoln.
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Tolstoy_on_Lincoln.pdf
------------------
[February 11] Happy birthday, George Washington!
"Yerushalayim Ir HaKoydesh!"
It's a scary way to find this out, but I hope you'll be generally reassured to learn that about ten first responders, on scooters, on foot, and in private cars, were on the scene within a few minutes. Sure that he was in good hands- far better than ours, for sure- we headed home. Refuah shelema.
-----------------
[February 12] Happy birthday to Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest humans who ever lived. Here is Leo Tolstoy's beautiful story about the fame and character of Lincoln.
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Tolstoy_on_Lincoln.pdf
------------------
[February 11] Happy birthday, George Washington!
Yes, the sources will tell you his birthday was February 22. But he was so cool, he was born eleven days old. :-)
---------------------
Just deleted Apple programs (iTunes etc.) from my computer. It occurs to
me that I may never use my iPod or camera again. The world changes...
------------------
I realize that I am basing this observation on a public opinion poll,
which are always, everywhere, very bare-bones, and in any event I don't
always count on any masses (qua masses, I stress) to be sophisticated
of thought. But I live in Israel, so I apply my observations to it, and
in any event I do believe the issue is more acute here:
There seems to be a serious lack of nuance in the opinions of both the public (again, qua public) and officialdom in the State of Israel. Today's paper reports the following poll results:
57% of (Jewish) respondents think the Balad Knesset members should be tossed out.
35% think they should be charged with a crime.
8% think they were acting within their rights and jobs.
(For the record, there is that magic under-ten-percent of actual leftists in Israel, and the lovely over 90% who at least aren't completely bonkers.)
Well, to me, that's kind of a black of white poll. I suppose if asked, and given *only* those possibilities, I'd answer "yes" to the first option, especially bearing in mind that I know how it'd be reported.
But do you want to know my honest opinion? Let them stay. Let them do any blamed thing they want. Let Zoabi keep on being Zoabi. (And let her cousin, God bless him, keeping on being himself.) Here's why:
1. As I've said here before, I don't approve of any "crimes" that are not actual, well, crimes, the type that are easy to define and result in actual harm. This includes "hate," "racism," "incitement," "terror," or anything but very well-defined (i.e., as in the United States Constitution) "treason." That's my philosophy, and they're all too easy to abuse anyway.
2. As the supporter of a group not allowed to run for Knesset, I know all too well how this redounds on your own head. I'd get rid of the whole stupid and contradictory clause in the election law about "Jewish and Democratic State." We all know who, and only who, they had in mind anyway. And immunity laws exist for a reason. Democracy is messy. Deal with it.
3. Ban Balad, and we can all fool ourselves into fantasies about "good Arabs." Hadash, Ra'am, Ta'al, I suppose, or some "moderate" faction that will arise in their place. I don't want fantasies. If the Arabs of Israel want to be haters (and want to shoot themselves in the foot to boot) and want to elect Zoabi, well, that just clarifies matters. I like clarity. Deal with it.
You want nuance? This is all coming from someone who doesn't approve of the idea of Arabs sitting in, or voting for, the Knesset, period. Anyone who can remember 1994 should know exactly why. And yet here I am saying that lovelies like Zahalka and Ghattas should remain. I am large, I contain multitudes. Opinion polls, and many people, sadly, do not.
--------------
Sometimes you look up a bio on Wikipedia and feel dirty just reading it. This is even, perhaps especially, true of those clearly written either by obsessed fans and/or PR people that say absolutely nothing negative, as many of the worst are. I looked up Max Blumenthal's bio after reading this piece and got that sensation again.
Then again, the name is *perfect*, although he was born a bit early for that self-conscious Brooklyn hipster Yiddish culture thing.
(Not mentioned in this piece is that the "mitzvah" reference came in response to Blumenthal Jr. blaming Benghazi on the Jooooooz.)
Mind you, I don't think Hillary Clinton is a Jew-hater, not as such. I think she's a robot.
http://observer.com/2016/02/hillarys-email-trail-of-troubling-anti-israel-conversations/
-------------------
Today I went to the Knesset to take a civil service exam. I don't think I've ever written that much Hebrew in one shot in my life. Dear Knesset people: Please bear in mind not only that one's IQ drops by about thirty points when speaking a foreign language and even more when writing one, but that my penmanship is godawful when in English, and even worse in Hebrew.
Anyway: The Knesset looks deceptively small from the outside, but it is *huge* inside. (Lots of sub-level wings and so on. It's like a building-sized TARDIS.) And complicated. And they make it even more complicated. (This has happened to me before: For some reason, Knesset guides never tell you to take one short flight of stairs right next to you, but for some reason think it's better for you to go all the way across the building, take an elevator one flight down, and walk all the way back. Bizarre. Maybe it's a security thing.) So I entered with another guy who was taking an exam (another one) as well, we ask directions, and before you know it, we're lost. Then we pick up a third guy lost on his way to *his* exam and ask directions again, only to get even more lost. We all look at each other and, on cue, all say the same exact words at the same exact moment: "This *has* to be part of the test." And then we all crack up.
Fortunately, I found my room on time. I hope they did as well, but for all I know the two of them are still wandering through the bowels of Israel's parliament building.
I like taking advantage of the Knesset's cafeteria whenever I visit. It's good food, mucho subsidized, and besides you never know which famous politician you'll find yourself at the salad bar with. But after this test (three and half hours of writing, no break), I chanced on the exit, figured I didn't want to push my luck, and got out of there. Happy 50th birthday, Knesset building!
--------------
Sure, people defriend people they disagree with all the time. (I just unfollow them.) But you'd think university professors would be able to handle a little criticism.
Actually, if you've been following trends in academia, you'd realize they're probably those least able to.
--------------
Phun Phact: The Iowa Caucuses are, ultimately, the reason why American Coca-Cola (except on Passover) is inferior to the variety found in Israel and most other places. This fact is related to the ethanol subsidies so jealously guarded by Iowa politicians, which are essentially corn subsidies, which are connected to the United States' ridiculous sugar tariffs, which...
Now that Cruz has shown these sacred cows to be paper tigers, perhaps their ill effects- which are hardly limited to the taste of Coke, but have vast health and economic repercussions- will begin to subside. One can hope.
There seems to be a serious lack of nuance in the opinions of both the public (again, qua public) and officialdom in the State of Israel. Today's paper reports the following poll results:
57% of (Jewish) respondents think the Balad Knesset members should be tossed out.
35% think they should be charged with a crime.
8% think they were acting within their rights and jobs.
(For the record, there is that magic under-ten-percent of actual leftists in Israel, and the lovely over 90% who at least aren't completely bonkers.)
Well, to me, that's kind of a black of white poll. I suppose if asked, and given *only* those possibilities, I'd answer "yes" to the first option, especially bearing in mind that I know how it'd be reported.
But do you want to know my honest opinion? Let them stay. Let them do any blamed thing they want. Let Zoabi keep on being Zoabi. (And let her cousin, God bless him, keeping on being himself.) Here's why:
1. As I've said here before, I don't approve of any "crimes" that are not actual, well, crimes, the type that are easy to define and result in actual harm. This includes "hate," "racism," "incitement," "terror," or anything but very well-defined (i.e., as in the United States Constitution) "treason." That's my philosophy, and they're all too easy to abuse anyway.
2. As the supporter of a group not allowed to run for Knesset, I know all too well how this redounds on your own head. I'd get rid of the whole stupid and contradictory clause in the election law about "Jewish and Democratic State." We all know who, and only who, they had in mind anyway. And immunity laws exist for a reason. Democracy is messy. Deal with it.
3. Ban Balad, and we can all fool ourselves into fantasies about "good Arabs." Hadash, Ra'am, Ta'al, I suppose, or some "moderate" faction that will arise in their place. I don't want fantasies. If the Arabs of Israel want to be haters (and want to shoot themselves in the foot to boot) and want to elect Zoabi, well, that just clarifies matters. I like clarity. Deal with it.
You want nuance? This is all coming from someone who doesn't approve of the idea of Arabs sitting in, or voting for, the Knesset, period. Anyone who can remember 1994 should know exactly why. And yet here I am saying that lovelies like Zahalka and Ghattas should remain. I am large, I contain multitudes. Opinion polls, and many people, sadly, do not.
--------------
Sometimes you look up a bio on Wikipedia and feel dirty just reading it. This is even, perhaps especially, true of those clearly written either by obsessed fans and/or PR people that say absolutely nothing negative, as many of the worst are. I looked up Max Blumenthal's bio after reading this piece and got that sensation again.
Then again, the name is *perfect*, although he was born a bit early for that self-conscious Brooklyn hipster Yiddish culture thing.
(Not mentioned in this piece is that the "mitzvah" reference came in response to Blumenthal Jr. blaming Benghazi on the Jooooooz.)
Mind you, I don't think Hillary Clinton is a Jew-hater, not as such. I think she's a robot.
http://observer.com/2016/02/hillarys-email-trail-of-troubling-anti-israel-conversations/
-------------------
Today I went to the Knesset to take a civil service exam. I don't think I've ever written that much Hebrew in one shot in my life. Dear Knesset people: Please bear in mind not only that one's IQ drops by about thirty points when speaking a foreign language and even more when writing one, but that my penmanship is godawful when in English, and even worse in Hebrew.
Anyway: The Knesset looks deceptively small from the outside, but it is *huge* inside. (Lots of sub-level wings and so on. It's like a building-sized TARDIS.) And complicated. And they make it even more complicated. (This has happened to me before: For some reason, Knesset guides never tell you to take one short flight of stairs right next to you, but for some reason think it's better for you to go all the way across the building, take an elevator one flight down, and walk all the way back. Bizarre. Maybe it's a security thing.) So I entered with another guy who was taking an exam (another one) as well, we ask directions, and before you know it, we're lost. Then we pick up a third guy lost on his way to *his* exam and ask directions again, only to get even more lost. We all look at each other and, on cue, all say the same exact words at the same exact moment: "This *has* to be part of the test." And then we all crack up.
Fortunately, I found my room on time. I hope they did as well, but for all I know the two of them are still wandering through the bowels of Israel's parliament building.
I like taking advantage of the Knesset's cafeteria whenever I visit. It's good food, mucho subsidized, and besides you never know which famous politician you'll find yourself at the salad bar with. But after this test (three and half hours of writing, no break), I chanced on the exit, figured I didn't want to push my luck, and got out of there. Happy 50th birthday, Knesset building!
--------------
Sure, people defriend people they disagree with all the time. (I just unfollow them.) But you'd think university professors would be able to handle a little criticism.
Actually, if you've been following trends in academia, you'd realize they're probably those least able to.
--------------
Phun Phact: The Iowa Caucuses are, ultimately, the reason why American Coca-Cola (except on Passover) is inferior to the variety found in Israel and most other places. This fact is related to the ethanol subsidies so jealously guarded by Iowa politicians, which are essentially corn subsidies, which are connected to the United States' ridiculous sugar tariffs, which...
Now that Cruz has shown these sacred cows to be paper tigers, perhaps their ill effects- which are hardly limited to the taste of Coke, but have vast health and economic repercussions- will begin to subside. One can hope.
I just hope it doesn't affect aliyah. :-)
-----------------
So both the front page and a full column of today's Yisrael HaYom inform us that the "real winner" in Iowa was...Marco Rubio. (Hint: Whenever the phrase "real winner" is used, you know the subject wasn't.) Well, at least we now know who Sheldon Adelson prefers, not that it's any surprise considering his number-one priority. (Hint: Adelson owns casinos.)
It goes without saying, of course, that the Adelsons have donated the legal limit to Cruz as well, because, you know, rich people. It does put me in mind of the final strip in Doonesbury's "Ambassadorial Auction" sequence from 1989 ("No bid! Rwanda goes to a *career* diplomat!"), to which I link below.
I imagine they would have given the limit to Trump, too, had he needed it. But he doesn't, which only proves the silliness of Sanders' supporters saying that "He can't be bought!" blah blah blah. Well, neither can Trump. So? Sometimes that's good (as in Jerusalem), sometimes not. Fortunately, Trump's money is proving not to be the only factor in the race.
http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1989/08/26
-------------------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWl6TLvlFEk
----------------
Well, the city is plastered with signs from the Hartman Institute advertising their upcoming conference on their (and, separately, their late founder's) vision of Arabs and Jews living peacefully in Israel.
I have a single great idea that I'd to share with them at their conference- it's based on something someone once told me in the name of Eliezer Berkovits. My idea is simple: They stop trying to kill us. Voila, peace. But I doubt the attendees of such a conference would be willing to hear such a radical, out-of-the-box, and ultimately moral idea. Ah well.
I'm reminded of the time Meir Kahane once attended such a conference. One Arab speaker got up and started going on and on about peaceful coexistence. Finally, Kahane had enough. He stood up and said, "Look, we don't want you here, and you don't want us here. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, can we have an honest discussion?"
The Arab gave him a hug.
Speaking of which, the billboards have also been plastered (a little less legally) with signs calling for the release of Kahane's grandson from his, ahem, detention. "A law-abiding state doesn't hold people without charges," the signs say. Well, that makes one big assumption right there.
------------------
This is all the more true on a day when all of Great and Good of the State- including many who belong to a party whose name was once literally "Freedom", and at least one who comes from a country *with* a First Amendment- see nothing wrong in condemning the free speech of private citizens. "Incitement," doncha know. My goodness, the First Congress knew what it was doing.
http://www.jewishisrael.org/the-deep-freeze-of-liberty-by-moshe-feiglin/
---------------
"Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him."
"He understands that."
"Tom, can you get me off the hook? For old times' sake?"
"Can't do it, Sally."
It only now occurs to me now that Vigoda was only ten years older than I am now when he filmed this. Duvall was exactly my age.
R.I.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d30Y0n1nDH4
So both the front page and a full column of today's Yisrael HaYom inform us that the "real winner" in Iowa was...Marco Rubio. (Hint: Whenever the phrase "real winner" is used, you know the subject wasn't.) Well, at least we now know who Sheldon Adelson prefers, not that it's any surprise considering his number-one priority. (Hint: Adelson owns casinos.)
It goes without saying, of course, that the Adelsons have donated the legal limit to Cruz as well, because, you know, rich people. It does put me in mind of the final strip in Doonesbury's "Ambassadorial Auction" sequence from 1989 ("No bid! Rwanda goes to a *career* diplomat!"), to which I link below.
I imagine they would have given the limit to Trump, too, had he needed it. But he doesn't, which only proves the silliness of Sanders' supporters saying that "He can't be bought!" blah blah blah. Well, neither can Trump. So? Sometimes that's good (as in Jerusalem), sometimes not. Fortunately, Trump's money is proving not to be the only factor in the race.
http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1989/08/26
-------------------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWl6TLvlFEk
----------------
Well, the city is plastered with signs from the Hartman Institute advertising their upcoming conference on their (and, separately, their late founder's) vision of Arabs and Jews living peacefully in Israel.
I have a single great idea that I'd to share with them at their conference- it's based on something someone once told me in the name of Eliezer Berkovits. My idea is simple: They stop trying to kill us. Voila, peace. But I doubt the attendees of such a conference would be willing to hear such a radical, out-of-the-box, and ultimately moral idea. Ah well.
I'm reminded of the time Meir Kahane once attended such a conference. One Arab speaker got up and started going on and on about peaceful coexistence. Finally, Kahane had enough. He stood up and said, "Look, we don't want you here, and you don't want us here. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, can we have an honest discussion?"
The Arab gave him a hug.
Speaking of which, the billboards have also been plastered (a little less legally) with signs calling for the release of Kahane's grandson from his, ahem, detention. "A law-abiding state doesn't hold people without charges," the signs say. Well, that makes one big assumption right there.
------------------
This is all the more true on a day when all of Great and Good of the State- including many who belong to a party whose name was once literally "Freedom", and at least one who comes from a country *with* a First Amendment- see nothing wrong in condemning the free speech of private citizens. "Incitement," doncha know. My goodness, the First Congress knew what it was doing.
http://www.jewishisrael.org/the-deep-freeze-of-liberty-by-moshe-feiglin/
---------------
"Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him."
"He understands that."
"Tom, can you get me off the hook? For old times' sake?"
"Can't do it, Sally."
It only now occurs to me now that Vigoda was only ten years older than I am now when he filmed this. Duvall was exactly my age.
R.I.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d30Y0n1nDH4
Sunday, January 31, 2016
A Good Month
Various Facebook posts from the last month, newest first:
--------------------------
"Has the fafafel guy next door shut down? I ask our "spice guy" in the shuq this morning. "Just wondering."
"Oh, him?" he answers. "Nah, he's just late today. Probably was up last night saying Tikkun Hatzot for Shovavim. You know how it is."
He pauses for a beat, and then we both crack up amid Shabbat Shalom wishes.
--------------------------
"Has the fafafel guy next door shut down? I ask our "spice guy" in the shuq this morning. "Just wondering."
"Oh, him?" he answers. "Nah, he's just late today. Probably was up last night saying Tikkun Hatzot for Shovavim. You know how it is."
He pauses for a beat, and then we both crack up amid Shabbat Shalom wishes.
----------------------------
In Shirat Devorah, which we read as this week's haftarah, she goes through a list of who did and who didn't help her in the battle. The list of shevatim is interesting in and of itself, but after them she goes further, talking about how the very "stars" fought on her side. And then she quotes an angel, saying, "Cursed is Meroz and cursed are its inhabitants, for they did not come to help Hashem."
There are a few interpretations of what exactly Meroz was- a town, maybe, or a star as well- the "inhabitants" in that case being its planets. But then there's a really interesting one: Meroz is not a star but a planet, and its "inhabitants" would thus be...the first and perhaps only mention of extraterrestrials in Tanach.
-----------------
Sometimes it hits you. I was working on an Israeli legal document today and noticed that one of the filings listed thereon (yes, that's how lawyers talk) had been registered a few years back on January 1st. Yes, this country is open for business on January 1st. We have our own holidays, thank you very much. So happy I live here.
---------------
Confirmation of things I sort of knew already, part whatever:
A week or so ago there was a report of an ISIS court executing a woman who'd fought back against a rapist- from their group, of course, because that's what ISIS is all about. The comment made was that this puts the lie to Islamists' claim that they're all about protecting the "modesty" and "honor" of women, as if we didn't know that already.
The corner of Keren Kayement and Ussishkin is where relatively moderate Rechavia bumps up against relatively extreme Shaarei Hesed. The lad's gan is on the other side, so I pass it every morning. There's one of the municipal billboards there, with all the usual ads for events, lectures, concerts, etc. Every now and then, when there's a picture of a woman (even just a face, even the face of a religious woman with not a hair showing), it gets vandalized- the faces are torn off. I guess picayune actual rules about damaging other people's property aren't as important as what's "right."
Efrat informs me that David Margulies, who played the mayor in both Ghostbusters movies, has passed away. He seems to have been a well-regarded hardworking actor of the "Hey! It's That Guy!" school. (You know, as in "Hey, it's that guy who was in...!") Also an MOT, of course. RIP.
His one scene in the first Ghostbusters (you know it, you love it: the one with "Dogs and cats living together!" as its climax) is a masterpiece of cinema. But that scene also encapsulates a theme that runs throughout the movie that is often ignored: The success of private enterprise conducted by ordinary shnooks as opposed to- and sometimes in opposition to- governmental bureaucratic incompetence, and, in extreme cases, the wisdom of local government as opposed to the heavy handedness of an overreaching federal behemoth (in this case the EPA). A fine conservative film.
In Shirat Devorah, which we read as this week's haftarah, she goes through a list of who did and who didn't help her in the battle. The list of shevatim is interesting in and of itself, but after them she goes further, talking about how the very "stars" fought on her side. And then she quotes an angel, saying, "Cursed is Meroz and cursed are its inhabitants, for they did not come to help Hashem."
There are a few interpretations of what exactly Meroz was- a town, maybe, or a star as well- the "inhabitants" in that case being its planets. But then there's a really interesting one: Meroz is not a star but a planet, and its "inhabitants" would thus be...the first and perhaps only mention of extraterrestrials in Tanach.
-----------------
Sometimes it hits you. I was working on an Israeli legal document today and noticed that one of the filings listed thereon (yes, that's how lawyers talk) had been registered a few years back on January 1st. Yes, this country is open for business on January 1st. We have our own holidays, thank you very much. So happy I live here.
---------------
Confirmation of things I sort of knew already, part whatever:
A week or so ago there was a report of an ISIS court executing a woman who'd fought back against a rapist- from their group, of course, because that's what ISIS is all about. The comment made was that this puts the lie to Islamists' claim that they're all about protecting the "modesty" and "honor" of women, as if we didn't know that already.
The corner of Keren Kayement and Ussishkin is where relatively moderate Rechavia bumps up against relatively extreme Shaarei Hesed. The lad's gan is on the other side, so I pass it every morning. There's one of the municipal billboards there, with all the usual ads for events, lectures, concerts, etc. Every now and then, when there's a picture of a woman (even just a face, even the face of a religious woman with not a hair showing), it gets vandalized- the faces are torn off. I guess picayune actual rules about damaging other people's property aren't as important as what's "right."
For the
last few days, the billboards have been advertising some new Hebrew
play. I have no idea what the plot is about, but the poster shows some
old dude front and center, with two other people in the background. One
seems to be, ahem, a stereotypical practitioner of the world's oldest
profession. Very short skirt, among other things.
Well, this morning, surprise surprise, the poster on the aforesaid corner was vandalized. But in an interesting way: The woman's head was gone. The legs...still very much present.
Yeah, it's supposedly all about "women's honor" and "tzniut" and "kol kevuda" and whatever. And, of course, protecting the eyes of the delicate bochrim. But really? I'm convinced that for many, it's just a lot of misogyny. Not to compare with our lovely neighbors to the north, of course, but the undercurrent is still there.
-----------------Well, this morning, surprise surprise, the poster on the aforesaid corner was vandalized. But in an interesting way: The woman's head was gone. The legs...still very much present.
Yeah, it's supposedly all about "women's honor" and "tzniut" and "kol kevuda" and whatever. And, of course, protecting the eyes of the delicate bochrim. But really? I'm convinced that for many, it's just a lot of misogyny. Not to compare with our lovely neighbors to the north, of course, but the undercurrent is still there.
Efrat informs me that David Margulies, who played the mayor in both Ghostbusters movies, has passed away. He seems to have been a well-regarded hardworking actor of the "Hey! It's That Guy!" school. (You know, as in "Hey, it's that guy who was in...!") Also an MOT, of course. RIP.
His one scene in the first Ghostbusters (you know it, you love it: the one with "Dogs and cats living together!" as its climax) is a masterpiece of cinema. But that scene also encapsulates a theme that runs throughout the movie that is often ignored: The success of private enterprise conducted by ordinary shnooks as opposed to- and sometimes in opposition to- governmental bureaucratic incompetence, and, in extreme cases, the wisdom of local government as opposed to the heavy handedness of an overreaching federal behemoth (in this case the EPA). A fine conservative film.
Anyway,
talk of a fictional New York mayor reminds me that I recently dug this
bit off the internet. I remember seeing it when it first aired. It made
the headlines of all the New York papers the next day, and was one of
the first of a whole host of hilarious appearances by Giuliani (a man
not known for his sense of humor) on Letterman and other New York shows.
(SNL, etc.) Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCOsTSJ4NWA
-----------------
The newspaper tells us that England is considering making "Jerusalem" its national anthem. (It does strike my eye that this is being debated in the UK parliament, England not having one of its own. I also recall reading that the role was already filled by "Land of Hope and Glory," a.k.a. "Pomp and Circumstance," but apparently that's not official. And as Norman Davies pointed out, the word "land" in that song is completely generic.)
Well, it's a nice song, on a religious theme, and mentions my hometown, so it's all cool. I only now notice that its message somewhat echoes that of much of diaspora Orthodox Judaism, explicitly Chabad but more subtly pretty much everyone else. But that's being snide, so I apologize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ali3c7FaQGU
--------------------
This entire incident is sordid, right up to the One himself praising the Iran deal in his SOTU the very day this happened. Biden and Kerry are buffoons, of course, but you'd find their faces under the word "buffoon" in the dictionary, so what do you expect.
But what really grates is that, on this as on the previous occasion, the female captive (!) was forced into hijab. I guess I shouldn't expect more when Hillary and Merkel and all sorts of infobabes dress up like that when they meet the Supreme Leader, but...I can't help remembering that there's a famous British poem, "The Private of the Buffs," exalting the ordinary soldier who, refusing to kowtow to his Chinese captors, was executed. The world was different.
http://www.steynonline.com/7420/the-humiliation
------------------
A gunman shot up a nightclub in Calgary- Calgary!- Saturday night. He and an accomplice were caught. A third is still on the loose.
If I told you it took a Calgary newspaper TWENTY FIVE PARAGRAPHS to mention their names, could you guess them without even looking?
---------------
B'Tselem must think we're really stupid. With their fire revealed to have been an electrical fault, they declared that they're "breathing easier" and will now work on cleaning up.
Do they really think we've already forgotten that less than twelve hours earlier they were obviously *desperate* to prove it had been arson, and clearly were *hoping* it was?
No, wait: They think we're even *stupider*. In a Facebook post responding to this Uvdah revelation, in which they are implicated, they actually stated that one of their members who reports Arabs who sell land to Jews to the PA authorities is taking the "only legitimate course of action". Unless I'm wildly misreading their use of the word "legitimate" (or it does not mean what they think it means), that's an incredible statement. Even if I *am* misreading, the best you can say is that they're somehow excusing without condemning, which is still awful.
------------------
People have actually been thinking "Trump for President" for just under thirty years. I still remember the Doonesbury strips from 1987. Here's my favorite:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153900604598385&set=a.10150294956228385.381855.554163384&type=3
-----------------------
One of my favorite TV series of all time is "Monk". There was a good episode in which the title character- the "obsessive compulsive detective"- is unable to concentrate on the case he's supposed to be solving because San Francisco is suffering from a garbage strike, and the trash in the streets is simply too annoying to him.
The police find a hilarious solution by getting him to a chip manufacturing clean room in Silicon Valley, and of course everything turns out to be connected. He solves the crime, the strike is accordingly called off, and as soon as the trucks start rolling, he and his assistant are on the sidewalk, cheering on the sanitation workers and offering advice.
Finally, we put on "Iolanthe" as 2015 turned into 2016. Here's a cast photo and a video of the Act I finale. In both, I'm on the far left.
https://www.facebook.com/avi.abelow/videos/10153062041177242/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCOsTSJ4NWA
-----------------
The newspaper tells us that England is considering making "Jerusalem" its national anthem. (It does strike my eye that this is being debated in the UK parliament, England not having one of its own. I also recall reading that the role was already filled by "Land of Hope and Glory," a.k.a. "Pomp and Circumstance," but apparently that's not official. And as Norman Davies pointed out, the word "land" in that song is completely generic.)
Well, it's a nice song, on a religious theme, and mentions my hometown, so it's all cool. I only now notice that its message somewhat echoes that of much of diaspora Orthodox Judaism, explicitly Chabad but more subtly pretty much everyone else. But that's being snide, so I apologize.
But one cannot have a geeky side, as I do, without "Jerusalem" bringing
up certain...other associations. Like a department store sales staff
standing in a tea chest while singing the song to one of their
colleagues, who has a paper bag over his head. And other references from
the Python boys. And since I'm a Trekkie above all, I am of course
reminded of Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir, drunk as skunks, bellowing it
horribly off-key. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ali3c7FaQGU
--------------------
This entire incident is sordid, right up to the One himself praising the Iran deal in his SOTU the very day this happened. Biden and Kerry are buffoons, of course, but you'd find their faces under the word "buffoon" in the dictionary, so what do you expect.
But what really grates is that, on this as on the previous occasion, the female captive (!) was forced into hijab. I guess I shouldn't expect more when Hillary and Merkel and all sorts of infobabes dress up like that when they meet the Supreme Leader, but...I can't help remembering that there's a famous British poem, "The Private of the Buffs," exalting the ordinary soldier who, refusing to kowtow to his Chinese captors, was executed. The world was different.
http://www.steynonline.com/7420/the-humiliation
------------------
A gunman shot up a nightclub in Calgary- Calgary!- Saturday night. He and an accomplice were caught. A third is still on the loose.
If I told you it took a Calgary newspaper TWENTY FIVE PARAGRAPHS to mention their names, could you guess them without even looking?
---------------
B'Tselem must think we're really stupid. With their fire revealed to have been an electrical fault, they declared that they're "breathing easier" and will now work on cleaning up.
Do they really think we've already forgotten that less than twelve hours earlier they were obviously *desperate* to prove it had been arson, and clearly were *hoping* it was?
No, wait: They think we're even *stupider*. In a Facebook post responding to this Uvdah revelation, in which they are implicated, they actually stated that one of their members who reports Arabs who sell land to Jews to the PA authorities is taking the "only legitimate course of action". Unless I'm wildly misreading their use of the word "legitimate" (or it does not mean what they think it means), that's an incredible statement. Even if I *am* misreading, the best you can say is that they're somehow excusing without condemning, which is still awful.
The place they think we're stupid comes in the very next sentence, in
the very same paragraph: "Obviously, B'Tselem is opposed to torture and
executions." Obviously.* But let's not let that distract us from the
simple fact that they most certainly condoned, or at least excused, such
things one sentence earlier.
Let's be honest: 99.99% of Israelis (or even anti-Israel types) had never heard of Ezra Nawi or Taayush before this weekend. But B'Tselem...they're big. And they just exposed themselves for a bunch of murderous hypocrites.
*(That word always reminds of Jonathan Silver, one of my professors in law school, who said that as soon as you use a word ending in "-ly"- clearly, certainly, obviously- you've lost the argument.)
-------------------
Our building's plumber was a guy named Ezra. He had a coworker named Samir. (Jew and Arab, respectively.) Ezra then retired and passed the business on to Samir and Ezra's nephew.
A while back, Efrat asked Samir how Ezra's retirement was going. He answered, "Oh, he's into Jewish-Arab coexistence and all that BS." We thought that was hilarious.
Over the last few hours Facebook and the Israeli media and political world has been buzzing about a report on Uvdah last night that exposed left-wing activists and organizations for being radical and extreme. One name kept popping up and I Googled it out of curiosity. As soon as I saw "Ezra" and "plumber" I yelled for Efrat. Sure enough, it's him. My God, he's got a crazy bio.This was our plumber, ladies and gents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_NawiLet's be honest: 99.99% of Israelis (or even anti-Israel types) had never heard of Ezra Nawi or Taayush before this weekend. But B'Tselem...they're big. And they just exposed themselves for a bunch of murderous hypocrites.
*(That word always reminds of Jonathan Silver, one of my professors in law school, who said that as soon as you use a word ending in "-ly"- clearly, certainly, obviously- you've lost the argument.)
-------------------
Our building's plumber was a guy named Ezra. He had a coworker named Samir. (Jew and Arab, respectively.) Ezra then retired and passed the business on to Samir and Ezra's nephew.
A while back, Efrat asked Samir how Ezra's retirement was going. He answered, "Oh, he's into Jewish-Arab coexistence and all that BS." We thought that was hilarious.
Over the last few hours Facebook and the Israeli media and political world has been buzzing about a report on Uvdah last night that exposed left-wing activists and organizations for being radical and extreme. One name kept popping up and I Googled it out of curiosity. As soon as I saw "Ezra" and "plumber" I yelled for Efrat. Sure enough, it's him. My God, he's got a crazy bio.This was our plumber, ladies and gents:
------------------
People have actually been thinking "Trump for President" for just under thirty years. I still remember the Doonesbury strips from 1987. Here's my favorite:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153900604598385&set=a.10150294956228385.381855.554163384&type=3
-----------------------
One of my favorite TV series of all time is "Monk". There was a good episode in which the title character- the "obsessive compulsive detective"- is unable to concentrate on the case he's supposed to be solving because San Francisco is suffering from a garbage strike, and the trash in the streets is simply too annoying to him.
The police find a hilarious solution by getting him to a chip manufacturing clean room in Silicon Valley, and of course everything turns out to be connected. He solves the crime, the strike is accordingly called off, and as soon as the trucks start rolling, he and his assistant are on the sidewalk, cheering on the sanitation workers and offering advice.
When the garbage trucks woke me up at 5:45 AM after a week's absence, I
did not run outside to celebrate. It's too cold and I'm not *that* OCD.
I said "yay" and rolled over. Yay.
--------------------Finally, we put on "Iolanthe" as 2015 turned into 2016. Here's a cast photo and a video of the Act I finale. In both, I'm on the far left.
https://www.facebook.com/avi.abelow/videos/10153062041177242/
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Another Great Rebbe
I have been blessed with many great rebbeim, and other teachers, over the years.
This morning, probably inspired by the rain, someone in shul asked if
they've started saying ותן טל ומטר in חו"ל yet. Turns out the rain
didn't wait for them this year, as they begin the night of December 4.
Then I remembered that tomorrow night is a Friday, so they actually
begin Saturday night. Then I remembered that next year is a leap year,
so they would have begun December 5 anyway. It's all very confusing,
not to mention quite inaccurate. I prefer the Israeli schedule.
That reminded me of my eleventh grade rebbe in MTA, R' Isaac Suna, זצ"ל.
We were having a hard time understanding all this- I suppose this would
have been twenty-four years ago exactly, also the eve of a leap year-
so the two of us went into the library, pulled down the Encyclopaedia
Judaica and other books, sat down, and hashed out the whole astronomical
calculation. He was quite the teacher, in many different ways.
At the end of the school year, he gave me an inscribed copy of his book, on the perush of a Rishon on Nedarim, published by Mossad HaRav Kook. One day I shall tackle it...
Monday, November 30, 2015
Wow! First time I missed a month! So I'm cheating and back-dating this one. Here are some Facebook posts from the past month or so you may find interesting:
--------------------
So Kerry is "cautiously optimistic" (of course; diplomats always are) as
he brings Netanyahu's "proposals" to Abbas and Abdullah.
Now, I can't speak for Netanyahu, who I generally like but who can do some very silly things sometimes*, but the rationalist in me wonders what on earth such "proposals" can be. I'm reminded of something I was once told about R' Eliezer Berkovitz. Asked about theological dialogue after the Holocaust, he said, "How's this for dialogue? 'Stop killing our children, thank you very much.'"
*Although if the news means what it implies, it seems as if Netanyahu's "proposals" are basically Berkovitz': "Stop killing us, thank you very much." If that's the case, maybe Kerry shouldn't be so "optimistic."
Now, I can't speak for Netanyahu, who I generally like but who can do some very silly things sometimes*, but the rationalist in me wonders what on earth such "proposals" can be. I'm reminded of something I was once told about R' Eliezer Berkovitz. Asked about theological dialogue after the Holocaust, he said, "How's this for dialogue? 'Stop killing our children, thank you very much.'"
*Although if the news means what it implies, it seems as if Netanyahu's "proposals" are basically Berkovitz': "Stop killing us, thank you very much." If that's the case, maybe Kerry shouldn't be so "optimistic."
---------------
Hannibal Lecter asked Clarice Starling if the lambs have stopped screaming.
One wonders if the odious John Kerry believes that by suppressing
Jewish rights and blaming Jews for their own deaths, he will keep all
those murdered Kohn relations- and, even more importantly, the little
Kohn inside him- from screaming.
Ah, who'm I kidding- the man has
probably never had an introspective moment in his life. Whether that's
better or worse than being a self-hating quasi-Jew I don't know.
Is that a bit harsh? Well, too bad, because the newspaper really ticked me
off this morning. OK, I'll try to be nicer to
the Prime Minister:
Oh, Bibi. Oh, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi. Remember how the other day I said you sometimes do silly things? Well, caving in to anti-Semitic demands and, at the same time, rewarding terror are two such examples of silly things. I can't quite decide whether making John Kerry happy is sillier than those, but it ranks up there.
(Since, of course, Netanyahu has explicitly called for exactly the opposite in the past, we must wonder at what stage he is a liar and/or a craven politician- before he takes office, or during his term.)
(By the way, the definition of "chutzpah" is Kerry's own State Department criticizing Israel for not allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. You know what? Keep your honey, and keep your gall.)
--------------------------
Oh, Bibi. Oh, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi. Remember how the other day I said you sometimes do silly things? Well, caving in to anti-Semitic demands and, at the same time, rewarding terror are two such examples of silly things. I can't quite decide whether making John Kerry happy is sillier than those, but it ranks up there.
(Since, of course, Netanyahu has explicitly called for exactly the opposite in the past, we must wonder at what stage he is a liar and/or a craven politician- before he takes office, or during his term.)
(By the way, the definition of "chutzpah" is Kerry's own State Department criticizing Israel for not allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. You know what? Keep your honey, and keep your gall.)
--------------------------
More imaginary "What if ordinary people got to talk frankly to
important people without all the diplomatic niceties" conversations:
"King Abdullah, you like to present yourself to the world as a
pleasant, nice kind of Arab monarch. We could almost be fooled into
thinking you are civilized. You even appeared on Star Trek once. So let
me ask you: For some bizarre reason, Israel has decided to let you, an
illegitimate usurper of Palestinian national rights, and on what is
legally Israeli territory, in fact,
control Judaism's holiest site. With that in mind, why are Jews
constantly harassed and forbidden to pray at that site by people
literally employed by you?"
"Oh, and before you open your mouth, let me assure you that the only
acceptable answers other than, 'I'm terribly sorry, I'll put an end to
that,' are 'I have a gun pointed to my head by the majority of my
population, who are rabid anti-Semites,' or 'I am a rabid anti-Semite
myself.' Thank you."
Here's another one:
"Rabbi Tau, the chardali leaders who hold in your thrall made a lot of hay in the 1990's playing on people's fears of Oslo, claiming- lying, in fact- that they were the only true right-wingers who would oppose such things. So why would you lead this effort- I assume you led it, because whenever you're not front and center on something we can safely assume you're pulling the strings- to cave in to Arab demands about the Har HaBayit?"
"Again, the only acceptable answers are 'I am really a charedi and actually can't stand any of my supposed supporters,' or 'My entire life and movement have been almost solely motivated by animus against R' Stav and everything related to him.' Thank you."
(I think one reason Tzohar, Beit Hillel, et. al. really get their goat is that they stay away from politics and have lots of right-wing members. That keeps them from the fate of, say, Meimad, which we're assured, not very honestly, stood for more than Oslo.)
That's all for now! In nicer news, if you listen closely, you can hear the trees and other plants saying shira.
--------------------
Here's another one:
"Rabbi Tau, the chardali leaders who hold in your thrall made a lot of hay in the 1990's playing on people's fears of Oslo, claiming- lying, in fact- that they were the only true right-wingers who would oppose such things. So why would you lead this effort- I assume you led it, because whenever you're not front and center on something we can safely assume you're pulling the strings- to cave in to Arab demands about the Har HaBayit?"
"Again, the only acceptable answers are 'I am really a charedi and actually can't stand any of my supposed supporters,' or 'My entire life and movement have been almost solely motivated by animus against R' Stav and everything related to him.' Thank you."
(I think one reason Tzohar, Beit Hillel, et. al. really get their goat is that they stay away from politics and have lots of right-wing members. That keeps them from the fate of, say, Meimad, which we're assured, not very honestly, stood for more than Oslo.)
That's all for now! In nicer news, if you listen closely, you can hear the trees and other plants saying shira.
--------------------
I always find it a bit jarring that the very last line of the Yom
Kippur Avoda- the culmination of all the highest-level tefillot you can
imagine- is something as seemingly prosaic as "ועל אנשי השרון היה אומר:
יהי רצון מלפניך ה' אלוהינו ואלוהי אבותינו, שלא יעשו בתיהן קבריהן"
I think I only came to appreciate it today, when (unbeknownst to us in
Jerusalem) those risks became- as they seem to have become for thousands
of years- all too real. There's the obvious point that at the
very moment we're praying for rain and expecting it to start within
weeks, we, and the kohen gadol, need to emphasize that they should be
גשמי ברכה, without flooding or building collapses.
But more than that, there's a certain poetry in the idea that we can go
from the sublime to the (again, seemingly) mundane like that. That our
prayers are not only about the "big" things like war and peace, but also
have concern for the everyday person, living "far" from the Temple,
whose life and livelihood are at risk from the rains. May we all be
protected.
----------------
Some notes on Israel:
-Yesterday, the mother of a murdered
terror victim was making her statement before the Supreme Court
regarding house demolitions and said some angry but not really offensive
words. She was cut off by the Chief Justice herself (or Herself, I
suppose I should say) and told that "Even bereaved mothers should have
limits."
Wow. Being thin-skinned certainly seems in vogue among
our elites, worldwide, doesn't it? I don't think actual monarchs would
actually do something like that.
Notice to Miriam Naor and all her ilk: If you're the type of person who
can't take the occasional insult or hear things that make you
uncomfortable, well, perhaps you shouldn't have elevated yourself into a
position of power over us proles. Welcome to the real world.
-The newspaper reported that the Knesset cafeteria has been moving silverware from public access for fear of stabbings. Considering the level of Knesset security (you can't enter the building unless you have a good reason), that sounds either bizarre or really troubling. But it does remind me that "סכו"ם" is my favorite Hebrew word ever.
-I saw the new Field Intelligence berets for the first time yesterday. As I expected, although they're officially tan, they look a lot more like yellow to me, which makes sense considering that berets and unit flags often match, and their flag is yellow and white. It got me thinking that the IDF has pretty much covered the entire spectrum now, and then some- there are fifteen colors total, including a few shades each of blue and green, black, grey, and even sort of white.
-----------------------
-The newspaper reported that the Knesset cafeteria has been moving silverware from public access for fear of stabbings. Considering the level of Knesset security (you can't enter the building unless you have a good reason), that sounds either bizarre or really troubling. But it does remind me that "סכו"ם" is my favorite Hebrew word ever.
-I saw the new Field Intelligence berets for the first time yesterday. As I expected, although they're officially tan, they look a lot more like yellow to me, which makes sense considering that berets and unit flags often match, and their flag is yellow and white. It got me thinking that the IDF has pretty much covered the entire spectrum now, and then some- there are fifteen colors total, including a few shades each of blue and green, black, grey, and even sort of white.
-----------------------
A number of years ago, I attended a shiur of Professor Shnayer
Leiman. He read a story that had recently appeared in a number of
charedi sources- a newspaper, a book by Ruchama Shain, etc.- always with
a few variations. He then read the original, which was a short story
by Agnon. (At the end, R' Leiman added a very interesting take on the
whole thing. Details can follow if wanted.) At some point, some charedi
writer had passed it along and it got mistaken for fact.
As often happens
when R' Leiman does something like this, there were protests from the
audience. "Well, um, maybe Agnon was reporting something that had
actually happened." "No," came the reply. "He wrote fiction."
This came to mind again when I picked up this week's "Ish Le-re'ehu," a
charedi-ish parsha sheet produced and distributed locally. Right there
on the front page was a story about a tzadik who gave away his etrog to
preserve shalom bayit. It was familiar to me, because a translation of the story into English was published on the internet only a few weeks
ago. It was, of course, a short story by none other than Agnon. My, he's
the gift that keeps on giving. (Just this morning I noted sadly to
myself that you don't see the old fifty shekel bill with his face any
more.)
(By the way, some of the details of the Hebrew version are a bit "frummer" in a disturbing way. Knowing the text of the original it was lifted from makes that more disturbing.)
-----------------
Yesterday was R' Meir Kahane's twenty-fifth yahrtzeit. I am sad to report than unlike last year, the signs legally posted around south Jerusalem were torn down.
The only time I heard him speak was at the Young Israel of Hillcrest back in November of 1989. It was the days of the First Intifada, and he delivered some, shall we say, clarifying thoughts. The audience, properly, ate it up. Toward the end, he spoke, as he often did (and wrote) about the importance of aliyah.
Some neighbors gave us and others a ride home. In the car, they were all pumped. "Oh, he tells it like it is!" and the like. One of kids then asked, "What was that at the end about moving to Israel?" and his parent waved it off with, "Oh, that's his usual mishegas."
(By the way, some of the details of the Hebrew version are a bit "frummer" in a disturbing way. Knowing the text of the original it was lifted from makes that more disturbing.)
-----------------
Yesterday was R' Meir Kahane's twenty-fifth yahrtzeit. I am sad to report than unlike last year, the signs legally posted around south Jerusalem were torn down.
The only time I heard him speak was at the Young Israel of Hillcrest back in November of 1989. It was the days of the First Intifada, and he delivered some, shall we say, clarifying thoughts. The audience, properly, ate it up. Toward the end, he spoke, as he often did (and wrote) about the importance of aliyah.
Some neighbors gave us and others a ride home. In the car, they were all pumped. "Oh, he tells it like it is!" and the like. One of kids then asked, "What was that at the end about moving to Israel?" and his parent waved it off with, "Oh, that's his usual mishegas."
I was young, but they say the young have better phoniness detectors than others, and I detected it right there.
As I later read his writings, I discovered that this was an acknowledged lack of tact on R' Kahane's part. As he put it, he valued truth more than success, and so pushed issues (notably for his early days, support of the Vietnam War) that he could have left unmentioned or unstressed, even if it turned off potential followers. And my, did he promote aliyah. Wrote a whole book about it, in fact. I imagine he realized what effect it had.
Or did it? Right after his murder, Yoram Hazony, no Kahanist he, wrote a eulogy in the Jerusalem Post in which he pointed out (based on personal experience) that while he might have no attracted huge numbers of actual followers, the influence R' Kahane had was vast, in bringing people- who may not have agreed with his more famous and controversial opinions- to Jewish practice, to caring and working for the Jewish people, and to making aliyah. Maybe that was an influence on me. (Although, being, unlike Hazony, a good fanatic, I long ago learned not to disagree with anything R' Kahane said.)
Knowing R' Kahane, he was probably happier with that fact. It brings to mind the positive attitude of Shlomo Carlebach (yahrtzeit also last week, also an admirer-not-follower of R' Kahane) toward those who he had brought so closer to Judaism that they had stopped speaking to him.
------------------
A bit late, but I have a random thought: As much as they may disapprove of the "settlements," and may, in some cases, actually harbor real animosity toward "settlers" and/or religious types and think they are the root of all the violence, I can not recall a left-wing Israeli ever once saying something like "Why are there attacks in Tel Aviv? We're not settlers!" That should tell you a lot about who feels they're part of society and who doesn't.
(The same seems to hold true of the small number of right-wingers who think secularism is the spiritual cause of the violence, or the larger number who think leftism is a direct cause of it. They may think it's the cause, but you never hear "So why are we being attacked?" from them.)
As I later read his writings, I discovered that this was an acknowledged lack of tact on R' Kahane's part. As he put it, he valued truth more than success, and so pushed issues (notably for his early days, support of the Vietnam War) that he could have left unmentioned or unstressed, even if it turned off potential followers. And my, did he promote aliyah. Wrote a whole book about it, in fact. I imagine he realized what effect it had.
Or did it? Right after his murder, Yoram Hazony, no Kahanist he, wrote a eulogy in the Jerusalem Post in which he pointed out (based on personal experience) that while he might have no attracted huge numbers of actual followers, the influence R' Kahane had was vast, in bringing people- who may not have agreed with his more famous and controversial opinions- to Jewish practice, to caring and working for the Jewish people, and to making aliyah. Maybe that was an influence on me. (Although, being, unlike Hazony, a good fanatic, I long ago learned not to disagree with anything R' Kahane said.)
Knowing R' Kahane, he was probably happier with that fact. It brings to mind the positive attitude of Shlomo Carlebach (yahrtzeit also last week, also an admirer-not-follower of R' Kahane) toward those who he had brought so closer to Judaism that they had stopped speaking to him.
------------------
A bit late, but I have a random thought: As much as they may disapprove of the "settlements," and may, in some cases, actually harbor real animosity toward "settlers" and/or religious types and think they are the root of all the violence, I can not recall a left-wing Israeli ever once saying something like "Why are there attacks in Tel Aviv? We're not settlers!" That should tell you a lot about who feels they're part of society and who doesn't.
(The same seems to hold true of the small number of right-wingers who think secularism is the spiritual cause of the violence, or the larger number who think leftism is a direct cause of it. They may think it's the cause, but you never hear "So why are we being attacked?" from them.)
(Michael Moore did say something like this after 9/11, but he's stupid and has no class, and is not an Israeli.)
On a completely different topic, am I the only one who is a bit uncomfortable with the idea of an eight year old whose parents were murdered almost in front of him being made into the star attraction at a mass convention? Can't it wait until he's eighteen, or sixteen, or at least bar mitzvah?
------------------
So Moshe Halbertal was heckled and disrupted while giving a speech at the University of Minnesota. Halbertal is about as far from a far right-winger as you can imagine, but, you know, "Zionism" and all, and we can't expect careful thinking from anti-Semites in general, and these A-rabs and their leftist fellow travelers in specific.
Meir Kahane was once heckled (with "Allahu Akbar," imagine the Upper Midwest being a hotbed of Islamism as early as 1990) at a speech at the very same university. He stepped out from behind the podium, waded into the scrum of screamers, and physically pushed them off the stage. Now there was a man. Israeli academics should take a lesson. Rough these coddled millennials up a bit and maybe they'll get shaken out of some delusions.
On a completely different topic, am I the only one who is a bit uncomfortable with the idea of an eight year old whose parents were murdered almost in front of him being made into the star attraction at a mass convention? Can't it wait until he's eighteen, or sixteen, or at least bar mitzvah?
------------------
So Moshe Halbertal was heckled and disrupted while giving a speech at the University of Minnesota. Halbertal is about as far from a far right-winger as you can imagine, but, you know, "Zionism" and all, and we can't expect careful thinking from anti-Semites in general, and these A-rabs and their leftist fellow travelers in specific.
Meir Kahane was once heckled (with "Allahu Akbar," imagine the Upper Midwest being a hotbed of Islamism as early as 1990) at a speech at the very same university. He stepped out from behind the podium, waded into the scrum of screamers, and physically pushed them off the stage. Now there was a man. Israeli academics should take a lesson. Rough these coddled millennials up a bit and maybe they'll get shaken out of some delusions.
(Two weeks later, someone brought a gun, and that was that. Chaval.)
You can find the whole speech on Youtube, but here's the relevant part. Alas, the video cuts out for a second at the crucial moment.
-------------------
I love finding two seemingly unrelated news stories and tying them together.
The EU is moving ahead with their plan to label products from Yesha. It goes without saying that the EU will not do this for Catalonia, the Basque Country, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Gibraltar, Western Sahara, Ceuta, Tibet, Goa, eastern Ukraine, Crimea, western Poland, Kurdistan, etc. etc., but, you know, Jews.
Ayelet Shaked is pushing forward with her plan for transparency in international funding of NGOs, which is actually a very sensible and internationally accepted idea. The usual suspects (obviously including the Israel-haters at J Street) are howling, and most affected will likely be the EU, which underwrites a whole lot of the anti-Israel crowd, because, you know, Jews.
You can find the whole speech on Youtube, but here's the relevant part. Alas, the video cuts out for a second at the crucial moment.
-------------------
I love finding two seemingly unrelated news stories and tying them together.
The EU is moving ahead with their plan to label products from Yesha. It goes without saying that the EU will not do this for Catalonia, the Basque Country, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Gibraltar, Western Sahara, Ceuta, Tibet, Goa, eastern Ukraine, Crimea, western Poland, Kurdistan, etc. etc., but, you know, Jews.
Ayelet Shaked is pushing forward with her plan for transparency in international funding of NGOs, which is actually a very sensible and internationally accepted idea. The usual suspects (obviously including the Israel-haters at J Street) are howling, and most affected will likely be the EU, which underwrites a whole lot of the anti-Israel crowd, because, you know, Jews.
Depends whose ox is being gored, I guess.
----------------------
Sometimes I think Bibi appoints people to official positions just to...well, maybe not shut them up, but to keep them quieter.
Bibi: If I promise to stop being such a fanatic on Facebook, will you give me a ministry? Even a small one?
----------------------
Imagine conversations if statesmen could really speak their minds (or, better, if I had a chance to talk to them), part whatever:
"Secretary Kerry: You're over seventy years old, for God's sake. The President is a bit younger, but still theoretically a middle-aged man. Now, we all know- we have for years- that both of you are prone to acting like little children, especially when you don't get your way. But at least you can try to act like adults. I thought we were taught that bit about 'sticks and stones' in kindergarten. And if you're going to act like a Southerner when it comes to 'honor,' at least go the whole hog, slap someone in the face with a glove, and challenge them to a duel or something. I thought it was the Asians and Arabs who had all those hangups about 'saving face,' and we know we're that's gotten them. Again, grow up.
----------------------
Sometimes I think Bibi appoints people to official positions just to...well, maybe not shut them up, but to keep them quieter.
Bibi: If I promise to stop being such a fanatic on Facebook, will you give me a ministry? Even a small one?
----------------------
Imagine conversations if statesmen could really speak their minds (or, better, if I had a chance to talk to them), part whatever:
"Secretary Kerry: You're over seventy years old, for God's sake. The President is a bit younger, but still theoretically a middle-aged man. Now, we all know- we have for years- that both of you are prone to acting like little children, especially when you don't get your way. But at least you can try to act like adults. I thought we were taught that bit about 'sticks and stones' in kindergarten. And if you're going to act like a Southerner when it comes to 'honor,' at least go the whole hog, slap someone in the face with a glove, and challenge them to a duel or something. I thought it was the Asians and Arabs who had all those hangups about 'saving face,' and we know we're that's gotten them. Again, grow up.
"Oh, and
Israel is a- say it with me- sovereign state. We've never told you who
should be Undersecretary of State for General Moneywasting or whatever.
"Bibi: See the last paragraph above and grow a spine. They're never going to like you, and you give them this and you'll find them b****ing about Hotovely or Danon or Bennett next."
-----------------------
Woke up this morning to discover that every mailbox in the building (and, I assume, the neighborhood) had been stuffed with Hebrew-language literature from the local branch of the Seventh Day Adventists. ("Shomrei Shabbat," they call themselves here.) There was quite the variety- some got a shrink-wrapped set of about fifteen booklets, some got different paperback books, and the va'ad bayit box actually got a hardcover. I perused it a bit and will take it to the recycling bin tomorrow, not that the effort isn't appreciated. When I hit the part about how the universe was too created in exactly seven days and only heretics would say otherwise, it got a bit too fundamentalist for me. :-)
"Bibi: See the last paragraph above and grow a spine. They're never going to like you, and you give them this and you'll find them b****ing about Hotovely or Danon or Bennett next."
-----------------------
Woke up this morning to discover that every mailbox in the building (and, I assume, the neighborhood) had been stuffed with Hebrew-language literature from the local branch of the Seventh Day Adventists. ("Shomrei Shabbat," they call themselves here.) There was quite the variety- some got a shrink-wrapped set of about fifteen booklets, some got different paperback books, and the va'ad bayit box actually got a hardcover. I perused it a bit and will take it to the recycling bin tomorrow, not that the effort isn't appreciated. When I hit the part about how the universe was too created in exactly seven days and only heretics would say otherwise, it got a bit too fundamentalist for me. :-)
Two very different things occurred to me only later:
1. This is probably illegal under Israeli law.
2. Distributing this- or even having it distributed- on Saturday itself is probably not a very good way of advertising how seriously you take the Sabbath.
---------------------
I love this line:
'כדי לא למכור את הארץ פעם בשבע שנים לגוי, מכרו אותה לעשר שנים לעם הארץ'
------------------
Veteran's Day deserves a World War I story:
"At this point lieutenant Paul Jurgen Vollmer yelled out over the noise asking if [Alvin] York was English. See, in WWI, no one really took the Americans very seriously, and everyone thought of them as the rookies. Vollmer figured this crazy/awesome/ballsy soldier must be some kind of English superman who was showing these sissy Americans how it was done. When York said he was American, Vollmer replied 'Good Lord! If you won't shoot any more I will make them give up.'
1. This is probably illegal under Israeli law.
2. Distributing this- or even having it distributed- on Saturday itself is probably not a very good way of advertising how seriously you take the Sabbath.
---------------------
I love this line:
'כדי לא למכור את הארץ פעם בשבע שנים לגוי, מכרו אותה לעשר שנים לעם הארץ'
------------------
Veteran's Day deserves a World War I story:
"At this point lieutenant Paul Jurgen Vollmer yelled out over the noise asking if [Alvin] York was English. See, in WWI, no one really took the Americans very seriously, and everyone thought of them as the rookies. Vollmer figured this crazy/awesome/ballsy soldier must be some kind of English superman who was showing these sissy Americans how it was done. When York said he was American, Vollmer replied 'Good Lord! If you won't shoot any more I will make them give up.'
"Ten minutes later, 133 men came walking towards the remains of York's
battalion. Lieutenant Woods, York's superior, at first thought it was a
German counter-attack until he saw York, who saluted and said 'Corporal
York reports with prisoners, sir.' When the stunned officer asked how
many, York replied 'Honest, Lieutenant, I don't know.'
"...And York's the one who was a pacifist."
----------------
Back in the 1980's, Israel issued some coins with a tiny hanukiyyah and the word "Hanukka" on them- I have no idea if this was only done on the holiday, and can't imagine why they did it. I used to see them every now and then, but haven't for a while- I think they discontinued the practice about twenty-five years ago.
Just today, I got change- actually for exchanging bottles, appropriately enough- that included a 10 agora coin from 1990 with the Hanukkah imprint. Isn't that a nice gift for Rosh Chodesh Kislev? Chodesh tov, all.
--------------
I imagine you have to do something- go to a certain school, have a certain background, I don't know- in order to pull something like this off. I wish I knew what it was.
-------------
I suppose saying "I told you so" is generally in bad taste. But I remember annoying my teammates when, in a series of debates about immigration over twenty years ago, I insisted on beginning by pointing out how legal immigration in the form of refugee requests has put the West at risk for terrorism. (I was basing myself on the first WTC bombing which had just taken place. Their annoyance disappeared when I won the debates.) Ah, plus ca change...
One of those debates, by the way, was against the woman I'd eventually marry. :-)
"...And York's the one who was a pacifist."
----------------
Back in the 1980's, Israel issued some coins with a tiny hanukiyyah and the word "Hanukka" on them- I have no idea if this was only done on the holiday, and can't imagine why they did it. I used to see them every now and then, but haven't for a while- I think they discontinued the practice about twenty-five years ago.
Just today, I got change- actually for exchanging bottles, appropriately enough- that included a 10 agora coin from 1990 with the Hanukkah imprint. Isn't that a nice gift for Rosh Chodesh Kislev? Chodesh tov, all.
--------------
I imagine you have to do something- go to a certain school, have a certain background, I don't know- in order to pull something like this off. I wish I knew what it was.
-------------
I suppose saying "I told you so" is generally in bad taste. But I remember annoying my teammates when, in a series of debates about immigration over twenty years ago, I insisted on beginning by pointing out how legal immigration in the form of refugee requests has put the West at risk for terrorism. (I was basing myself on the first WTC bombing which had just taken place. Their annoyance disappeared when I won the debates.) Ah, plus ca change...
One of those debates, by the way, was against the woman I'd eventually marry. :-)
-------------
On Elementary as on all TV mystery shows the guilty party is never
the first (or second, or even sometimes the third) suspect. But when
said first suspect is Red China, you just know there's no way they'll
be guilty. Hollywood will never tick off a market of a billion people.
In fact, it's why you see more and more Chinese people in big action
movies; it is in fact why you see so many more action movies (no need to
translate).
And, of course, one of the official representatives of the PRC will get to throw an unanswered sarcastic remark about the US in there somewhere.
------------------------
There were two stories in Friday's paper that caught my eye. One made me scream and one made me roll my eyes:
- Nir Barkat is very angry at Moshe Kahlon, who apparently is refusing to meet with him about Jerusalem's budget. (Interestingly, Kahlon's brother until recently sat on the City Council as part of Barkat's party.) So Kahlon responded- get a load of this- that he's met with Zeev Elkin, who's "Minister for Jerusalem Affairs," a pointless position that was supposed to have gone to Barkat anyway. Great.
- Aryeh Deri is very openly trying to bribe Eli Yishai back into Shas, thus far unsuccessfully. Deri's brazenness is amazing: "I'm offering him good money!" he declares. "Why won't he come back to the true path?" I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad.
--------------------
A couple of points about Paris:
- Rolling Stone Magazine exists, it seems, to stroke the egos of aging 60's rock and roll fans. They were all delighted to report that someone set up a piano outside the venue in Paris and played "Imagine."
I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of the comments made the obvious point that that is a stupid and dangerous song. Perhaps there's hope.
And, of course, one of the official representatives of the PRC will get to throw an unanswered sarcastic remark about the US in there somewhere.
------------------------
There were two stories in Friday's paper that caught my eye. One made me scream and one made me roll my eyes:
- Nir Barkat is very angry at Moshe Kahlon, who apparently is refusing to meet with him about Jerusalem's budget. (Interestingly, Kahlon's brother until recently sat on the City Council as part of Barkat's party.) So Kahlon responded- get a load of this- that he's met with Zeev Elkin, who's "Minister for Jerusalem Affairs," a pointless position that was supposed to have gone to Barkat anyway. Great.
- Aryeh Deri is very openly trying to bribe Eli Yishai back into Shas, thus far unsuccessfully. Deri's brazenness is amazing: "I'm offering him good money!" he declares. "Why won't he come back to the true path?" I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad.
--------------------
A couple of points about Paris:
- Rolling Stone Magazine exists, it seems, to stroke the egos of aging 60's rock and roll fans. They were all delighted to report that someone set up a piano outside the venue in Paris and played "Imagine."
I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of the comments made the obvious point that that is a stupid and dangerous song. Perhaps there's hope.
- The exporters of products from the "occupied territories" should
seize the opportunity. I imagine the hard-core anti-Israel types who
would boycott them (and who probably boycott Israel, period) are not as
numerous as the ordinary Europeans who are fed up with all this coddling
nonsense. Write "WEST BANK" in big letters and see if it helps, why
not.
----------------------
Around when I first started my blog, a friend (actually the same friend who actually started my blog, long story) told me I was like "Buddha with a sword." I eventually renamed the blog that, but it was only much later that I entered those words into Google and discovered that Buddha-with-a-sword is actually a real thing. Oh, sure, the sword is supposed to symbolize wisdom or something, but it still looks totally bad***. It's called Manjushri, and here's some of many examples you'll find out there. (One is sitting on a lion.) If anyone ever finds one in a flea market, pick it up for me.
----------------------
Around when I first started my blog, a friend (actually the same friend who actually started my blog, long story) told me I was like "Buddha with a sword." I eventually renamed the blog that, but it was only much later that I entered those words into Google and discovered that Buddha-with-a-sword is actually a real thing. Oh, sure, the sword is supposed to symbolize wisdom or something, but it still looks totally bad***. It's called Manjushri, and here's some of many examples you'll find out there. (One is sitting on a lion.) If anyone ever finds one in a flea market, pick it up for me.
(By the way, "fat Buddha" is actually found only in some cultures.
Buddha is generally skinny, as you'd expect of someone who spent a lot
of time meditating- "contemplatin' his ever-diminishin' navel," as some
British comedian once put it. In some versions, he's practically
skeletal.)
---------------
My Mom spent a semester in Israel just under sixty years ago and took a bunch of home movies that we still have. One of them was taken in the courtyard of the then President's Residence, nowadays Yad Ben Tzvi but back then occupied by Yitzhak Ben Tzvi himself. (That's the guy on the hundred-shekel bill, for now.) I especially remember that she focused on the State coat of arms as part of the film.
Yesterday we were taking the lad home and passed that very spot. I turned my head to see that same coat of arms, still mounted on the same wall. I've seen it before, but for some reason it hit me yesterday. It was a moment.
-----------------------
Just noticed that Jimmy McMillan is running for president, in the Republican primaries. All is well.
-----------------
The aspect of this whole (latest) Hazan contretemps that is most interesting to me is this: The original insult/"accusation" that he lobbed at Elharar was exactly the same thing that got his father thrown out of the Knesset. (In that case, it was really egregious, and of course Elharar was completely innocent.)
I put "accusation" in quotes on the off chance that Hazan is somehow obsessed with clearing his father's name and throws the charge around as a way to show that everyone does it or something. (Again, completely falsely.) But I don't give this boor that much credit. Probably it's just a family stain that he can't get off his mind and it pops out of his mouth every now and then, to the extent that he'll even mock someone's physical disability to say it. Like I said, a boor.
---------------
My Mom spent a semester in Israel just under sixty years ago and took a bunch of home movies that we still have. One of them was taken in the courtyard of the then President's Residence, nowadays Yad Ben Tzvi but back then occupied by Yitzhak Ben Tzvi himself. (That's the guy on the hundred-shekel bill, for now.) I especially remember that she focused on the State coat of arms as part of the film.
Yesterday we were taking the lad home and passed that very spot. I turned my head to see that same coat of arms, still mounted on the same wall. I've seen it before, but for some reason it hit me yesterday. It was a moment.
-----------------------
Just noticed that Jimmy McMillan is running for president, in the Republican primaries. All is well.
-----------------
The aspect of this whole (latest) Hazan contretemps that is most interesting to me is this: The original insult/"accusation" that he lobbed at Elharar was exactly the same thing that got his father thrown out of the Knesset. (In that case, it was really egregious, and of course Elharar was completely innocent.)
I put "accusation" in quotes on the off chance that Hazan is somehow obsessed with clearing his father's name and throws the charge around as a way to show that everyone does it or something. (Again, completely falsely.) But I don't give this boor that much credit. Probably it's just a family stain that he can't get off his mind and it pops out of his mouth every now and then, to the extent that he'll even mock someone's physical disability to say it. Like I said, a boor.
I
suppose one more irony is that he probably wouldn't be in the Knesset
now if his father hadn't preceded him. You'd think there'd be at least
120 decent, deserving people in a country of eight million...
-------------------
To all New Yorkers, present or former: Happy Evacuation Day! Yup, that's the great New York City holiday that got nudged aside by Thanksgiving.
(Evacuation Day is also a holiday in Boston, but in March.)
And if you think that a holiday limited to one city is a bit extreme, when I was growing up, we actually had a holiday limited to only two boroughs of that city, Brooklyn-Queens Day. And then the kids in the other boroughs whined that it wasn't fair that they had one more day of school than we did, and so they gave everyone off. (I remember the Anti-Defamation League wasn't too happy about Brooklyn-Queens Day either, but they can't be happy about anything.) Another tradition bit the dust. Well, at least we can read about and celebrate them both as we wish.
---------------------
So apparently, while I wasn't paying attention, National Geographic went and essentially* sold itself to Fox.
(*Magazines, TV, books, internet, etc.- all their media stuff. But that's a lot.)
It seems there are a bunch of lefties in the expect lather about this. I wonder if they actually read the magazine. I subscribed for twenty-five years and think it might be a great thing.
----------------------
Today's paper raises the claim that Israel is offering all sorts of goodies to the PA (the "government," such as it is, and the people) to stop the terror. (Obviously, attacks will "have to" continue for a few more months, because that's the way of the world.) Leaving aside that blackmail is not ever the way to conduct business, not by individuals and not by allegedly strong countries, there are some other troubling implications here:
1. The PA is admitting that it controls all this, in which case they should get diddly squat and be violently shut down.
-------------------
To all New Yorkers, present or former: Happy Evacuation Day! Yup, that's the great New York City holiday that got nudged aside by Thanksgiving.
(Evacuation Day is also a holiday in Boston, but in March.)
And if you think that a holiday limited to one city is a bit extreme, when I was growing up, we actually had a holiday limited to only two boroughs of that city, Brooklyn-Queens Day. And then the kids in the other boroughs whined that it wasn't fair that they had one more day of school than we did, and so they gave everyone off. (I remember the Anti-Defamation League wasn't too happy about Brooklyn-Queens Day either, but they can't be happy about anything.) Another tradition bit the dust. Well, at least we can read about and celebrate them both as we wish.
---------------------
So apparently, while I wasn't paying attention, National Geographic went and essentially* sold itself to Fox.
(*Magazines, TV, books, internet, etc.- all their media stuff. But that's a lot.)
It seems there are a bunch of lefties in the expect lather about this. I wonder if they actually read the magazine. I subscribed for twenty-five years and think it might be a great thing.
----------------------
Today's paper raises the claim that Israel is offering all sorts of goodies to the PA (the "government," such as it is, and the people) to stop the terror. (Obviously, attacks will "have to" continue for a few more months, because that's the way of the world.) Leaving aside that blackmail is not ever the way to conduct business, not by individuals and not by allegedly strong countries, there are some other troubling implications here:
1. The PA is admitting that it controls all this, in which case they should get diddly squat and be violently shut down.
2. They are lying, in which case ditto ditto.
Returning to the blackmail point, this also indicates that (again, if the PA is not lying) that there is a real cause behind all this, in which a creative mind should be able to figure out some way to address it without caving. There are creative minds in positions of importance, no? Or are they all too busy planning how to get into politics more quickly when their current position ends? (You know who I'm thinking of here.)
(However, in contrast to all of the above, see this. Which negates all the above, but is disturbing in another way, in that there seem to be important people who think this is all reasonable and can be used as a pressure point.
----------------
We visited the new exhibitions at the Israel Museum today. I especially like the one on designers of Hebrew fonts in the early days of the State. The Albrecht Durer exhibit was also quite impressive- I hadn't known that the Museum owned the works it does. There was also a very good exhibit of Man Ray's works, which of course put me in mind of this clip, one of the best parts of a great movie. (It took a Youtube comment for me to get the angle that this is Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody- think what they have in common- discussing a rhinoceros.) They had one of Man Ray's chess sets on display, as I was hoping they would.
--------------------
Israel's attitude toward race-I won't call it "racism," because it really isn't- can be a bit off-putting to an American, and maybe even refreshing in the face of too much tiptoeing on the other side of the ocean. (And maybe not.)
Eliezer Marom is the immediate past commanding officer of the Israeli Navy. He was born in Israel; three of his grandparents were ethnically Jewish but his mother's father was Chinese, and it shows on his face. He's in the news today for unfortunate reasons. Now, I know there's a real thing in Israel about using Army and other nicknames throughout a person's life, which is how we get Bibi and Buzhi and Bogie and Gandhi and Fuad and so on. But I really don't think that an American newspaper would keep using Marom's nickname, which basically translates as "Chinaman," the way the papers do to this day. I mean, the headline on the first page literally begins, "Son of Admiral (reserves) Chinaman..." and you don't get to his real name until deep into the article itself.
Returning to the blackmail point, this also indicates that (again, if the PA is not lying) that there is a real cause behind all this, in which a creative mind should be able to figure out some way to address it without caving. There are creative minds in positions of importance, no? Or are they all too busy planning how to get into politics more quickly when their current position ends? (You know who I'm thinking of here.)
(However, in contrast to all of the above, see this. Which negates all the above, but is disturbing in another way, in that there seem to be important people who think this is all reasonable and can be used as a pressure point.
----------------
We visited the new exhibitions at the Israel Museum today. I especially like the one on designers of Hebrew fonts in the early days of the State. The Albrecht Durer exhibit was also quite impressive- I hadn't known that the Museum owned the works it does. There was also a very good exhibit of Man Ray's works, which of course put me in mind of this clip, one of the best parts of a great movie. (It took a Youtube comment for me to get the angle that this is Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody- think what they have in common- discussing a rhinoceros.) They had one of Man Ray's chess sets on display, as I was hoping they would.
--------------------
Israel's attitude toward race-I won't call it "racism," because it really isn't- can be a bit off-putting to an American, and maybe even refreshing in the face of too much tiptoeing on the other side of the ocean. (And maybe not.)
Eliezer Marom is the immediate past commanding officer of the Israeli Navy. He was born in Israel; three of his grandparents were ethnically Jewish but his mother's father was Chinese, and it shows on his face. He's in the news today for unfortunate reasons. Now, I know there's a real thing in Israel about using Army and other nicknames throughout a person's life, which is how we get Bibi and Buzhi and Bogie and Gandhi and Fuad and so on. But I really don't think that an American newspaper would keep using Marom's nickname, which basically translates as "Chinaman," the way the papers do to this day. I mean, the headline on the first page literally begins, "Son of Admiral (reserves) Chinaman..." and you don't get to his real name until deep into the article itself.
(English Wikipedia politely tells us that his nickname is "Eli." Click to the Hebrew version.)
-------------------
I don't approve of the YMCA posting invitations to kids for a Christmas tree-decorating party around the city. Call me old-fashioned.
I approve even less, though, of people tearing down those paid for, legally-posted ads. That is all.
In other holiday news: Having suffered through another frankly offensive email about "whether or not it's muttar to celebrate Thanksgiving" (the Rav is "J.B.," wouldn't you know), it occurs to me that the same exact agonizing is visible, I assume among the same exact people, every 5th of Iyar. Funny how that works out.
(True story from my father: One Wednesday in November, the Rav announced, "Shiur is early tomorrow, boys. I have to catch a flight back to Boston so we can eat turkey at my sister's house."
As a Purim issue of one of YU's papers put it, "The Rav preferred his stuffing and cranberry sauce on the side. Being a Brisker, the Rav did not approve of sweet potatoes."
As both Efrat and R' Rakeffet point out, being a Brahmin, the Rav took Thanksgiving very seriously.)
-------------------
I don't approve of the YMCA posting invitations to kids for a Christmas tree-decorating party around the city. Call me old-fashioned.
I approve even less, though, of people tearing down those paid for, legally-posted ads. That is all.
In other holiday news: Having suffered through another frankly offensive email about "whether or not it's muttar to celebrate Thanksgiving" (the Rav is "J.B.," wouldn't you know), it occurs to me that the same exact agonizing is visible, I assume among the same exact people, every 5th of Iyar. Funny how that works out.
(True story from my father: One Wednesday in November, the Rav announced, "Shiur is early tomorrow, boys. I have to catch a flight back to Boston so we can eat turkey at my sister's house."
As a Purim issue of one of YU's papers put it, "The Rav preferred his stuffing and cranberry sauce on the side. Being a Brisker, the Rav did not approve of sweet potatoes."
As both Efrat and R' Rakeffet point out, being a Brahmin, the Rav took Thanksgiving very seriously.)
In non-holiday news: Every year I face the question: Is saying
something new in Shemona Esrei a matter of thirty days or thirty days worth? That is, v'tel tal umatar is not said on Shabbat, at Musaf,
etc., so its period might be longer than that of, say, mashiv haruach. I
asked my rebbe once and was told it's a machloket.
Well, one way or another, that period is over today. (That is, we've said v'tel tal umatar as many times as mashiv haruach is said in thirty days.) And they haven't even started saying it in chutz laaretz, thanks to Pope Gregory of all people!
------------------
The Rambam states in a letter that he has made a personal holiday of the anniversary of the day he first went up to the Har HaBayit.
I accordingly marked the anniversary myself, which was the fifteenth of Kislev, 2004. That was last Friday; I hereby mark the anniversary here.
Just in time, a popular Jewish blogger has, once again, as he has numerous times in the last few months, decided to declare that I, and any other Jew who has fulfilled the mitzvah of aliyah l'Har HaBayit, has blood on his hands.
Well, one way or another, that period is over today. (That is, we've said v'tel tal umatar as many times as mashiv haruach is said in thirty days.) And they haven't even started saying it in chutz laaretz, thanks to Pope Gregory of all people!
------------------
The Rambam states in a letter that he has made a personal holiday of the anniversary of the day he first went up to the Har HaBayit.
I accordingly marked the anniversary myself, which was the fifteenth of Kislev, 2004. That was last Friday; I hereby mark the anniversary here.
Just in time, a popular Jewish blogger has, once again, as he has numerous times in the last few months, decided to declare that I, and any other Jew who has fulfilled the mitzvah of aliyah l'Har HaBayit, has blood on his hands.
Well, to quote his fellow Upper Midwesterners, the Norwegian farmers of
Lake Wobegone, tellwiddem. I hope God assists in giving me the
opportunity to go up again soon.
----------
Wow, that's a lot. Happy December!
----------
Wow, that's a lot. Happy December!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
The Passing of a True Rebbe
From my brother comes the sad news that Rabbi Shmuel Klein has passed away. A product of Torah Vodaas and Dropsie College, he taught Gemara at Ramaz' Upper School and was the ba'al koreh at my father's shul in Queens. My parents, believers in out of the classroom education, had my brother and I learn (not at the same period of time) Navi with him every Shabbat afternoon- I learned with him week in, week out for at least seven or eight years, finishing all of Neviim Rishonim and Yishayahu and beginning Yirmiya before high school got too busy. (I finished most the rest of Tanach at YU and on my own, but basing myself on what I'd learned with him.) He was also the Bar Mitzvah teacher for both of us, and encouraged us to keep layning afterward, which we both did. We inherited a somewhat unique style from him- to this day, people will come up to me in Jerusalem after hearing me layn and ask if I have a brother in New Jersey. :-) In both settings, he was a remarkable rebbe from whom we learned so much.
I was actually just thinking of R' Klein a few days ago as we read about the
generations from Noach to Avraham- how he once gently pointed out that
maybe they didn't actually live to such advanced ages, and that something
other than plain p'shat is intended. I remember him saying, "Now, I
realize that some people may be uncomfortable with this view, but it's a
legitimate one."
Another time, when we
got to Chapter 40 of Yishayahu, he said, "I should just point out that a
lot of people say that from this point on, the sefer was written by
someone else. As we learn it, you'll see why they say that." He never
said it was right or wrong, or even mentioned it again- but that one
mention was worth quite a lot. In addition to all I learned from him on the topics we were devoted to, those little notes that were tossed in meant a lot- expand your mind, don't worry if things don't make sense at first, and maybe not every solution out there is as treyf as people say they are- look into them and work them out for yourself.
And to this day, I find myself using his expressions: "Give me a second," I'd say, and he'd smile and answer, "I'll give you two seconds!" Pops out of my mouth all the time.
And to top it all off, he was also a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan- I used to run into him and his wife at performances. (Performances of the same New York company that is no longer putting on The Mikado, because the world has gone mad. Well, we are carrying on with a new production here in Jerusalem, at least.) That says something to a young Orthodox man as well.
And to this day, I find myself using his expressions: "Give me a second," I'd say, and he'd smile and answer, "I'll give you two seconds!" Pops out of my mouth all the time.
And to top it all off, he was also a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan- I used to run into him and his wife at performances. (Performances of the same New York company that is no longer putting on The Mikado, because the world has gone mad. Well, we are carrying on with a new production here in Jerusalem, at least.) That says something to a young Orthodox man as well.
Yihi Zichro Barukh.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Apparently he *did* say these:
My favorite Yogi Berra line: Asked if he thought whether Joe
DiMaggio's marriage to Marilyn Monroe was good for baseball, he
answered, "Well, I don't know if it's good for baseball, but it's gotta
beat the hell out of rooming with Phil Rizzuto."
My Bronx-raised father's favorite Yogi Berra line: Berra was rooming with third baseman Bobby Brown, who was going through medical school at the time. (Fascinating man. Look him up.) One night, Brown was reading a medical textbook in bed and Berra was reading a comic book. Berra leaned over to Brown and said, "I hope yours is as good as mine!" (Different versions exist.)
Interestingly, neither is a Yogi-ism. So, alas, here is one: "It ain't over 'till it's over." And it is.
My Bronx-raised father's favorite Yogi Berra line: Berra was rooming with third baseman Bobby Brown, who was going through medical school at the time. (Fascinating man. Look him up.) One night, Brown was reading a medical textbook in bed and Berra was reading a comic book. Berra leaned over to Brown and said, "I hope yours is as good as mine!" (Different versions exist.)
Interestingly, neither is a Yogi-ism. So, alas, here is one: "It ain't over 'till it's over." And it is.
Monday, August 31, 2015
The Man Who Brought People To Life
Some of Oliver Sacks' stories were almost unbearably sad and
poignant. After all, he treated, among others, the sort of people who
just couldn't have the cliched "happy ending," something which takes
strength in and of itself.
Other stories were amazingly uplifting. And almost impossibly, most if not all of the sad ones were uplifting as well.
Above all, his stories were, to use a word I once saw applied to him, humanizing. He brought the individual out in a way that a dry case study could not.
Other stories were amazingly uplifting. And almost impossibly, most if not all of the sad ones were uplifting as well.
Above all, his stories were, to use a word I once saw applied to him, humanizing. He brought the individual out in a way that a dry case study could not.
And then, as he faced the end of his life, he somehow found the
strength and skill to do all of that with his own story. We are all
enriched. RIP.
Edited to add: The following was the last sentence he ever published. It is beautiful, and beautifully appropriate:
"I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest."
-------------------
The number of protesters outside Bibi's home is multiplying. Now, there are some people in tents protesting Hotza'ah LaPoal and/or Bituach Leumi. (It's hard to tell, and lately their signs haven't gotten mixed together with those of the hunger-striking "Women for Peace." It's a fun block.) They yell at us (alternating in Hebrew and English) for taking the lad out in the sun. (Lest you think we are bad parents, he wears lots of sunscreen, which of course they can't see.) The leader has been laying out in the sun herself for a while. Today, she had a volume of the Zohar with her. Ah, Jerusalem.
Edited to add: The following was the last sentence he ever published. It is beautiful, and beautifully appropriate:
"I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest."
-------------------
The number of protesters outside Bibi's home is multiplying. Now, there are some people in tents protesting Hotza'ah LaPoal and/or Bituach Leumi. (It's hard to tell, and lately their signs haven't gotten mixed together with those of the hunger-striking "Women for Peace." It's a fun block.) They yell at us (alternating in Hebrew and English) for taking the lad out in the sun. (Lest you think we are bad parents, he wears lots of sunscreen, which of course they can't see.) The leader has been laying out in the sun herself for a while. Today, she had a volume of the Zohar with her. Ah, Jerusalem.
Friday, July 03, 2015
Two on the Fourth
My parents had occasion to mention the New Carrollton, Maryland train station. Here's what I wrote back:
New Carrollton brings to mind some July 4th trivia. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll of Maryland. The Carrolls were a major Maryland family- there are actually a few "Carrolltons" in Maryland, which is why this one (which is named for Charles Carroll) changed their name to "New Carrollton." In fact, there were so many Charles Carrolls in the family ("Carroll," of course, is Latin for "Charles"), including his own father and son, that this one signed his name "Charles Carroll of Carrollton," after the place where he had a home (although a *different* place from New Carrollton), which is how it appears on the Declaration itself.
New Carrollton brings to mind some July 4th trivia. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll of Maryland. The Carrolls were a major Maryland family- there are actually a few "Carrolltons" in Maryland, which is why this one (which is named for Charles Carroll) changed their name to "New Carrollton." In fact, there were so many Charles Carrolls in the family ("Carroll," of course, is Latin for "Charles"), including his own father and son, that this one signed his name "Charles Carroll of Carrollton," after the place where he had a home (although a *different* place from New Carrollton), which is how it appears on the Declaration itself.
Maryland was
founded by Catholics, but by this point had actually become very *anti*
Catholic. The Carrolls were all Catholic and Charles couldn't enter a
lot of professions in Maryland, but still managed to become very wealthy
and prominent. He was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration. Just
to show how short history can be, he was one of the founders of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which ran right through Montgomery
County, which is where we got started. :-) The "B&O" is one of the railroads in Monopoly and existed until relatively recently.
Carroll died in 1832, the last surviving signer of the Declaration (the last to die before him were two of the authors themselves, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration). The movie National Treasure, which is based on a supposed secret the Founders held, opens with his dying before he can fully reveal the secret, and the rest of the movie is about adventurers trying to solve it. In real life, his descendants remain a major Maryland family.
And now you've seen the word "Carroll" so often it's lost all meaning. :-) Don't forget to get a fifth on the third to have a happy Fourth!
------------------------
(From yesterday:)
John Adams, in a letter to Abigail right after American Independence had been declared:
Carroll died in 1832, the last surviving signer of the Declaration (the last to die before him were two of the authors themselves, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration). The movie National Treasure, which is based on a supposed secret the Founders held, opens with his dying before he can fully reveal the secret, and the rest of the movie is about adventurers trying to solve it. In real life, his descendants remain a major Maryland family.
And now you've seen the word "Carroll" so often it's lost all meaning. :-) Don't forget to get a fifth on the third to have a happy Fourth!
------------------------
(From yesterday:)
John Adams, in a letter to Abigail right after American Independence had been declared:
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding
Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be
commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to
God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with
Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one
End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
Well, he was right about all but one thing: He wrote the letter on the third of July, and was talking about the *second* of July, which is, in fact, the actual date of the United States' declaring independence. Look it up. Happy Independence Day!
Well, he was right about all but one thing: He wrote the letter on the third of July, and was talking about the *second* of July, which is, in fact, the actual date of the United States' declaring independence. Look it up. Happy Independence Day!
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
A Few More
OK, a few more posts from Facebook (links can be found there), because I have such loyal readers:
Whitey Bulger is the gangster they based Jack Nicholson's character in "The Departed" on. He was on the lam for over fifteen years, was caught a few years back, and is now serving two life terms. He's 85.
A bunch of kids wrote to him for a history project. Here's part of his response:
"My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon...Advice is a cheap commodity some seek it from me about crime — I know only one thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — 'Go to Law School.'"
----------------------
In honor of Art Garfunkel (a Kew Gardens Hills boy, like Paul Simon and myself- I only realize now that their childhood homes were a few blocks from mine) visiting Israel, it's time for Ali G:
Ali: What is Art Nouveau?
Professor Arthur Danto, Columbia University: [Explains.]
Whitey Bulger is the gangster they based Jack Nicholson's character in "The Departed" on. He was on the lam for over fifteen years, was caught a few years back, and is now serving two life terms. He's 85.
A bunch of kids wrote to him for a history project. Here's part of his response:
"My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon...Advice is a cheap commodity some seek it from me about crime — I know only one thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — 'Go to Law School.'"
----------------------
In honor of Art Garfunkel (a Kew Gardens Hills boy, like Paul Simon and myself- I only realize now that their childhood homes were a few blocks from mine) visiting Israel, it's time for Ali G:
Ali: What is Art Nouveau?
Professor Arthur Danto, Columbia University: [Explains.]
Ali: What is Art Deco?
Danto: [Explains.]
Ali: So what is Art Garfunkel?
Danto: ...a singer...
Ali: So ain't that confusing for young people?
Danto: It may be, but it would astonish me if it was.
----------------------
So they're filming the scene in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" where Wormtongue kills Saruman (it's in the Extended Edition), and Peter Jackson is telling Christopher Lee (Saruman) what to do. Lee interrupts him to point out that that's not what people sound like when they're stabbed in the back.
Danto: [Explains.]
Ali: So what is Art Garfunkel?
Danto: ...a singer...
Ali: So ain't that confusing for young people?
Danto: It may be, but it would astonish me if it was.
----------------------
So they're filming the scene in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" where Wormtongue kills Saruman (it's in the Extended Edition), and Peter Jackson is telling Christopher Lee (Saruman) what to do. Lee interrupts him to point out that that's not what people sound like when they're stabbed in the back.
During World War II, Lee
had been in the Special Operations Executive, aka "the Ministry of
Ungentlemanly Warfare," aka "Churchill's Secret Army," aka "the Baker
Street Irregulars" (they were headquartered down the block from Sherlock
Holmes' place). Also on the team was Ian Fleming, who based most of the
James Bond characters (M, Q, Moneypenny, etc.) on people he'd worked
with there.
So while Lee didn't talk about what he'd done as an agent, he knew of what he spoke when correcting Jackson. And then he went on to have another amazing life. RIP.
(I love this quote from him:
"When people say to me, you know, were you in this? Were you in that? Did you work in this? Did you work in that? I always used to say 'Can you keep a secret?' And they would say 'Yes, yes' and I would say 'So can I.'")
-------------------
Wow. I'm quoting Joe Biden:
After only four months in the United States Senate, as a 30-year-old kid, I was walking through the Senate floor to go to a meeting with Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. And I witnessed another newly elected senator, the extremely conservative Jesse Helms, excoriating Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole for promoting the precursor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But I had to see the Leader, so I kept walking.
When I walked into Mansfield’s office, I must have looked as angry as I was. He was in his late ‘70s, lived to be 100. And he looked at me, he said, what’s bothering you, Joe?
So while Lee didn't talk about what he'd done as an agent, he knew of what he spoke when correcting Jackson. And then he went on to have another amazing life. RIP.
(I love this quote from him:
"When people say to me, you know, were you in this? Were you in that? Did you work in this? Did you work in that? I always used to say 'Can you keep a secret?' And they would say 'Yes, yes' and I would say 'So can I.'")
-------------------
Wow. I'm quoting Joe Biden:
After only four months in the United States Senate, as a 30-year-old kid, I was walking through the Senate floor to go to a meeting with Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. And I witnessed another newly elected senator, the extremely conservative Jesse Helms, excoriating Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole for promoting the precursor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But I had to see the Leader, so I kept walking.
When I walked into Mansfield’s office, I must have looked as angry as I was. He was in his late ‘70s, lived to be 100. And he looked at me, he said, what’s bothering you, Joe?
I said, that guy, Helms, he has no social redeeming value. He doesn’t
care — I really mean it — I was angry. He doesn’t care about people in
need. He has a disregard for the disabled.
Majority Leader Mansfield then proceeded to tell me that three years earlier, Jesse and Dot Helms, sitting in their living room in early December before Christmas, reading an ad in the Raleigh Observer, the picture of a young man, 14-years-old with braces on his legs up to both hips, saying, all I want is someone to love me and adopt me. He looked at me and he said, and they adopted him, Joe.
I felt like a fool. He then went on to say, Joe, it’s always appropriate to question another man’s judgment, but never appropriate to question his motives because you simply don’t know his motives.
Majority Leader Mansfield then proceeded to tell me that three years earlier, Jesse and Dot Helms, sitting in their living room in early December before Christmas, reading an ad in the Raleigh Observer, the picture of a young man, 14-years-old with braces on his legs up to both hips, saying, all I want is someone to love me and adopt me. He looked at me and he said, and they adopted him, Joe.
I felt like a fool. He then went on to say, Joe, it’s always appropriate to question another man’s judgment, but never appropriate to question his motives because you simply don’t know his motives.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
ותבקע העיר
A couple of days late, but:
According to a plain reading of the account in Yirmiyahu (52:10, the only one in Tanach with a date), the walls of Jerusalem were breached on the 9 of Tammuz. (This is the event we mark on the 17th, a week from now; the Bavli and Yerushalmi reconcile the two dates in different ways, and I've heard others as well.)
That was in 586 BCE, exactly 2600 years ago. (2015+586=2601, but there was no year zero.) Not especially significant, except that things ending in "00" tend to make one think.
I'd have added more when I posted this on Facebook, but the world has grown frightening, unlawful, irrational, immoral, and somewhat sad (whew!), so I retreat to my blog- "the inner recesses of my home," as Justice Alito might say.
It's been over twenty-five years, but I still remember the flag burning case. What particularly sticks in my mind is the complete lack of a well-crafted response from the Right. No argument that the Court had got their moral case (e.g., that this wasn't "speech") or legal case (e.g., that state action wasn't protected) wrong; certainly no argument that this didn't come under the court's purview, and certainly no attempt to take practical steps to address any of that. No, all that came were populist calls for an amendment, something that would never happen and which implicitly conceded all of the Court's arguments. It merely was a good talking point, was good for stirring up crowds, and (taking a page from the Left) served only to tar those with a more nuanced view of the process (while having an identical view of the desired result), thanks to general ignorance of civics.
Yes, I think that concession has borne fruit, in too many ways.
As long as I've mention Facebook, here are some recent posts, for those who check in only here:
---------------
Tonight I participated in a wonderful reading of "The Tempest." I was Prospero, among others. A small number of attendees meant I had some heated discussions with myself.
I also had a piece of a Vegemite chocolate bar. It's actually quite good. (And to all those disbelieving souls, yes, despite not a drop of Commonwealth blood in me* and not having tasted it until I was well into adulthood, I actually very much enjoy Marmite.)
---------------
According to a plain reading of the account in Yirmiyahu (52:10, the only one in Tanach with a date), the walls of Jerusalem were breached on the 9 of Tammuz. (This is the event we mark on the 17th, a week from now; the Bavli and Yerushalmi reconcile the two dates in different ways, and I've heard others as well.)
That was in 586 BCE, exactly 2600 years ago. (2015+586=2601, but there was no year zero.) Not especially significant, except that things ending in "00" tend to make one think.
I'd have added more when I posted this on Facebook, but the world has grown frightening, unlawful, irrational, immoral, and somewhat sad (whew!), so I retreat to my blog- "the inner recesses of my home," as Justice Alito might say.
It's been over twenty-five years, but I still remember the flag burning case. What particularly sticks in my mind is the complete lack of a well-crafted response from the Right. No argument that the Court had got their moral case (e.g., that this wasn't "speech") or legal case (e.g., that state action wasn't protected) wrong; certainly no argument that this didn't come under the court's purview, and certainly no attempt to take practical steps to address any of that. No, all that came were populist calls for an amendment, something that would never happen and which implicitly conceded all of the Court's arguments. It merely was a good talking point, was good for stirring up crowds, and (taking a page from the Left) served only to tar those with a more nuanced view of the process (while having an identical view of the desired result), thanks to general ignorance of civics.
Yes, I think that concession has borne fruit, in too many ways.
As long as I've mention Facebook, here are some recent posts, for those who check in only here:
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Tonight I participated in a wonderful reading of "The Tempest." I was Prospero, among others. A small number of attendees meant I had some heated discussions with myself.
I also had a piece of a Vegemite chocolate bar. It's actually quite good. (And to all those disbelieving souls, yes, despite not a drop of Commonwealth blood in me* and not having tasted it until I was well into adulthood, I actually very much enjoy Marmite.)
---------------
I
should be used to it by now- whenever there's some big local sports
victory, motorcades of fans come tearing down Aza beeping their horns.
Even at 12:25 in the AM. When it started tonight, I didn't have to be
told that Jerusalem won.
Maybe they want to make sure Bibi knows. One of them was screaming his name just now. Barkat knows, of course- he was down on the floor with the team.
Well, go Jerusalem!
---------------------Maybe they want to make sure Bibi knows. One of them was screaming his name just now. Barkat knows, of course- he was down on the floor with the team.
Well, go Jerusalem!
For some reason, the Bar Association is sponsoring an evening of speeches on "Diabetes and Obesity: Plague of the Century."
Between presentations, there will be coffee and cake (and, I assume, bourekas), because, you know, Jews. And Israel.
----------------
I've just started a book I bought (thanks, Shavua Sefer!) about the archaeological excavation of the altar on Mount Ebal, in the Shomron, in the 1980's and 1990's.
At the end of a long list of acknowledgments- dig personnel, students, volunteers, institutions, local Jewish Shomron residents- the author writes (translation mine), "And we must mention our Palestinian friends, who for obvious reasons cannot be named." That's kind of sad.
-----------------
Sometimes I feel like grabbing Israeli law firms (and others) looking to hire olim by their figurative lapels and pointing out that the types of people who *would* match their listed qualifications are not, ahem, the type of people who make aliyah.
------------------
Between presentations, there will be coffee and cake (and, I assume, bourekas), because, you know, Jews. And Israel.
----------------
I've just started a book I bought (thanks, Shavua Sefer!) about the archaeological excavation of the altar on Mount Ebal, in the Shomron, in the 1980's and 1990's.
At the end of a long list of acknowledgments- dig personnel, students, volunteers, institutions, local Jewish Shomron residents- the author writes (translation mine), "And we must mention our Palestinian friends, who for obvious reasons cannot be named." That's kind of sad.
-----------------
Sometimes I feel like grabbing Israeli law firms (and others) looking to hire olim by their figurative lapels and pointing out that the types of people who *would* match their listed qualifications are not, ahem, the type of people who make aliyah.
------------------
Things that happen to me more often than you'd think, part whatever:
I'm in a city I'm not from, that I barely visit, that I know very little of apart from where I'm headed, and not even that, having gotten lost a bit earlier. I get stopped by a random citizen who asks me where X is. We are nowhere near X, but by sheer coincidence, I just came from the same block. I give directions and feel like a big-shot native.
-----------------
I'm in a city I'm not from, that I barely visit, that I know very little of apart from where I'm headed, and not even that, having gotten lost a bit earlier. I get stopped by a random citizen who asks me where X is. We are nowhere near X, but by sheer coincidence, I just came from the same block. I give directions and feel like a big-shot native.
-----------------
I
can be a real cynic, but last night, I attended a screening of Yehuda
Avner's "The Prime Ministers" and the waterworks turned on. A good
Zionist refresher. A well done event, Yeshiva University Israel Alumni!
Interestingly, it was the same day as I inquired as to his details so I could get a memorial plaque for him (one of my duties as gabbai). I never met him myself, but apparently he was a longtime mitpallel at Kehillat Renanim. And whaddya you, in the movie itself, he's describing learning of the Yom Kippur War while in shul, and there's a picture of our beit knesset's building. (Granted, Heichal Shlomo is one of the more prominent buildings in the State of Israel.)
I was thus able to tell his daughter, from whom I got the actual details, how much I enjoyed the film.
-------------------------
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. I'm reminded of the story of how Paris newspaper headliness tracked Napoleon's progress through the 100 Days (from when he left Elba until his final downfall):
The Tiger has broken out of his den!
The Ogre was three days at sea
Interestingly, it was the same day as I inquired as to his details so I could get a memorial plaque for him (one of my duties as gabbai). I never met him myself, but apparently he was a longtime mitpallel at Kehillat Renanim. And whaddya you, in the movie itself, he's describing learning of the Yom Kippur War while in shul, and there's a picture of our beit knesset's building. (Granted, Heichal Shlomo is one of the more prominent buildings in the State of Israel.)
I was thus able to tell his daughter, from whom I got the actual details, how much I enjoyed the film.
-------------------------
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. I'm reminded of the story of how Paris newspaper headliness tracked Napoleon's progress through the 100 Days (from when he left Elba until his final downfall):
The Tiger has broken out of his den!
The Ogre was three days at sea
The Wretch has landed at Frejus
The Brigand has arrived at Antibes
The Invader has reached Grenoble
The General has entered Lyons
Napoleon slept last night at Fontainebleau
The Emperor proceeds to the Tuileries today
His Imperial Majesty will address his loyal subjects tomorrow!
---------------
Many years ago my mom got me a Sherlock Holmes doll. The lad has grown quite interested in it lately, and only today did I notice that his coat buttons feature the symbol of the People's Liberation Army (Red China). Now how did I miss that?
(It's not a great mystery: The doll, like everything else these days, was made in China, and the factory probably had some military contract and so had spare buttons lying around. My grandfather worked in a place that made insignia during World War II and would sometimes bring my Dad spare US Army buttons. I don't think he still has any...)
I remember when we passed the toy store and I (already an adult, but a huge Sherlock Holmes fan) pointed it out in the window, not asking for it or anything, and then one day my Mom, bless her, brings it home. I think the place shut down not long after that. :-)
The Brigand has arrived at Antibes
The Invader has reached Grenoble
The General has entered Lyons
Napoleon slept last night at Fontainebleau
The Emperor proceeds to the Tuileries today
His Imperial Majesty will address his loyal subjects tomorrow!
---------------
Many years ago my mom got me a Sherlock Holmes doll. The lad has grown quite interested in it lately, and only today did I notice that his coat buttons feature the symbol of the People's Liberation Army (Red China). Now how did I miss that?
(It's not a great mystery: The doll, like everything else these days, was made in China, and the factory probably had some military contract and so had spare buttons lying around. My grandfather worked in a place that made insignia during World War II and would sometimes bring my Dad spare US Army buttons. I don't think he still has any...)
I remember when we passed the toy store and I (already an adult, but a huge Sherlock Holmes fan) pointed it out in the window, not asking for it or anything, and then one day my Mom, bless her, brings it home. I think the place shut down not long after that. :-)
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Ben Meah Shanim
Back in 1996, shortly after being elected Prime Minister for the first time, Bibi went to the US. He spoke to Congress and in a number of other places. I remember we were in Israel and followed him from afar.
At one talk before Jewish leaders, he recommended that every newly married Jewish couple be given a library of ten basic Jewish books. The first, he said, should be a Tanach, of course, and the rest he'd leave to the experts.
As it happened, cousins of ours, newly married, were visiting Israel at that very moment as part of their honeymoon. They weren't very observant or Jewishly learned, and my parents mentioned Bibi's idea to R' Rakeffet when we were eating with him one day and asked what he thought we should give them.
It doesn't get the recognition it deserves, he said, but the single best book on Judaism out there is Herman Wouk's This Is My God. So we got it and gave it to our cousins, and by their account they enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot from it.
I actually own a few copies, including some first editions and a Hebrew translation, and it is indeed a wonderful book, excellently written and with great content. Today Wouk is being celebrated for his novels, but some mention of this work should be made as well. Someone once quoted a YU rosh yeshiva as saying you even need to say Birkat HaTorah on it. Maybe so...
At one talk before Jewish leaders, he recommended that every newly married Jewish couple be given a library of ten basic Jewish books. The first, he said, should be a Tanach, of course, and the rest he'd leave to the experts.
As it happened, cousins of ours, newly married, were visiting Israel at that very moment as part of their honeymoon. They weren't very observant or Jewishly learned, and my parents mentioned Bibi's idea to R' Rakeffet when we were eating with him one day and asked what he thought we should give them.
It doesn't get the recognition it deserves, he said, but the single best book on Judaism out there is Herman Wouk's This Is My God. So we got it and gave it to our cousins, and by their account they enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot from it.
I actually own a few copies, including some first editions and a Hebrew translation, and it is indeed a wonderful book, excellently written and with great content. Today Wouk is being celebrated for his novels, but some mention of this work should be made as well. Someone once quoted a YU rosh yeshiva as saying you even need to say Birkat HaTorah on it. Maybe so...
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