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{{bheadernew|Dec 4th|http://ronware.org/devar/vayeshev5776.pdf}}

Every year on this date, I remember it’s my sister’s birthday.  This year is the first time I have to also remember she’s no longer with us.  She would have been 51 years old this year, and the memory of her passing is still fresh and painful.  May she rest in peace, ''amen''.

We were busy as always this week.  Sarah in particular was busy, working on others’ film projects and being out and meeting people pretty much all week.  Her latest filming was done in the middle of the night in Jerusalem — don’t worry, they had a security guard.  Anyway, they had to rent one of the “Jerusalem Light Rail” trains for the shot, which I didn’t even know you could do.  Apparently, you can… 

I made a [http://8th-dev.com/forum/index.php/topic,655.0.html fresh release of ''8th''] this week.  Immediately afterwards, I started looking at its performance relative to other products.  That spurred me to make some improvements, and now I’m happy to say that the ''next'' release will be by far the fastest (and faster than many competitors) and most stable version yet. I also announced the public opening of our new [https://codethoughts.org/index.php ''friendly'' technical discussion forum]. 

Just a word about some recent events in the world. It seems that people in the West have a hard time understanding the “motives” that engender acts of horrific violence in a certain group of people we’re not allowed to name.  If I may suggest, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3BsyF64gM at least one TV character “gets it”].

Interesting things happened in The Land this week.  Apparently, archaeologists found a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulla_(seal) ''bulla''] which was 
[http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/204294#.VmE-5t8rJE5 King Ḥezkiah’s personal seal].  That’s an exciting find for many reasons, among them that it is yet another confirmation of the historicity of sections of the Tanakh. But [https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/photos/a.350931762688.151625.19459912688/10153343024037689/?type=3&theater not everyone is happy] about the find!  The ''bulla'' was very small, and it’s quite impressive that they found it.  If our leaders would only have the self-respect to assert control over our holy sites and keep the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Islamic_Waqf Waqf] from desecrating them, we would be able to uncover many more priceless finds.

In other exciting news from The Land, the speed limit on Route 6 (the main north-south highway)
[http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/204184#.VlxbZ98rJE4 was raised to 120kmh].  That’s 74.5mph for you USA’ns.  Here I thought the speed limit was already 120, since whenever I’ve been on that road, cars zipped by at 130kmh or more.  Now they’ll do 150kmh!

The weather’s turned very cold.  We’re experiencing an “unprecedented cold snap”, with lows forecast over ''shabbat'' just above freezing.  But the sun is shining brilliantly and no rain is in the immediate future.  We’re looking forward to a quiet and cold ''shabbat'', and the start of ''ḥanukka'' this coming Sunday night.  Mmm, ''latkes''!


This week it’s just the nuclear family.  To stave off the winter chill, we’ll have:<br>
homemade ''ḥallah'',
very hot vegetable soup,
baked chicken,
sweet-and-sour tofu,
noodles,
potato ''kugel'',
roasted green beans,
''salatim'',
and fruit.


Until next time,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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