Blog/February 2008/Feb 29th

February 29th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Last shabbat Esther wanted me to use the mangal (Israeli-style BBQ it's Turkish, actually) to cook chicken for shabbat. So I prepared the mangal, trying to find bits of charcoal which had not been drenched by the rains we had. Dutifully, I got the coals burning and finally started the chicken. After it was done, Sarah dolefully informed me I had "smoked" her clothes, which were out on the line to dry! Moral of the story: make sure you don't have clothes hanging above the BBQ when you're using it! (Note: birds can also be detrimental to your clothing...)

Daniela took first-place in the "bible contest" at her school, so she's extremely excited (as are we!). Her prize is a set of tanach (bible) with extensive commentaries, which she was looking forward to winning. Now I know who to ask when I have questions!

This week we met with our friend Dov-Ber, and went out to a nice restaurant in Jerusalem. We don't go out so often, so when we do go we try to go to nice places. Anyway, two odd things. First, as with most of the "nice" places which are geared for the tourist trade, all the staff speak English. They great you at the door in English, give you menus in English and so on. The odd thing was that the "specials" were written on a blackboard in Hebrew! The second odd thing was that we noticed a group of men in suit-jackets. Yes, in Israel that's pretty unusual -- but that's not what was weird. We noticed the guys in suits had earpieces hanging off their ears, and their suits were just a bit too large for them. They accompanied a smaller group of people, whom they were apparently guarding. Since they were all speaking English, we assumed the group they were guarding contained a Senator or something -- but we didn't recognize anyone from that group.

Aliyah notice for our friends on the West coast of the US: Nefesh b'Nefesh is going to be in Washington State conducting seminars. If you are even slightly interested in aliyah, we urge you to attend and get information. Speaking of information about aliyah, Israel this year has hit the lowest unemployment rate in 12 years! It's easier to get a job here than it's been in a long time; and if you are older, it's much easier than in the US (they actually appreciate experience here).

A friend sent me this video clip of an Iranian propaganda piece. Interesting, and frightening at the same time. From another person I was told of a fascinating piece written in 1961 about the "Arabs of Palestine". It's long, but worthwhile reading. It is interesting to note that the attitudes expressed by the Arabs she interviewed in 1961 have not changed at all in the past 47 years. It's also interesting to note that their intransigence did not start after Israel "occupied" their lands in 1967... but then, most of us already knew that.

The problem the Arabs have has nothing to do with Jews per se. Their problem is that they are incapable of dealing with reality and insist on living in the idyllic past (which was, of course, neither idyllic nor even as good as the present in many cases). They allow their feelings of insecurity over the fact that the Islamic world has produced not one positive contribution to the world since algebra to completely overwhelm what logical faculties they possess. As a result, they repeatedly throw away the opportunities to advance themselves and benefit their own people, on the vain hope that if they kill enough (Jews, Americans, infidels...) they will regain their vaunted past. Sadly, the time has come where their lunatic fantasies can lead to world war. The only solution which will truly lead to world peace (in my humble opinion) is to turn Mecca into a glass parking lot. Unfortunately, the leaders of the "free world" won't take my advice until it's too late.

On a positive note: my boss tells me that the potential customer I have been dealing with is very pleased with how I have worked with them; so my boss is also very happy. He's decided to give me more responsibility (a promotion, from a certain point of view) -- which I suppose means he's not planning on firing me soon. So that's a good thing!

Shabbat shalom!

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