Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2009/May 22nd"

Latest revision as of 15:17, 28 May 2009

May 22nd (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog

Hi again!

You can help feed the hungry in Israel!

This has been a very good week. The best thing is that Daniela came back (today!) from New York and will be here for the summer. We'll update you next week about her year, after she's had a chance to decompress a bit. Then yesterday, my product finally became "live" -- that is, people can now download and install it. So that's a weight off me and makes my shabbat that much more restful. And then today is "Yom Yerushalayim" - the anniversary of the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967. Without the events of Yom Yerushalayim, we wouldn't be able to live where we do.

We have rented a car for a month, to make it easier to "do things" while Daniela is here. We'll see how that goes. It may be we end up leasing a car for a longer period, if we can justify the expense. Now that gas is over 6 sheqels a liter, we need to be more careful about how we spend our funds.

In techie news: I am making progress towards a Mac version of my Reva Forth programming language. This has involved changing the assembler I'm using for the 'core', and which had the benefit of pointing out some bugs I wasn't aware of before. I hope to have the "new version" working within a week or so. Not that you care ...

Israel is notorious for bad signs. People who failed the bagrut in English seem to be the only ones writing English signs. My favorite so far is the one inside Egged buses, which states: "Smoking is prohibited. Breaking this law leads to fin." -- a nice, ironic multilingual message. But this week there was an ad in the local paper, from the Mayor's office, directed at the English speaking population: "We hope to include all english speakers in our invitation malling.please give ypur cantact details to xxxx un the mayorws office" [sic]. "...on the anglo furom committte.after reciving the invitation. Please let us know if you gope to attend" [sic semper stupidus]. This is the very worst one I've seen so far, but no matter how bad something is, someone can do worse.

We have been buying from our butcher for almost two years -- he's been mentioned in these pages several times. Last week a notice was published in a kashrut paper, stating that he is not in fact under any hashgacha, which makes it impossible for us to use him. So we found a different butcher shop (in the Bucharian shuq), which has not only a much better selection, but is cleaner, cheaper and has the hechsherim clearly displayed on all the products. Caveat emptor -- especially regarding butchers!

That's it for now -- I've got to clean the house and get ready for a relaxing "family shabbat". So until next week,

Shabbat shalom!

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-{{bismilla}}
+{{blog}}
-{{header|Behar-Bechukotai 5769|בהר-בחוקותי תשס"ט}}
+{{bheader|May 22nd|Devar/5769/Bamidbar}}
-{{hebrew}}
+Hi again!
-{{pasuqh|אִם-בְּחֻקֹּתַי, תֵּלֵכוּ; וְאֶת-מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם |p/pt/pt0326.htm#3|ויקרא כו:ו}}
+You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!
-{{heb|אם נשמור את דבר ה' ונשמע לנביאיו וחכמיו, נקבל שפע ברכות.  "אם-בחקותי תלכו" זאת תחילת תנאי, שההבטחה תתקיים אם נקיים את התנאי.}}
+This has been a very good week.  The best thing is that Daniela came back (today!) from New York and will be here for the summer.  We'll update you next week about her year, after she's had a chance to decompress a bit.  Then yesterday, my product finally became "live" -- that is, people can now download and install it.  So that's a weight off me and makes my ''shabbat'' that much more restful.  And then today is "Yom Yerushalayim" - the anniversary of the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967.  Without the events of Yom Yerushalayim, we wouldn't be able to live where we do.
-{{heb|בהלכה: '''סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה תְּפִלִּין וּמְזוּזוֹת… עַל גַּבֵּי עוֹרוֹת שְׁאֵינָן מְעֻבָּדִין, אוֹ שֶׁכָּתַב סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה אוֹ תְּפִלִּין עַל עוֹר שֶׁלֹּא עִבְּדוֹ לִשְׁמָן -- הֲרֵי אֵלּוּ פְּסוּלִין''' {{hcite|i/2301n.htm#14|הל' תפילין מזוזה וספר תורה א:יד}}.  ועיבוד העור מפורש שם, הלכה ו -- ומועתק מבבלי שבת עט., ראה שם.  היום אין כמעט מי שמעבד עורות כהלכה אלא יחידים בלבד -- ומשמעות הדבר שרוב בני ישראל בכל העולם מברכים על ספרי תורה פסולים לכתחילה, ותולים מזוזות פסולות בבתיהם.  ולמה משתמשים ב"שיטה החדשה" לעיבוד העורות? כי היא זולה ומהירה יותר.}}
+We have rented a car for a month, to make it easier to "do things" while Daniela is here.   We'll see how that goes.  It may be we end up leasing a car for a longer period, if we can justify the expense.  Now that gas is over 6 sheqels a liter, we need to be more careful about how we spend our funds.
-{{heb|בהלכה: '''הַשּׁוֹחֵט צָרִיךְ שֶׁיִּבְדֹּק הַסַּכִּין בְּחֻדָּהּ, וּמִצַּד זֶה, וּמִצַּד זֶה.  וְכֵיצַד בּוֹדְקָהּ: מוֹלִיכָהּ וּמְבִיאָהּ עַל בְּשַׂר אֶצְבָּעוֹ, וּמוֹלִיכָהּ וּמְבִיאָהּ עַל צִפָּרְנוֹ, מִשָּׁלוֹשׁ רוּחוֹתֶיהָ, שְׁהֶן פִּיהָ וּשְׁנֵי צְדָדִין -- כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יִהְיֶה בָּהּ פְּגָם כְּלָל; וְאַחַר כָּךְ יִשְׁחֹט בָּהּ''' {{hcite|i/5301n.htm#19|שם יט}} וגם בבלי חולין יז:, ראה שם.  ולמה אין כמעט מי שבודק כהלכה, אלה מעטים מאד?  שהבדיקה הקפדנית הזאת יקרה ואטית, ופוגעת הרווחים מתעשיית השחיטה.}}
+In techie news: I am making progress towards a Mac version of my [http://ronware.org/reva Reva Forth] programming language.  This has involved changing the assembler I'm using for the 'core', and which had the benefit of pointing out some bugs I wasn't aware of before. I hope to have the "new version" working within a week or so.  Not that you care ...
-{{heb|בהלכה: '''הַהוֹצָאָה מֵרְשׁוּת לִרְשׁוּת, מְלָאכָה מֵאֲבוֹת מְלָאכוֹת הִיא''' {{hcite|i/3112n.htm#8|הל' שבת יב:ח}}.  ורשות הרבים: '''אֵיזוֹ הִיא רְשׁוּת הָרַבִּים -- מִדְבָּרוֹת וִיעָרִים וְשָׂדוֹת, וּדְרָכִים הַמְּפֻלָּשִׁין לָהֶן:  וּבִלְבָד שֶׁיִּהְיֶה רֹחַב הַדֶּרֶךְ שֵׁשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה, וְלֹא תִהְיֶה עָלָיו תַּקְרָה''' {{hcite|i/3114n.htm#1|שם יד:א}} וראה בבלי שבת צט.  ואי-אפשר לערב בין רשות הרבים לרשות היחיד.   ולמה מטלטלים ב"עירובים" שאינם עירובים?  כי יותר נעים להאמין למי שמקל בדבר שרוצים לעשות, מאשר לשמוע למה שחז"ל ציוו.}}
+Israel is notorious for [http://www.whatwarzone.com/2009/05/bat-yamno-holonwaitwhere-hell-are-we.html bad signs].  People who failed the ''bagrut'' in English seem to be the only ones writing English signs.  My favorite so far is the one inside Egged buses, which states: "Smoking is prohibited.  Breaking this law leads to fin."  -- a nice, ironic multilingual message.  But this week there was an ad in the local paper, from the Mayor's office, directed at the English speaking population:  "We hope to include all english speakers in our invitation malling.please give ypur cantact details to xxxx un the mayorws office" [sic].  "...on the anglo furom committte.after reciving the invitation.  Please let us know if you gope to attend" [sic semper stupidus].  This is the very worst one I've seen so far, but no matter how bad something is, someone can do worse.
-{{heb|התורה מזהירה אותנו גם על מה שעתיד להיות '''אִם-בְּחֻקֹּתַי תִּמְאָסוּ, וְאִם אֶת-מִשְׁפָּטַי תִּגְעַל נַפְשְׁכֶם, לְבִלְתִּי עֲשׂוֹת אֶת-כָּל-מִצְוֹתַי, לְהַפְרְכֶם אֶת-בְּרִיתִי''' {{hcite|p/pt/pt0326.htm#15|ויקרא כו:טו}}.  יהי רצון מלפניו שנחזור אליו ואל דברי נביאיו וחכמיו.}}
+We have been buying from our butcher for almost two years -- he's been mentioned in these pages several times.  Last week a [http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com/ notice was published] in a ''kashrut'' paper, stating that he is not in fact under any ''hashgacha'', which makes it impossible for us to use him.  So we found a different butcher shop (in the Bucharian ''shuq''), which has not only a much better selection, but is cleaner, cheaper and has the ''hechsherim'' clearly displayed on all the products.  ''Caveat emptor'' -- especially regarding butchers!
+That's it for now -- I've got to clean the house and get ready for a relaxing "family shabbat".  So until next week,<br>
+Shabbat shalom!
-{{english}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 15th|May 15th|Blog/May 2009/May 29th|May 29th}}
-{{pasuq|If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them|p/pt/pt0326.htm#3|Lev 26:6}}
-If we keep God's commandments, and obey His prophets and His sages, we will receive a bounty of blessings.  "If ye walk in My statutes" is the beginning of a conditional promise, which if we keep the condition, the promise will be fulfilled.
-In ''halacha'': '''A Torah scroll, ''tefillin'' or ''mezuzot''… upon skins which were not properly processed, or if he wrote a Torah scroll or ''tefillin'' on skins which were not processed for the sake of the ''mitsva'' -- they are invalid''' {{hcite|i/2301n.htm#14|Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah scrolls 1:14}}. The proper processing is detailed there, ''halacha'' 6 -- and copied from the Talmud Bavli shabbat 79a, see there.  But today almost no-one processes the skins according to ''halacha'', except a very few individuals -- and the consequences of this are that the majority of Jews in the entire world make blessings over Torah scrolls which are invalid from the very beginning, and have invalid ''mezuzot'' on their houses.  And why do we use the "new method" for processing skins?  Because it is cheaper and quicker.
-In ''halacha'': '''One who slaughters [an animal for food] must check the knife on the edge of the blade, and on both sides of the blade.  And how does he check?  He must draw it to and fro on the skin of his finger, and draw it to and fro on his fingernail, on all three sides, which are the edge and the two sides of the blade -- in order that there not be any defect whatsoever in it; and afterwards he may slaughter with it''' {{hcite|i/5301n.htm#19|ibid 19}}.  Likewise in the Bavli Hullin 17b, see there.  And why does almost no-one but a few individuals check in this manner?  Because this exacting examination is expensive and slow, and diminishes profits from the slaughtering operations.
-In ''halacha'': '''Carrying an object from one "domain" to another is a forbidden labor [on shabbat]''' {{hcite|i/3112n.htm#8|Laws of Shabbat 12:8}}.  The "public domain" is defined: '''What is a "public domain"?  The wilderness and forests, and roads leading to them: but only if the width of the road is sixteen ''amot'' (approx 24 feet) or wider, and they are not covered with a roof'''{{hcite|i/3114n.htm#1|ibid 14:1}}, and see Bavli Shabbat 99a.  It is impossible to make an ''eruv'' between a private and a public domain.  And why do we "carry" in "''eruvim''" which are not ''eruvim''?  Because it is more pleasant to believe one who is lenient regarding that which we wish to do, than to obey our Sages commandments.
-The Torah also cautions us regarding what will happen '''if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant''' {{hcite|p/pt/pt0326.htm#15|Lev 26:15}}.  May it be His will that we return to Him, and to the words of His prophets and Sages.
-{{nav|Devar|Devar|Devar/5769/Emor|Emor||}}
-{{devar}}

Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2009/May 22nd"

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Latest revision as of 15:17, 28 May 2009