Blog/April 2009/Apr 3rd

April 3rd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

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Lost in translation: many of you know of my Mishne Torah translation project, and probably can assume (rightly) that I am interested in "getting translation right". This week I received an email, which was a copy of an interesting article published on the internet. The article was a translation of this article from Ma`ariv, talking about fake kashrut certifications. Everything was fine, until I got to this sentence: "This story perhaps highlights the difficulties being faced by the Chief Rabbinate, which continues to wage its war on illegal and unauthorized kashrut supervisions that arise like Patriot missiles in the rain". Huh? "Patriot missiles in the rain"? What is that supposed to mean?

I guessed the original used the word פטריות (pitriot = mushrooms), which would make sense. And indeed, the original was:

סיפורו של "בד"צ בלקר" מבטא יותר מכל את המצוקה שבה נמצאת הרבנות הראשית לישראל במלחמתה בגופי כשרות קיקיוניים שקמים כמו פטריות אחר הגשם

.

Those of you who know Hebrew will have noticed another failing in the translation, e.g. "illegal and unauthorized" is not what קיקיוניים means! The Hebrew kikayoniim = like a kikayon, the plant which grew next to Jonah to shield him from the sun (that sprouted one day and died the next), hence the proper translation should be something like "fly-by-night". Though Esther and I laughed a lot after reading the translation, it brings up a serious point, which is that translations are only as good as the comprehension of the translator. Don't forget that! N.B.: Mercifully, the original site changed the online content to reflect the original more accurately -- I wasn't the only one who pointed out their error to them.

We were honored to have a visit from our Rabbi and his family all the way from Bellevue, Washington. We hope to see them again before they return to the Exile. I hope they enjoyed their visit to the Wild West Bank...

Everyone is getting ready for Pesach. Everyone -- not just "religious" people. We decided that we need a small vacuum cleaner to help control our dust situation, so this week we went to the local mall and tried to find something cheap. The stores were bursting to the seams with shoppers, desperate for cleaning supplies and food and who knows what. Today I finally went to the local "Ace" hardware store, which had an "ok" price on a small vacuum -- and I thought they must be giving things away for free, there were so many people there. It turns out that not only were things not free, they didn't have half the things they normally did -- but they did have a vacuum, so B"H we can now control the dust a little better (assuming the machine holds up, about which I have doubts). At first I went to a store near where I work, thinking that the price would be better. The owner told me he would give me a "discount for Pesach" on one model of vacuum, only 1,000NIS! When I went to the Israeli price-comparison size Zap, I found the same model he was offering, for 750. What a deal! That was still much more than I was willing to spend, but it just shows that caveat emptor applies here as much as it does anywhere.

(almost) Everything is now marked as "kosher for Passover", including such non-edibles as oven-cleaner and soap. I'm not the only one in Israel who knows that such things don't need a hechsher (of any kind, let alone one for Pesach), so why do they have one? Do consumers who are waffling as to what brand to buy really go for the soap with the hechsher over the one without? Probably, probably.

Now that I'm taking the bus instead of driving, I'm more calm and relaxed. But for those of you still driving: here's a parking solution you might appreciate.

Those fun-loving Arabs! First we have the new Arab MK who advocates Iranian nuclear weapons development. Then there's those happy-go-lucky Arabs who disapproved of the "Strings of Peace" and seized their instruments and disbanded the orchestra. And just yesterday, in the town one of my coworkers lives in, a terrorist brutally killed a 13 year old with an ax and seriously injured a seven year old. If the government would change its policy and require all able-bodied Jews to carry sidearms and keep in practice, instead of making it very difficult to get a carry license, the situation would improve. Knowing that the "sheep" are all armed and dangerous would make even a maniak Arab hesitate.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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