Blog/December 2011/Dec 23rd

Dec 23rd (See this week's devar torah)

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Hi, again!

Mazal tov, מזל טוב! Daniela is now officially engaged to Jeremy! He proposed on her birthday and she accepted; now we're looking forward to all the preparations for The Big Day. Don't worry, we'll let you know when we have more information!

Needless to say, all of us are excited and happy about the news. So too were those of our friends, family and acquaintances with whom we've been in contact (don't be upset if you're only hearing about it now, we couldn't talk to everyone). Transitioning from being the proud parents of young ladies to being the proud almost-parents-in-law is a bit of an adjustment for Esther and I. A big adjustment, truth be told -- though I think we'll manage.

We had an "Eastside Torah Center Reunion". A group of our friends from the ETC who now live in the Land, got together at our friend's house in Binyamina for a Ḥanuka celebration and reunion. It was nice to reacquaint with our friends of old; and good to catch up on what everyone's been doing and how they've been faring. It was also a good opportunity to take the 'new car' for a longish drive (Binyamina's about an hour and a half from us).

This past purim it was decided by the Powers that Be (PTB) in our synagogue that I would help get our website up and running so we could once again take orders for the purim gift participation program we have been doing. This past year there was a lot of disorder and things didn't get done properly. Anyway, the PTB called a meeting for this motsaei shabbat so we could determine what bits of work needed to be done, and by whom. Guess who has the most to do? So I've got to do data reduction and normalization on several partial bits of data (because for some reason I don't have access to the original database). Then I have to make the new database and write the code that "makes it work". Someone else from the synagogue will write the "front end" part that people actually see (well, the graphic part of it; my code will make the buttons and so-forth actually do something useful). How do I repeatedly get into these situations?

I've neglected the political commentary for a while, so I hope you'll indulge me this week. The illustrious Mrs Clinton, in her rôle as U.S. Secretary of State, has taken to excoriating the State of Israel over what are minor, internal Israeli matters. She compares Israel to Iran (of all places!) in its treatment of women's rights. Now I hate to break the news to the "honorable" Mrs Clinton, but the benighted State of Israel has had a female Prime Minister (as have India and Great Britain, among others). When did the US have a female President? Oh, that's right -- never! Israel has currently got a female Chief Justice. When did the US have a female Chief Justice? Oh, damn! -- I forgot, NEVER. So just shut yer pie-hole, Hillary, and let us work out our internal issues by ourselves.

This shabbat we were in a big rush because of the reunion (which was Friday morning), as well as because it's ḥanuka -- so we don't have a lot of time. The menu will contain: orange chicken, brown rice, roasted peppers, roasted fennel, baked salmon, roasted eggplant, ḥumus, carrot salad, corn salad, Israeli salad, chicken soup, meatballs, and cake.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom and ḥanuka sameaḥ!

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