Blog/May 2017/May 12th

May 12th

Today is the 31^st day of the “counting of the ʿomer”, meaning that shabbat will the be 32^nd day, and therefore Sunday (commencing just as shabbat ends) will be “Lag BaʿOmer”. As is the case every year on which “Lag BaʿOmer” falls right after shabbat, the city rabbis issue statements directing people to do their bonfire celebrations on Sunday night, so as not to be involved in desecrating shabbat. Sometimes people listen, but there’s always some eager pyromaniacs.

I dislike this “celebration” most intensely. It has no basis in our Sages’ early writings, e.g. the ones most contemporaneous with R’ Bar-Yoḥai. Since their writings include a great many stories and statements by him, it’s curious (to say the least) that one finds amongst them neither any support for his supposed authorship of the “Zohar”, nor any statements by them in support of bonfires for his passing. One might be tempted to believe that this celebration was entirely made-up; or worse, taken from pagan or other external sources. One might.

Which brings up another issue, which my nephew and I learned about this week. According to Rambam (whose legal teachings I follow), if one missed counting a day during the ʿomer period, one nevertheless resumes counting with a blessing. The common practice is that one no longer says a blessing, having missed a day. But that practice makes no sense, since the Biblical commandment is to count each day, so there is a new obligation every day, to count that day. If it were otherwise, a single blessing at the beginning of the counting period would suffice. Likewise, Rambam nowhere says anything about any kind of “mourning” during the period. Ah, well…

Enough of that: what about current events? According to this author, the “Zionist Left” is Israel’s “only hope”. Amusingly, he doesn’t consider the “Zionist Union”, formerly the “Labor Party”, to be Leftist. One assumes his definition of Leftist might include the Communist “Meretz”, but they too might not be far enough “Left”. Well, it takes all kinds.

This week I posted an article to Facebook about the US health-system, which generated so much vitriol that I deleted the post. Here’s a point of view contrary to the one I posted. My point about the entire debate is that emotional arguments do not contradict the fiscal ones. That is to say, there are limited resources available. How those resources are apportioned depends on your favored economic, social, and moral principles. If you claim that “health-care is a right”, then you are declaring that the government has the ability to force one person to pay for another’s health-care. That aside, the scarcity of providers and supplies militates against the idea that any such “right” could be provided without limit. And in the real-world, even in places where health-care is “free”, it is rationed. Because in the real-world, there are limitations.

“But,” I hear you say, “doesn’t Israel have free universal health-care?”. The answer is: no, it does not. The Israeli system is that all residents pay a “health-care tax” as some relatively low proportion of their income. In turn, everyone is required by law to join one of the four “health funds”, which must accept all applicants. As the government states: “In other words, health insurance is mandatory, and all residents of Israel must be insured”. In return for the coverage paid for by the tax, all funds are required to provide a “basket of health services”, which is fairly broad and covers the most important things. However, the funds are permitted to provide additional services for a fee (they all do), which may involve better service, better access, or some services not covered by the “basket”. In addition, one may purchase private insurance on top of the mandatory, outside the framework of the “funds”.

The advantage of this system for Israelis is that everyone is covered for a reasonable price. The advantage for the gov’t is that it can control public-health issues more readily; and because every resident is in the same insurance pool, the costs are lower than they would be with multiple, smaller, insurers. The disadvantages are that you often need to wait for a specialist or special procedure (outside of emergency situations), and that things you might need may not be covered (because, of necessity, the system limits the services it provides in the “basket”).

Alrighty then.

My nephew Chaim and his wife Ariele are launching a new business. Check it out.

We worked our hot-cross-buns off all week. Nothing exciting to report on that front; we’re all tired and ready for shabbat!

The weather was very hot during the week, but it’s cooled down to normal and should stay that way over the weekend, anyway.

Hurray! This shabbat we are back to what passes for “normal” with us. The three of us will have:
home-made ḥalla, chicken-breast in wine sauce, baked potatoes, tofu and yam salad, rice, okra in tomato sauce, garlicky green-beans, vegetable chili, bulgur-stuffed eggplant, various salatim, black-currant muffins, and lots of love.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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