Blog/August 2013/Aug 30th

Aug 30th (See this week's devar torah)

Comments or questions? Click here!

---

Hi, again!

The weather has continued to be on the warm side of pleasant, today being the hottest day of the week. It nevertheless has been the coolest summer in the past six years, of which fact we heartily approve! Sarah still had some film work to do, and she’s hopefully done with that now, until “after the holidays”. Which are coming up. Real Soon. Now.

In honor of rosh hashanah, Esther’s been slaving away in the kitchen. Even though (as she knows) she could cook on the holiday itself, she prefers (rightfully so, I might add) to be relaxed on the yamim-tovim and wear herself to a frazzle before them. So the house has had an amazing aroma of holiday fare all week long, and I’ve faced a remarkable challenge keeping myself from sampling the goods. Just a few more days…

In more honor of the New Year coming upon us for a blessing, my dear wife acquired a number of “succulents”. An aloe, a jade-plant and some other “low-maintenance” greeneries. Unfortunately, my dear wife — while having an amazing touch in the kitchen — has a “black thumb” when it comes to gardening. May it be His will our plants also prosper in the New Year!

The big news this week, of course, is the impending (perhaps) US strike (maybe) on Syria (any moment now). Now far be it for me to opine on great matters of state, but I wonder: does anyone (in the West) really think that removing Assad — as terrible as he is — will improve the Syrian (or wider Arab) situation in any measurable way? After all, the US has made a practice of deposing select leaders around the world at whim, and in general the results have been mixed. But in the Middle-East the results have been uniformly bad. Why do you think that is?

Again, far be it (etc., etc… false modesty was never my strong suit) but a cursory knowledge of Arab culture is all it takes to get a handle on the situation. Arab societies are centered around clans, not nations. Their first loyalty is to their family, then to their clan; this is universally true in Arab societies. In Syria, the Assads have been in power for several decades. Their Alawi minority has been favored because of that. As soon as Assad is deposed for real, there will be a real “ethnic cleansing” of 2.6 million Alawites. Not that I like the Assads, but at least they’ve kept the Israel-Syria border fairly quiet since 1974, only acting indirectly. Once they go, al-Qaeda will be in charge — and you can be quite sure they’ll heat things up with Israel as soon as they’re done slaughtering Alawites.

This week continued seeing an influx of new immigrants from the Goldene Medina. One such family landed on our street, just a couple days ago; so we’re helping them out. It’s a wonderful thing to see our prophets’ words being fulfilled!

• Though the US has imprisoned Jonathan Pollard (essentially) for life for transmitting crucial intelligence to Israel (intelligence which the US was obliged to pass on, but did not), it seems it has no problem spying on Israel. We should round up the US spies here and dump them in the cooler.
• Anti-GMO hysteria by privileged elites helps keep the third-world undernourished.
• Don’t single out a billion Muslims!
• Trying to hook a new market, a bus driver tries to smuggle fish into Jerusalem.
• And the Israeli Spring, just in time for the New Year!

The New Year 5774 is coming up in just a few days! Let’s pray that the “situation” remain calm for us here in the Land, despite the many sabres rattling all ‘round the area.

No guests this week, just the “calm before the storm” coming next week. We have a limited amount of raw-materials available, so on our menu this time around:
teriyaki chicken, traditional cholent, salatim, beet salad, kohlrabi salad, eggplant in tomato sauce, roasted yams, rice, veggie shepherd’s pie, (other, currently unknown, things) and spice cake.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom and shana tova!

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Aug 23rd

Next: Sep 4th

---