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Sep 23rd

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Among other things, we were busy getting ready (or, more likely, pretending to get ready) for the upcoming Holidays. Most of my preparation (I won’t speak for Esther) was done in the material realm: purchasing viands of various kinds, that sort of thing. I should have spent more time on spiritual matters, but alas! the body is weak and the spirit weaker still.

The family has increased unexpectedly. This week I decided to look in the Israeli “phone book” to see if I could find someone with a rather unique last-name shared by my ancestors (on my mother’s mother’s line). I knew that some remnants of that family had managed to escape Europe and make it to Israel some time before 1948.

As it happens, there was exactly one person with that name; so, not being shy, I contacted him. Not only did he respond, he was really excited to have been contacted by a long-lost relative. Very much in contrast, I must say, to the majority of my long-lost family members — but that’s a story for another time.

We’ve tentative plans to get together very soon, no later than the upcoming “intermediate days” of sukkoth. I’m looking forward to fleshing out more of that part of our family tree.

A few items of note:

• A massive data breach, seemingly a complete compromise of Uber’s systems.
• But who needs a data breach? US Customs officials have been copying Americans’ phone data at massive scale. TL;DR: you do have the right to refuse to hand over your phone or computer to them, if you are a US citizen (but you may not get your device back).
• The “Patriot Act”, 2.0. Is it too late to turn back gov’t overreach? I know the people are revolting, but maybe it’s time for them to actually revolt?
• The ever excellent Mallen answers questions. Among others: “will he stand for Parliament?”
• Are Twilio’s race-based firings legal? They’ll find out soon. One expects they’re in violation of multiple laws, but the way things are going, who knows?

I’m looking forward to rosh hashanah not because I enjoy the services (I very much do not), but because after the holiday is over, the shmiṭa year also concludes, which means I’ll be able to get my currently rag-tag garden back in shape. I’ll have to remember to plant some vegetables as well (been on my list for over a year now…).

And pace Daniela — Jeremy has done a lot of “heavy lifting” this week in researching the aforementioned odd family name. He dove into a ton of Latvian census records, handwritten in old Cyrillic cursive style, though he knows no Russian (and less so Cyrillic script). So kudos to him, we’ve made impressive progress on that family line.

Soon: to try to tackle Esther’s family. That will be much more difficult, as most of the records will have been destroyed or reside in (actual) enemy territory. One does what one can.

The weather this week was very pleasant, finally reaching autumnal temperatures. But summer isn’t over yet! We’ll have a heat-wave just in time for rosh hashanah. I think I’m being given a message regarding my inadequate preparations…

shabbat and then rosh hashanah menus include:
lots of homemade ḥalla, lots of good wine, rib steak, roasted potatoes, coleslaw, veggie cholent, apples and honey, pomegranates, beets, braised leeks, roasted carrots, mushroom soup, orange honey chicken, roasted green beans, roasted yams, brisket, roasted salmon, some kind of veggie dish, various salatim, cookies, apple-cake, and honey-cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom and shana ṭova umetuqa!

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