Blog/January 2009/Jan 16th

January 16th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week I had some interesting questions and discussions, revolving around "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Zionism". One question was that it has been said that Israel suffers the equivalent of a "9/11" every few years, and do I have any source for that? You can read my answer here. Another question was Why do they hate us?. I was accused of being a fascist Israeli, tacitly supporting Israel's unjust war in Gaza. I was accused of stealing land from the Fakestinians. Overall, a most enlightening week.

As you know, the war is still going on. Fortunately, it hasn't yet gone nuclear. The foreign press continues to lie as is their wont, but the important thing is to keep a sense of humor about it. Along those lines, Bolivia has cut diplomatic relations with Israel. So now, will tacky wool ponchos and illicit drugs cost more? At least I know how to spell.

More seriously, the fact that "the press" doesn't understand that people take religion seriously, is one explanation for the ludicrous coverage given by the foreign press (particularly the Europeans). If they were to look a bit they might understand why people are saying this is a war of miracles, and even more miracles. There is a fascinating resurgence of religion among soldiers. I guess that's not surprising, but it is interesting and encouraging, and should give our wonderful neighbors pause.

In even more encouraging news, the Knesset Elections Committee actually approved the banning of two Arab parties from running for the Knesset. These are parties which not only actively advocate the overthrow of Israel, but whose leaders give advice to our (active) enemies on how to accomplish that. In any sane country they would have been outlawed long ago and their leaders tried for treason, but not in our little democracy. Try that kind of crap in Syria or Egypt and see how long your career is...

I love this place! Truly, I do. One day this week, an air-raid siren went off in Jerusalem (as well as Beit Shemesh and Maale Adummim). I don't know the last time one went off, but to judge by the puzzled expressions on people's faces it had been a long time. Everyone was next to the windows, trying to "hear if it was real or not". Guess what, guys! If it were real, standing next to a window would have been a really bad idea. Turns out it was a "mistake", thank God -- but at the exact same time there was a real alert happening in the south (six missiles fired into Israel from Gaza).

Here in the sleepy town of Maale Adummim, we had a real row break out -- a "pissing contest" between the mayor of our town, and the police official responsible for the checkpoint leading from M"A to Jerusalem. For some reason which is not clear, the police official decided to be an a@@@@@e and lock down the checkpoint. Not because of security reasons (which would be legitimate), but because of the aforementioned contest. So traffic to J"M in the morning was unbelievable. One morning it took me an hour and forty minutes to get to work, instead of twenty minutes. So I moved my "start time" later, and got around the problem. But the local paper had essentially an entire issue devoted to this imbroglio.

In the job situation, we got informed this week that unless the company gets funding by the end of February, we'll be out of work. So sadly, I am looking for work now because as our Sages tell us we must not "rely on miracles". So if you know of anyone who needs a top-notch programmer and team leader, send them my resumé. Particularly if they're in the Jerusalem area.

Esther took part in a project to bake challot for the troops. It turned into a family project, each of us contributing in our way -- but the actual baking of delicious shabbat bread for the soldiers was done by my lovely wife.

Daniela is "hosting" her grandpa this week, in NYC. Of course she can't really host him, since she's in an all-girls school. But she's between semesters, and grandpa is having his usual good time visiting and what-not.

Sarah got some really good scores on tests this week, so she was happy as were we. Unfortunately, she got pulled over by a cop for running a stop-sign. Well, she got pulled over by a simulated cop for running a simulated stop-sign. She seems to enjoy the driving class in school. Too bad we may not have a car any more...

She asked me an interesting question today: when mashiach comes and the holy Temple is rebuilt, will we be able to put in orders for the kinds of sacrifices we need to make, "online"? I couldn't think of any particular reason why not, and then I thought -- hey! I'll bet no-one has written any software for running the Temple! Maybe I should take that on as a project while I'm out of work.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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