Blog/October 2016/Oct 28th
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October 28th
We started the week off by preparing for the final holiday of the “month of holidays”, shemini ʿaṣeret. Also known as “the holiday which stands alone” or the “lonely holiday”.
Because it comes immediately on the heels of the seven days of sukkot, it is often considered to be part of that holiday. But actually it’s separate, as evidenced by the fact that we are not required to eat in the sukkah and we don’t wave the “four species”. When the Temple exists, the sacrifices brought are different. And perhaps most telling, on shemini ʿaṣeret we begin praying for rainfall… something which is undesirable when sitting in the sukkah.
I’m always struck by my (admittedly subjective) observation that the rain in the Land seems to always start right around when we start praying for rain to fall. It did so this year, starting yesterday in our area. It’s particularly interesting, I think, since the date we change our prayers to mention rain is not the same in the secular calendar (it moves between September and October). I’d be interested in seeing a chart of first-rainfall (in Israel) vs. first-request-for-rainfall — to see whether or not my subjective observation has any objective validity.
Anyway, the holiday ended and with it the holiday season. We packed up our sukkah and its supplies, and returned to the normal schedule of work.
One of my cousins, whom I hadn’t seen in thirty years, came with her family to visit the Holy Land for the first time. We managed to get to see them for a couple hours, having a pleasant meal and a very pleasant visit. We hope they enjoyed their trip and that they repeat it soon!
On a humorous note: my uncle (said cousin’s father) warned her not to discuss politics or religion with me, since I am “far right-wing”. When we met up, I told her that she (and they) should feel free to discuss anything at all, without restrictions.
For your edification, an explanation of “where I stand”. I’m a “classical liberal” (not to be confused with what “Liberal” means in the USA). That means I believe in liberty; in particular, liberty of thought. I believe in free discussion of ideas — how else does one grow, intellectually? As opposed to capital-l Liberals and “far right-wingers”, I do not believe in suppressing the expression of ideas. Politically, I tend to favor whoever wishes to govern least and leave me alone. Economically, I’m mostly a “libertarian”. On defense and security, I’m mostly to the right of Genghis Khan (not to be confused with Dschinghis Khan). On social issues, I’m mostly “libertarian”.
So please, stop labelling me as an “extreme right-winger”; that shoe pinches my foot.
Random stuff:
- Why “settlers” carry guns. Well, most actually don’t, but it’s informative anyway.
- Which of the US candidates is better for Israel? Difficult to say.
- But it is nice to be above the law!
- A hardware vulnerability in mobile devices which lends itself to hacking.
My much-better-half only had to work one day this week, lucky gal!
I didn’t. My current client required a fair amount of work from me this week, so I obliged. The work was a bit frustrating since I don’t yet know the software well enough to really know what I’m doing, but the client nevertheless wanted me to fix the software on their client’s system. It was slow going, but I did manage in the end. What is a bit alarming is that I am now the only person in that company who understands their software, and I’m not part of their company. It’s a strange way to work, but as long as they pay my bills I can’t complain.
This coming week I’ll start working with a second client, who is also interested in having me be the point-man for their software. I wonder if this is a trend amongst Israeli software companies?
As a consequence of having to keep track of multiple projects and the time spent on each, and being required to give detailed reports to clients — I’ve written a time-tracker in 8th which I have recently enhanced to be even more useful. It’s a “command-line” program at present; perhaps I’ll turn it into a real product one day.
The weather has turned drizzly and fall-like. For shabbat we’ll have nice seasonal weather, but by next Wednesday the forecast is for unseasonably cold (for us: high of 18C) and probably rainy weather. One can hope!
Late-breaking news: Sarah is happy to announce that she was just hired at the Steimatzky book store here in Maale Adumim!
This shabbat we’ve been invited out for dinner; for the other meals, we’ll have:
cauliflower couscous,
roasted veggies,
roasted turkey breast,
salatim,
and fruit.
Until next time,
shabbat shalom!
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