Blog/December 2017/Dec 22nd

December 22nd

Another decently productive week, B”H! We successfully finished the ḥanukka holiday, without gaining too much weight. In the meantime…

<detour>

Last week I discussed the idea that, accepting the proofs of God’s existence I mentioned the previous week, I believe that Judaism is the best candidate for a “correct religion”. But why should we accept Judaism’s version of things? Surely it’s possible that some guy or group of guys invented the Torah out of whole cloth?

I don’t think that’s the case. First of all, because as I mentioned last week, our story makes the incredible claim that the entire nation was present when God revealed Himself at Sinai. Men, women, and children. Let’s assume that the cynics’ scenario is correct, and some group of power-hungry men invented the story. They want to sell this story to the public — which, as we’ve said, are purported to all have been present, but they weren’t; and they tell Yossi and his friends this tale. So Yossi says, “What? My father and grandfather and great-grandfather never mentioned that to me. I never heard that story from anyone.” His friends raise the same objections. And so the Big Lie dies, because unlike religions where the revelation takes place in private, we make the claim that it was public. That’s a pretty stupid claim to make if you want to pull off a major scam.

Secondly, and more importantly: the prophecies of our prophets have come true, and are coming true (and, presumably, will continue to do so). There are multiple instances of fulfilled prophecies, but there’s at least one group of them which you can see for yourself, today: the ingathering of the Jewish exiles from all over the world, back to their ancestral homeland. This, after being very thoroughly scattered around the globe. A unique event, foretold numerous times by our prophets.

Third, the knowledge of the inner-workings of the Egyptian court and protocols, including the use of Egyptian terms when there are equivalent Hebrew ones, is difficult to understand. How did some Hebrew nomads get that correct information (we know it’s correct now, but “they” wouldn’t have had access to our sources)?

Food for thought, I hope…

</detour>

… and that’s the last of my “detours” in this series, don’t worry.

Some things:

• Next year in Jerusalem?
• Christian support for Israel is not necessarily about the ‘end times’
• Venezuela: a case study in Socialist theory
• Apple: a nasty “feature”
• Apple: can’t get security right

I made yet another release of 8th this week, the final one for this year, which makes it much more stable. Now I’ll concentrate on the “embedded” support I’ve been promising my users.

I also made another attempt at sourdough rye. It was a qualified success; I need to work more on my sourdough-mojo, but the flavor was excellent. Next time I’ll make a “Jewish rye”, to contribute to my mother’s happiness.

And… it was Daniela’s birthday this week! It’s hard to believe she’s as old as she is, when her mother is only 29.

We also visited with my nephew Chaim and family. The boy (Chaim’s son, not Chaim) is almost a year old, and is as cute and active as children that age usually are. We’ll be keeping a close eye on that one!

This shabbat we’re once again invited out for a meal, and for the rest we’ll have:
homemade ḥalla, slow-cooker poule au pot, various salatim, and apple-cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Dec 15th

Next: Dec 29th

---