Blog/December 2008/Dec 12th

December 5th
Sorry, no devar torah this week...

Hi again!

It's been another crazy week. The tragedy in Mumbai last week affected us here both directly and indirectly. Not only were our fellow Jews murdered in cold blood (which, sadly, is nothing new), but some of the victims were laid to rest here in Jerusalem. Beyond that, our company has extensive dealings with India (and we have Indian staff), so our colleagues there were quite shaken. And finally, numerous people suggested helpfully that I might want to stay away from India -- as though there is any place in the world "off limits" to the animals who perpetrate these atrocities.

There were comments posted in various places on-line to the effect that, yes, several Jews were killed, but lots more Indians were -- so it wasn't anything especially to do with Jews. Of course, that was before one of the captured terrorists admitted that one of the goals was specifically "to kill Jews". But even without that: 171 Indians were killed, and 6 Jews. The population of India is 1.1 billion, of whom 5,000 are Jews. That means that while Jews constitute 0.0045 percent of India's population, they made up slightly more than 3.5 percent of the victims. Given that even long term residents of Mumbai don't know where the Chabad house was (or even that it existed), it would beggar the imagination to think the terrorists had not specifically targeted Chabad house. May God avenge His servants' spilt blood!

Then there's the feckless Israeli gov't eviction of Jews from their legally purchased property, prior to any court decision demanding their eviction. As our wisest king said, שם רשעים ירקב  (Prov 10:7). May we soon see his descendant!

Work has been extremely stressful; our clients have a great deal of difficulty understanding how little they know. They then blame us for not having told them things (which they should have known, but which are in any case written in the document they were supposed to have read). As the "manager" of the project, I get to tear my remaining hair out trying to communicate exactly what they need to do (and what they want of us). I definitely don't get paid enough for this...

We did get out one night this week, to hear a presentation at the local observatory. Yes, there is actually an observatory in Maale Adummim. Not only that, but there is a fledgling "astronomy society". Who would have thought it?

OK, I'm really pushing to get ready for shabbat -- so I'll sign off for now.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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