Blog/April 2009/Apr 24th
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April 24th (See this week's devar torah)
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Another busy week! Work has been crazy, the birds and the flowers are bursting with activity (as are the ants). Had the opportunity to do a new mitsvah.
Last week I posted pictures of flowers, and a friend of mine asked if there were any birds in Israel -- since it seems so arid. It turns out that Israel has a very large and varied bird population, because of its unique location at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa. We have a tremendous number of birds... here are professional pictures of some.
Just yesterday we noticed a hummingbird hovering outside our salon window -- it was interested in the sweet smelling roses which are growing like crazy all around our house. Today there was a dove trying to establish a nest right at the front door of our house (above the electric meter). I sent it away, and hopefully it won't return to litter our front stoop with its offerings.
The ants have not yet given up. This week they finally drove Esther crazy, so my war of extirpation has had to be turned up a notch. I've been looking for boric acid, which is a primary ingredient in the more effective ant-baits. In the US, one could purchase it in any drugstore... but here, no such luck. However, I did find one place (beware: advert for a local vendor follows), a privately owned pharmacy "Brosh", here in Maaleh Adummim, which not only has boric acid -- but can make all kinds of custom formulations (they actually have a laboratory, unlike the chain drugstores). I was very happy to find they carried the poison I needed. After getting back home with my stash, I cooked up some ant-be-gone syrup and put it in a couple places in the kitchen. Sadly, no ants have yet bitten the bait -- which isn't too surprising, they're fearfully clever little creatures.
Living in the Land gives you opportunities for mitsvot which simply don't exist in the Exile. This week, for the first time in my life, I separated "tithes" (teruma and ma`aserot), on the fruit of our sheseq (loquat). Not that there was a large crop of them, but one may not eat vegetables and fruits and grain grown in the Land by Jews, without separating out the tithes.
Also this week was "Holocaust Memorial Day" yom hashoah, which is marked among other things by a two-minute-long siren -- during which most people stop what they are doing and stand in silent memorial. However, there are good reasons to object to this particular memorial day. First, we already have fast days (in particular the 9th of Av) to commemorate the evil which has happened to our people. Second, the majority of Jewish practice is that the month of Nissan (during which yom hashoah always falls) is a month of happiness and mourning is curtailed. Third, and please don't get upset -- the shoah is not the worst thing which has happened to the Jewish people, and singling it out for special treatment above the far more formative events in our history (such as the destruction of the First and Second Temples) is perverse and wrong-headed. Understandable, but wrong in my opinion.
Work has been utterly crazy for me. I was the last one hired, but I'm the first one who has to produce final product. The part I'm working on is going to be burnt to CD end of next week, and shipped to paying customers -- so it absolutely must work 100%. Incredibly, I've got it working quite well right now -- so probably I can make the deadline, even though we have one more vacation day (Israeli Independence day) next week.
This past shabbat I had a severe attack of vertigo, which made me sick to my stomach and kept me at home. Some of you remember I had this before -- so after shabbat, I looked up how to perform the Epley maneuver at my home. When I did it, almost miraculously, the vertigo was cured -- and I'm back to "normal".
In manly news: I took apart, cleaned and re-heat-sinked our laptops. They had been getting very hot, so I figured cleaning out their cooling systems would be a good idea. When I took them apart, I found they were all wearing felt coats of lint blocking the fan-exit holes -- so naturally, they didn't get cooled down properly. Now, after cleaning and "tuning up", they are all running much cooler and more quietly.
Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!
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