Blog/April 2013/Apr 12th
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| Apr 12th (See this week's devar torah) | Comments or questions? Click here! |
Hi, again!
Back to an almost normal work-week. Esther was busy doing our taxes and finishing up the backload of laundry. Sarah and I were busy with school and work. Daniela and my mother were sick. And here in the Land we commemorated "Holocaust Memorial Day" (יום השואה).
I am conflicted about that day. It would seem that remembering the tragedy which befell our people not so long ago is a reasonable thing. But for one thing, we already have a day on the Jewish calendar which commemorates a number of tragedies: "The Ninth of 'Av" (תשעה באב). Mentioning the Holocaust during its liturgy is appropriate, not a problem and the "Jewish" thing to do. Blasting sirens and standing at attention (as is done in Israel during the Holocaust Memorial Day) is distinctly not-Jewish. For another thing (and if you're offended by this, please keep it to yourself), the Holocaust is treated by Israelis as something sui generis, which it manifestly is not. In fact, the destruction of the Second Temple (by the Romans, around 70CE) was a far greater tragedy -- yet most Israelis are only peripherally aware of that. Perpetuating the idea that the Holocaust was the pivotal moment in Jewish history helps persuade the Gentiles that Israel only owes its existence to that event, and helps delegitimize us in their eyes.
Esther's mother just arrived in Israel, she came with a tour-group. So though her time will be taken up by the tour, we will probably see her a few times before it's over. After the tour, she'll be spending a few days with us before heading back to Argentina. We hope she has an enjoyable time here!
On the work front, I'm continuing with the search for super-duper high-speed. The research I did this week showed some interesting results, namely that our code runs more slowly on faster computers! This was entirely unexpected, and we are now trying to gain a deep understanding of just exactly what is going on. My suspicion is that it has to do with how we use memory, but we'll see.
On the techie front, I am making progress with the web-version of the zemanim application. As I suspected, switching from jQuery Mobile to something which used to be called jqMobi before Intel took it over, has given pretty interesting speed improvements. However, it works differently so I'm having to rework the look and feel. I also had to abandon use of SVG for drawing the clock in favor of the HTML5 Canvas, since older Android browsers don't handle SVG properly (or at all).
On the home front, I just spent a couple hours repairing (or, rather, finishing) the work that our contractor had done before we moved into the house (yes, just about five years ago -- I'm lazy, so sue me). The circuit-breakers for our house are located just as you enter the house. We had our contractor install a cabinet around them, so that there would be a decent enclosure for the cables and switches etc. He sub-contracted it to the Arab guy who installed the kitchen cabinets. The same Arab who didn't know to use a level when installing them. Anyway, the guy did a slam-bang job, but never finished up the work. That is, the cabinets were installed, but there was no trim around the outside -- so there was a (large) visible gap between the cabinet and the surrounding wall.
We lived with that for the past five years, but since these gaps lead to the underside of the house, and from there creepy crawlers kept entering the house, I finally decided to finish off the job. So I got several tubes of caulking, and filled the gaps. But the gaps were enormous, and I didn't want to put in gallons of caulking; so I finally found a use for Yedioth Aharonoth, and used rolled-up newspaper to fill some of the gap so the caulking would only have to fill a smaller area. Anyway, I did manage to finish it; it looks better and I hope it will keep the creepy crawlers at bay...
Coming up this week is the most anxiously awaited holiday on the Israeli calendar, "Independence Day" (יום העצמאות). A day marked primarily by thick clouds of smoke from grills, but also by all sorts of events. I know it may contradict my opening remarks, but I really like the holiday. It's an opportunity to remember that we built up a country in less than 70 years, a country which has become a real light to the nations (even if the nations choose to close their eyes). May the light of our accomplishments in the physical realm be exceeded by the light of our spiritual achievements! וּנְתַתִּיךָ לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם, לִהְיוֹת יְשׁוּעָתִי עַד-קְצֵה הָאָרֶץ
Sarah's good friend Dinah is staying with us this shabbat. We've got a sort-of Moroccan menu this time: homemade ḥallah, various salatim: olives in tomato sauce, Moroccan carrot salad, cauliflower soup, eggplant salad; orange chicken, roasted yams, meatballs and rice, banana bread and fruit salad
Until next week,
shabbat shalom!
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