Blog/November 2009/Nov 6th

Nov 6th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

The rain which started last Friday, continued off and on until Tuesday -- a very good start to the rainy season here. Let's hope and pray it continues! Right now it's warm, and it's supposed to be "warmer than average" this shabbat. That's good, since we'll have four (additional) girls staying with us, and having the weather be cold and wet would likely discourage them from leaving the house. But because the winter is approaching fast, we need to figure out what to do about (1) heating and (2) drying clothes. Our house got quite cold last winter, and we still haven't figured out the best way of heating it. A particular problem is the "salon", which is open to the stairwell and the kitchen, so it can't be efficiently heated. And since we use the sun to dry our clothes, and don't have a dryer, we have problems getting our clothes dried properly in the winter. So... we should probably give some real thought to these topics real soon now.

As you know already, we belong to a group called Anywhere in Israel, which places kids who are studying in yeshivas or seminaries with families for those shabbatot where they will be outside of the school. This week we got an email asking for placement for this shabbat, and as usual we said "sure, come on". Later that evening, I got a phone call from the coordinator of the program, who said that the girls who sent that request were from Chabad, and "maybe it wouldn't be a good fit". Of course, we already knew they were Chabad since they said so on the request. Anyway, I told the coordinator that we didn't mind at all, that we were "friends of Chabad". She was happy and surprised, and said she would get back to us shortly. In a few minutes she called again, to say that if it wouldn't be too much trouble, would we be able to take four girls instead of two? We again answered in the affirmative, and she said she would call back in a few minutes. Then she called back and said that, in fact, there were really five girls -- at which point I interrupted her and asked if this was related to this week's parashah -- but she ignored that, and said that she already placed three of the girls somewhere else, so we would only have two of the Chabad girls... but would it be possible for us to take in two other girls? Of course the answer was "certainly". So that is how it came about that we have four guests this week. It should be lively...

I mentioned a few weeks ago about our Israeli Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and how she was too stupid to keep her mouth shut about matters outside her narrow field of expertise. It turns out that Ada'le has been a darling of the ultra-far-Left for quite a while. So that idiotic smile of hers is probably somehow related to the leering grin on this numb-nut.

Further proof that Jews are not all that brilliant: another "post-Zionist" professor at Tel Aviv University declares that Jews are really Khazars, and therefore don't deserve to live in the Land of Israel. Never mind that the genetic evidence (which predated his paper by years) shows that in fact, most modern-day Jews are much more closely related to middle-eastern peoples than to any of the host populations among whom they were scattered. Never mind, that -- as I mention in my devar-torah this week -- anyone who chooses, can become a Jew. So it matters not a bit what the genetic heritage is (except for Levites and Cohanim and the future King Messiah) -- our claim to the Land is not predicated upon our physical ancestors; nor is our peoplehood a genetic issue.

In case you were wondering: this week the menu includes a new, "authentic" Hilbe; chicken soup, baked salmon, roasted chicken, the usual selection of salatim, chocolate cake with coconut frosting, meatballs. Not necessarily in that order, of course. I hope the girls find something they like.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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