Blog/September 2013/Sep 13th

Sep 13th -- sorry, no devar torah this week!

Hi, again!

Another hectic week, even though Sarah was away for a few days on vacation! She, by the way, had a fantastic time in England with her aunt and uncle; she wasn’t in a huge rush to get back. Nevertheless, she returned along with her aunt, uncle and two cousins. So we’ve got a house-full until the end of sukkot.

Esther and I started the process of opening our commercial bank-account on Monday. In my innocence, I thought it wouldn’t take much longer than the two hours it took to open our personal account. It turns out I was wrong; in fact, I was not even close to being right. Today (Friday) we just finished signing most of the paperwork, so we have an actual account. However, we still have more to do before we get internet access, our checks, our corporate credit card… I’m still in shock.

In other surprises, our phones all decided to change their times to Israel Standard Time (from Israel Daylight Time). It used to be that the Friday between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur was when the clock changed. But this year (actually, at the end of 2012), the Knesset changed the rules (and revised them again in June this year), so that we don’t change back to IST until the last Sunday of October. As it happens, the cell-phone companies did not change their programming to reflect the law, so hundreds of thousands of Israelis had incorrect times on their phones this past Sunday, and were late for work. Our particular cell-phone company said “we sent out SMS notices, and we updated our FaceBook page to tell people to not synchronize with the cell-network”. That is, rather than make a small change in their software to be correct, they told people to not use their network to update the time. Incredible.

Despite all that, this week the “World Happiness Report” was published, and just as in years past, Israelis ranked very highly. We are, apparently, the 11th-happiest people in the world. Happier than residents of the US and England, much happier than any of our regional neighbors and even happier than we were last year. Given how we are beset by enemies all around, boycotted and badmouthed on the international stage, one may be forgiven for asking, “what’s going on in Israel?”

Maybe it has to do with the almost-entire-month of holidays we have every year… though France also does, and ranks much lower. Or perhaps it’s because we have great weather most of the time… though all our neighbors do and all rank much lower. Could it be because of our excellent food? Well, arguably France and Italy also have excellent food. Our financial success? Well, Germany is much better off than we are, and much less happy. Because of our efficient public institutions? Don’t make me laugh! What else is left? Only the Creator’s blessing!

Several people have asked me how to use the “GPG” key I’ve been mentioning in my emails (in the “signature line”). So I’ve written an article which should help explain it, and I hope you take a look and give me feedback on whether it was written clearly enough and whether or not it explained things sufficiently.

We are currently getting ready for Yom Kippur, just a few short hours away. The “Day of Atonement”, which calls for repentance, fasting and prayer. Sorry, guys, an internet-based application isn’t quite the right way to go about the whole “repentance” thing. Cool idea, though. Anyway, we’re about ready to shut things down and be prepared for the long and hot fast-day.

No food this week! Well, almost no food… we do have to have a meal before the yom-kippur fast:
bread, a few salads, rice and puchero.

Until next week,
have a meaningful fast,
gemar ḥatima tovah and shabbat shalom!

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