Today's Teens

Explanation for those who don't get it:

Inner kippa design -- זה בשבילי "This is for me"
Outer design (making kipa bigger) -- וזה בשביל הרב "This is for [my] Rav...

When my teen son saw this picture, he immediately wanted one.

sigh.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

BBC maintaining its unique standard of journalism

Read the link first:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13523760,00.html

Then watch the video:

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/video/cabbie.wmv

Them remind yourself these are the professionals who criticize everything Israel does.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Lag BaOmer - One Big Mistake?

A few weeks back DovBear discussed why we mourn during the sefira period (and why the currently espoused reasons may not be historically accurate). He then mentioned that the entire idea of medurot (bonfires) on Lag BaOmer is based on pagan customs. I think that the medurot idea could have come from the method of notifying the Jewish people in Galut of the arrival of the new Jewish Month (pre-SMS and internet).

However, there was a fascinating article in this past Shabbat's Makor Rishon newspaper saying that the entire idea of partying on Lag BaOmer is based on... a typo.

The Talmudic Researcher Rav Avraham Kosman arrives at the conclusion that not only is the entire Lag BaOmer festival -- of bonfires, going to Meiron, commemerating the death of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai -- a big mistaken, but that the idea of a Hilula (celebration) to commemerate the death of tzaddikim is mistaken.

I'll translate the main highlights of the article (from the Hebrew)

In year 363 of the common era, a terrible earthquake rocked Eretz Yisrael causing tremendous damage to Yerushalayim and loss of life....it occurred on Lag BaOmer. As a result, Lag BaOmer became a day of fasting and prayer.

There is no Mishnaic or Talmudic reference to Lag BaOmer, except that the students of Rabbi Akiva died in a plague between Pesach and Shavuot since they didn't act kindly to each other. Many accept that it's unlikely that Rabbi Akiva actually had 24,000 students learning in his yeshiva (Lakewood today has how many? 3000?) and this was a reference to Bar Kochba's soldiers rebelling against Rome. To keep all references to Jewish rebellion to a minimum, the Gemara referred to these soldiers as "students of Rabbi Akiva."

Rabbi Eliezer HaKalir wrote a kina (lament) for Lag BaOmer, also attributed as the yahrtzeit of Yehoshua Bin Nun. Fragments from the Cairo Geniza recollect the fast of Lag BaOmer commemerating the Yehoshua's yahrtzeit and "The Earthquake" (from year 363).

So...when did Lag BaOmer appear on the scene as a day when the mourning laws of sefira stop? When and why did it make the change from a day of fasting and mourning to a day of bonfires, weddings and merriment?

The Ari, (R' Yitzchak Luria) went to the grave of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai (on Har Meiron in the Galil) during the days of the month of Iyar. He also went to the graves of Hilell and Shammai (also in the Galil) and prayed there as well...and somehow the idea that commemerating the yahrtzeit of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai became connected to Lag BaOmer.

The original prayers of the Ari were to beseech for a good year of wealth, and slowly the idea of commemerating a yahrtzeit went from a solemn day to one of a "hilula" (the way sephardrim and chassidim commemerate a yahrtzeit...with food, drink, and more...)

Now, the Ari didn't write any of his books. They were all written by his student Rav Chaim Vital, and he had a monopoly on the Ari's teachings. For 15 years, he refused to allow anyone to read his books and writings about the Ari.

Till one day...Rav Vital fell very ill. A wealthy person bribed Rav Vital's brother with 50 gold coins -- and hired 100 scribes to complete the mammoth task of copying all of Rav Vital's manuscripts relating to the Ari...in 3 days!

Soon, all of the illegally copied manuscripts were published and available to all...yet in the haste to copy everything in 3 days, the following error occurred (according to Rav Kosman).

In the original, hand written document of Rav Vital, it says the Lag BaOmer was "יום שמחת רשב"י" -- the day of happiness of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai (for being saved from the "plague - or Romans). The scribe copied it down as the abbreviated יום שמ' רשב"י" which further was modified by the publishers to יום שמת רשב"י", the day Rav Shimon Bar Yochai died.

Rav Shimon Bar Yochai was saved on Lag BaOmer from the "plague" (meaning he wasn't killed that day), but there isn't any historical record that he died on Lag BaOmer.

Let' add the following:

The Chatam Sofer asked, critical about Lag BaOmer: (and that's even with the Chatam Sofer accepting that Rav Shimon Bar Yochai died on Lag BaOmer!)

"Since when is it that the day a tzaddik dies is a holiday?"

"How can there be a holiday for a day when no miracle occurred and isn't mentioned in the Mishna, Talmud, or any hint at all in the Tanach?"

So...why do we do this all on Lag BaOmer?

If it's a good excuse for bonfire, who am I to challenge tradition...

Please note: everything I wrote is from the article I linked to in Hebrew. I suggest you read through it yourself if you can - many more interesting historical tidbits.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Outrageous Incitement

And you thought I was going to rant about the Israeli Left inciting against the settlers or Chareidim...or perhaps the Extreme Right inciting against Palestinians...or maybe Palestinians inciting against Israel or Jews?

Wrong and Wrong and Wrong.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

In yet another indication of growing tensions between the two movements, Fatah sympathizers in the Gaza Strip have begun boycotting Hamas-controlled mosques, accusing the Islamist movement of inciting against their leaders.

On Friday, thousands of worshipers refused to enter the Farouk Mosque in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, saying the preacher was planning to verbally attack Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders. The Fatah supporters prayed in the streets while their Hamas rivals prayed inside the mosque.

Like most mosques in the Strip, the Farouk Mosque is controlled by Hamas. Leaders of Abbas's Fatah party have in recent weeks expressed deep concern over "incitement" in the mosques, saying Hamas preachers were exploiting Friday prayers to launch scathing attacks on them.

Hamas officials dismissed the allegations as "lies" and said the only incitement was that coming from Fatah.

Reminds me of the Iran and Iraq war. For the time being, its best to take a step back and let them duke it out. We'll have to deal with the outcome regardless...but at least we can take a slight breather now (if only for a few minutes).


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Motzei Shabbat Rant at 4:00 AM

So, there's this virus on the Mrs. @ the Muqata's computer which she uses for work. I spent a few hours working on it on Friday morning and then took a very radical step for the Muqata IT dept., and I went out and purchased (not downloaded) Norton Internet Security 2006...

It (claims to have) removed the virus on the computer (after working on it for hours and hours on Friday) 20 minutes before Shabbat (not 18) the computer reboots, and the virus claims to have disappeared...and so has Norton Anti Virus. It's disappeared as well.

I have now spent hours tonight on motzei shabbat working on her computer, and the bottom line is -- Norton Anti Virus sometimes works...and is worth every cent. And sometimes it doesn't reinstall (like tonight) and is totally worthless.

So, the posts I didn't get to write this evening were:

1. The Greatest Tiyul of all Time (well, I wrote about half of it during reboots)
2. Lag BaOmer - the Biggest Historical Mistake? (Is Lag BaOmer really supposed to be a sad day, and we've gotten it all wrong?)
3. And the Enlightened Shall Shine (On meeting Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Auman -- and I received permission from the GodolHador (tm) website to borrow that term, temporarily, for the posting.

All I can say is that I hope the hacker who wrote the virus which infected my wife's computer (or the lame developers at Symatec/Norton) gets arrested and imprisoned by the Egyptian Police...and I hope that I get to finish at least one of these postings during waking hours.

Shavua Tov.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael, even if there is no such thing as Sunday in Israel, and I have to get up in a few hours.

Let the Blogger Go.

Israel is not a stranger to Egyptian Democracy -- as Israeli citizen Azzam Azzam languished in an Egyptian prison for years on trumped up charges of spying for Israel.

Taking a cue from the way the Chinese treat Falun Gong, the Egyptian government has detained a blogger who's ideas were slightly different than theirs. Detained, as in imprisoned.

Granted, this story is going around the Blogosphere, but I was personally requested to post on this story (as I think everyone should)....so take a second to read it.

AbbaGav wrote an excellent piece on this issue (Freedom of Speech Starts with Freeing the Speaker).

Please take a moment to read a little more about Alaa and his situation at Lisa's blog, On The Face, and at Yael's site, Step by Step. And if you have your own blog or website, adding a link to the Free Alaa! blog using the word Egypt in the linking text will help let anyone searching for important information about Egypt find out about Alaa first. Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey also has information on how to write letters or emails to US, Canadian, or Egyptian authorities on Alaa's behalf.

Now, just as an additional message; There are those out there who would say to me, why am I wasting my time helping an Egyptian blogger...aren't there many other more important causes for me to worry about?

My answer is:

1. He's pro-Israel, and not out to kill me.
2. Freedom of Speech should be important to everyone (and it should be an issue common to all bloggers)
3. Having personally been affected by limitations of Freedom of Speech, in Israel, I'm much more sensitive to the issue.

Think about it. You're Tagged.

Technorati tag: googlebombingforalaa

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

EL-AL Premium Flights

There's been quite alot of jblogosphere discussion (Ezzie, DovBear, Orthomom, and others) the past few days about the exclusive EL-AL flight for 2 Rabbanim which was comprised of an air-attendant staff of only men.

That issue aside, there's another premium service flight that EL-AL offers that not too many people know about -- its the Kohein special. Same price from Newark to Tel-Aviv, but no dead bodies are aboard these flights to avoid the issue of Tumat HaMeit. A Kohein friend and I dicussed this on my way to work this morning, and he said it's the daily afternoon flight from Newark (but I don't know for certain - contact EL-AL for more details).

For those Kohanim that can't make this flight, there are 2 heterim for flying on airplanes with dead bodies aboard. ** (more info over here as well)

1. The first is from the Israel Chief Rabbinate, that due to the way bodies are packed into the special airline coffin -- there isn't a problem.

2. According to Rav Moshe's psak -- a Kohein shouldn't fly on a plane with a dead body. However he mentions at the end of the psak, that depending on the materials the plane is made of, it could be permissiable. My friend quoted R' Shabtai Rappaport that the current metals used in making airplanes render the issue of Tumat HaMeit irrelavent, since the floor dividing the passenger section from the cargo section is sufficient to be a barrier and thereby moot the issue.

(As a side note, when R' Rappaport was asked if he (also a Kohain) relied on this psak and flew EL-AL, he replied, "No...they don't have as much leg room as other airlines")

However, an even more difficult to solve issue, of which there were no heterim (that I know of) was that the flight path of all airlines out of Israel in 2001 went straight over the Holon Cemetary, thereby raising the issue again of Tumat HaMeit. As a result of the urgings of many Kohanim and rabbanim, all the flight paths have been changed and this is no longer an issue.

While we all have our share of issues with EL-AL, I think its praiseworthy that they addressed the issue of Tumat HaMeit for their priestly passengers.

** The halachik information here should be confirmed with your local Halachik authority.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Elvis the Drug Dealer

Not having much time today, I'm dredging up one of the posts I wrote a few months ago but never got around to posting. I wrote this a while back and it doesn't really make sense being on my blog (it doesn't get any more off-topic than this) but here it is anyway. Got a whole bunch more of them for rainy days...

Off Topic: Elvis the Drug Dealer (Strange Stories from Yesteryear)

I enjoyed writing my Fleeing Manila story...till I started receiving threatening comments from Philipino bloggers who were about to target the Muqata in retaliation for some of the less than complimentary observations I mentioned about their beloved country. Till the crisis dies down I have shelved the Feeling Manila series.

Inspired by Jack's ongoing conversation with a Nigerian Spammer, I started recalling many of the strange stories I was involved with when I studied at Yeshiva College.

For your reading enjoyment, I present today's installment:

Elvis the Drug Dealer

Ah, the 80's.

As a proud member of Generation-X, the 80's were decent years to be in high school, college, Israel...wherever. The strange 70's plaid clothing my parents dressed me disappeared, and normal looking apparel took their place. I loved the music from the 80's...

After Yeshiva in Israel I returned to Yeshiva College to the Muss Hall dorm. Getting a phone was essential in those days; mobile phones didn't really exist. Payphones were lame. Everyone had to have a phone in their room...well, the guys had one phone for both of them, while at Stern, every girl needed at least one. This way, if they wanted to get someone off the phone, they would call their own line from the other phone and say, "Ooops, got a call waiting, have to go...bye!" No one ever did that to me, though.

My roomate let me deal with ordering the phone since:

1. I was the primary phone user
2. Most of the calls were for me
3. He let me worry about phone payment

So, first week of the Fall semester I took care of getting us a phone line.

Since I had a lot of cool, older friends (which is where I met Trep), they would give me whatever gadgets they outgrew or broke, and I would promptly take them apart and fix them. This way, I had a cool phone, answering machine, stereo, keyboard, and other fun things in my dorm room. My roomate and I made up some ridiculous message for the answering machine, and got on with college life.

Little did we anticipate what our phone line had in store for us.

Arriving back at our dorm the first evening we had our phone, there was a curious message waiting for us on the answering machine.

Elvis, Hey Man, where you been?

We're been trying to get in touch with you for 2 days already!

Where can we meet to buy some stuff? You know, the good white stuff you sold us last week?

Call me back -- Jack, 718-555-1212."

OK, that was weird. We assumed that Jack had the wrong number and would figure it out soon enough.

That night, after eating dinner somewhere and coming back from maariv, we found another message on the machine.

Elvis dude! Yoohoo! Where are you?!

We have this pah-ty going on in the village and it just aint the same without some dope.

Call me back dear, need you now!

LINDA...212-555-1212

This was starting to get annoying. I called the NYPD and told them I had these numbers of people looking for a drug dealer named Elvis...and they just laughed me off. I guess there was much more serious police work to be done in Washington Heights.

Next call came that night around 2:00 AM....and I answered the phone.

Jameel: Hello?

Caller: Yo Elvis! I need you tonight!

Jameel: (yawning) What exactly do you need tonight?

Caller: Joints.

Jameel: Fine. Meet you at the corner of 121th and Amsterdam in an hour.

Caller: See you there.

*click*

I promptly went back to sleep...and forgot about it. What's strange is that the caller didn't call me back, so he must have either found someone to sell him what he wanted at 121th and Amsterdam or got arrested on the way there.

Over the next few days my room mate and I would agree to meet drug users all over Manhattan, made up addresses, and ignored it all.

In hindsight, this wasn't the smartest stunt I ever pulled, but these were the days before the internet, caller-id, and easy ways to figure out who you were calling or who was calling you. There were no google satellite imaging maps either.

About a week later, we got a bad phone call.

Jameel: Hi. Who's this?

Caller: This is Reuben.

Jameel: And?

Caller: I hear you sell stuff.

Jameel: (sighing) what do you want?

Caller: So, you're Elvis?

Jameel: Yeah...Elvis the King.

Caller: That's impossible! You can't be Elvis. Elvis is doing time and was put in the slammer 3 weeks ago! Who the hell are you?

Jameel (adrenaline shooting throughout my body): No way, I'm Elvis!

Caller: Yeah, Let me put his woman on the phone!

(woman gets on the phone) So, you think you're Elvis? No way man, you are not Elvis!

Jameel: You must be mistaken...I'm the real Elvis.

Caller: Yeah, well how is it that I saw you in jail yesterday and now I'm on the phone with you?

Jameel: Er, I broke out?

Caller: That's it man...we're shutting you down.

click.

And then we never heard from drug users again.

Till one night about a month later...2 AM...phone rings..."Hi, we have a collect call for you from the Dominican Republic from Elvis".

(me, half asleep)...sure.

Elvis: Who are you? I hear you been messing with my woman and selling stuff to all my customers!!

click

So what's the moral of the story? I'll have to think one up.

Wherever I am, drug dealers still manage to find my blog.

When Moshiach Comes

Being that my blog is currently "on vacation", Jameel was kind enough to offer his blog for posting.

At dinnertime tonite, the family was sitting around the table, talking about the day's events. Then my oldest daughter sprung an interesting question on the family: "Hey, do you think that when Moshiach comes, we'll have to brush our teeth and go to the dentist?" She backed her question up with the fact that she learned that "all who are bent will be made straight". The question made sense coming from her, since she very recently had braces put on her teeth.

That question led to a rather interesting discussion about how things will be when Moshiach will come -- in the eyes of my children. Rather than offer my own opinions, I turned the questions all on them, and listened to what the three of them had to say. The general consensus was that we'd all travel to Eretz Yisrael on either an eagle or a jet. One decided that "most likely, we'll just float on a big cloud".

But the best line was from my son, who explained that Moshe, Ahron, and Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov would lead us on a tour throughout Israel. I asked my son what kind of tour it would be, and if we'd all be together and he responded "oh yes -- and all of the rabbeim will be in the back". When I asked why he knew that he explained "all Rebbeim are humble and are nice, so they'd let everyone go first"...

There's nothing like having dinner during the week with the kids, that's for sure :)

- MUST Gum Addict

Wherever I am, Jameel's blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael