Tikkun Olam

Finally, here is something worth writing about for the Jewish New Year, which has just begun with Rosh Hashana this past Thursday and Friday.  On the occasion of the 4th of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, there is a very good chance that Israel might be on the way to energy independence, through the gas and oil discoveries in the Tamar and Leviatan fields in the Mediterranean. What impact will this have on Israel's economy, on its current dependance on the U.S. and other countries for oil? On its relations with its volatile neighbors the Arabs, in 'neutral' countries ( relatively speaking, as far as its Arab neighbors go) such as Jordan?  Or Egypt? Or the "Palestinians?" This is a door opening to a positive, exciting future. Here is my wish for the New Year: may Israel achieve energy independence and economic wealth, eliminate poverty among its citizens, and may this discovery help promote true peace with its neighbors in the Middle East.

In addition to the natural gas deposits found offshore in various places in the Mediterranean, Israel also has apparently huge shale oil deposits , which with the rising prices of conventional oil have recently become profitable to extract.  Some say the yield of shale oil could be as high as 250 billion barrels, comparable to that of Saudi Arabia. These deposits were found in the Shfela area, near Emek haElah (The Elah Valley), where King David found his round stones and defeated the giant Goliath.  Extracting these deposits often require methods, such as hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), which may impact the environment--it's very controversial in the United States at this time, especially because the chemicals used in this process could contaminate ground water.  The beauty of the Israeli deposits is, that there is a deep separation between the shale and the aquifer by " 200 meters of impermeable rock ."  Dr. Harold Vinegar of Israel Energy Initiative sp...

Haven't heard anything lately about Israel's natural gas discoveries in the Mediterranean lately.  Last I read (from June, 2012) Noble/Delek was given the go-ahead to develop the Noa North Gas Field offshore near Ashkelon.  Supposedly, gas is now flowing from it.  Could Israel be the next Energy Giant, fulfilling its own energy needs and exporting energy to nations around the globe? That would change the Middle-East dynamic, wouldn't it (well, January's theme is energy, isn't it?)

The theme for January's NaBloPoMo is "Energy."  Today's question is, 'from where does one draw one's energy?' I noticed that I had signed up for November's NaBloPoMo, and only posted once.  Cheater. Failure. Drummed out.  I did not do it on purpose.  I just forgot.  Better said, I 'lost my energy.'  It takes energy to write.  To formulate thoughts into words, and then to transfer them to our twenty-first century's version of "paper."  I didn't have any. I'll try to do better in January... From where does my energy come?  Lately, I have not had much.  It's an effort to get out of bed in the mornings.  I guess it comes from family, and you'd think I'd be full of energy--we just had a huge family gathering for a simcha.  But this gathering also brought the past, into the present.  So, my energy was drained again. Another source of my energy used to be Judaism, Israel, and Hebrew.  I'm kind of in a waning...