Tikkun Olam

The Empty-Seat-at-my-Seder edition number two-hundred-sixty-two, I believe, is up and running at Jack's. Read it quick , before Yom Tov sets in tomorrow night. . .!

I am not very loquacious, although I definitely am a logophile. And when I received this in an email from my friend M . (yes, the very same. James Bond. Ahem.), I realized that with the insanity that is just before Pesach when we convert over from slavery to freedom (and turn our houses upside-down in the process), this was perfectly coordinated. So in the vein of "laughter is the best medicine", for all you logophiles out there, here's the Washington Post's version of. . . malapropism (look it up. that's what Google's for.): (I especially am fond of #16; and in part II, #5. . . ) Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words. The winners are: 1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a f...

The latest Haveil Havalim, the ubiquitous weekly Jewish Blog Carnival, pre-Pesach edition (I made that up) #261 (nope, didn't make that up: it's the correct number) is up at Jack's . Would have posted about it yesterday, but I was sick-sick-sick. Am better now, thank G-d. Better be: kids coming in three days, yikes!!! Back to reading...er...cleaning...!

The Israeli company Nano-Retina based in Hertzliyah has developed a retina-function replacement system for those retinas damaged by macular degeneration, diabetes as well as other diseases. It consists of a retinal implant and special eyeglasses which coordinate together to work as photoreceptors, which are activated by a tiny laser in the eyeglasses. Israeli ingenuity has done it again: contributed to the good and benefit of mankind by Jewish intelligence and diligence for the purpose of tikkun olam , repairing the world--the name of this blog. So what are the Palestinian Arabs up to these days? Here are some headlines from Palestinian Media Watch : PA TV kids' show wipes Israel off the map , PA Libel: Israel tried to burn down Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969 Fatah officials celebrate inauguration of terrorist square PA interviews terrorist sister on anniversary of terror attack Compare and contrast, I always say. . .

This entire day has been a total loss. Literally. I received a call from Israel this a.m. (my time) from my cousin (his niece), telling me that my Uncle Jack had passed away this morning (Israel time). I had a close relationship with Dod* Yaakov (at least, I thought so), even though we had not spoken very frequently since we left Israel from our last visit almost exactly two years ago, March 2008, for our older son's wedding. But whenever we talked, even if it was months apart--it was as if we were both of us in the same room, sitting on his sofa and chair in his living room in the moshav which he helped found, philosophizing about family, life, G-d, values and Judaism. Since we saw him last, he had had a quadruple-bypass operation, and initially, I thought, had been doing well. He later apparently developed internal hemorrhaging (I don't know the full story), and the doctors were trying to combat that. Two and a half months ago or so, something deteriorated cognitively: he ...

. . . at Yachdus, with the " Geulah (redemption) Edition " #260. Click and read to your heart's desire (there's already time for reading before Pesach), and then go back to cleaning--you can't escape it in the end! Pesach kasher ve-sameach to all. *picture by Sora Rivka Daina, on Chinuch.org

Our Pesach sedarim used to last a minimum of six (6) hours. It was not unusual to end around 3:00 a.m. if we started at 9:00 p.m. the night before. Now that we're older, we have not been able to stay awake so late. . . D. H. was usually nodding off by the time we were in the middle of Hallel, while I still managed to more or less stay awake through the songs at the end (somebody had to!)--but this year we'll do our best to stay awake for the whole nine yards, because our kids will be here. However, for those of you who are really wimpy and can't handle a long seder, here's one that should be just your speed: The Sixty Second Seder!