tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145803192024-03-07T04:42:23.124-05:00The Apikorsus Companion v2.0Elf's DH's take on Judaism, Computers, and other elements of Life.elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-24596551527655052422009-03-23T16:08:00.004-04:002009-03-23T16:20:03.728-04:00OU Transliteration HumorIt's nice when <a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html">a blog people actually read</a> picks up on important news like <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2009/03/quinoa-2009.html">the OU's <i>kitniyot</i> waffling on quinoa</a>. <br /><br />In my last post, I pointed out the different spellings of <i>kitni[y]?o(t|s|th)</i> on the same site, and had simply assumed that there were just a lot of articles with different authors and no style guide. I could easily excuse the headline writer of <a href="http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/kitnios">this article</a> for not carefully reading the article. What I hadn't noticed last time is <a href="http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/7555">this page</a> (which is very similar, but not identical to, the content of the PDF Passover Guide), which includes all of the following words, all within two paragraphs:<br /><ul><br /><li>machloketh</li><br /><li>kitniyoth</li><br /><li>kitniyot</li><br /><li>kitniyos</li><br /></ul><br />Why not just throw in some "<a href="http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/kitnios/">kitnios</a>" for good measure?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-45121848346674373072009-03-12T00:54:00.002-04:002009-03-12T14:26:05.620-04:00Quinoa 2009Once again, it's time for the annual check on the status of quinoa for Passover. This year, instead of Aish Hatorah, the source of bafflement is the OU.<br /><br />Their Passover Guide is out and <a href="http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/passover">online</a>. The <a href="http://oukosher.org/images/uploads/PESACH_09.pdf">full PDF</a> quotes the now common and relatively safe "ask your Rabbi" (yes, Rabbi is capitalized) position. One article <a href="http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/kitnios/">attempts to define "<i>kitnios</i>" (or is it "<i>kitniyot?</i>")</a> logically by reference to the Mishnah Brura, thus stating that quinoa "logically" should be <i>kitniyot</i>, despite all the exceptions that lead to the conclusion that <i>kitniyot</i> defies logic.* (Another baffling statement in the article is that if <i>kitniyot</i> are prepared on Pesach for a permissible reason, "they should be prepared in special non-Pesach and non-chametz utensils, which should not be washed with the Pesach dishes" -- anyone know where that comes from?) The other quinoa-related news on the OU website is the short <a href="http://oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/9691"><i>kitniyot</i> list</a>, which, despite the official "ask your Rabbi" position, says (drumroll please):<br /><blockquote><br /><b>The following may be Kitniyot and are therefore not used:</b><br />Quinoa<br />Amaranth<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Huh?<br /><br />* The article was prepared in a word processor with autocorrect turned on. Anyone want to guess how I knew that? :-)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-51524600294994084392009-02-19T16:38:00.003-05:002009-02-19T16:44:56.866-05:00Funniest copyright license?From a <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-tex-maint/2009/02/msg00027.html">Debian bug report</a> comes the copyright license for a file from <a href="http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/obsolete/macros/generic/diagrams/barr/">a LaTeX package</a>:<br /><pre><br />% This should appear in a file named diagram.tex<br />% Copyright 1988,1989 Michael Barr<br />[snip]<br />%<br />% All commercial rights reserved. May be freely distributed<br />% and used with the following exceptions:<br />% 1. No commercial use without explicit permission.<br />% 2. It may not be used by any employee of a telephone<br />% company.<br />% 3. It may not be distributed without this notice.<br /></pre><br /><br />You have to wonder what the author had against telephone companies.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-72330663766528186312008-11-08T23:16:00.003-05:002008-11-08T23:33:48.033-05:00Post-election baby-eating roundupAn <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2008/08/candidates-eat-babies.html">earlier post</a> tracked the election by how many times "[candidate name] eats babies" appeared on the Intertubes (via Google). It was posted shortly after Palin was selected as McCain's VP nominee, and so, she had very few hits. How things have changed:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=mccain-eats-babies">McCain-eats-babies</a>: 2340 (up x4.95)<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=obama-eats-babies">Obama-eats-babies</a>: 85000 (up x107)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=palin-eats-babies">Palin-eats-babies</a>: 1910 (up x955)<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=biden-eats-babies">Biden-eats-babies</a>: 22 (up x5.5)<br /><br />Well, except for Biden. He made so little of an impression that he didn't even eat triple-digits worth of babies.<br /><br />Obama and McCain had head starts over their running mates, but boy did Obama chow down in the three months since we last visited this topic. The largest increase factor, though, was Palin's, at almost 1000x higher than her August numbers.<br /><br />What does it mean? I'd go out on a limb and guess: very little.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-60549251652278028432008-11-06T22:15:00.005-05:002008-11-06T23:22:13.211-05:00Do they teach spamming in publicist school?I just got this email in my blog account email box:<br /><blockquote><br />Hi there,<br /><br />I'm reaching out to offer you articles by [innocent client], author of [client's other book]. ! <br /><br />Below is an article by [innocent client] that I thought might be of interest to you and your readers. Please feel free to reprint it including copyright information and let me know if you'd like any additional materials, as I have several others. I look forward to working with you!<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />Julie<br /><br />[...snipped out the actual press release...]<br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------<br />Julie Harabedian<br /> Publicist<br />Main line [phone number redacted (easy enough to find by Google)]<br />------------------------------<br />FSB Associates<br />[address redacted] <br />[link redacted]<br />--------------------------------------<br /></blockquote><br /><br />I've gotten email like this before, usually promoting websites and blogs with kooky views, but what caught my attention this time is that the company is real and presents itself as a professional operation, the name associated with the email appears to be real, and the product seems to be real too.<a href="#publicist_fn1" xml:id="publicist_fn1_back" name="publicist_fn1_back"><sup>*</sup></a> The company is probably aiming for something of a viral marketing campaign by having random bloggers print their press releases (read: advertisements) for free, and make it look like a popular product endorsed by all sorts of random people. Because I've never had a business relationship with the sender or the company, sending the canned post to me <em>is</em> completely random. The key point that was missed is that <strong>spam is unprofessional</strong>.<a href="#publicist_fn2" xml:id="publicist_fn2_back" name="publicist_fn2_back"><sup>**</sup></a><br /><br />Additionally, the sender didn't read the <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2006/01/note-to-spammers-updated.html">terms of use/spam policy</a> that is listed right next to my email address. How could she? She probably used a spider/mass mailer to get my email address.<br /><br />Congratulations, Julie, you've now got a cherished place on the list of evil spammers on my right sidebar. Maybe I'll tip you off. You were nice enough to give me an email address to contact you if I want more ads. Otherwise, I hope you Google yourself some day.<br /><br /><a href="#publicist_fn1_back" xml:id="publicist_fn1" name="publicist_fn1"><sup>*</sup></a> The spam operation is presented on their own page this way <i>[my comments in bracketed italics]</i>:<br /><blockquote><br /><b>Content Syndication:</b><br />The majority of web sites online are eager for content deemed of interest to their readers. FSB has established and continues to establish <i>[parasitic]</i> relationships with numerous Web sites - for both general interest and niche audiences. We are able to provide these Web sites with ready-to-use electronic book excerpts and original articles as well as electronic photos making it as simple as possible for online editors to update and add to their sites <i>[because they can't come up with their own original content]</i>. These features happen faster and last longer than other types of media coverage, giving the buzz about a book a quick start and longevity.<br /></blockquote><br />One particularly entertaining tidbit is that the spammer also touts their own “thorough understanding of "netiquette."”<br /><br /><a href="#publicist_fn2_back" xml:id="publicist_fn2" name="publicist_fn2"><sup>**</sup></a> Or, alternatively, which part of "this is not an advertising blog" was unclear?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-91986999477872500692008-11-04T10:11:00.004-05:002008-11-04T11:43:56.087-05:00Throwing the bums outPlace: "Studentville," MA<br />Time: 9:25AM-9:55AM<br />Line length: Approximately 40-50 ahead of me. 20 minutes long. By 9:35, approximately 30 more were behind me. The line length was getting slightly shorter over time, but was still out of the polling place and around a corner when I left. For reference, the longest voting line I had waited on previously in Studentville was about 5 minutes, during the previous state gubernatorial election. I usually vote at about the same time of day.<br /><br />The apparent average age of the voters was definitely younger (20's-30's) than usual (40's+ -- "usual" is based on a much lower sample size!).<br /><br />Studentville uses optical scan paper ballots; Disabled voters can uses an <a href="http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=1751">ES&S AutoMark (link is to a press release)</a> machine, which marks the same optical scan ballots, but does not record votes.<br /><br />Voting problems: The usual procedure for checking voter eligibility is to check off address-associated names from the list at the entrance/exit. Some names (including mine) were not on the voter lists. When that happened, the poll workers were checking IDs and writing names and addresses on a list at the entrance and exit from the polls. They were making some people sign forms, and others not. Sometimes, they seemed to be giving provisional ballots, sometimes, not. (They gave me a real ballot). I'm not sure what differentiated what happened to whom (having a photo ID?). A call to the Studentville Elections Commission revealed that they printed incomplete lists and were delivering complete lists to polling places. They verified my registration over the phone.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-59192934415133701912008-10-31T15:47:00.003-04:002008-10-31T16:01:50.436-04:00Meta d'var Torah on Parshat NoachThe beginning of the Tower of Babel story is Genesis 11:1: <span xml:lang="he">וַיְהִי כָל-הָאָרֶץ, שָׂפָה אֶחָת, וּדְבָרִים, אֲחָדִים.</span>. The (old) JPS translates "And the whole earth was of one language and <em>of one speech.</em>" If you assume that the Bible conserves words, the meaning of this verse must be nontrivial, after all, speaking the same language necessarily implies usage of the the same words.<br /><br />I would propose that the "one speech" (<i>d'varim achadim</i>) is a hint that everyone was giving the same <i>d'var</i> Torah, resulting in the beginning of the end of the Babylonian project. The languages were confused so that nobody would understand each other and they might come up with some original ideas. <br /><br />The story was placed in Parshat Noach as a warning to future generations. It didn't work. <br /><br />PSA: Save the world! If you're giving a <i>d'var torah</i> this week, avoid the Rashi on the first verse of the <i>parsha</i> at all costs.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-506930531055152882008-08-29T15:28:00.005-04:002008-08-31T00:42:59.579-04:00Candidates eat babies!And now for something completely different...<br /><br />Now that we know who will be the running mates on both the Obama and McCain tickets, here's an unscientific and unrepresentative way of figuring out how they're doing (at least in notoriety) via Google search:<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=mccain-eats-babies">McCain-eats-babies</a>: 472 results.<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=obama-eats-babies">Obama-eats-babies</a>: 791 results.<br /><br />and for VP:<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=palin-eats-babies">Palin-eats-babies</a>: 2 results.<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=biden-eats-babies">Biden-eats-babies</a>: 4 results.<br /><br />Note that, when the announcement was first made, "Palin-eats-babies" had 0 results. (Update: For an explanation of why you need the dashes, see the third comment).<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-79843014737454448162008-08-03T21:28:00.003-04:002008-08-03T21:45:08.876-04:00Because she asked for itIn <a href="http://apikorsus.blogspot.com/2008/08/shf-45-berries.html">a post only tangentially related to digital cameras</a>, DW posted that I fixed our <a href="http://www.casio.com/products/archive/Cameras/Exilim_Zoom/EX-Z120/">Casio EX-Z120</a> digital camera. The camera's problem was that the retractable lens got stuck in the out position. Turning the camera on would result in a low motor-moving noise, followed by the camera beeping once and/or shutting itself off without an error. <br /><br />Where else would I turn for the solution other than Google? Eventually, I found <a href="http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html">this very helpful(!) page</a> which carefully warns you not to try the final "fixes" unless everything else is completely hopeless (the camera's out of warranty and nothing else works). <br /><br />My problem seemed similar enough to the "lens error" problem to which the solution applied, so, I tried all of the easy fixes, none of which worked. Eventually, I tried fix #7 - forcing the lens. (Your mileage may vary. All warnings and disclaimers apply.) It didn't work the first time, but, it did actually move the lens after a bit of pushing. Once I realized that I should be turning the lens, not pushing it, moving it became easier, and I was eventually able to get it back into the camera. Turning the camera on got the lens stuck again, sometimes giving the "lens error" message on the display. I repeated the process a few times until eventually the camera would turn on and off and be able to zoom the lens. It was risky, but it worked. Once again, the Internet solves an everyday problem, and results in a not very interesting blog post adding more text to the Internet.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-54286835359173820472008-06-04T11:11:00.002-04:002008-06-04T13:02:56.778-04:00Worst Named Childrens' Activity ... Ever<a href="http://kidsconcentrationcamps.com/" rel="nofollow">Click here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:small">(Update: just to remove any doubt -- yes, the link is to a joke-site, but it's a very well put together one!)</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-24686577757135615472008-04-04T11:28:00.005-04:002008-04-04T11:41:56.458-04:00Quinoa: the slow drift toward kitniyotization continues<a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2007/03/no-news-is-good-news.html">Every</a> <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2006/04/kitniyotization-of-quinoa-has-begun.html">year</a> since <a href="http://elfsdh.livejournal.com/4815.html">2005</a>, I've been tracking the status of quinoa for Passover. I've been using the instructions on the Aish HaTorah website as a guide to when it would be considered kitniyot, on the theory that where that Chareidi kiruv organization goes, soon gets dragged down the Modern Orthodox world, then, whatever they said becomes "universal observant practice." This year, <a href="http://adderabbi.blogspot.com/2008/04/karpas-menu.html">ADDeRabbi</a> beat me to an update, adding in:<br /><blockquote>I’ve been informed that the <i>Gedolim</i> in <i>Eretz Yisrael</i> consider quinoa to be <i>kitniyot</i>. No surprise there.</blockquote><br />Once again, I checked the trusty <a href="http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault/All_About_Kitniyot.asp">Aish "all about kitniyot" page</a>. This year, it says:<br /><blockquote>There is one product called "quinoa" (pronounced "kin-O-ah," or keen-WA) that is the subject of much discussion. Although quinoa resembles a grain, it is technically in the "goose foot" family, which includes sugar beets and beet root. As such, some rabbis (for example, Rabbi Heinemann of Star-K) permit its use even for Ashkenazim on Passover, while other rabbis do not.</blockquote><br />Compare that to the text I recorded in <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2006/04/kitniyotization-of-quinoa-has-begun.html">2006</a>. Notice a pattern? Does it conform to the process I described there?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-28625342241556167092008-02-24T21:06:00.003-05:002008-02-26T23:50:39.822-05:00The Partnership Minyan Gabbai GuideIt's well known to readers of this blog that my feelings about partnership minyanim (aka, 10+10's) are ambivalent. On the one hand, they are progressive from the Orthodox feminist perspective, in that they allow women some public role in the service. It appears to me that the partnership minyan has quickly been replacing the womens' tefillah group as the preferred way for women to participate in an Orthodox-style service. The partnership minyan may be contrasted with womens' tefillah groups, which have some characteristics that resemble communal prayer, but always seemed (to me, anyway, having never attended one for the obvious reason) as a kind of play-service, where it is made known (through liturgical changes and omissions) to everyone in attendance that none of the additional parts of the service that look like the activities reserved for a minyan really “count” the way they would have had a minyan of men been present. The partnership minyan, on the other hand, is a “real” service, and, in most cases (see below), where women are allowed to do something, what they do “counts” equally. On the other hand, from the perspective of a full-egalitarian, they are regressive, in that women are only allowed to lead parts of the service which are less important (see below for more about that characterization). Perhaps some of my ambivalence is in seeing these minyanim attract people who might otherwise daven in a fully egalitarian style, where womens' position really is (for the most part) considered equal to mens', whereas the partnership minyan still leaves women in an awkward communal position.<br /><br />Our local partnership minyan linked to the <a href="http://upload.kipa.co.il/media-upload/kulech/1214602.PDF">Guide for the 'Halachic Minyan'</a>, effectively, a guide for the gabbaim of partnership minyanim to determine what parts of the service they decided women can definitely lead. The guide also gives a brief description of the rationale behind the movement and behind its halachic methodology. The basic assumptions of the partnership minyan, as expressed or implied by the guide, are that women are obligated in prayer (that is, they may pray any time they want), not obligated in specific prayers, nor are they obligated in the separate <i>mitzvah</i> of communal prayer, nor any other time-bound positive commandments. These are absolute constraints, and women cannot accept them upon themselves and become equally obligated. The goal of the enterprise is to maximize womens' participation under these traditional constraints, resulting in a wholly non-traditional form of congregational prayer. <br /><br />The guide consciously expresses what women can lead in the positive, and is careful not to say “a woman does not lead” any part of the service. Instead, it expresses the same idea as “a man takes over at ...”, describing a practice instead of prescribing halacha. The guide leaves open the idea that increased permission may be discovered at some future time. The guide seeks to rely only on the <q>direct and plain meaning</q> of the halachic literature it uses as its sources, and only uses sources which explicitly permit women to perform the ritual function in question, without making any logical inferences or any original innovations (with respect to halachic issues, but not with respect to stylistic ones). Minority opinions in the literature may be relied upon, even if they contradict traditional practice. In that way, the guide functions as a sort of clearinghouse of permissive rulings in the literature on the issue of womens' participation. The rejection of innovation of new halacha is perhaps the abstract concept that separates the bases of partnership minyanim from fully egalitarian minyanim.<br /><br />The abstract conception of the position of a woman in the community is also a primary difference. This can be demonstrated by the guide's answer to a question I brought up in <a href="http://elfsdh.blogspot.com/2007/03/awkward-minyan-situations.html">a previous post</a>. Namely, what should be done when 10 men are present and fewer than 10 women are present. In comments on that post, most defenders of the partnership minyan movement said that the group should wait or continue to daven as if no minyan were present (even though all agree that a halachic minyan is present in the room). A few indicated that they had seen such a practice followed. That position struck me as strange, given that the group is already making an assumption that communal prayer is a separate <em>obligation</em> from prayer itself. The guide instructs as follows:<br /><blockquote>Whenever a minyan is required, it is common practice, to wait for 10 men and 10 women to start pray[<i>sic</i>] (<strong>as long as the time of tefilla [<i>Zman Tefilla</i>] has not passed</strong>) besides when women are counted for a minyan such as in the case of megilah reading on Purim. (<strong>emph</strong> added)</blockquote><br />As I argued in my previous post and its comments, the function of the 10 women is to hold up an already-present halachically-valid minyan of 10 men, not to contribute positively toward a minyan of 20. The 10+10 custom is acknowledged to be secondary to the halacha, a position that is fully consistent with the current assumptions of the movement. It does, however, support the conception that the function of women in a 10+10 is subtractive, not additive.<br /><br />The idea that men are given <em>primacy</em> over women, even for things they are otherwise allowed to do is still present, at least in some congregations (eg, in the divisions of aliyot — “some congregations reserve a majority of <i>aliyot</i> for men” on the basis of Rema OH 282:3). A similar note indicates that some congregations reserve the first two aliyot for men when a kohen or levi is not present. (If the kohen/levi precedence for the first two aliyot is considered to be a purely historical artifact, then only men would take the first two aliyot, even in a fully egalitarian minyan.) The movement, although it has gone a long way [over traditional Orthodox practice] in allowing limited womens' participation, has not completely abandoned the idea that womens' participation in prayer services is a denigration of the honor of the congregation. By citing these halachic sources, the movement implies that women are, at best, ancillary members of the congregation (which is traditionally defined as the <i>men</i> only).<br /><br />I often characterize the services at partnership minyanim as ones where “women do things that aren't important.” The guide divides the service into three categories. The first category is that of parts of the service that women can lead — those that <q>may be left out of the service, or may be led even by a child.</q> The other two types are parts in which womens' participation may be considered <q>problematic</q> or is <q>apparently barred.</q> The methodology used for approaching the second and third categories is a bit more instructive than the first. Where sources are found for womens' obligation (such as Hallel on the first night of Passover), they are allowed to participate equally. Another method used for finding room for womens' participation, where it is deemed possible, is to find halachic opinions that reduce the level of obligation associated with the particular prayer such that it no longer has communal importance. An alternative approach is used for Hallel on Festivals, in which it states that the leader need not fulfill the congregation's obligations.<a name="pmgg_fn_1_back" href="#pmgg_fn_1"><sup>1</sup></a> Parts of the service containing <i>devarim sh'biqedusha</i> are (as of now) non-negotiably led entirely by men. Some partnership minyanim have adopted the practice of assigning any part of the service (excluding the Torah reading) that can be led by women to a woman. This essentially divides the entire service leadership on the basis of gender. In a sense, it is inclusive, but counter-egalitarian.<br /><br />The partnership minyan movement also calls itself “halachic egalitarian” (a term full egalitarians do and should consider objectionable). The guide goes through considerable trouble to defend the use of the term:<br /><blockquote>This guide does not refer to parts of the tefillah that are categorized as <i>devarin shbiqdusha</i>, in which the chazzan fulfills the congregation's obligation. It is not our intention to claim that communities in which women lead these parts of the prayer are not halachically justifiable. ...<br />In conclusion, a word about the name “halachic minyan.” The congregations for which this guide is intended have been described by many names. From among them this name has been chosen as it is meant to describe the essence of the process by which the practices of these congregations are determined and the nature of their connection to the tradition of halachic decision making. Halachah is the basis upon which we stand. With the chosen name we mean to convey that, despite our departure from traditional practice to include women, we may only innovate as far as the Halachah, as recorded in the writings of traditional decisors, permits. The name thus functions descriptively, not contrastively. We do not at all mean implicitly to denigrate other practices and movements as non-halachic.</blockquote><br />It is difficult to parse out an entirely positive interpretation of the name, without it being a comparative term. Did not the movement which calls itself “traditional egalitarian” jump through hoops to justify their practice within halacha (albeit under a moderately different set of halachic assumptions)? The guide leaves open that it is not a final answer to the question of womens' participation, and that further <s>progress</s> <s>innovation</s> allowances may be <s>made</s> discovered in the future. Both movements essentially started with a goal and trawled the literature for their defenses. Both accept that minority opinions in the literature may be relied upon, and may even overturn traditional practice. <br /><br /><a name="pmgg_fn_1" href="#pmgg_fn_1_back"><sup>1</sup></a> I once attended an Orthodox service on a Festival night following Shabbat at a college Hillel, where the custom in the Hillel's dining hall was for a woman to make kiddush at the meal, and for a man to lead birkat hamazon. (This was clearly a concession to the Orthodox minyan which did not want women leading birkat hamazon). The Orthodox minyan held that a woman could not fulfill the congregation's obligation (the partnership minyan gabbai guide says that they may). The gabbai of the minyan made an announcement after services, which essentially said that the kiddush and havdalah that would be made later by a woman would not fulfill everyone's obligation and that they should all say it for themselves. Had I been the woman making kiddush, I would have found that announcement mildly insulting, even though I could fully appreciate the halachic basis. I would hope that the partnership minyan could handle this issue more tactfully.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-14271646919253972522008-02-16T18:11:00.002-05:002008-02-16T18:18:18.606-05:00HousekeepingA few housekeeping items: You may notice that I've switched my online aggregator from <a href="http://www.kinja.com">Kinja</a> to <a href="http://www.bloglines.com">BlogLines</a>. Recently, I'd found that Kinja was both missing posts from blogs I want to read and occasionally just dropped a blog from aggregation for no good reason. Overall, Kinja is badly broken and has been for some time. As a side benefit, BlogLines provides both an aggregator and a blogroll, so they don't have to be maintained separately. If you think I should be reading your blog, but I'm not (as you can see from the aggregation list), drop me a comment here. It doesn't guarantee that I'll link to you, but, here's your chance for some free publicity from a blog with a readership of about 2. I also might be pruning out dead blogs from the list soon.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-24003550583011842032008-02-01T11:33:00.000-05:002008-02-01T11:34:14.677-05:00How long...<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/internet.outage/index.html?iref=mpstoryview">until a terrorist group claims responsibility?</a> (whether they did it or not)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-86641909062163387622008-01-31T13:49:00.000-05:002008-01-31T17:04:00.033-05:00In defense of one ovenOne friend (who will remain nameless to protect the guilty) made the claim that our kitchen is not kosher because we use one oven for milk and meat. Not that it was <i>not in accordance with her stricture</i>. But, that it was <i>not kosher</i>.<a href="#ovens_fn1" name="ovens_fn1_back"><sup>1</sup></a>. I went ahead and made the claim that the idea that one needed a separate milk and meat oven is one of the piled-on modern <i>chumrot</i>. I underestimated the amount of time that it took to enter halacha. I originally put it at about 40 years (see below), but it turns out that the theory can be traced to a longer-running dispute that I'm not sure how much significance it had for practical halacha.<br /><br />The Internet has <a href="http://www.koltorah.org/ravj/milkmeatoven.htm">some</a> <a href="http://www.dailyhalacha.com/Display.asp?PageIndex=5&ClipID=491">very</a> <a href="http://www.yith.org/library/oven.htm">good</a> <a href="http://www.spolter.net/shiurim/hoh/kashrus/HOH%20Kitchen%207%20-%20Reiach%20and%20Ovens.pdf">resources</a>. <a href="#ovens_fn2" name="ovens_fn2_back"><sup>2</sup></a><br /><br />As you can see from the sources (I won't repeat the details, if you want them, see the links above), the primary problem that is discussed in the literature until the Rema (16th century) is cooking kosher and non-kosher in the same oven <em>simultaneously</em>. The Rema inserts that milk and meat and kosher/non-kosher have the same laws, and that <em>consecutive</em> use under the same covering might be problematic because the steam (not the "aroma," which is essentially halachic cooties) from one food might change the status of the other. The ensuing halachic debate revolves around how steam transfers food-gender. Does it only work directly (from one steamy pot to another above it)? Does it work indirectly (from one steaming pot to anything else in the same enclosed atmosphere)? Does it work through enclosures? Does steam embed in the oven? Do all hot things produce steam with the same halachic status? <br /><br />It also appears that "steam" the Rema is worried about is an actual physical entity, not halachic cooties. It is directly analogized to the condensation that appears on a pot cover. Note also that this explains the Rosh's (13th century)<a href="#ovens_fn3" name="ovens_fn3_back"><sup>3</sup></a> seemingly paradoxical conclusion that steam doesn't affect hot pots, where one would ordinarily expect that heat would worsen the transfer: water doesn't condense above its boiling point.<br /><br />Our approach is never to cook or heat milk and meat in the same oven at the same time, and to allow the oven to cool down before switching genders. It is cleaned if recognizable food particles are present. In practice, it is an implementation of the <i>Aruch Hashulchan</i>'s position, but, in theory, it's somewhere between those of the <i>Aruch Hashulchan</i> and Lichtenstein/Feinstein's. The added <i>chumra</i> is that <em>even if</em> the steam from consecutive use is important, we are worried about an actual physical entity. The actual steam from food is evacuated when the door to the oven is opened to remove the food (and the air inside exchanges with the air outside), and that if anything recognizable condenses during the cool-down cycle, it can be cleaned.<br /><br />As noted in <a href="http://www.yith.org/library/oven.htm">Rabbi Mordechai Broyde's article</a>, the <i>Aruch Hashulchan</i>'s position "was the custom in Eastern Europe a century ago."<br /><br />In fact, three of the four practices with halachic-literature bases ((1) use the same [clean] oven for both, but not at the same time (2) use the same [clean] oven for both, with a 24 hour waiting period OR one hour at maximum temperature in between, (3) use the same [clean] oven for both, covering either dairy or meat <em>liquids</em>,<a href="#ovens_fn4" name="ovens_fn4_back"><sup>4</sup></a> (4) not using the same oven for both unless one is double-wrapped) allow the same oven to be used for milk and meat, with only the procedure for their use varying. <br /><br />The practical implication is that it's possible to have a fully functional and <strong>fully kosher</strong> kitchen without being super-wealthy. That is, until the <i>chumra</i> police make you need a second oven.<br /><hr/><br /><a href="#ovens_fn1_back" name="ovens_fn1"><sup>1</sup></a> Actually, she compared eating at our house to "eating out" (in the Jewishism sense), and effectively treats food we cook as <i>treif</i>. It was later modified to a "lower level transgression" instead of actual <i>treifness</i>.<br /><br /><a href="#ovens_fn2_back" name="ovens_fn2"><sup>2</sup></a> For <a href="http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-cooking-ovenshabbos.htm">other resources</a>, one wonders if they deliberately archaize the text ("a housewife should...") in order to sound more "traditional" or "authentic," or if the writers really live in a hole.<br /><br /><a href="#ovens_fn3_back" name="ovens_fn3"><sup>3</sup></a> But didn't I say that this problem isn't discussed until the 16th century? Indeed, I did. The problem the Rosh is discussing is steam emitted directly onto another pot. The question of import here is whether steam that is emitted, condensed, and re-emitted is significant.<br /><br /><a href="#ovens_fn4_back" name="ovens_fn4"><sup>4</sup></a> Reading about this subject has made me wonder whether popular misunderstanding of Rav Moshe Feinstein's position (or the other variants of it) contributes to the idea that one needs two separate ovens. It does require that one designate an oven as "meat" or "dairy" and pareve items that are cooked in it uncovered are considered to have the status of "meat equipment" or "dairy equipment." Yet, still a "meat" oven can be used to cook covered dairy liquids or uncovered dairy solids. Does the concept of designation itself lead people toward acceptance of the strictest opinion?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-11669038518788964012008-01-20T01:26:00.000-05:002008-01-20T02:14:14.947-05:00Responding to email forwardsI've been thinking about this for a while, but finally decided to implement this plan for dealing with junk email forwards, specifically the ones that warn of the newest super-dangerous WILL KILL YOUR CHILDREN AND PILLAGE YOUR HOME virus. Basically, the plan is this: start with a form letter, enter a few specifics, then send it back to whoever sent it to me plus everyone who sent it in the forward chain as far back as I can find. Although I would hope it informs someone down the line, at least it helps me get out my aggressive tendencies toward serial forwarders. Anyway, here goes the form letter (required insertions/comments in CAPITALS):<br /><blockquote><br /><tt><br />You are receiving this message because you are in a forwarding chain of a hoax/false/insufficiently detailed email that eventually got to me. Nobody likes getting spam. At some point in the past few days, you sent some. You (or your friends) forwarded to their friends. Then, it got to me. You are a spammer. Here is how you can be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.<br /><br />1. When you receive any kinds of warnings by email, be wary of them. Most warnings that come over email are simply false. A small number are true, but exaggerated.<br />2. Email forwarding expands exponentially, and frequently is undated. Chances are, by the time you get it, even if it were true, it's not true anymore.<br />3. The more dire the warnings, the less likely it is that the details are true. Warnings such as "THIS WILL DESTROY ALL YOUR DATA INSTANTLY AND FRY YOUR HARD DRIVE AND EAT YOUR CHILDREN!" are exaggerated. <br />4. One should always practice safe Internet usage:<br /> a. Don't open attachments from unknown sources.<br /> b. Be wary of unrequested attachments from known sources.<br /> c. Carefully read and respond to warnings sent by your software. <br /> d. Use antivirus/antispyware software if you use Windows *or* switch to a Mac or Linux.<br /> e. Disable macros if you use Microsoft Office, or don't use Microsoft Office.<br /> f. Avoid use of insecure and buggy Internet software, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook or Outlook Express. Use alternatives such as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.<br />99% of the time, whatever is warned about by these kinds of warnings, even *if* true, would have been prevented by these steps. So, no need to bother your friends, except to tell them those six things.<br /><br />You can prevent this kind of spam by doing a tiny amount of research. For the email you sent me, the following <(INCLUDE A LINK THAT SHOWS THE EMAIL IS A HOAX)>, which was the *(INSERT NUMBER, IT'S USUALLY LOW) result* of a Google search I did proved that the email you sent was (INSERT THE LEVEL OF TRUTH OF THE FORWARD). It took me less than 10 seconds. You could have saved your friends (and their friends, and theirs) a bit of worry by doing the same thing I did, and not pressing forward.<br /><br />And to make it even better, even if this email were true, I could not have been affected by the virus. I use Linux. X VIRUS would likely only affect Microsoft Windows. (INSERT DETAILS HERE; SINCE I'VE NEVER SEEN A VIRUS IN THE WILD THAT ATTACKS LINUX (OR MAC OS X) SYSTEMS, THIS IS RELEVANT) You would never know that from the email, either. (MOST VIRUS FORWARDS SAY "WILL ATTACK YOUR COMPUTER" AND ARE UNSPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT SYSTEMS ARE AFFECTED, EVEN IN THE RARE CASES THAT THEY'RE TRUE.)<br /><br />In addition, your record of following instructions in a random email without even checking if you should shows that *you* should be the one worried about falling for virus attacks, identity theft scams, and other "social engineering" attacks sent by email.<br /><br />Remember -- your friends have enough to worry about. Think before you forward.<br /><br />Thanks for your time; no thanks for wasting mine.<br /><br />The email you forwarded, and the forwarding chain showing how I got it is quoted below:<br />(QUOTE HERE. THIS CAN BE ADDED AUTOMATICALLY BY YOUR EMAIL PROGRAM WHEN YOU PRESS REPLY) <br /></tt><br /></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-84030791040770855852008-01-11T12:34:00.000-05:002008-01-11T14:42:21.054-05:00Hartman rabbinic ordination of women: not such a big deal<a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1199964894505">This J-Post article</a> is setting the blogosphere abuzz about Rabbi David Hartman's decision to offer Orthodox rabbinic ordination to women at the <a href="http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/">Shalom Hartman Institute</a>. The popular press rhetoric is certainly the rhetoric of egalitarianism. Rabbi Donniel Hartman, co-director of the institute and son of David Hartman, is quoted as saying:<br /><blockquote>"The classic distinctions between men and women are no longer relevant. People who come to the Hartman Institute to study are committed to making gender equality in Judaism a reality." </blockquote><br />Now, here's the <a href="http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/ShowContent.asp?id=38&isSub=1">description of the program</a>:<br /><blockquote><br /><b>Melamdim</b> also offers an optional Rabbi-Educator track – the first rabbinic ordination program of its kind. Tailored to the distinct professional needs of rabbis who serve as North American community high school educators, the track is open to students of both sexes and all denominations who are interested in pursuing an MA degree, teaching career and rabbinic ordination at the same time.<br />Target Population<br /> The program is open to individuals of all denominations from Israel and North America, who satisfy the following criteria: <br /><ul><br /><li>Hold a BA either in Jewish studies or in Bible, Talmud or Jewish Philosophy</li><br /><li>Have a good knowledge of Hebrew</li><br /><li>Have a knowledge of classical Jewish texts</li><br /><li>Commit to fulfill the program’s considerable study and work requirements</li><br /><li>Commit to work as a teacher in a Jewish high school for at least three years after graduating from the program</li><br /></ul><br /><br /></blockquote><br />It looks like it's offering the status of <i>rav hamaggid</i>, the lowest level of ordination which entitles the bearer to hold the title of "rabbi" and to teach. It does not confer the status of <i>halachic</i> decisor. It does not automatically allow one to perform the functions commonly associated with pulpit rabbis (which was the focus of the Conservative <i>teshuvot</i> in the 1970's and 1980's). One can argue that this status is not an equivalent of nor a modern replacement for "traditional" (Talmudic?) rabbinic ordination.<br /><br />In Modern Orthodox circles, many high schools already allow women to be taught Talmud, a few more allow women to teach Talmud to men. Most already have women teaching some subjects, implying that they do not consider teaching high school to be <i>serara</i> (holding a position of communal authority), so, they do not have to face that <i>halachic</i> boundary. Judaic studies teachers who hold the title of "rabbi" are probably paid at a higher level for their advanced degree, which is a path toward career advancement previously not open to women. If a high school were to accept Hartman's ordination of a woman, they may then be forced to pay her at an equal rate to men who hold the same type of degree.<br /><br />Even so, women who graduate from the program would have a second-class status, even as a <i>rav hamaggid</i>. They could function as high school teachers (the intent of the training in the program), but they could not function as pulpit rabbis, the other career path for a <i>rav hamaggid</i>, because their activities are still restricted by Orthodox interpretations of <i>halacha</i>.<br /><br />In sum, this may affect teachers' pay and titles (and we aren't even sure if the title "rabbi" will be conferred on a woman), but it doesn't look like there's anything truly ground-breaking coming out of it.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-37132807634722793602008-01-10T21:32:00.000-05:002008-01-10T21:42:30.479-05:00Lawyers think of everythingCheck out this disclaimer in the EULA for the SBL Hebrew <em>font</em>:<br /><blockquote>8. Neither Tiro Typeworks nor the Society of Biblical Literature accept any liability for injury, death, financial loss or damage to person or property (including computer hardware, software or data) resulting from the use of this font software.</blockquote><br />(It's in Appendix A of the <a href="http://www.sbl-site.org/Fonts/SBLHebrewManualv1.5.pdf">manual PDF</a>, but it's helpfully reproduced <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/tan/font.htm">here in web-friendly HTML</a>)<br /><br />They planned for the contingency that someone will <em>die</em> because of the use of their <em>font</em>.<br /><br />(Incidentally, while this EULA is clearly non-free, there is a free software Unicode 5 Biblical Hebrew font, <a href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=EzraSIL_Home">Ezra SIL</a>, which is released under the <a href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=OFL_web">Open Font License</a>. Sadly, the OFL contains a more standard software disclaimer and does not anticipate death as a result of the use of the software.)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-43332421835426714042007-12-17T11:43:00.000-05:002007-12-17T11:44:38.614-05:00It's an RUS!Couldn't resist :-)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-48528496882999901962007-12-13T15:16:00.000-05:002007-12-13T15:36:22.959-05:00"Torah-True rabbis"If you're not a member of a Young Israel (and maybe if you are), you can get a good laugh out of the <a href="http://www.youngisrael.org/">National Council of Young Israel</a>'s <a href="http://www.yucommentator.com/news/2007/12/03/Features/Leaking.Ship.Young.Israel.On.The.Rocks-3127077.shtml">proposed new standards for Young Israel rabbis and synagogues</a>. You may be even be amused to find out that NCYI thinks it has power to set standards. (The standards, as best as I understand them, include (1) that a central board has to vet rabbinical hirings by local Young Israels, (2) that women and converts can't serve as synagogue presidents, and that (3) no Young Israel can run womens prayer groups or megillah readings).<br /><br />The <a href="http://media.www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2007/12/03/Features/Leaking.Ship.Young.Israel.On.The.Rocks-3127077.shtml">YU Commentator</a> ran an article on it, pointing out that it's an attempt by the Chareidi segment of Young Israel to take control from the left-wing Modern Orthodox. NCYI president Shlomo Mostofsky responded to the article in <a href="http://www.yucommentator.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticleComments&ustory_id=ea5391ef-6f13-4f2a-9bfb-df880fdc4dc1#48d05950-268c-4fec-a1ea-b129182fa39b">a comment on their website</a>. In it, he said:<br /><blockquote>Synagogues and communities that have joined the Young Israel movement over the past 96 years are proud to be identified with the standards of halacha and hadracha <strong>that our founding Torah-true lay leaders and rabbis</strong> were moser nefesh to establish. (emph. added)</blockquote><br /><br />The punch-line: It's nice to know that the NCYI president considers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Kaplan">Mordechai Kaplan</a> to have been a "Torah-true rabbi!"<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-1085781784275354672007-11-27T23:56:00.000-05:002007-12-11T21:37:17.515-05:00Highlights from ElbogenThis is a set of collected quotes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismar_Elbogen">Ismar Elbogen</a>'s <u>Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History</u>. Some of them are in context, some a bit out of context. <br /><br />The book was originally written in German (1913, 1ed; 1924, 2ed; 1931, 3ed), then translated to Hebrew by Joseph Heinemann and others (1972) and translated from Hebrew and German to English by Raymond Scheindlin (1993). In the foreward, the translator refers to "precious traces of the man behind the book and of the intellectual climate of his times ... scattered throughout" the book. This post can be thought of as something of a celebration of the more entertaining aspects of those "traces." Footnotes have been removed. All emphasis and commentary is added unless otherwise noted. Page numbers are from the 1993 JPS edition.<br /><br />On the kedushah (in Yotser):<br /><blockquote>The verbose character of our text, which serves as a transition and which appears in Saadia in a very abbreviated form, is apparently no older than the geonic period, having originated in the circles of the Merkava mystics, who strove mightily in their prayers to comprehend the godhead. <strong>They longed for visions; and the heaping up of hymns is a tried and true means of achieving ecstasy that was practiced by mystics in every age.</strong> (p18)</blockquote><br /><br />On birkat haminim:<br /><blockquote>In modern prayer books the text has been subjected to many alterations, but the most sensible change is to eliminate it entirely, as was done in the Berlin prayer book (p46)</blockquote><br /><br />On kiddush:<br /><blockquote>In the course of time, when the synagogue ceased serving this purpose [as a hostel for travelers], doubts were expressed about the propriety of saying Kiddush there, but no one dared to act on these doubts. <strong>Here is a classic example of how religious rites, once they have taken root, cannot be removed by the force of logic.</strong>(pp94-95)</blockquote><br /><br />Here's Elbogen as reviewer. When talking about the kingship verses in High Holiday services, he opines:<br /><blockquote>The author did not succeed equally in all parts of this prayer; the introduction to the Kingship verses excels in its cohesiveness and elevated theme, and no less by its beauty of expression. ... <strong>Likewise, in "You remember," the splendid opening hymn deserves praise, though it repeats the same theme too many times. The transition to the biblical verses is an obvious failure ...</strong>(p120)</blockquote><br /><br />Much of the compiled history of the liturgy is based on speculation and educated guessing. Perhaps the most blatant example is the reason given for the recitation of the "Ribbono shel olam" paragraphs in birkat kohanim:<br /><blockquote>Distinguished authorities admonished the congregations to say the verses only while the precentor was calling out the words, and to listen in silence when the priests repeated them;but the hubbub of the verses drowned out the words of the Blessing in spite of all the reproaches. <strong>Another equally bad and equally severe practice arose from the terror of nightmares common in Babylonia</strong> ... (p64)</blockquote><br /><br />The plague of nightmares being one consequence of:<br /><blockquote>Likewise, there is no overlooking <strong>the fact that Babylonia is the source of every superstition in the world.</strong> Some of the amoraim were affected by these errors of their native land, and were subject to fear of demons, nightmares, and witchcraft. ... Especially in later centuries, when every word in the Talmud was seen as binding, and when people lived in fear of witches and demons, these errors led to sorry consequences [for the liturgy]. (p212)</blockquote><br /><br />The entire gemara in one sentence:<br /><blockquote>The amoraim strived to achieve two things: to bring everything into fixed forms, and to imitate the exemplary behavior of famous men.</blockquote><br />leading up to:<br /><blockquote>thus, it is hardly astonishing that in such an important realm as prayer they observed the behavior of the great men of the age very closely, and recommended that it be imitated. This could have a deleterious effect, when observances undertaken by the individual as stringencies meant for himself, with no thought of making them binding on others, later were turned into generally valid norms. In the amoraic period this did not yet happen, or it happened only seldom, but in later centuries it was a common phenomenon, one that was not always beneficial to religious institutions. Another goal, or at least a common tendency, was to increase the amount of praying. Unlike in the preceding centuries in which short prayers were considered the best, this generation found no harm in lengthy prayers; on the contrary, these were even thought desirable, though the principle that the congregation not be unduly burdened was never rescinded. (pp211-212)</blockquote><br /><br />On mysticism:<br /><blockquote>At the book's [<i>Hekhalot rabati</i>] end are hymns intended for the highest level of ecstasy, including האדרת והאמונה, "The splendor and the faithfulness," which has entered nearly all prayer books and is composed of that abundance of half-intelligible words typical of the prayers of these mystics. The intense veneration of God is expressed through the heaping-up of words that are equivalent in meaning and similar in sound, but that say little and do not advance the train of thought. ... In all this they differ considerably from the sober piety of the Bible, the Talmud, and the ancient prayers, which were oriented rather toward the psalmists' proverbial words, "to You silence is praise." (p287)</blockquote><br /><br />Don't take the drugs, because after the high comes the low:<br /><blockquote>On the other hand, there were plenty of sober thinkers who denounced the forcible inducing of ecstasy, not only because this state is not always attained, but because even when it is, the soul afterwards sinks back into a state of confusion. In fact this whole movement [Thirteenth century Ashkenazic pietism] was one of unhealthy extremes; the period was deficient in clear and prudent thinking, and a great deal of superstition became part of the mixture.(p290)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>The Zohar's fantastic ideas freed many downtrodden people from the burdens of their lives; the spiritual uplift that they experienced in traditional prayer and in the recitation of the kabbalistic hymns gave them a taste of the world to come in the midst of the hell of their everyday lives. But at the same time we must not close our eyes to the severe harm done to Jewish piety by kabbalistic theory. It turned prayer into a tool for forcibly bringing about magical effects. by introducing intermediaries [angels] between God and man, it spelled a fateful regression in the history of the Jewish religion. Finally, the new doctrine fave a boost to all kinds of superstition.(p291)</blockquote><br /><br />Skip a few centuries and...<br /><blockquote>Lurianic mysticism, with its liturgical innovations, spread in every direction as swiftly as an infectious disease.(p293)</blockquote><br /><br />One of those damaging influences from Kabbalah was kabbalat shabbat:<br /><blockquote>The Sabbath service is introduced by an element not known in the Middle ages, the Welcoming of the Sabbath. It originated in the circle of kabbalists in Safed at the end of the sixteenth century, whose influence on Jewish life was a lasting and unhappy one. (p92)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Among these [additions to the service from Lurianic kabbalah] are some of a very high level, for the kabbalists undeniably knew how to choose materials that uplifted the heart and encouraged a spirit of piety. But there are also many passages attesting to the crassest superstition. There is no doubt that these peculiarly Lurianic innovations, such as the <i>tikunum</i>, <i>kavanot</i> and <i>yihudim</i>, which have long vanished from the western European prayer books, imposed a heavy burden on religious life and were actually a <strong>mockery of true prayer</strong>. (p294)</blockquote><br /><br />And, finally, Hasidism:<br /><blockquote>According to its principles, Hasidism represents an absolute rebellion against the synagogue service, and no more convincing proof exists of the intolerable condition of the synagogue service than the fact that so many turned their backs on it — no t out of lack of faith or out of skepticism, but out of a longing for piety. This should have been taken as a serious warning that the liturgy was in need of revision. But no change occurred because Hasidism did not keep to the oppositional position of its founders, but instead sought compromise with rabbinic Judaism. Thus, its effect on the synagogue service was more deleterious than it was an improvement. It strengthened the conservative tendency of faith in the written word, the ascetic spirit of renunciation, and the striving to compel the advent of the messianic age; it brought with it new plagues in the form of commotion and unrestrained wild gestures.</blockquote><br />Going to shul has no positive benefit if you're not sitting their quietly, frowning.<br /><br />On the study of detailed halacha about the order of nonessential prayers:<br /><blockquote>Already in 1313 Menahem b. Joseph of Troyes wrote his סדר טרוייש, "Rite of Troyes" for the explicit purpose of instructing the precentors on how to conduct the service in accordance with the true custom of the Troyes community ... The contents of [its] ten chapters ... bear no relationship to the importance claimed for the book in its introduction. They deal with prayers whose text had never been fixed, and the reciting of which had formerly been up to the judgment of the congregation — for example, the use and placement of the psalms, the Supplications, the prayers during the Torah reading, the exact fixing of the pericope in the Torah and Haftara, and, finally, the selection of piyyut and <i>seliha</i>. ... [After the Black Plague (1348-9),] These studies had some justification to the extent that their purpose was the reestablishment of the continuity of tradition and to the extent that they served to overcome the disorder and confusion that had spread to many places. But they went much further, and bestowed such exaggerated attention on such minuscule matters and unimportant habits that we can only view it as morbidity, the pathetic sign of a period of decadence.(p282) ... [After the <i>Shulhan Arukh</i>,] care for customary practice became a morbid obsession, confirming the harsh observation of a medieval sage that excessive concentration on the custom could lead the communities to perdition.(p283)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>The worst consequence of [the development of the printed <i>siddur</i>] was the deification of the letter. ... The deadly force of reverence for the letter caused great harm to the liturgy, for the spirit that had the power to revive it was moribund. In the absolute absence of general education, discipline, and order, the effort to dislodge the rigid faith in the written letter led to such disruptions that, <strong>on the threshold of the modern age, the form of the liturgy had become absolutely untenable</strong>.(p285)</blockquote><br /><br />On the scourge of liturgical poetry:<br /><blockquote>The first attempt to embellish the liturgy of festivals and fast days, ... already involved additions of the type that may be called piyyut ... Nevertheless, these compositions were of a very different type from piyyut in the narrow sense of the term. First, they always remained separate from the statutory prayers, never penetrating them as did the piyyut, which interrupted the traditional sequence of the service. <strong>Second, they are distinguished from the piyyut — and this must be stressed as strongly as possible — in the simplicity of their form, the modesty of their language, and the intelligibility and clarity of their expression.</strong> (p221)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>The poems first composed [for selihot] were simple and unadorned, but deeply felt; later came elaborate structures in which the artificiality of the form often suppressed the content.(p179)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>To this [Aramaic] translation [of the Torah reading] poetic introductions in the Aramaic language were also composed; one of them, אקדמות מלין, "The beginning of words," has been preserved to this day in our holiday prayer book for the first day of Pentecost. <strong>These poems were never intelligible, but now, with the elimination of the translation that they were intended to introduce, they have completely lost their significance and their right to exist</strong>.(p154)</blockquote><br /><br />The! downfall! of! Piyyut!<br /><blockquote>How great was the religious feeling excited by the piyyut! What courage it offered the downcast! What consolation it instilled in the despairing! But the convenient accessibility of the material could easily become and inducement to facile rhyming, encouraging many who were not poets to try their hand at writing piyyutim.</blockquote><br />Did you start thinking of the Sim Shalom when you read that?<br /><blockquote>Fixed forms were established that were too easy to use; the same places in the service and the same occasions attracted the same ideas: Certain themes like the suffering of the Ten Martyrs, the binding of Isaac, and the recitation of the Kedushah by the Hosts of Heaven came to be constantly repeated and treated in routine cliches. It was intrinsically hard to invent original and telling ways of expressing all these things; only few succeeded, but many became longwinded and indulged in monotonous repetition.(p227)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Like the letters of the alphabet, biblical verses may be used in the most varied combinations. One of the most artificial combinations, fortunately an uncommon one, is the <i>qerova</i> for the Ninth of Av by Kallir in Rome. The first line of each stanza begins with the first word of the successive verses of Lamentations chapter 5, which does not have the alphabetical acrostic and with the first word of a verse from chapter 4; the three following lines begin with the opening word of the verses of chapter 3 in reverse order (3,2,1,6,5,4), and the fifth and sixth lines begin with the opening word of a verse from chapters 2 and 1. The sixth line ends with the last two words of the verses of chapter 5 with which the stanza began. But even this does not exhaust the complexity of the piyyut, which is considerably increased by the rhyme.(p228)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>With a certain amount of practice it would be possible to find one's way through the unusual and incorrect word formations, but what makes the synagogue poetry particularly difficult, and often impossible to enjoy is the obscurity of the poets' manner of expression. </blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>With their depth of feeling, the loftiness of their ideas, and the purity of their language, th[e "classic" liturgical poets] came near the biblical psalms, for these were the true poets who undertook to speak, while the great majority of synagogue poets had no poetic talent. The didactic contents of the piyyut, the display of external form, and the invention of word forms were easy to imitate, and the congregations' demand for this new adornment of the liturgy was intense. Thus, the custom of composing liturgical poetry spread like a contagious disease. ... The error was not in the act of composing piyyutim, but in the unrestrained versifying, by the compulsion felt by people lacking any specific feeling of linguistic understanding to compose piyyutim and <i>selihot</i>.(p234) </blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>As manuscripts decreased and printed books proliferated, as understanding for historical and local character decreased, as meaningless customs came to be adhered to more stubbornly, the more entrenched did the piyyut become, and the less could its position be shaken by even the chief authorities of religious law... <strong>The modern period has mercilessly eliminated the great mass of unintelligible and worthless poems</strong> ... and has no compunctions about retaining in the prayer book piyyutim of true poetic value.(p237)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Saadia's poetic efforts were important in that not only did he try hsi own hand as a poet, but he dealt with the theory of poetry as well. The many worthless poems circulating in his time caught his attention and induced him to compose a kind of textbook for the improvement of the language and style of the poets.(p251)</blockquote><br />It didn't satisfy Elbogen, though:<br /><blockquote>Saadia ... did no better; if Kallir's poems must be called obscure, Saadia's are books with seven seals.(p234)</blockquote><br /><br />The one true religion™:<br /><blockquote>a change occurred in the tenth and eleventh centuries; poetic <i>selihot</i> became more and more entrenched, displacing the earlier simple, nonrhyming compositions, which were often superior to all the artificial productions of later times in poetic spirit and, above all, in depth of religious feeling.(p254)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>[Sahlal b. Nethaniel]'s poetry exemplifies some of the strange fruit that the liturgical poetry bore; <strong>though completely artificial, pedantic, and remote from both the content and tone of true prayer,</strong> it nevertheless enjoyed great esteem in the Middle Ages.(p255)</blockquote><br /><br />Can't argue with him here:<br /><blockquote>For the Additional Service [Meshulam b. Kalonymus] composed two versions of the <i>Avoda</i>, including אמיץ כח, "Mighty in Strength," used in Ashkenaz. Among known <i>Avodot</i>, this work is the least regular in its poetic structure; it is typical of the later Ashkenazic poets as well, in that they often neglect the fundamental principle of poetry, uniformity of pattern. Surprisingly, we find that the poem lacks rhyme. It has been shown that the author's intention was to abridge the <i>Avoda</i> of Yose [b. Yose, an earlier payyetan] to put it into the form more in accordance with the taste of his contemporaries, full of hard words and complicated expressions. Besides the alphabetical acrostic, he also had to devise a relatively lengthy acrostic for his own name. Because he was not able to extricate himself from all these difficulties, his <i>Avoda</i> came out very irregularly — sometimes they were very condensed, jumping from idea to idea, and at other times they went into great detail.(p253)</blockquote><br /><br /><br />In which I learn that my usual practices or practices with which I am quite familiar are unheard of in modern times:<br /><br /><blockquote>The modern suggestion to shorten the weekly [Torah] readings <strong>and have the congregation [as opposed to a rabbi or cantor] again do the reading itself has gained no attention anywhere</strong>. (p140)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Certainly this paying for ritual functions [aliyot/synagogue honors] was bound to lead to undesirable consequences, especially since for a time, they <strong>were</strong> even sold at public auction to the highest bidder. (p142)</blockquote><br />(you know who you are).<br /><br />Occasions on which I learn that I'm either uncivilized, or live in an uncivilized country:<br /><br /><blockquote>In all civilized countries the external form of the liturgy underwent more or less fundamental improvements. <strong>Choral singing was introduced everywhere, accompanied by organ</strong> in France and Italy, while the liturgy itself remained unchanged.(p319)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>In the manner of such customs, the secondary eventually becomes primary, and "May He Who blessed" [מי שברך] became for the unlettered the most important part of the Torah reading. <strong>Gradually the unfortunate situation arose that the blessings multiplied to a horrifying degree, leading to the excessive prolongation of the service,</strong> diverting attention from the reading itself, and opening the way to all kinds of abuse. <strong>The interruption of the Torah reading for the recitation of private blessings was long ago eliminated in all progressive countries</strong>.(p161)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Quiet and order, dignity and reverence in worship are such self-explanatory requirements for civilized people, and approach so nearly the precepts of traditional Judaism, that the most conservative circles recognized that they were justified, and everywhere efforts were made to realize them. The refinement of the cantorial rendition and the introduction of harmonic choral singing were also demanded from every quarter and were put everywhere into effect for the beautification of the service.(p325)</blockquote><br />It's like Judaism: the musical. Just sit back quietly and enjoy.<br /><br />Quietly:<br /><blockquote>Merely listening did not satisfy the congregation; they wanted to pray along with the precentor or they sought to pass the time in other ways. The result <strong>of both</strong> was disruptive, necessitating a thorough revision in the modern period.(p381)</blockquote><br /><br />Just don't enjoy too much:<br /><blockquote>Often the reading of the scroll [of Esther] was accompanied by customs intended to release the overwhelming feelings of joy, and these not infrequently took on wild form; . . . In Reform congregations, the reading of the Scroll of Esther has mostly been limited to the Morning Service, while in the evening it is replaced by a selection in the vernacular. <strong>The noisy disturbances have been eliminated in every civilized country.</strong>(p110)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>In the course of time, the Joy of the Torah became a popular festival in the synagogue, and the processions a kind of popular amusement for observers; in less cultivated times and places these generated into wild excesses and indecorous behavior.(p160)</blockquote><br />Uh oh. Someone may have smiled in shul.<br /><br />The Frankfurt rabbinical conference (1845) had a way of preventing that from happening too often:<br /><blockquote>The commission had proposed the introduction of the triennial cycle; this was accepted with a great majority. The festival of the Joy of the Torah was therefore to be celebrated only once in three years.(p313)</blockquote><br /><br />But the greatest advance in Jewish prayer since the advent of sliced bread is...<br /><blockquote>The classical historian of the sermon was Leopold Zunz; his book ... is one of the chief factors that enabled the sermon, in the course of the last century, to regain the place in the synagogue that it had in ancient times. Thanks to it, the last seventy years have seen regular liturgical instruction successfully reassert itself in Jewish communities, irrespective of religious inclination, in every civilized country, and the vernacular sermon has once again become an integral part of the Sabbath and festival service. (p157)</blockquote><br />... the (return of the) sermon. But,<br /><blockquote>in the great synagogues of our time the problem often arises that one does not find individuals who combine intellectual capacity, vocal power, and rhetorical skill.(p158)</blockquote><br />On the bright side, nap time returned to the synagogue.<br /><br />On the need for reform:<br /><blockquote>The liturgy could not go completely untouched by this mighty upheaval in the lives and thinking of the Jews. Its forms no longer suited the demands of a new age. They repelled both eye and ear, and could neither satisfy the mind nor warm the heart. ... A tiny group of intelligent people sought reforms that would not harm the essence of the liturgy, such as the simplification of the prayers, the elimination of the bad customs that had infected the liturgy, and the introduction of aesthetic forms and conduct appropriate to the house of God.(p297)</blockquote><br />I guess that means not sitting in the back of shul talking.<br /><br />...and the backlash against it<br /><blockquote>...in other Prussian communities such as Breslau and Koenigsberg, the German sermons that by now had been in use for quite some time were eliminated. Thus for several decades all progress in the synagogue service in the territory of the Prussian kingdom was blocked.(p302)</blockquote><br /><br />On nusach:<br /><blockquote>... synagogue melody was transplanted to the West, to the detriment of congregations and the liturgy. For those precentors schooled neither in the Hebrew language nor in music, the "melody" became the main thing, and prayer was forced into the background, its text mercilessly corrupted.(p384)</blockquote><br /><br />And other forms of synagogue singing:<br /><blockquote>A strange error was the introduction of choir boys in Poland, a practice perhaps still known to this day in the East, and which even in Germany had for centuries the most harmful influence on the liturgy. ... On either side of the precentor stood a singer, who accompanied his singing in a higher or lower voice — and who was therefore called <i>singer</i> and <i>bass</i>—sounding harmonic intervals and sometimes performing small solo passages. This kind of singing could generally be heard everywhere until the middle of the last [19<sup>th</sup>] century (it was still customary in Berlin until 1840); it intensified the disorder and tastelessness in the extreme.</blockquote><br /><br />From the Jews-will-be-Jews department:<br /><blockquote>On April 2, 1846, the congregation [Association for Reform in Judaism, Berlin] moved into its own synagogue building, and after a long struggle it was decided to hold services twice a week, on Saturday and on Sunday. The leadership of the congregation declared themselves in favor of Saturday services and voted decisively against shifting the Sabbath to Sunday; in the end they came to an agreement that services of identical status should be held on both days, <strong>and that neither day should be treated as a solemn one.</strong>(p315)</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>The radicalism with which the Reform congregation developed its liturgical institutions was easy to put into effect, when the congregation was founded for this purpose. But conditions were much harder in the existing congregations in which the new liturgy was to be introduced ... Violent disputes were unleashed even by matters of no importance at all, like calling people up to the Torah by name or the elimination of the first "May the salvation arise," the prayer for the ancient Babylonian authorities who had not existed for centuries.(p317)</blockquote><br />It's about the first יקום פורקן, and it wasn't intended to be humorous.<br /><br /><blockquote>[In 1840's Hungary] Bitter, sometimes bloody battles were fought over the most insignificant minutiae of synagogue construction and liturgical custom.</blockquote><br />In Studentville, too. Without the blood.<br /><br />Take <strong>this</strong>, Carlebach:<br /><blockquote>For nearly every prayer an individual melody was formed, and a special recitative for Sabbaths and festivals. Special pleasure was taken in singing the Verses of Song in the Morning Service, which was done at length. In Regensberg <strong>a full hour was needed just for the prayer "Blessed is He Who spoke" [ברוך שאמר]</strong>, and the same amount of time was used by Isserlein in Weiner Neustadt during the period from the first of Elul to the Day of Atonement [presumably for <span style="text-decoration:line-through"> לדוד?</span> selichot?].</blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-21856706951540609242007-11-08T11:02:00.000-05:002007-11-12T20:37:46.431-05:00Result of FTC crackdown on Do Not Call violators?According to a recent <a href="http://techluver.com/2007/11/07/ftc-announces-law-enforcement-crackdown-on-do-not-call-violators/">article</a> linked to at <a href="http://www.slashdot.org">Slashdot</a>, the FTC has recently been cracking down on telemarketers who violate <a href="http://www.donotcall.gov">the do not call registry</a>. Recently, my voicemail has received a number of sales robo-calls (trying to sell loan products) for which I couldn't identify the origin numbers on caller ID. They had too many digits to be what I know of as a ten-digit phone number. Later, I found that they were actually from <i>international</i> phone numbers beginning with the digits 445.<br /><br />Is outsourcing robo-calls overseas the way that telemarketers are going to get around the restrictions Do Not Call list?<br /><br />Edit: Here's one:<br /><tt>442074264150</tt><br /><br />If anyone in the UK would like to prank call a phone number, they're trying to sell mortgages.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-69496226829106369222007-11-02T16:26:00.000-04:002007-11-02T16:45:51.871-04:00Which cost more: Maarat Hamachpelah or Manhattan?I am not a historian, nor am I an economist, so, you can take this all with a grain of salt. I thought it was kind of a fun question.<br /><br />In this week's parsha, chayyei sarah, we learn that the cave of machpelah was bought by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver (Gen 23). Converting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel">shekel</a> into a standard unit is not trivial, but, let's say we take it to be the average of Wikipedia's quoted values, ~13g of silver/shekel, making 400 shekel ~ 5200g silver.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan#_note-7">Manhattan</a> was bought for goods that were equivalent in value to 60 Dutch guiders in 1626. Thanks to <a href="http://1632.org/1632Slush/1632money.rtf">some analysis</a> provided by a <a href="http://1632.org/">role playing game</a>, we can estimate what a guilder was worth in 1632, and extrapolate that it's about the same in 1626. According to that document, one guilder was supposed to be equivalent to a Venetian ducat, which was standardized at 3.5 g gold. Between the medieval period and the early 18th century, the value of gold to silver went from 12:1 to 15:1. Assuming one gram of gold was worth about 14g of silver, one guilder was worth ~49g of silver, and 60 guilder was worth ~2940g silver.<br /><br />So, the cave of machpelah was almost twice as expensive as Manhattan. <br /><br />Other than the assumptions about the accuracy of the sources, an additional assumption here is that one gram silver was worth the same amount to Abraham as to the 17th century Dutch. It is most likely incorrect.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-16833084199997543832007-10-25T00:28:00.000-04:002007-10-25T00:35:24.572-04:00Tidbits from Wikipedia<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a> is a great resource. But, occasionally, its democratic editing methods lead to some rather humorous entries. Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Stouffer">this one on Marty Stouffer</a>, (revision from 15:00 Oct 23 2007) host of the 1980's PBS documentary Wild America:<br /><blockquote>The lives of Marty Stouffer, and his brothers, Mark and Marshall, in rural Arkansas were captured in the 1997 movie, Wild America. Headlined by the effete child actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the movie related how the boys became intrigued with the production of wild life documentaries. <em>In an interview for Royal Beardsman Magazine Mart [sic] remarked that the film "is the singlemost greatest masterpiece that modern cinema has bestowed upon the world and all its people. I have been devoured by my own greatness." The adventure movie has a wilder flavor to it than the Wild America PBS program. Both Mark and Marshall are filmmakers as well. Their upcoming film will be a summer blockbuster depicting the great woodchuck famine of 1991. Jonathan Taylor Thomas will play the lead woodchuck role.</em> (emph. added)</blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14580319.post-58987102029319236502007-10-18T21:25:00.000-04:002007-10-18T21:41:51.754-04:00Ubuntu 7.10 released<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)</a> was released today. After having some not-quite-ready-for-prime-time tech support issues with upgrades to Feisty the last time around, it's probably worth waiting a week or so before upgrading. If you're setting up a new system on Ubuntu, though, it's probably the way to go.<br /><br />But, here's something interesting. The front page of the Ubuntu website has a picture that looks like a dictionary defining the term “Ubuntu 7.10”. The pronunciation key says the pronunciation is “\oo-boon-too\”. I always thought it was pronounced “oo-bun-too”. You learn something new every day. (You learn more quickly if you read <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq">the FAQ</a>. Real nerds don't read manuals? :-) ) It's not quite as earth-shattering as learning that the “i” in “Linux” is a short vowel (unless you're Linus Torvalds himself, <a href="http://www.jx90.com/linux.html">who pronounces it as “ee”</a>).<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright © 2005-2007 elfsdh. Content licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.</a></div>elf's DHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03562294407695041239noreply@blogger.com0