"Rise" and shine

Later this week, one of my kids will be moving to Israel. I know, I know, she has been there for a while now, going to seminary, serving in the army, living in an apartment and (judging by the credit card statements) taking taxis every time she needs to go to the bathroom. But this week she makes it official and is making "aliyah" -- becoming a citizen of Israel. She will be going to college there and making her life there. I'm not as sad as you might think for a few reasons:

1. With technology, I can speak to and see her for free as often as time zones and her social schedule allow, much the same as it would be were she to be attending a college here in the states.

2. I have gotten used to the idea over the last 3 years as she has been there and carried a grenade launcher.

3. My credit card is solid enough that I can go visit or I can pay for her to come here whenever the mood strikes as long as the mood limits itself to once or twice a year.

4. She has a lot of family there now and knows how to get around so I am not as worried about her being "alone" the same way I was years ago. Sure, I'm sad because I can't simply swoop in and save her, but she's (effectively) an adult who can take care of herself. And knows how to use a big gun.

But this is a perfect situation for me to write another list of dad-based advice, some of which I might have posted before, but I don't read what I post, so I'm not sure. Apologies if some of this is a repeat but, hey, odds are, you aren't the intended audience. There are over 7 billion people in the world and only one is my elder daughter so for almost all of you, this isn't even written for your eyes, so take a step back and chill. Maybe even don't read any more; I already have record of your visit so my ego has been massaged.

Kid --

First, and I'll say this right off, we are so very proud of you. We are proud of the step you are taking and the way you are taking it. Sure, we're scared, sad and often hungry, but these days, whop isn't? So go, take wing and soar. But don't think that you can escape the fatherly truisms.

You are there to excel, not coast. Establish priorities and do excellent work.

Get ahead in your reading, and take notes while you read.

Get the paperwork done as soon as you can -- don't wait for a deadline to arrive.

Ask questions, take notes and write down who told you what.

Focus. Don't try to multi-task. Manage your time so you can take care of things on a long term, thought out schedule.

Anticipate what others will think, want, need or do and be a step ahead.

Don't wait for anyone to ask you to do a kindness. Do it before anyone knows it needs to be done.

When asked, do more.

When doing anything, do it better than anyone else, even if it isn't necessary. Excellence must become second nature.

Not every situation requires blame. Not every situation demands anger.

Make your first reaction a deep breath and a pause to consider.

Make your first thought one of compromise.

Make your first statement based in understanding, context and a wish to make things better for others.

Sometimes the only resolution requires giving in. Do it graciously and without reminding anyone that that's what you are doing.

Don't keep score. Be in the moment.

Folders, folders, folders.

Remember your family -- you will always have us in your corner, at least metaphorically, because sometimes, you will be outside and outside doesn't have literal corners.

A dad always wants to help but sometimes has to let you work things out. And sometimes has to tell you you are wrong.

A sister is the best friend you will ever hate. And verse visa.

A mom is sometimes like a sister and a sister is sometimes like a mom. But not always. And often not.

By the way, your sister will be visiting you occasionally [I have to start writing her sappy post...awesome!]. She needs you to be a sister while she is there. That should now be sufficiently confusing.

For every time you miss the dog, just realize that he wants to eat your face.

The world is a tough place full of mean people who are horrible. It already has enough jerks -- it doesn't need you to be another one.

Like finds like. Find and like people who are kind.

Save money. Seriously -- you have become really adept at scrimping and saving. Keep it up. If you just use it when you have it, then you won't have it when you really need it. Walks are free.

Give people another chance without telling them that that's what you are doing.

Most people in the world don't have it as good as you do. That may seem untrue, but it is. You have funds, a roof and a support network. Share with the world; more people need it than don't.

You come from really great stock. Make sure you know who you are and why that matters.

You are part of a fabulous country and a special religion. Cherish them both, celebrate them both, and be proud of both. Do not compromise who you are.

Text me before you video chat me because sometimes I'm trying to sleep or work. Not often, but it could happen.

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I'm sure that over the upcoming days, weeks, months and years, I'll think of more cliches to throw your way, but remember (and this comes from an English teacher) they are cliches because they are true.

The Rise of the Web based Auto Didact

There are 2 kinds of experts: the first is someone who conducts primary research and investigation or has specific experience in a particular area and the second is someone who has read and reviewed the primary materials and can claim expertise (by proxy) in that same area, or on a larger area based on the ability to synthesize expertise by ingesting the material from a selection of areas. Someone, for example, who reads and speaks a language is the first kind. Someone who studies the language from the outside is closer to the second kind – sort of an intellectual version of that first, and someone who learns about the language and its history, structure and relationship to others is definitely the second type.

In years past, experts of any stripe were few and far between. They earned interesting degrees after writing dense dissertations with complex thought in them. The rarified realm of academia was rich with those who knew stuff that no one could ever know without their say-so. Who, other than a native speaker could become expert in Swahili? Someone with the means to travel to where ever they speak Swahili or the time and resources to study the language. Experts need access to stuff the rest of us can’t get so that they can transmit their findings to the rest of us so we can rely on their expertise.

But times have changed. Those experts (types 1a and 2, I guess you could say) are no longer limited to the holders of advanced degrees or dabblers in the higher levels of studies. The internet has democratized expertise by making the heretofore esoterica which informs the intellectual available to the everyman. Now, the trends and connections which could only have been spotted by ivory tower denizens who can read the studies or access the stacks of data can be viewed and judged by anyone. Buzzfeed can show us about the racism in movies from the 70’s. The evolution of languages in the middle ages can be charted using webpages, and pdf’s of documents, primary and otherwise. I no longer have to wait for a specialist to sift through documents in the Vatican, or the results of medical testing in order to drawn and present conclusions.

If someone mentions something online with which I am unfamiliar I can look it up. In the olden days this meant looking it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia in the house. If you had the time and transportation, you could go to a library. If you were wealthy or well educated, you could have your own library. So only an elite class could become familiar with material outside of a relatively small niche. But now that I can get most everything on my phone while I stand in line at the bank, I can read not just the summary and notes version of a text, but the critical discussion. I can read the source material even though I haven’t invested in a compendium of documents or don’t have membership to an exclusive viewing library. The internet is the great intellectual equalizer. It isn’t that our experts are less intelligent, but that the public is more well informed. Sure, there will be a gap between what is available online and off, but that gap is shrinking constantly. Surely there will always be a space between the intellectual 1 percent who are gifted with brains to beat the band and who can make sense of what is out there, and the rest of the world, but that one percent gets bigger as people who otherwise might not have the opportunity to expose themselves to the material are suddenly allowed access to the same resources.

This is fantastic and dangerous. The Wikipedia syndrome which allows us all to pontificate and fabricate does create dangerous situations where our supposed expertise is based on unvetted material. But the plethora of primary (and verifiable) sources online through the digitalization of arcane texts and images, plus the access we have to people from around the world, all coupled with the ability to construct assessments, surveys and ascertainments by which we can construct new collections of fact make most anyone able to raise him or herself to the level of expert. I no longer have to rely on the set of scholars who have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls. I can see them without leaving my house. I can read the papers they have read. I can learn the languages they have studied. And while there is some groundwork that an established expert might have that I lack, I can cite all the same resources and can present my own opinions and findings as substantiated by a similar population of bibliographia.

In fact, whereas it used to be denigrating to call someone an “internet expert” as it indicated that the person was taking predigested summaries and glosses for true fact and presenting the self as an expert, as more and more becomes available to the “internetional” community, an internet expert has much the same authority and power as any other. In the same way that online learning and degrees have moved towards the level of respectability of the traditional model, internet expertise is fast approaching the acceptability of any other mode of authority.

The fact is, I enjoy engaging in on-line argument but not because anonymous pontificating is somehow a reflection of any true power – it is because the test of finding and assimilating relevant and on-point evidence is energizing. I can speak with clarity and authority on subjects about which I was not formally trained and, because my arguments are buttressed by the evidence from the “classical” experts, my statements have force. I am not asserting empty claims, or even saying things that “I heard once, somewhere.” I am giving my reasons and my evidence and my statement has to be taken as seriously as the claims made by traditional experts in their hundred-year-old books. It is simply the case that I have access to the same breadth of knowledge that they did and unless someone can show an error in my thinking, simply stating that someone else is an accepted expert is not persuasive. Do I run the error of hubris in my interpretation? No less than anyone else, from any time. Theses and dissertations are, no doubt rife with misdrawn conclusions or tailored statistics to support whatever finding the author needed to reach. This is not to say that there is some post-modern de-emphasis on an underlying truth, but that there is the same opportunity for people to find (or obfuscate) the truth as there was. Now I don’t need to be physically tied to a university library to do it when I can get all the same materials without putting on my pants.

In the Jewish world this has been both a blessing and a curse. We like to think that our sages of yore were writing more than just logical treatises on text – they were somehow inspired and reached a level of intellect which the commoner today cannot reach. But when it comes to creating new and exciting understandings of text, not ones which necessarily contradict, but innovations, we applaud that more and more people can read the texts and research the ideas. So while we can access a little knowledge and that is dangerous when we try to adjudicate comp[lex matters which require a human touch by someone specifically trained to weigh the various variables, when it comes to understanding ideas, we can certainly be more equipped than the masses of the past who could barely read, and had very little to practice with.

Technology has allowed more people to become celebrities because we can blast our image and message across significantly more channels that have substantially more reach than in years past. In the same way, we can read material from more sources and level the access playing field when it comes to studies, reports, papers, literature etc. so we can become relatively fluent in much more than we ever could. Experts are now all around us. We make ourselves into them and are no less able to hold intelligent conversations than they ever were.

The Bad LieuTennant

Why I’m angry at David Tennant

This morning while I was lying in bed not being asleep, I scrolled through the gems my friends posted on Facebook. Fact is, my friends are brilliant, if for no other reason than their decision to befriend me. Anyway, someone (maybe Facebook itself, which would be interesting and troubling) included a “news” story regarding actor David Tennant. Let’s remember, I’m sort of a fan of Mr. Tennant’s. I know very little of his work but I really enjoyed the first season of Jessica Jones and I know that he has taken his turn as Dr. Who (a position required by law of every person in the UK). So here’s what I read.

In the interview, Tennant says (as the headline takes two quotes and inverts their order), “on 'behalf of the Scottish nation': We 'f--king don't' like you.” I will excuse the profanity but not the arrogance. Celebrities have feelings. I assume. They have political tendencies and preferences when it comes to flavors of ice cream. I have even written a piece or two about celebrities so I know they exist. But a couple of reactions:

1. Being a celebrity does not make you an expert – this is the crux of what I wrote in the above linked blog post from 2013. Chomsky’s opinion on the Mideast has no relationship to his brilliant work as a linguist. I wouldn’t ask Mila Kunis whether one should feed a cold or starve it unless she has independently become a certified medical professional.

2. It is easy for a celebrity (especially one who lives outside of America) to hate an American politician. Having an opinion when you have no skin in the game is simple, and when that politician is easily hate-able, jumping onto that bandwagon seems simple. I’m not defending Trump, mind you. I don’t support a lot of what he says or does, or is. But I also do support some of it and because I live here, my opinion matters just a smidge more than Tennant’s. BTW, I often vote third party because our broken and corrupt political system won’t be fixed from within if we continue to feed the two party monopoly. So there.

3. He can’t speak for anyone but himself or a given and limited list of those who have deputized him to speak on their behalf. A representative system requires that people choose their representative. He doesn’t speak on behalf “of the Scottish nation”. Celebrities have access to a larger microphone and can throw press conferences and give interviews to exploit the media and put forward their own view. But that doesn’t make their views the ones that stand in for anyone else’s. Are you telling me, Mr. Tennant, that Scotland, all of it, held a mass referendum and ALL don’t like Donald Trump, and they assigned you the job of publicizing that?

3b. The Scottish nation, like any nation, isn’t a monolithic and united voice. Many Scottish people might surely hate the president. Some might like him. Some might have no opinion. It is arrogant for ANYONE to claim not only to represent the populace but to represent the idea that the “whole” all agree on a particular position and the position is the stated outlook and feeling of an entire nation.

So please, celebrities and Mr. Tennant, stop thinking that you can speak for anyone but yourself and stop leveraging that spotlight in order to advance your personal feelings as if they were something other than just yours.

Purple Prose

It all began when the rabbi said “I’m not exactly sure how to translate this word.” Me ears perked up, as much as ears can. He was talking about the word “segulah.” We use it all the time in a couple of ways, but it is hard to translate. Well, I thought, anything that isn’t easily translated is easily interpreted. Without a definitive answer, fanciful possibilities are back in play, and that’s where I find my home – in the realm of the maybe.

So what I am going to present is as maybe as you can possibly imagine. I’m going to tie together things that have no right to be in the same room and I’m going to pull ideas together which are totally unrelated in reality, all because I can or indeed, must, in order to scratch that brain itch which started tormenting me when the rabbi said that there was room for make believe. Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but that was my take away. Agree to disagree on this, people. Just go with it.

The word “segulah” has two major uses currently. The second (I know…just breathe) is as a superstition-marker. “Do that” we say “as a segulah for good health.” It is a sign, or symbol – an act which will help with something. If you want to read more about them, see this.

The first way the word is used is as a description of the Jewish people: we are an “am segulah” which seems to be a treasured people. So we have 2 meanings for segulah – some sort of sign or rite and the idea of being “treasure.” So I looked it up in my handy-dandy Klein’s Etymological dictionary. For the latter definition, he has “possession, property, treasure” from the Aramaic segulta (property) and the Akkadian sugullu, herd of cattle. Good old Akkadian. Though he doesn’t seem to address the former definition head on, as he has “to acquire” as a definition of the three letter root s-g-l one could guess that a “segulah” is a way by which to acquire a certain positive end result. That’s a stretch, and I choose never to stretch, but there you go.

I started thinking about that three letter root. That’s the problem…thinking. Strangely, I know the root s-g-l because I just happened to be reading a thread on reddit which asked about the shade of color represented by the Hebrew word “segol” (same root). The answer is purple, specifically violet. OK, by itself that isn’t very interesting unless you are some sort of color freak and if you are, I’ll thank you to stop reading my blog. We don’t want your kind around here. But what else is segol? I realized that there is a vowel point in Hebrew (representing the “-eh” sound) called the segol . As you can see, it is shaped as three dots with the single dot at the bottom. And (and this is where it gets neat and fanciful) there is also a cantillation mark for those who read the religious texts called “segol” which is also 3 dots but eh single dot is on top. Weird, right? Well, it seems that both signs are named via the Syriac “s’gola” meaning “a cluster of grapes.” Good old Syriac.

At this point, I just want to go back to the second definition of segulah (that I presented first) and discount it. I firmly believe, in what is left of my heart of hearts, that there was a cross over between the idea of “acquire” and an English term “sigil” which is a magic symbol representing a desired outcome. I don’t deal in magic, kids, so let’s just dump this term for good. Using segulah to refer to some magical power through an action to bring about a desired end seems like it is just a combination of “acquire” and “sign” (the Latin origin) so fooey on that.

Next thing, I started thinking about the shapes of the “grape clusters” represented in those reading marks. Two under and one over and two over and one under. I wonder what would happen if I put them one on top of the other…
......O
0...........0

O...........O
......0

Connect the dots and you get a six-pointed star. Crazy, right? No, not those dots. I had to add them in to crate the space between the 0 and O markers. Ignore them.

So one could say that the 2 segols, together, create a symbol which conventionally represents the Jewish people. Maybe one could even stretch it and say that we as the Jewish people need both the vowel points of modern Hebrew and the cantillation marks of the Torah in order to be complete in our identity. But hang on, there’s more.

Remember when I pointed out that segol refers to a color, purple (maybe via grapes, who knows?). Sure you remember. It wasn’t that long ago. Well, anyway, what is purple as a color associated with? Royalty! (just check out the Sumptuary Laws for more). So is there a way to connect the purpleness of royalty (or is it the royalty of purpleness) with all this?

Well, there’s a line in the Shir Hakavod that we sing on Shabbat in synagogue (more often called the “an’im z’mirot”). The line beginning with samekh reads “segulato tehi b’yado ateret” – your treasured nation should be in your hand like a crown. It appears that the Jewish nation is equated to a crown by which we can recognize a king. We establish God as royalty by being segulah, that is, segol, that is, purple in the same way that a purple piece of clothing under Sumptuary laws would signal that its wearer is royalty! Our everyday behavior is an extension of that kingship we confer on God during the high holiday service – our task is to make that part of our daily behavior, not just to wait until the days of awe.

So, now back to the rabbi’s quandary and my permission to pull it all together – segulah is about being a crown jewel, being a sign of royalty, mixing the different aspects of our character, ancient and modern, literal and figurative.

He is baby, hear him RAR!

Hi baby. Welcome to the outside.

I call you baby because I don’t know your name – you are still fresh and have that new baby smell, or so they tell me. You are very far away, but I saw you through the technological marvel of video-chatting. You didn’t chat much. That’s OK.

I want to tell you about a guy you will never get the chance to meet – your great grandfather. He was niftar exactly 2 months ago. I have my reasons; I was a fan of his and today, your birthday, is a day with is an ultimate testament to his memory. Your great grandafather, Richard (Yitzchak Aharon ben Eliyahu Chayim, ZT”L) was a great man for many reasons, but which one really resonates with today? Well, for that, let’s talk about today, you little prickly pear.

Today, on the calendar that should have an important place in your identity, is the 20th of Av. (It also happens to be the first of August which is important for other reasons – you can ask your mom and Spiderman about that.) The 20th of Av is listed in the Mishna in Masechet Ta’anit, 26a as one of the nine dates on which people made a contribution of wood to the temple – as sefaria.org writes, “These were private holidays specific to certain families, on which their members would volunteer a wood offering for the altar.”

זמן עצי כהנים והעם תשעה באחד בניסן בני ארח בן יהודה בעשרים בתמוז בני דוד בן יהודה בחמשה באב בני פרעוש בן יהודה בשבעה בו בני יונדב בן רכב בעשרה בו בני סנאה בן בנימן בחמשה עשר בו בני זתוא בן … בעשרים בו בני פחת מואב בן יהודה

There were nine such days and families: On the first of Nisan, the descendants of Araḥ ben Yehuda; on the twentieth of Tammuz, the descendants of David ben Yehuda; on the fifth of Av, the descendants of Parosh ben Yehuda; on the seventh of Av, the descendants of Jonadab ben Rechab; on the tenth of Av, the descendants of Sena’a ben Binyamin; on the fifteenth of Av, the descendants of Zattu ben Yehuda… On the twentieth of Av, the descendants of Paḥat Moav ben Yehuda;

This isn’t about trees. It isn’t always about trees. When you are three and they cut your hair, then it can be about trees. This is not about trees.

These nine days signify an act of selflessness – giving of what you have not because you must, but because it is what is needed. These days are about stepping up and making tzeddakah a priority. I can cut and paste better than I can write this up [ http://www.sie.org/templates/sie/article_cdo/aid/2508069/jewish/Shabbos-Parshas-Eikev-Chof-Menachem-Av-5747-1987.htm ]:
…the donation of the 20th of Av showed a greater measure of ahavas Yisrael and Jewish unity than the other days. The reason for this: The Gemara relates that after the 15th of Av, the rays of the summer sun are weaker and no new trees were felled to be used for the altar as they would not be dry enough. (Taanis 31a)


According to this, the family which donated wood on the 20th of Av had to take the wood from their existing stock of fire-wood — they gave away their own wood for they could not hew any new wood for the altar. They donated their wood so that other Jews, poor Jews, even past sinners (Heaven forefend) would be able to offer their sacrifices on the altar. Furthermore, it was done in a joyous manner, since they set the day as a holiday. How great was their ahavas Yisrael!


Clearly this wood donation also shows the importance of the mitzvah of tzedakah — since the wood is donated for anyone who cannot afford his own wood. And as this wood is given to the wood warehouse it assumes the highest state of tzedakah for the “giver knows not to whom he gives and the mendicant knows not from whom he receives.” (Rambam, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:8)


If you want a good sense of who your great grandfather was, read that section again (what? You can’t read yet? I’ll wait) and pay special attention to this line (and I’m changing the number in the pronouns…let’s not quibble) “[he] donated [his] wood so that other Jews, poor Jews, even past sinners (Heaven forefend) would be able to offer their sacrifices on the altar. Furthermore, it was done in a joyous manner, since [he] set the day as a holiday. How great was [his] ahavas Yisrael!” Just replace the words “wood” with “everything” and “offer their sacrifices” with “have better lives”. The rest stays the same.

A side note – 9 days. Ahavat Yisrael. Dedication to the center of religious life. When you start studying you will learn about another day which has just passed – the 9th of Av. It is the culmination of a period of mourning for a national tragedy, the loss of that same spiritual and religious center. A loss caused, in part of a sin’at yisrael, a hatred of one’s fellow man. These 9 days of donation to the mishkan, maybe, in a sense, they can help make up for the 9 days which mark our religious loss. Maybe these expressions of love and giving, culminating in the most intense expression of love can (as it were) atone for the nine days which culminate in the consequences of our inability to show love to one another. Maybe, your being insprired by and acting like your Sababa-saba can help lead all of klal Yisrael into an era of mutual respect, caring and giving!

What you have, and you have a lot, is yours because others have given to you, starting with life. Hashem, your parents, your family, your friends, your nation, all have become partners in your existence. It takes a village and we’re all overjoyed to have the chance to be that village. Today IS a holiday – a commemoration of the joy of giving to others, of the new opportunities to provide to a new link in a chain what he needs to thrive and continue being a giver, not just a taker. Today is a tribute to tzeddakah, charity. Celebrate that and celebrate the life and giving, loving spirit of Yitzchak Aharon, Z”TL, by being that person with that spirit of love and selflessness, every day and all the time.