The Evolving Jew

JTA is reporting that the seige at the Chabad House in Mumbai is over and that local media is reporting that all the hostages are dead. This is not yet confirmed, so let us hold on to that last glimmer of hope and daven for all the hostages and all their families. ------------------------ ------------------------ Update: It looks like the worst has likely happened - the deaths reportedly include the Chabad Shaliach, his wife, and others. Please daven for their families and for their orphaned son.

My wife and I were recently driving somewhere and the song “Patience” by Guns ‘N Roses came on the radio. Upon hearing the lines: Said woman take it slow It'll work itself out fine All we need is just a little patience I, being an incorrigible punster, quipped to my wife “He’s a doctor singing to his nurse that their practice will pick up – all they need is just a little patients.” My wife said “Why is the man the doctor and the woman the nurse?” She’s right. This isn’t a big deal in the greater scheme of things, but it shows that as egalitarian as I think I am, I still have preconceived notions in my head about what roles men and women have when it comes to some jobs, probably implanted there during my childhood in the 70’s.

There is a big push on, in the final days of Bush's presidency, a time when lame duck presidents traditionally hand out some pardons, to obtain a pardon for Jonathan Pollard , who's been sitting in a US Jail for 23 years, serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. I'm not going to discuss whether what Pollard did was right or wrong or whether the punishment, life in prison, fit the crime. Nor do I wish to explore whether Pollard may have unintentionally sabotaged some of the past opportunities for his release. The only point I want to make is that those who are pushing for a pardon may be pursuing an unattainable prize and that they should reconsider their tactics and ask for a commutation of his sentence instead. There are still many in the US military and diplomatic communities who are extremely loath to see Pollard released. Their power is waning over the years as new faces rise in the Pentagon and State Department, but make no mistake, it's still th

I'm a map junkie. I spend a lot of time wandering around different online map systems, like YahooMaps , Microsoft Live Maps, and especially Google Maps. And naturally I often zoomed the maps over to Israel. For the longest time, the Google Maps of Israel showed a few place names, but when you zoomed in... nothing. Just blank space. Well, it looks like they've finally added details of Israel . The streets of Jerusalem? All there, in excellent details, to the point of showing which streets of my old neighborhood of Katamon are one-way!

Ark. man left the phone at a McDonald's; he's now suing for $3 million This guy left his cellphone with nude pictures of his wife in a McDonald's and they ended up online, so now he and his wife are suing McDonald's. ??????????? 1) Women: don't allow compromising pictures of yourself be taken. By Anybody. EVER. 2) Everyone: If you do have private images or data on your cellphone, MAKE SURE IT'S PASSWORD PROTECTED! 3) How on earth is this guy's stupidity McDonald's fault?? ("Your honor, the hydrogenated fat in their fries went to my brain and made me forget the cellphone...")

How bad is cheating among students today? How about helping someone else cheat? A college-age blogger whose blog I often read, casually and unselfconsciously mentioned, in a post about something else, that she got “into the business of writing papers for this one guy” and that he owes her money for the service. I was surprised that she would mention helping someone cheat in such a casual way, so I hoped I misunderstood her. I challenged her on this: “Please explain what you mean. Do you mean writing school papers for someone else? Basically cheating for someone else?” She replied: “yes. I ‘cheat’ for him. I don't believe its fair that all these damn colleges feel everyone should be well rounded.” She went on to explain that he’s in a specialized program where it isn’t important that he be knowledgeable in subjects outside his professional training. I replied: “It doesn't matter what you think is ‘fair’ or not. What you are doing is extremely unethical. My respect for you just

I rode my bike 2 1/2 miles to work today in sub-freezing temperatures (bundled up, of course.) In nicer weather, this bike parking area is full of motorcycles. But today, in 24°F weather, all the motor bikers retreated to their nice warm cars. The only brave ones? Me & one other bicyclist. Disclaimer: This post was mostly tongue in cheek - I don't really think motorcyclists are wimps. Well, not all of them, anyway! :-)

This old broken computer was just taking up space. But you're supposed to take out and destroy or wipe the hard drive before putting a computer in the trash. My question: Why do they make it so hard to get to? Millions of tiny screws for which you need a microscopic screwdriver!

The latest chumrah? Sheitels are too sexy and should not be worn . My wife doesn't cover her hair & I like it that way. Frankly I think it's a very weak halacha that had more to do with social mores throughout history than with anything the Torah says. (I know I'm going to get hit on that one, but I'll delve into the halachic issues in another post.) However, many frum women do insist on covering their hair. What Rav Elyashiv doesn't get in the cloistered Charedi world, is that many of these women work, especially in the US. They can't show up at the office with scarves or hats. It's just not done. And I'm not just talking about big league career women. What about all those kollel wives who support their husbands? Surely Rav Elyashiv likes the kollel system? Well, he seems to want to have his cake & eat it too. If you want men not to work, someone has to bring in the money and it's usually the wives. And they need sheitels to work in a

Interesting trivia: It looks like Sasha Obama, age 7, will be the youngest child of a president to live in the white house since the Kennedy kids (Caroline, 3 and John Jr, infant, at the start of JFK's term). But it got me thinking and I realized that as far back as I can track without looking it up (back to the 30's) , only Democratic presidents have had children living with them in the white house. Upon looking it up, I found that the last Republican president to have kids under 18 upon becoming president was Calvin Coolidge, who had 2 boys, aged 17 and 15. The younger one, Calvin Jr., died of blood poisoning at age 16. William Howard Taft's youngest son was 12 when his father became president. The last republican to have preadolescent children in the white house was Theodore Roosevelt, whose youngest child, Quentin, was only 3 when Teddy became president.

I saw this grape flavored apple at the store today. At first I thought it was some hybrid fruit and considered buying it. Then I looked closer. They actually inject the fresh apple with partly artificial grape flavor! If this becomes a trend, we'll have to consider the kashrut of fresh fruit for the first time ever. (Outside of Israel, that is.) Imagine going to the house of a friend who doesn't keep kosher and seeing fruit on the table. Can we assume that it isn't injected with flavors that may not be kosher? Of course, by posting this, I may be prompting a massive new chumrah hysteria in the frum community. If so, I want a cut of the profits from the hechsher industry. :-)

" I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. "

This is a nonpartisan message: GO OUT & VOTE if you haven't already. And vote all the way down the ballot. Democracy means a balance of power between the judiciary, legislature, and the presidency, with similar breakdowns on the state & local levels. Living and participating in a democracy means much more than voting for President. Vote for congress, senate, judges, state representatives, ballot initiatives, etc. If you're not sure who and what will be on your ballot, spend a few minutes on the web, research the issues & candidates, write down your choices, and then go to the ballot booth and register those choices.

I’m taking a brief break on my moratorium of all things political to write down some thoughts that crystallized over Shabbat and try to convince wavering voters who are supporters of Israel that Barack Obama will be better for Israel than John McCain. It basically boils down to this. To paraphrase the traditional political question “Are you better off than you were 4 or 8 years ago”, I’m asking: Is Israel more secure than she was 8 years ago, when that “great friend of Israel” George W Bush came into office? Before Bush there was no peace and Israel’s enemies hated her. But the existential threat was kept to a relative minimum. Then Bush, with John McCain’s wholehearted support, attacked Iraq, destabilizing the Middle East. The big winner? Iran and its madman president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran may have been developing nuclear weapons before Iraq was removed as a rival, but the program accelerated afterwards. Iran’s influence and power in the region were kept in check by the ba