For no real reason at all, I apparently now have a flickr stream. I’ve decided to make all photos which clearly show someone’s face private, so send me a flickr message if you want to get added as a friend.

Attention all single Jewish women, your dream man has arrived.

I decided tonight to combine two of my more recent hobbies – poi and long exposure photography.

 
 
 
 

There is one and only one thing Barry Bonds can do that will redeem him in the eyes of the public (and possibly win him acceptance to the hall of fame). The night after he hits homerun number 754 (one behind Hank Aaron), he announces his retirement, saying that he doesn’t want to pass the legend (or at least, doesn’t want to do it this way, limping to the record on reconstructed knees with a needle is his arm).

When I was a young child, my grandmother Oma used to bounce me on her knee while reciting a German nursery rhyme which went something like this:

Hoppa hoppa Reiter, wenn er f

Are the authorities in Boston trying to be stupid? Seriously, this level of repeated idiocy takes time and effort to achieve. What ever happened to learning from your mistakes?

Okay, I don’t want to hear anyone complain about their mikvah again using the phrase “It looked like it was two thousand years old”. (Note, this mikvah was built during the time of the second beit hamikdash, about 2000 years ago).

Since it’s about 30 minutes till chag, just a few quick pictures and notes from Amsterdam where we stopped over for a day before coming to Israel.

An experiment with HDR photography.

Apparently the Jews set up an eruv in the first half of the 20th century. This is one of the chains used to close off one of the many canals. There was no mention of whether this was considered a door as the canals were considered reshut harabim, or whether it was just a tzurat hapetach before the advent of telephone telegraph and electric lines.

On seder night, when we get to the part about the 4 sons, much is made of the “wicked” (or rebellious) son, whose question is similar in style to that of the “wise” son. At the prompting of my new haggadah, the Tekhelet Mordekhai (which I highly recommend), I decided to check the Yerushalmi to see what it said on the four sons. It was an enlighening experience.

תני ר’ חייה כנגד ארבעה בנים דיברה תורה בן חכם בן רשע בן טיפש בן שאינו יודע לשאול. בן חכם מהו אומר (דברים ו) מה העדות והחקים והמשפטים אשר צוה ה’ אלהינו אותנו אף אתה אמור לו (שמות יג) בחזק יד הוציאנו ה’ ממצרים מבית עבדים. בן רשע מהו אומר (שמות יב) מה העבודה הזאת לכם מה הטורח הזה שאתם מטריחין עלינו בכל שנה ושנה מכיון שהוציא את עצמו מן הכלל אף אתה אמור לו (שם) בעבור זה עשה ה’ לי לי עשה לאותו האיש לא עשה. אילו היה אותו האיש במצרים לא היה ראוי להגאל משם לעולם.

Some differences between this account and the common acocunt given in the haggadah which help explain things: