And now a group of tourists from Korea, who were touring Israel, were found to have the Corona Virus. And people are panicking here, that perhaps they stayed at places where that group stayed, and what if an epidemic breaks here, etc. So now - tourists from both Korea and Japan are not allowed into Israel. Very ironic, just when El Al was about to start its direct flights to Tokyo. What does it all mean? I'm not sure anybody knows, but for sure it has a purpose, it's not just random noise in the chronicles of the world in this era. The whole world is panicking.
Not that I have any intentions to travel, but if I did have, it kind of takes the fun out of it - even though I'm truly not afraid. Even if I were to get the virus, I don't think I would have died of it.
The fear, I think, is related to spreading the virus wherever you go. You don't want to do that. So even if you do not die of it, if you pass it on to others, they might die, and you don't want to be responsible for their death.
I have thoughts about this, but they are not very clear yet. It seems like humanity has a joint enemy - a little virus, and they have to work together to overcome it. As our Bibi said today: one virus for two nations. If our neighbors in Gaza do not take the necessary precautions, we may get it from them. And vice versa, of course. Humans are humans.
And, soon we are going for elections for the THIRD time in a few months. Really, really unbelievable. All this money could go to buying expensive medications for children who need them. We throw this money on elections again and again. So crazy. I'm going to vote the same, and most other people would probably do the same, so I don't know how they're going to be able to build a government. Insane.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
EASTwards
My mind has been in the east recently, for good and bad reasons. We'll start with the good.
In the little company that I work, we have an Israeli programmer. Before him, we had a programmer from India, who was very sweet, but not so skillful. And before him, we had a programmer from Ramallah, who was the first who built our system. I like all three of them personally, but with the guy from India, who we had to replace 2 years or so ago, I had a closer relationship than with the other two, and we stayed in touch even though we fired him (I was the one who pushed to fire him, I had to, I really had no choice. He wasn't fit for what we needed. I was sad to do it, but I had no choice. He knows it, and he holds no grudge - I tried to help him find another job ever since, sending him many links, ads, places online where he can find jobs, etc. He knew I was for him, not against him, but he was just not the right person for us). So anyway, we stayed in touch, and he often asked me about Israel, and since I often said Baruch HaShem and other expressions, he asked me about G-d as well.
About 10 months or so ago, we talked on Skype (it's always him asking to talk), and he cried that he and his wife do not have children. They had been married for 6 years at that point, but no children. I told him he should pray, I sent him the book of Psalms in his language with an online link, and promised that I would pray for him and his beautiful wife. And I did.
For the past two months he was trying to constantly contact me and ask me to talk on Skype, but I was very busy, and I do not have patience for aimless talking, so I tried to postpone it as much as I could. And then a few days ago I said OK, we can talk. He put on his camera on Skype, and the first thing I saw was that behind him there was a wall painted with lilach colors, and big pictures of babies were posted all over the walls. I asked him why he had pictures of babies everywhere. He said that he and his wife were expecting. She is 7 months pregnant and the baby is due very soon.
You can imagine my reaction. I had chills all over. I've been praying for them, even though I felt their chances were slim, after 6 years with no children. I prayed in Jerusalem, And 2-3 months later, she conceived. He looked so happy, and I was so happy to hear it. It made my day, my week! It was such a wonderful news! I was overwhelmed with joy. And of course, he started asking me more about Jerusalem, Judaism, Israel, G-d. And I answered. I really hope that this will have an effect on him and his wife. He talked with a friend of him after that, and that friend told him about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Exodus from Egypt. I was really impressed. Baruch HaShem.
I know it is too much to expect that he will abandon the idols he grew up worshiping, but I hope it is one big push in this direction. He does not have to be Jewish, but abandoning the idols and believing in G-d is a good path for everyone to follow. No idols of any kind. Just G-d. There are already communities around the world of Noahide people - people who abandoned their religions to believe in the ONE G-d with no helpers and idols. They are called Bnei Noah (Children of Noah), and they support the nation of Israel and pray for us, and study Torah, but they do not have to be Jewish or fulfill all of our commandments. They have only 7 commandments to fulfill. I hope he will become a Noahide soon and influence all the idol worshipers around him in India to be that also.
My mind is in the east also because of the crazy thing that's been going on - the Corona Virus. They say that it happened because the Chinese were eating... bats... bats!!! Yuck! And they say that they ate the bats without killing them first, just cooked them live and ate them. This is against the 7 laws of the Children of Noah (Noahides). The world does not have to eat Kosher, but the world must not eat animals with their blood, or drink their blood, or eat a limb of a living animal. This is so cruel and is simply morally forbidden. The corona virus is probably a result of this, just like AIDS came to the world for another transgression, to tell people to change their ways, to correct their paths. I don't know if anyone listens.
We had a nice prayer at the KOTEL (the Western Wall) for the People of China to be quickly healed from the Corona, that this epidemic will stop. I hope it helps, but we can only pray - it is G-d's decision which prayer to fulfill.
And to end it with something good - I got some good news about the professional thing I was talking about in one of my previous posts here. Still not sure I want to share it here, perhaps I'm not yet ready to do it but will do it soon. I was so happy when I got the news. It was such a sweet present from above. I don't know what it would lead to, if anything at all, but even if it doesn't lead anywhere, I'm still happy and content with what it is at the moment. Perhaps I'll write about it here soon. We'll see.
Have a good rest-of-the-week!
R.
In the little company that I work, we have an Israeli programmer. Before him, we had a programmer from India, who was very sweet, but not so skillful. And before him, we had a programmer from Ramallah, who was the first who built our system. I like all three of them personally, but with the guy from India, who we had to replace 2 years or so ago, I had a closer relationship than with the other two, and we stayed in touch even though we fired him (I was the one who pushed to fire him, I had to, I really had no choice. He wasn't fit for what we needed. I was sad to do it, but I had no choice. He knows it, and he holds no grudge - I tried to help him find another job ever since, sending him many links, ads, places online where he can find jobs, etc. He knew I was for him, not against him, but he was just not the right person for us). So anyway, we stayed in touch, and he often asked me about Israel, and since I often said Baruch HaShem and other expressions, he asked me about G-d as well.
About 10 months or so ago, we talked on Skype (it's always him asking to talk), and he cried that he and his wife do not have children. They had been married for 6 years at that point, but no children. I told him he should pray, I sent him the book of Psalms in his language with an online link, and promised that I would pray for him and his beautiful wife. And I did.
For the past two months he was trying to constantly contact me and ask me to talk on Skype, but I was very busy, and I do not have patience for aimless talking, so I tried to postpone it as much as I could. And then a few days ago I said OK, we can talk. He put on his camera on Skype, and the first thing I saw was that behind him there was a wall painted with lilach colors, and big pictures of babies were posted all over the walls. I asked him why he had pictures of babies everywhere. He said that he and his wife were expecting. She is 7 months pregnant and the baby is due very soon.
You can imagine my reaction. I had chills all over. I've been praying for them, even though I felt their chances were slim, after 6 years with no children. I prayed in Jerusalem, And 2-3 months later, she conceived. He looked so happy, and I was so happy to hear it. It made my day, my week! It was such a wonderful news! I was overwhelmed with joy. And of course, he started asking me more about Jerusalem, Judaism, Israel, G-d. And I answered. I really hope that this will have an effect on him and his wife. He talked with a friend of him after that, and that friend told him about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Exodus from Egypt. I was really impressed. Baruch HaShem.
I know it is too much to expect that he will abandon the idols he grew up worshiping, but I hope it is one big push in this direction. He does not have to be Jewish, but abandoning the idols and believing in G-d is a good path for everyone to follow. No idols of any kind. Just G-d. There are already communities around the world of Noahide people - people who abandoned their religions to believe in the ONE G-d with no helpers and idols. They are called Bnei Noah (Children of Noah), and they support the nation of Israel and pray for us, and study Torah, but they do not have to be Jewish or fulfill all of our commandments. They have only 7 commandments to fulfill. I hope he will become a Noahide soon and influence all the idol worshipers around him in India to be that also.
My mind is in the east also because of the crazy thing that's been going on - the Corona Virus. They say that it happened because the Chinese were eating... bats... bats!!! Yuck! And they say that they ate the bats without killing them first, just cooked them live and ate them. This is against the 7 laws of the Children of Noah (Noahides). The world does not have to eat Kosher, but the world must not eat animals with their blood, or drink their blood, or eat a limb of a living animal. This is so cruel and is simply morally forbidden. The corona virus is probably a result of this, just like AIDS came to the world for another transgression, to tell people to change their ways, to correct their paths. I don't know if anyone listens.
We had a nice prayer at the KOTEL (the Western Wall) for the People of China to be quickly healed from the Corona, that this epidemic will stop. I hope it helps, but we can only pray - it is G-d's decision which prayer to fulfill.
And to end it with something good - I got some good news about the professional thing I was talking about in one of my previous posts here. Still not sure I want to share it here, perhaps I'm not yet ready to do it but will do it soon. I was so happy when I got the news. It was such a sweet present from above. I don't know what it would lead to, if anything at all, but even if it doesn't lead anywhere, I'm still happy and content with what it is at the moment. Perhaps I'll write about it here soon. We'll see.
Have a good rest-of-the-week!
R.
Monday, February 3, 2020
Touching space
I heard something nice about these weekly Torah Portions we read now from the book of Exodus. I heard it several times from several different sources. Pharaoh refuses all the requests by Moshe and Aharon to let their people go. But this refusal is gradual. At first, Pharaoh hardens his own heart. After a few times, it is G-d who hardens Pharaoh's heart. The moral lesson: when you do something for the first time, at first your freedom to choose is great. You can choose either way. But once you made a decision, the next time you have to make a decision you will have less degrees of freedom in your choice. Think of a person who starts drinking alcohol or coffee for the first time. They can easily resist the drink. But once they chose to drink, it would be easier for them to choose to drink again next time, and harder to choose to abstain. On the third time, it is going to be even harder, etc. It's the same with people who tend to lie. After they lied a few times, it becomes almost automatic for them to lie in the future as well. It is harder for them to stop for a moment and monitor themselves and correct their moral choices. There's a lot of depth in this idea. I think we can all find areas in life in which the more we choose to do something, the less degrees of freedom we have to choose differently the next time. The good news is that it works the other way as well: if you choose to do good, the next time it will be easier for you to choose to do good, and the third time it's going to be even easier, etc. So in a way, your choices shape who you are. You are constantly changing and being shaped, and your choices are your scalpel. At the end of your life, the soul that you will return to the Creator will be shaped by the choices that you made in your life. It will be clean or dirty according to the small and big choices that you made in your life. Choose well.
Something else:
Last week I had a nice little adventure. I was invited to be the translator of a real NASA astronaut who came to Israel and gave two lectures to Israeli youth in Tel Aviv. It wasn't a paid job. The organization that invited him to speak asked me if I could translate him, and I agreed.
The translation was done live, in the form of subtitles (this was not the big professional thing that I was talking about last time, of course).
I've translated films and TV series in the past, but never LIVE, never in real time. I always did it offline, and it took a long time. A 90-minute movie can take 8 hours to translate properly, including re-watching and proof-reading, etc. Here, they asked me to translate him live, in front of the whole audience, and he comes from the field of space engineering, what do I know about this, with all the different technical terms, etc. I was afraid, but since it was on a day that I was free, I decided to respond to the challenge and enjoy the experience.
Before the event began, I met the astronaut and his wife, and asked him to speak s-l-o-w-l-y. Of course, when he began speaking on the stage, he spoke faster than any normal person I know, and threw in the air dozens of professional, technical terms from space-engineering. I was sitting in a little console above the audience, so no body saw me, not even him, so I couldn't even signal to him to slow down.
I stayed calm, and told myself that I can only do what I can do, nothing more than this, and what I can do is enough. I think I managed to translate the gist of the things that he said to the children, and especially the moral lessons: he told them to never give up, that everyone has bad days, that he had bad days with lots of failures, but the important thing is to stand back up again and move forward. He encouraged them to follow their dreams and work hard for them. He talked about the importance of space research, etc.
Then there was a break, and after the break there was his second lecture. I was prepared for another crazy race. But - I was surprised. He spoke really s-l-o-w-l-y. He looked at the subtitles panel above the powerpoint screen, and it seemed like he was waiting for me to finish typing before he said anything new. That was so much better and easier. Wow. I managed to translate almost everything he said in that second lecture.
At the end, when everything was over, I saw him outside the hall. He saw me, and told me right away, "The second time was better, right? I tried to slow down a bit". Yes, it was much better. I guess someone from the staff told him he must slow down.
Looking at him, I thought to myself that here is a cultural hero, perhaps even a national hero in America, but how do I evaluate him? The first question I ask myself about people, and also about him is - is he an "Ish Ruach", a person of the spiritual realm? Does he think about G-d and the meaning of life, or does he only try to get everything possible from this world, materially? I have no idea. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, a part of the "Bible Belt", so perhaps he got some religious education, but he didn't impress me as an especially spiritual person. And so, he lost some points in my evaluation. He is a person of this world, busy with technology and science. Perhaps he lives in the upper realms of the universe - in the international space station, but he does not live in the upper realms of reality, of the soul. My true appreciation and admiration is reserved for people who are people of spirit, of G-d.
I appreciate every person, because everyone was created in the image of G-d, but I mostly appreciate good people, angel-like people, those who live their lives for G-d. And they are rare, they are very and few. I can't admire people only because they've been up in space. To me they are like technicians, like engineers. I admire people who have had tremendous spiritual and moral achievements, like gentiles who saved Jews in WWII, or people who live their lives in faith, for G-d, contemplating the meaning of life and trying to do the right thing in the eyes of G-d. Scientists are impressive in their knowledge and intellect, but not necessarily with their wisdom and heart. They are people of this world. It is rare to find among them people of spirit, of wisdom, of deep thought. One person I can think of who is both a scientist and a person of faith and deep thought is Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Israel (Robert) Aumann, a mathematician, and a national religious Jew. This is such a noble combination: faith and science in the same person.
People admire so many "stars" and celebrities, and I can't understand it. Those stars are just human beings, and most often they are just simple people. I do not have TV, and once in a while there is a storm in the media about a certain celebrity that I've never heard of. I look at that celebrity and I see a simple person, with a normal personality, nothing too deep or wise. And I feel sorry for our secular culture, that it can sometimes be superficial and make stars of people who have nothing special to say to the world, to change people's lives or bring them close to the One who created them.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts.
Meaning is a huge word in my lexicon, and it's strange for me when people don't think about it much, that for them this is "heavy". Their lives seem so empty in my mind. They waste their lives having fun, not thinking what they can do here in this world, not thinking what they can give others, what they can give the world. They live for their own 'fun', and that's it, and I feel like they waste their lives.
We all came here to the world with a mission, and it is our job to try to find what our mission is and to work at it, to do everything we can to fulfill the mission. For some it can be to become an astronaut and inspire kids to follow their wishes, and for others it may be to perform acts of kindness to the best of their abilities, and for others it can be something else. But each of us came here with a mission, perhaps more than just one mission, and we must try our best to fulfill it.
Ok, enough for today.
Thank you for reading!
R.
Something else:
Last week I had a nice little adventure. I was invited to be the translator of a real NASA astronaut who came to Israel and gave two lectures to Israeli youth in Tel Aviv. It wasn't a paid job. The organization that invited him to speak asked me if I could translate him, and I agreed.
The translation was done live, in the form of subtitles (this was not the big professional thing that I was talking about last time, of course).
I've translated films and TV series in the past, but never LIVE, never in real time. I always did it offline, and it took a long time. A 90-minute movie can take 8 hours to translate properly, including re-watching and proof-reading, etc. Here, they asked me to translate him live, in front of the whole audience, and he comes from the field of space engineering, what do I know about this, with all the different technical terms, etc. I was afraid, but since it was on a day that I was free, I decided to respond to the challenge and enjoy the experience.
Before the event began, I met the astronaut and his wife, and asked him to speak s-l-o-w-l-y. Of course, when he began speaking on the stage, he spoke faster than any normal person I know, and threw in the air dozens of professional, technical terms from space-engineering. I was sitting in a little console above the audience, so no body saw me, not even him, so I couldn't even signal to him to slow down.
I stayed calm, and told myself that I can only do what I can do, nothing more than this, and what I can do is enough. I think I managed to translate the gist of the things that he said to the children, and especially the moral lessons: he told them to never give up, that everyone has bad days, that he had bad days with lots of failures, but the important thing is to stand back up again and move forward. He encouraged them to follow their dreams and work hard for them. He talked about the importance of space research, etc.
Then there was a break, and after the break there was his second lecture. I was prepared for another crazy race. But - I was surprised. He spoke really s-l-o-w-l-y. He looked at the subtitles panel above the powerpoint screen, and it seemed like he was waiting for me to finish typing before he said anything new. That was so much better and easier. Wow. I managed to translate almost everything he said in that second lecture.
At the end, when everything was over, I saw him outside the hall. He saw me, and told me right away, "The second time was better, right? I tried to slow down a bit". Yes, it was much better. I guess someone from the staff told him he must slow down.
Looking at him, I thought to myself that here is a cultural hero, perhaps even a national hero in America, but how do I evaluate him? The first question I ask myself about people, and also about him is - is he an "Ish Ruach", a person of the spiritual realm? Does he think about G-d and the meaning of life, or does he only try to get everything possible from this world, materially? I have no idea. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, a part of the "Bible Belt", so perhaps he got some religious education, but he didn't impress me as an especially spiritual person. And so, he lost some points in my evaluation. He is a person of this world, busy with technology and science. Perhaps he lives in the upper realms of the universe - in the international space station, but he does not live in the upper realms of reality, of the soul. My true appreciation and admiration is reserved for people who are people of spirit, of G-d.
I appreciate every person, because everyone was created in the image of G-d, but I mostly appreciate good people, angel-like people, those who live their lives for G-d. And they are rare, they are very and few. I can't admire people only because they've been up in space. To me they are like technicians, like engineers. I admire people who have had tremendous spiritual and moral achievements, like gentiles who saved Jews in WWII, or people who live their lives in faith, for G-d, contemplating the meaning of life and trying to do the right thing in the eyes of G-d. Scientists are impressive in their knowledge and intellect, but not necessarily with their wisdom and heart. They are people of this world. It is rare to find among them people of spirit, of wisdom, of deep thought. One person I can think of who is both a scientist and a person of faith and deep thought is Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Israel (Robert) Aumann, a mathematician, and a national religious Jew. This is such a noble combination: faith and science in the same person.
People admire so many "stars" and celebrities, and I can't understand it. Those stars are just human beings, and most often they are just simple people. I do not have TV, and once in a while there is a storm in the media about a certain celebrity that I've never heard of. I look at that celebrity and I see a simple person, with a normal personality, nothing too deep or wise. And I feel sorry for our secular culture, that it can sometimes be superficial and make stars of people who have nothing special to say to the world, to change people's lives or bring them close to the One who created them.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts.
Meaning is a huge word in my lexicon, and it's strange for me when people don't think about it much, that for them this is "heavy". Their lives seem so empty in my mind. They waste their lives having fun, not thinking what they can do here in this world, not thinking what they can give others, what they can give the world. They live for their own 'fun', and that's it, and I feel like they waste their lives.
We all came here to the world with a mission, and it is our job to try to find what our mission is and to work at it, to do everything we can to fulfill the mission. For some it can be to become an astronaut and inspire kids to follow their wishes, and for others it may be to perform acts of kindness to the best of their abilities, and for others it can be something else. But each of us came here with a mission, perhaps more than just one mission, and we must try our best to fulfill it.
Ok, enough for today.
Thank you for reading!
R.
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