F'n Dodgers! (AKA 19th Annual Dem Bums)

Well, the Bums have done it again, and the Dodgers have once again turned a first place in the Major Leagues season into total crap, ending up in 4th place in NL West. My one consolation is at least we beat the San Francisco Giants. Well, better luck next year for the 20th annual jubilee without a World Series ring or even advancing in the playoffs to pennant contention (as last year: Chas V'Shalom)...

I guess dodgerblues.com is still in business...

DVAR TORAH S2: Chukat ("You got no water, how you gonna survive")

To be expanded after Shabbos:
Miriam dies, the well of Miriam dries up and they don't have water following them wherever they go
Aaron dies and the Clouds of Glory ascend to heaven, no longer leading the Children of Israel.
When Moses will die in the final parasha the manna ceases to fall from heaven.

Important family...

Boy what is Matt going to do with this Dvar Torah after shabbos? You're gonna just have to wait and see...

Shabbat Shalom.

PS: (on the following Friday, okay, kind of procrastinated it). Answer to the previous question: Absolutely nothing. I'd rather take a look at some other things. Snakes. The copper snake is troubling. Why do we need something potentially idolatrous (and in the future will be come idolatrous) to save us; why do we need to look at something carved from bronze to heal us from deadly venomous asp bites? The reason, I think, is the same reason why Moses has to have his hands raised in parashat Beshalach to be victorious over the Amalekite cads. We need to read between the lines, or, more accurately, beyond the lines. Past Moses on the high mountain and past the copper snake on a long pole (the Hebrew for "pole", here, by the way is nes, which also means "miracle") is the sky. In Psalm 121 (just remember the famous Carlebach rendition of Esa Einai), it says "I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Whence (it means "from where") will my help come? My help is from the Lord, Creator of the heaven and earth." When we look to God, we are inspired. Did Moses' hands and staff open up the Sea? No, it was God. Let's sort of take a look (meaning using my own self-serving 'translation') at the final verses of Exodus ch 14, immediately preceding the Song at the Sea. "When the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead on the banks of the Sea, and saw the heavy hand which God wrought against the Egyptians, and (reversing the verse for better effect) they believed in the Lord and His servant Moses, but they were in awe of the Lord". Whether we choose to believe in magic or superstition, everything ultimately comes from God, an important point to remember. It wasn't the copper snake that saved us. No, God sent the asps to punish us and then sent us a cure. I don't know why we kept the damn thing. Hezekiah had to destroy it when people started praying to it. Ultimately my help comes from God, Creator of heaven and earth.

Also, the Haftarah cuts off right before the good parts. General Whats-his-name (I forget, look it up in the Haftarah) swears to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house if God makes him victorious against the Ammonites. It cuts off after they rout the neighboring invading nation.
But what will come out of his house? His daughter greets him to congratulate the conquering hero. Oops. Though it is forbidden in the Torah as an abomination, he goes through with sacrificing his daughter. The other example of something like this happening is when King Saul vows that that specific day that the entire army will fast, anyone who eats on that day of battle will be killed. His son Jonathan is not informed of this rule and has a taste of honey. The Jews lose and, through the Urim V'Tumim, they discover Jonathan broke the vow. Though Jonathan is condemned to death, some other soldier guy asks to be killed in his place. Oy.

Roar, Zion, Roar!

Firstly, thank you everyone for the kind birthday greetings thus far.

I was handed a napkin at breakfast today by a fellow B'nai Mitzvah tutor and fellow Columbia Alumnus who happened to be in the Columbia University Marching Band back in the sixties. Inscribed on the napkin were controversial alternate lyrics to our alma mater's fight song that was previously sung by aformentioned scatter band in the aforementioned era. This is not the version about "a whore named Sally"; no, this is the wholesome era when engineers were able to study for their Orgo finals in peace. The vast majority of the bandies were Jews who were ardent Zionists which would explain the lyrics. For the first time on the internet (at least anything that can be googled) I present the lyrics of Roar Zion Roar:
(to the tune of Roar, Lion, Roar! (these lyrics begin in the middle, during the chorus), the Columbia University Fight Song)

Roar, Zion, Roar!
And wake the echoes of the Jordan Valley
Fight on for Israel ever more
While the sons of all the prophets rally round
Jerusalem!
Jerusalem!
Shouting her name (in Yiddish!)
Roar, Zion, Roar --
And show the Arabs what a God is for!


Okay, so they still knew how to piss people off without an Orgo Night. By the way, I just saw a blog entry which puts Columbia's fight song as fifth best in the nation. I've always liked our fight song.

California Primary moved up

Governator Schwarzenegger signed into law yesterday that the 2008 Primary Elections in California will be moved up to February 5, 2008, from the original planned June primary date. This is HUGE. It makes California a much more important state. I thought it might be fun to move it to, say, January 8, 2008 and see what Iowa does in response with their Caucus. By Iowa state law they must have the first elections in the country. Well, where it is right now gives the great state of California, a state that if it was its own country would have the sixth largest economy in the world, as well as holding 55 congressional seats (13% of all voting house members are Californian), some serious leverage. New Hampshire, traditionally following Iowa, is now third after Nevada's Democratic Caucus. As a Californian I don't like the amount of time which candidates spend in Iowa (one of my former roommates is probably shaking his head right now) and New Hampshire. Why do these states that provide corn and (um) granite hold so much sway over the political make-up of the general elections? How about California that contributes all of the media (which my people, in turn, control)? Well now California is set at #5. Super Tuesday is gone. Now California is going to have its day and maybe we'll see a Presidential Candidate motorcade on Ventura Blvd sometime soon...

Razored heads and RAZR phones

Three skinheads in a pickup truck just tried to sell me a Razr phone for $10 as I was jogging to Whole Foods to shop for Shabbos. Freaky. Thank God I wasn't talking on my cell in Hebrew or Yiddish at the time as I commonly do. Actually, they may have mistaken the latter for German and maybe they would have sold it to me for $5. That was bizarre.

Shabbos beckons, time to shower.