Archives for March 2006

I thought this story was interesting. I’d like to take a similar trip.

The world of the mountain gorilla

At the zigzag passage through the wall we step over a scattering of porcupine quills — some wildlife still travels both directions — and we begin the steep climb up the volcano. We swat away branches, cling to creepers, slide through muck, and whack the biting safari ants as we reel up into the richest ecosystem in Africa. Actress Daryl Hannah, who lives in an off-the-grid home at 10,000 feet in Telluride, has fewer problems with the elevation than the rest of us, and she is quickly at the front of the pack, eager for first contact. Somewhere in the middle flanks of the volcano we hear a rustling, and within a few steps a black ball of fur scrambles to the top of a bamboo stalk. It is Daryl’s first mountain gorilla sighting, and her eyes grow wide.

The gorilla knuckle-walks by us to within a couple feet, and we follow. Suddenly we are surrounded by gorillas, from babies to blackbacks and silverbacks, thrashing about in their own guiltless ways. We listen to a baby whimper as its mother refuses it back passage, an attempt at weaning. We watch as two young males wrestle, fur flying and leaves scattering as they tumble about the forest. “Monkeying around,” Daryl laughs, and for a moment one of the gorillas looks at us and seems to display a toothy smile.

Another baby strolls to one of our video camera microphones, covered in synthetic fur as a wind screen, and reaches out to touch what seems a fellow creature. A mother with disproportionately huge eyes stares at Daryl as though she’s seen her in some movie, but can’t quite place her, and puffs of condensation steam from her mouth. Two other apes rise up and thump their chests with a sound like mallets on wood, and Daryl thumps her own chest back.”

I also posted this at The Jewish Connection.

A blog that calls itself Jewish Answers asks and answers the question:

Why don’t Orthodox women read from the Torah?

Rav Tendler takes time to provide a response that I have trouble buying into. Allow me to take some selections from his response.

“The Talmud, in Megillah 23a states that “even a woman may read from the Torah,”

Ok, so the initial response is that a woman can read from the Torah, so the question is why wouldn’t or shouldn’t she. Rav Tendler goes on to explain that the purpose of reading Torah is for the person reading to teach it to the congregation. He then offers the following:

“The Talmud is stating that although there is technically nothing wrong with a woman teaching Torah to men, since men have a Mitzvah to study Torah and not women, by calling up a woman you are essentially making a statement that there are no men present capable of teaching the Torah- despite the fact that it is their Mitzvah, and here is a woman who does not have this Mitzvah and she is more proficient in reading and teaching the Torah. This reflects badly on the congregation who is present and their level of Mitzvah observance and Torah proficiency. Therefore, our Rabbis said that this is inappropriate.”

I have a problem with this as IMO it takes a great leap to get to the position that they are at. To suggest that because a woman is reading Torah it might mean that all of the congregants, especially those who are male are not as well educated is just silly. To me this sounds more like a case of pride, of ego over practicality.

There are most definitely times in which a woman will know more than the men around her and in the interest of getting the best education possible the men should listen to her.

From a slightly different perspective I ask when do we recognize that there are minhagim that are not halacha and that there is legitimate reason to reconsider their role and need in our lives.

I do not believe in ignoring and or changing minhag strictly because it is minhag, but at the same time to refuse to change simply because it is minhag is somewhat provincial and quite limiting.

There are reasons to reconsider why we do what we do. This may be one of those occasions.

https://www.thejackb.com/2006/03/28/3189/

Or maybe I can. Thanks to Chaim I now have the opportunity to worry about whether I need to purchase my very own NosePouch.

I love the FAQs on this clever device and would like to share some of them with you.

Q. What is a NosePouch?

A. A NosePouch is the newest; well designed product for blowing your nose.

Call me a jerk, but how many poorly designed products are there for blowing your nose. I suppose that the balled up, previously used Kleenex might fall into that category.

Q. Why do I need a NosePouch?

A. You may not need a NosePouch today. However; when we have the need to blow our noses, due to colds, flu, allergies etc; we need a NosePouch. A NosePouch will help contain the messy discharge we all experience when our nasal passages fill up. Or, for any reason we may need to blow our noses

Back in the days in which I really enjoyed juvenile behavior my friends and I used to kid around about starting our very own business, The Phlegm Farm. This device would have been the perfect accessory to it. I just might have to revisit the idea and see if I can patent it still.

One of the things that I love about this site is that they offer a demo for how to use the fabulous nose pouch. Now call me crazy, but does Step 2 look like it is the before shot of the NosePouch pool.

Oy Vey, the very thought causes my stomach to rumble.

Back in the days in which my little sister and her friends would play Charlie’s Angels they would sometimes pretend to play Wonder Woman.

Every now and then the girls would ask my friends and I to play with them. These sessions never lasted too long because we couldn’t agree on how to play, or should I say that the girls would get angry because the boys would never let Wonder Woman win.

To us it was a simple thing, we were boys and no girl was ever going to be stronger than we were. It was also a great way to tease the girls. We would start out by going along with them.

Wonder Woman would come and capture us and put us in jail for being the bad guys. We’d let her walk us over to the jail and for about five minutes it would be calm and then the mass jailbreak would hit. In moments there would be shrieks of anger because when Wonder Woman would try to recapture us she would find that her magic lasso (jump rope) and super strength were suddenly useless.

Sadly, since she never was able to jump or run the way that the television version could she was often unable to keep up with us as part of the jailbreak involved climbing trees and jumping over fences.

If we were feeling particularly mischievous it sometimes included imprisioning Wonder Woman and her friends in the secret hideaway found in my sister’s bedroom.

Needless to say after a while my sister and friends found other ways to occup themselves that didn’t involve my friends and I.