shabbat shalom 30.07.09

Hi Everyone, I am writing this on the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, called "Tisha B'Av". It is a day of fasting in the Jewish calendar, in memory of many terrible events in Jewish history. Originally it marked the destruction of both the First Temple (by the Babylonians) and the Second Temple (by the Romans), which in turn was the end of the ancient Jewish commonwealth. In more recent (!) times, the Jews were expelled from England in 1290 on this day, and from Spain in 1492. In 1942, the Nazis began to ship the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka at the start of this terrible day. (No doubt the persecutors were aware of the significance of this day in Judaism and were twisting the knife.) More recently, the Jews of Gush Katif were expelled from Gaza the day after, as the Israeli government refrained from the action during the mourning period prior to Tisha B'Av. So the long list continues, and I won't quarrel with the settlers for adding their woes to it. People fast on Tisha B'Av, so many people are not at work. On the evening before (the start of the commemoration), the Book of Lamentations (Jeremiah) is read in synagogues. The head of our congregation noted in his weekly letter that the emphasis has shifted from recounting the evil deeds of the various enemies of the Jewish people, and now shifts to self examination, to understand what actions forced God to bring these calamities on his people. "Causeless hatred" is one of the most common explanations, and we sure have plenty of that to this day. I think this self-examination is good; it balances our native cockiness. I'm not big on holidays in general, but I keep the interesting ones in the corner of my eye. Tisha B'Av is one of the interesting ones. Like Yom Kippur, it gives some kind of therapeutic release. I don't fast; being a bit hypoglycemic, I start getting homicidal if I don't have some sugar in my blood every few hours. But I don't make a barbecue under my neighbours' noses either. I try to show them the same courtesy I would show a Muslim during Ramadan (which has pretty much the same purpose). It's a hard time to fast. The weather is unrelentingly hot. In the 30-35oC range now, with a brutal hot Middle Eastern sun that makes toast of anything left out in it. Last week, volunteering at the cat shelter, I was toast myself. I was working with water and came in shorts and tank top to work outside. Turned bright red after a few hours and got no sleep that night. After ten years in the Negev Desert , you would think I have sense to avoid sunburn. Gotten sloppy as an office worker. Last Monday I reconnected with the Negev; took my Dutch student down to Ben Gurion University in Beersheva to meet an old friend and colleague who is now responsible for one of our study sites in the Negev Highlands. We have to start working together. It will be nice. He's also grey-haired and cranky, but we've been friends since 1981, and have pretty much worked out bugs. Amazingly, we have never quarrelled in 36 years of friendship, although we both have the reputation of being quarrelsome. Two wrongs make a right, apparently. I also hired a program developer. It is time for me to get down to work both on EBONE and also on the monitoring system I want to build here in my office. My division scraped up some money for me, enough to cover a part time programmer/developer for some months. The guy I hired is pretty good, the informatics officer for our national LTER system and works internationally as well. He's doing this for fun, not the money. (He just came into an inheritance that looks like a couple million dollars; the old boy doesn't have to work anymore unless he wants. He's 60 and can retire with dignity if he chooses. It says something that he wants a hand in this project.) Funny thing about project management; I don't feel like I'm really working because I don't have routine work. But it takes time, I see progress, and I'm tired. I'm trying to build something that will last when I retire, hopefully in six years or so, and am using all my experience to put the conceptual bricks in place. It's a little nerve-wracking but sure beats sailing in cruise control for the next six years. shabbat shalom, Linda