thou shalt not covet...

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife
nor the donkey which he bought her
but thank the L-rd that you're allowed
to covet thy neighbour's daughter.

yes it's a bit irreverant. but i think a great illustration of the need for torah sheb'al peh. and no i did not make it up

what flavour is the sky

On the way home from his gymnastics today, yc commented on how dark it was.
Then he reached up and said 'i can reach the sky
I said 'did you get a handful of it?'
He said 'yes. I put it on my pasta and cheese. It tastes of strawberries'

flying lessons

Need to get our bird some flying lessons. His over-clipped wings have now grown back enough that he can flap about a little with all the grace of a large cockroach, and land only by thudding onto the floor, couch, or when one of us catches him.
This is so totally out of my skillset. I shall have to get him a private tutor

Judy Brown's moving, heart-breaking speech about child abuse.

Judy Brown - child abuse

bus diplomacy

On a crowded bus on the way home. Ben and i got seats on the backmost row in the middle. Only seat left on the bus is between me and another man. Watching the dilemma as a few men and one woman weigh up if they will risk sitting next to me (or the man on the other side of the seat).

uranium ore

perhaps the iranians should consider some of the comments before they carry on.

Uranium Ore - for sale via amazon

israeli politics

Is at a shiur about the elections. An not sure why it is beginning with such heartfelt - or at least loud - tehillim


Not a shiur, an evening of chizuk b4 the elections.
in brief: every frume yid is obligated to vote yahadus hatora (unless their rav who they follow in everything rules to not vote) and if all do, there will be no calling up of yeshiva boys. And it will increase shechina which will pull more mks to support the charedi side

israel election fever

discussing politics with Y today.
Y 'oh good, i'm glad the elections are coming, time to get rid of netanyahu'.
Me 'why?'
Y 'oh i don;t know, i just don;t like him'
Me 'ok, well who do you like?'
Y 'what are the options?'
i began a rundown of each party's name & the name of it's leader (no description of politics at all). i got to bayit hayehudi, naftali bennet, and he said 'yes, vote for him'.
Me 'why?'
Y 'I like his name'

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i'm really finding the elections here to be so much mroe interesting than elections in the UK ever were. today i found a pamphlet on the street (actually pamphlets all over hte street). in english it said:

"We have a mesorah from Rav Naftali Amsterdam (tztl, ty"a, etc) from his rebbe rav yisroel salanter (zt'l etc) and from his rebbe and his rebbe all the way back to eliyahu hanavi (no zt"l there) for the way to deal with the medina.
and we should know that this comes from teh sitra achara (the dark side) and we all must strengthen ourselvs to withstand it
and he said that anyone who does not participate in the elections is from 'the seven thousand who did not bow down to (the idol) ba'al' and so it is in the days before Moshiach."

the cynical may wonder how it was that rav salanter or indeed eliyahu hanavi knew that one should not vote in these elections. but the cynical would then be showing themselves up because clearly it was from ruach hakodesh.

rain rain...

jan 9
i'm impressed by the accuracy of the mishna. if i recall correctly, rosh hashana l'ilanot is in shvat because most of the rain for the winter has already fallen by then.
It's been raining almost non-stop since last friday, and the weather forecast predicts it will stop raining this friday afternoon. it's rosh chodesh on friday night. pretty good, no? if i'm right, that is.

jan 7
i never knew that RBS could have so much weather! torrential rain, the birghtest lightening i hav ever been blinded by and thunder truly worthy of the term 'thunder-clap', hail, and beautiful sunshine. and the day ain't over yet.

yc entertainment

jan 8
yc got up this morning and said 'my nose isn;t pwoper'. i said 'you mean it's blocked?' 
he said 'i can put my finger in it, look'. i said 'um, yes'. 
he said ' i can take it out again also'.
yeah thanks

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jan 7
Yesterday, yc said 'when i was in mechina (before chanukah) i turned 5. and now i'm in gan bati (the class we moved him to after chanukah) i'm 6'. M said 'no, you're still 5'. he said 'no, i'm 6'. i said 'you're still 5'. he said 'no, i'm 6'. my mother said 'you're still 5' he said 'no, i'm not, i'm 6 now!'.
i explaiend ot him that in mechina he had his party, and he turned 5, and he hasn;t had another birthday and party since then so he is still 5. he said 'no, today is my birthday, and i need a party, and i'm 6!'
sometimes there is just no arguing with a 5-year-old. or even with a 6-year-old. i told him that if he keeps saying it for long enough, then eventually it will be true.

thinks it is against the rules for a mummy who is ill to have to get up in the night to deal with a child who is also ill. there is a line here, damnit, and i got ill before her!