Monday, September 24, 2012

Sept 8-14

Sept 8, "PLG. PRD. BDL. QDSh. ChLQ. ChTzH. Why do we need 6 verbs for "separate"? QDSh means set aside for a particular, holy, purpose. BDL seems to mean a dichotomous division. ChTzH, means to bisect, as an arrow (Chetz) does a bow (Qeshet). ChLQ, which seems to mean divided evenly in more than two parts. PLG appears to indicate a natural division, as in Palgei Mayim, streams of water. But I'm still trying to figure out why we need PRD, what specific shade of meaning it represents.

Similarly for beautify: PAR and HDR can both be used for that, as in tiphara/tipheret or hidur mitzvar (doing a mitzvah not merely minimally but beautifully, joyfully).
So why would Rashi say that a perfectly common comprehensible shoresh/root in our parsha today was ACTUALLY a unique word, found nowhere else, meaning one of these two things?"

Sept 10, "Only Jerusalem has a monument to the victims of 9/11.  
Let's see.... HOW many of our Arab allies have a memorial to the victims of 9/11 in their capitals? Oh, right, I forgot, the US doesn't recognize Jerusalem, the only place with a Liberty Bell Park, a Kennedy Memorial, a 9/11 memorial as the capital of Israel. Because it would upset our Arab "allies"."

Sept 11, "September 11, 2001. I was on a treadmill at Gold's Gym, now closed. The tvs all faced in; the treadmills all faced the windows. I got off, and noticed lots of folk staring at the monitors Two weight machines later, everybody was watching the monitors. It felt like the 1986 day the Challenger crashed. I walked past the EE lounge at UMCP about 30 seconds into the 72 second flight. On the way home, 
I was astounded there was no traffic. Most of the way up 270, I turned on WTOP, and... BOOM. This 2001 day, I saw the smoke from the Pentagon. My 4 year old was in the kiddie room, where the very nice Afghani lady who ran it, Hamida, was freaking out because her daughter was a Marine corporal who worked there, & she didn't answer her phones. Fortunately, she had the day off and had just turned them off. My wife had chosen that day, of all days five years before or after, to take the metro UNDER the Pentagon, and of course cell phones did not work in the metro at that time. It was, as the Chinese say, an interesting morning."

Sept 12, "Interesting... anyone else note that the argument and tactics against human induced climate change almost exactly parallels the same industrially generated delays regarding CFCs?" (See Sept 24, BEES)

Sept 14, "Egypt... Libya... Yemen... Now Tunisia... Because we have freedom of speech, not because of Israel. Because an Egyptian Coptic Christian made a film. How many people died because of films in which Jesus was shown as less than perfect? How many movies show David, Solomon, Samson, Abraham, Moses as less than perfect? When was the last time Israeli Jews attacked the American embassy, or there was an antiamerican riot at the Vatican? Are you getting this yet? When did the archbishop of Canterbury lead a frothing mob against the embassy in London, or hindu clerics whip a pack of howling jackals up against the Mumbai embassy?"

No comments:

Post a Comment