Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Wonderful things in Jewish Laws

this post was written few days earlier and was scheduled to publish itself automatically

Learning Hilchot Krias Shma I thinking about two amazing things.

First is Shaa Zmanit. What a clever thing! Just imagine our laws would be based on the regular clock. What a mess would be when people started using day light saving times! All our laws would have to be rewritten accordingly to the new clock system and we would have to follow one set of laws in the winter and another set of laws in the summer. Now add here that there are two jews and three opinions which is especially true in our days - during the last hundred years we've lost the last Poiskim who could set a psak din which everyone, or at least a major group of jews would follow.

Second thing is great for those who get up and daven after 7 o'clock in the morning (like me). Just a hundred years ago in many places zman Krias Shma would pass before 7AM (!) in the summer. After the day light saving times were introduced summer timess moved one hour forward, so now zman Krias Shma is before 8AM in the same places without violation of any halochos!! Isn't that wonderful?

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Meme: 7 things i like

Recently, Ink Staned Hands tagged me in a meme about 7 things i like.

Well my list will be simple and predictable, but it won't be ordered by preference:

  1. Music - this one for me like cigarettes for smokers. I smoke more than two packs a day of music on a 6 days a week term.
  2. Make people happy - I just like to know that I've made a person happy. Sometimes I would even pay big money (read expensive presents) just to know I made a person to smile.
  3. To walk - I can walk miles and enjoy it if there's someone to walk with (dogs don't count)
  4. Watch people and/or know everything about the person - this one is tricky: besides just watching people on the train or in Starbucks, I've learned to look at people via anything what has a clear reflection if there's no mirror available (for example train windows) so people don't think I am staring at them. Sometimes I've done even worse things like reading someones emails but that was in a long past
  5. Trains - both real and toy trains. Every time I to New Jersey for Shabbos I start enjoying the trip the moment I find a seat next to the window. I love watching tracks, passing by trains, terrain and also bridges and houses. I wish toy trains were cheaper because even small models require few hundreds of dollars to be spent in a first investment
  6. Photography - this one is more of an unreleased feature of me, but it's in my genes - my father was a profession and very good photographer. When I've got my current camera few years ago I was doing hundreds of photos per event. Then after I started my current job many things have changed very significantly and it was one of the reasons I started taking much less photos (also I started to participate much less events). Currently I am looking to replace my camera with two: smaller one (preferably Canon SD750 but it's not on sale anywhere anymore and there's no analog for it even though I like Panasonics more than Canons) and DSLR (some beginner level camera, Nikon preferably, if not then Canon)
  7. Tech stuff - it would be hypocritical not to mention this. I has a large share in my life. May be too large. But that's an instrument that helps me earn living and give maaser... Also geeky things

I just wanted to answer to Something Different why many bloggers do memes - it's a lot about links to you and to your friends... Also Wikipedia has an interesting view on memes

Now I'll have to tag seven people here, but it will be hard because most of them were tagged by others already. Let's try with Little Sheep (it couldn't be that you don't have anything you like, LS!), Not Bad for Shidduchim, Frum College Girl, tembow, recently married too young to teach, Hadassah and not so material or not so maidel material maidel.



Done!