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Like all machines and inventions, computers are never perfect and are always subject to human beings, such as me, mishandling or making errors in the process of using them. And when that happens, we always tend to blame the computer when really we should blame ourselves for punching the wrong key or using the wrong application. Such a sorry event occurred to me last week. It was right in the middle of publishing a monthly newsletter that has a few hundred paid subscribers, and, from the feedback I receive, I estimate perhaps a few thousand people who read it. Every issue contains about 4,200 words divided into four main articles on current events and personalities. At my stage in life, it takes quite a bit of effort for me to put together this newsletter every month, in addition to my other writings – such as this weekly opinion article that I have obligated myself to produce. I take great care in writing this newsletter on my computer, and I always attempt to make certain I save it in a secure fashion, so that when I send it off to the printer, it is available for editing, correction and publication.
Regarding this last issue of the newsletter that I prepared for the month of December, I had laboriously written three of the four articles needed for the issue. I began writing the fourth article, and was well on the way towards completing it and having the entire newsletter prepared to be sent on to the printer when I attempted to correct one obvious spelling mistake that my dictating program allowed me to make. I pressed a number of keys on the computer keyboard to erase the mistake, and to type the corrected word. Somehow, though, I hit a few computer keys that omitted and deleted the entire 3500 words that I had already written. Since I had saved whatever I had written, I felt confident that I could retrieve it from the brains of the computer, and successfully complete the preparation of the December newsletter.
To my consternation, I could not restore what I had written, no matter what I did. I even had a number of friends of mine, who are much more adept and knowledgeable than I am about computers and who have successfully helped me in the past, come over and try and retrieve the lost articles that I had written for this issue. Alas, even these people of great expertise were unable to force the computer to divulge the missing articles. After a week of frustration, I bit the bullet and rewrote the entire issue, this time attempting to make certain to save every precious word in a separate computer file. And I kept on checking to make certain that the articles were retrievable.
I was successful in rewriting the entire issue, and, while doing so, attempted to make improvements over the original copy. And then, with a great sigh of relief, I sent the material off to my editor and printer in the United States. I allowed myself a moment of self-congratulations for being able to somehow overcome the frustrating adversity of a lost computer file. My computer expert friends, who as I mentioned are much more knowledgeable and skillful in dealing with computers that I am, admitted to me that sometimes even they lose a computer file. In fact, there are probably millions of lost computer files floating around in the ether of computer heaven or hell as the case may be.
I thought to myself that this is probably a mixed blessing, for there are undoubtedly many computer files that deserve to be deleted and never sent or read, while, at the same time, there are also many other computer files – and I like to think that mine would be among them – that really should have seen the light of day and should have been preserved. I am not certain what the great moral lesson involved here is, but it seems to me that the next step for civilizing computers is that it should have an inborn right of choice to decide which files it is willing to lose, and which ones should be published. I await that invention with bated breath.
Shabbat shalom
Berel Wein
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
