גאולה

(יד) כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְקֹוָק צְבָאוֹת כַּאֲשֶׁר זָמַמְתִּי לְהָרַע לָכֶם בְּהַקְצִיף אֲבֹתֵיכֶם אֹתִי אָמַר יְקֹוָק צְבָאוֹת וְלֹא נִחָמְתִּי:

(טו) כֵּן שַׁבְתִּי זָמַמְתִּי בַּיָּמִים הָאֵלֶּה לְהֵיטִיב אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם וְאֶת בֵּית יְהוּדָה אַל תִּירָאוּ:

(טז) אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשׂוּ דַּבְּרוּ אֱמֶת אִישׁ אֶת רֵעֵהוּ אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם:

(יז) וְאִישׁ אֶת רָעַת רֵעֵהוּ אַל תַּחְשְׁבוּ בִּלְבַבְכֶם וּשְׁבֻעַת שֶׁקֶר אַל תֶּאֱהָבוּ כִּי אֶת כָּל אֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵאתִי נְאֻם יְקֹוָק: ס

Honorary Doctorate

The following is an email that I received yesterday.

02-Jul-2010

Dear Dr. Rapps,

Welcome to Encyclopedia of Ancient History - Manuscript Central site for online submission and review.

You are listed as a co-author for this manuscript. The online peer-review system, Manuscript Central, automatically creates a user account for you.
Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,


Encyclopedia of Ancient History Editorial Office

Yup

As I was unloading my car from my first Mishkon gig of the season, this guy who just came back from yeshiva walked by and we were talking. At the end of the conversation I asked him: "What are you doing next year?"

"Y.U." he responded.

"Uh, my Alma Matter."

Change Versus Fixing

At graduation I had a thought which I tweeted, but this morning I had an enhancement of that thought, and being that I find myself in a pretty boring morning here on the aliyah pilot trip, I figured that I shall post about it.

In English we often hear about change. In college you hear about changing the world; Barak Obama received the votes of the American nation by promising change.

However, in Judaism, we have the notion of tikun olam, fixing the world. Not everything needs to be changed. Firstly, the change that everyone hopes for does not always come, and other times the change that is brought about is not desired in the end.

An example: I have been told that at one point, coke desired to change their recipe and they spent a lot of money in advertisement, and in the end, the change was not desired and they switched it back to the original.

However, if I told you that I would like to enhance bazooka bubble gum so that the flavor lasted for twenty minutes instead of the few minutes that it does, I think that people would support me.

I love you,

Sruli

Me, and My Grandfather, and Richard Joel

Graduation Is Like Death

You know, I did not really enjoy college. I found it very difficult and often times frustrating. However, now that it is over and I am preparing to move to Israel and leave everything behind, it is a little sad thinking that I may seldom see the wonderful friends that I have made over the last three years.

In this sense, graduation is like death. This world has many difficulties and frustrations, yet we are nervous to go onto the next world even though the next world is the Garden of Eden. We are nervous to leave behind what we have created for ourselves over here.

I Beg to Differ

I do not fully agree with my previous post. Some points I believe are true and others were not spelled out clearly enough. It is a complex issue.