China Bistro in Hollywood FL China Bistro Adds gratuity On TAKE-OUT!

CHINA BISTRO is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant at 5650 Stirling Road in Hollywood FL.

It used to be in Dade County, but the Waterways mall in which it operated was sold and the restaurant moved to Hollywood. My spouse and I had been to the much larger Waterways location twice: once with good results, once not so good; suffice that we would not make the trip to the Waterways again were the restaurant still there.

THE SPOUSE was checking the credit card statement with the receipt from the local China Bistro.
That’s when things “hit the fan.”
First of all, we noticed an 18 percent gratuity.

 

FOR TAKE OUT!

 

If truth be known, the food was only “so-so.” The Soho Asian Bar and Grill in Aventura is far superior; if I must drive into Dade County at least I know the food, service, and bill will be fair.

One of our sons was visiting and we wanted a “quick” meal. We had been to China Bistro’s Hollywood store soon after its grand opening — the few tables it has were filled and people were waiting to be seated. We left and ate elsewhere.

Because we now knew that the restaurant was probably crowded, we called in an order for take-out.

 

MY MISTAKE

 

In a hurry to return to Spouse and son, I signed the bill without paying close attention.

It turns out I should have paid “close attention” and challenged the 18% gratuity.

Why am I paying 18% of the $50-something bill for having a cashier hand me several boxes (not bagged, thank you).

How much “service” is required to a hand over several boxes of food — again, sans bag in which to carry them. (I walk with a cane and getting out of the restaurant and to my fliver was, at best, a challenge. Another customer did offer to hold the door for me; much appreciated.)

When the Spouse was checking the credit card bill — she matches bills with the statement, line by line — there was an explosion of less than ladylike language.

When I got up the courage to ask her what was the problem, she showed me the bill and the credit card statement.

Adding insult to injury, she now has been on the phone for roughly 30 minutes trying to reach a Customer Service Representative at the credit card company. She has a great deal more patience that this scrivener.

She also tried four times to call China Bistro. Twice she was put on “hold and forget”and twice she heard a busy signal. To be fair — difficult under the circumstances — she tried to call from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s eve.

 

FOOL ME ONCE, . . .

 

Will we return to China Bistro in Hollywood or any place else?

Not a chance.

Will we recommend China Bistro in Hollywood or anyplace else?

Likewise, not a chance.

If anyone believes an18 percent gratuity is appropriate for take out by all means order a meal from China Bistro.

SoHo also automatically adds the surcharge for “satisfactory” — read “nothing to write home about” — service, but at SoHo I dine in and the food always is enjoyable. It is a bit of a drive, but compared to other “Chinese” restaurants we’ve tried in Hollywood, it is well worth the trip.

And in the end, the Spouse was displeased with her meal. To its credit, it DID make my meal "spicy." The son's chicken soup — he was feeling poorly — was "OK."

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

 

Comments on Gratuities for take-out

Opuscula IDF innocent Of “targeting” Hamas "medic"

ACCORDING TO ISRAEL HAYOM, the New York Times, in its unmitigated arrogance, has decided ”After analyzing over 1,000 pictures of the incident in which Palestinian medic Razan Al-Najar was fatally shot on Gaza border,” that “while IDF snipers did not target her, using live fire on crowd of violent protesters was ‘reckless’."

IF THE NYT “concludes” after looking at “over” 1000 pictures that the IDF only was “reckless” in using live ammunition to prevent hordes of Gazans from invading Israel — after repeatedly being warned and after other, non-lethal measures had failed to move the invaders back — than that must be the way it was.

Israel HaYom’s article is at
http://tinyurl.com/y8tyqqat.

The NYT article, headlined, How Times Reporters Froze a Fatal Moment on a Protest Field in Gaza is at
http://tinyurl.com/yahhq9sm.

I’m left with more than a few questions.

Having been a real reporter and editor — as reporting rather than spinning it — my first objection to the NYT article has nothing to do with WHAT the NYT mucky-mucks “concluded,” but article author Malachy Browne’s — and his editor’s — misuse of the language. Browne wrote that We analyzed over 1,000 photos and videos . Over? Perhaps he meant to write “more than”? Granted, I am a grammar curmudgeon (and proud of it), but the NYT promotes itself as an authority on almost everything. Like the military — ANY military — there is a right way, a wrong way, and, in this case, the NYT’s way.

 

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Browne writes that My colleagues Yousur Al-Hlou and Neil Collier had met Rouzan during a reporting trip three weeks earlier and were struck by her charisma and her determination to help the injured. We felt duty bound to investigate her death — and, along with The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, David M. Halbfinger, spent five months doing so. He adds on the NYT site that We interviewed more than 60 people (witnesses, family members, friends, teachers, acquaintances, members of the Israeli army, and medical, legal and ballistics experts).

Snide comment: At least Browne correctly wrote “more than 60 people” rather than “over 60 people.”

The bottom line: the NYT staffers had a personal agenda: they met Rouzan during a reporting trip three weeks earlier and were struck by her charisma and her determination to help the injured before making for the invasion jumping off point.

 

”OVER 1,000 PHOTOS”

Browne claims he and his NYT associates discovered that most of the day was documented in pictures by journalists, protesters, medics and bystanders taking selfies. Over months of reporting from New York and Gaza, we collected more than 1,000 videos and photographs directly from the cellphones and cameras of more than 30 key witnesses.

This makes me think of the propaganda events staged by the nazis — gather everyone with a camera to record a staged event as if is was spontaneous. Hamas learned the lesson very well. This is not the first time Hamas has staged a shooting. See http://tinyurl.com/bwzwzy7; also see http://tinyurl.com/y8hon9lr

Still, “more than 1,000 videos and photographs” — note how the writer changes from “over 1,000 photos and videos” to “more than 1,000 videos and photos” — and all from only 30 devices: cell phones and cameras of various types. I wonder if he is counting video frames or whatever each image is called.

Browne admits, on the NYT site, that we realized that some pictures were out of sequence because the time was incorrectly set on several cameras. So we compared each device against an accurate clock to recalibrate the metadata and create a precise tick-tock of events.. If the NYT crew manipulated the time sequences, that suggests other things also may have been “adjusted.”

I like the NYT’s use of “tick-tock.” It suggests the mental age of its readers.

 

THE DENOUEMENT?

The alleged victim of IDF gunfire, according to the NYT, had testified against her own grandmother in a homicide case in which members of her family had sought to keep quiet. While certainly not proof that the bullet that killed the woman came from the Gaza side of the fence, it does suggest the possibility. Remember, the “Palestinians” — if the woman was a Gaza resident, she more than likely was Egyptian, as are most Gazans — consider murder of non-conformists as, albeit an oxymoron, a fact of life.

Despite the NYT absolving the IDF of "targeting” the woman, its personnel determined that an IDF bullet DID kill her. According to the NYT, she was killed by shrapnel “severing her aorta.”

Naturally the NYT labels the death of the woman as “possibly a war crime for which no one has been punished.” (If it IS a “war crime” there should be a trial before anyone is punished. Apparently the NYT does not deem a trial a requisite before punishment takes place.

The NYT wraps ups its “research” article by claiming ”During our reporting we learned that by August, 60 to 70 Gaza protesters had been killed “unintentionally.”

Not one word on Hamas sending its citizens to the fence; not one word about Gaza civilians throwing rocks and other objects at the Israelis. Not one word about the rockets and kite bombs sent by Hamas into Israeli civilian centers. Not one word.

Not one word why Hamas only targets the Israeli border and not the Egyptian border that remains as tightly shut as the Israeli side.

The NYT claims to “print all the news that’s fit to print.” What is “fit to print” is obviously a point of disagreement between the NYT’s editorial board and writers’ bias and the readers’ right to the full truth.

As far as the NYT is concerned, even though the IDF did not “target” the “medic” she still died from an IDF bullet.

 

LAW IN THE U.S.

The law in most U.S. states is that if the police kill a perpetrator in the act of committing a crime, no murder was committed. If the police kill a bystander — collateral damage — the perpetrator is charged with the death since had the criminal not been doing what he or she was doing there would never have been gunfire.

To this former reporter’s mind, Hamas — NOT the IDF — should ace criminal charges for any injury and death of its captive population as it is pushed to the fence. Hamas should be held liable for the death and injury of ITS citizens.

It is obvious, at least to my mind, that Hamas sends its civilians to attack the fence on and off at will; these attacks on the fence are as “spontaneous” as the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Did the NYT even consider that the citizens of Gaza had a choice? Are they, like the suicide murders from the PA, modern day kamakazis? Children indoctrinated from their earliest days to hate Israel and the Jews.

If the NYT REALLY wants to tell the story of Gaza, let it begin at the beginning, when Egyptians settled there. Let it continue to include what the Gazans did to the infrastructure left when the Israels were driven out — not by Hamas, not by Egypt — by Ariel Sharon and the IDF. (It also might ask why Egypt refused Gaza when Begin offered to return it.)

 

READ NYT ARTICLE IN FULL

Read the entire article. Go to the source: http://tinyurl.com/yahhq9sm

Israel HaYom’s headline got it right: NY Times probe: IDF reckless but did not target Gaza medic — the operative word is TARGET.

 

PERSONAL NOTE

I once was a military medic. (The image to the right is NOT this scrivener.)

Medics are supposed to be non-combatants and, consequently, are not issued weapons, not even "smoke" genades.

Medics were outfitted — in addition to extra heavy packs — with helmets and arm bands that clearly identified us a medics (corpsmen if you prefer). Our gear showed a large red cross. In Muslim-dominated areas, including the PA, medics are identified by a red crescent. In Israel, by a red “Jewish star.”

Apparently in Gaza, the only way to identify a medic is by a white coat which, as we are led to believe by the NYT, is the only identification Ms. Al-Najar displayed. (Can’t Hamas “borrow” red crescent ID from the PA? Or perhaps it does not WANT to identify its medics.)

According to Israel HaYom, she allegedly was seen throwing a (smoke) grenade at the IDF. The NYT was unable to find footage of this.

Image of medic emblems from http://tinyurl.com/y83xu5g3

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on NYT

Opuscula Until 120 No thanks

MY MOTHER-IN-LAW (MIL) IS IN HER 90s. Her health has been better.

She has a live-in helper who is a strain on her finances, but it’s either that or a mosod — a nursing home.

MIL is adamant: she will not abandon her home.

MIL has seven living children, of which five line in the same town as MIL. One lives a few hours away and the seventh lives in the U.S.

In many respects, MIL is as sharp as a tack. In some other ways, not so much. After all, the lady is in her 90s — no one knows for sure as there were no birth certificates in Morocco when she was born. She raised her children and many of her grandchildren.

In her mind, it now is the children's turn to care for her.

That’s how it was in Morocco — and many other places, too.

TIMES CHANGE

She’s right, but . . .

First, she won’t give up her home, a place she shared with her late husband for more than half a century.

Second, her children have their own children — and grandchildren.

Most either have two story homes or apartments on a second or third floor. MIL can barely walk; climbing stairs is an almost impossibility.

The children take turns bringing her to their homes for Shabatot and hagim; the one in Haifa comes to MIL and spends time at MIL’s home; the one in the U.S. comes once or twice a year to spend time with her mother, her daughter, and her grandchildren, as well as visiting her sisters and brothers. Be it two weeks or four, there never is enough time to do everything on her agenda.

MIL has a pension, but the live-in help takes a major chunk of it, and to hear MIL, the live-in does little to earn her keep. MIL’s children generally report a different picture regarding the help the live-in does, or does not, provide for her wages.

MIL’s only other option; one she absolutely refuses to consider, is to move into a retirement home.

The neighbors she once counted as friends have died. She is one of the last remaining original olim from Morocco. The town in which she lives remains largely North African, and Moroccan is still spoken, but by fewer and fewer people.

In a nursing home, MIL would be with others of her generation, probably others from Morocco. She would have full time, supervised, medical attention. The cost probably would be about the same as the live-in.

But, she won’t give up her home.

I can understand that. That’s like asking an American to give up his or her driver’s license. Even if the person no longer can drive, that license still represents “independence.”

As long as MIL has the house, she can think she is independent.

I see the life MIL is living and I am serious when I tell people who wish me
עד 120 — until 120 — that I really don’t want to live that long.

Maybe Moses was able to hike up a mountain at 120, but I can’t do it even now, and I’m decades younger than 120.

Yes, there is Medicare (for how much longer) and Social Security (also, for how much longer), and I do have a pension pittance, but what once took me 15 minutes to walk to “shul,” now takes me 15 minutes to walk to a minyan one-eighth the distance. It could be worse; I could have to “roll” to the minyan when walking becomes out of the question.

I’m not going to anything “foolish” to hurry my demise along, but I am telling the truth when I tell me who wish me עד 120 that I hope their wish, albeit well intentioned, is not something I want fulfilled.

It’s not in my hands, anyway.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Until 120

Opuscula They steal Everything

JANUARY 1 IS, as few of Jesus’ followers know, the Feast of the Circumcision.

Anyone who can read should know that Jesus was a Jew and that Jews circumcise their sons on their eighth day — assuming all is well with the boy.

Anyone who can count also knows that January 1 is eighth day after the alleged birth.

Count’em.

December 25 = 1
December 26 = 2
December 27 = 3
December 28 = 4
December 29 = 5
December 30 = 6
December 31 = 7
January 1 = EIGHTH DAY!

Beside welcoming the boy into the family, mitzvoth, and chupah, what do we do?

We party.

Usually our parties are more or less (in Israel less or more) controlled.

Lots of food.

Something to drink.

Maybe some dancing.

Lots of smoozing with out-of-town kin we won’t see again until the boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah.

Many of the nokreem — non-Jews — copy at least part of the Jewish life celebration. (A number of Jews also ape the nokreem with the idea of

כל סיבה למסיבה

and, like their non-Jewish mentors, carry the celebration to the extreme, turning it into a bacchanalia.

That’s not to claim that Dod Yosie (Uncle Joseph) didn’t drink a little to much and behave badly, but as a general rule Jewish parties — even henna and chupah — are more restrained than a nokeer’s New Year’s event.

It’s not enough that the non-Jews celebrate the circumcision of a Jew who many hate simply because he’s Jewish (or “Palestinian” if you believe revisionist history out or Ramallah), but they “stole” the party aspect, too.

I suspect that many (most?) of the celebrants are
(a) Not aware that Jan. 1 relates to a Jewish event
(b) That their god was born a Jew (hard to admit for some)
(c) That surgery was performed on him at the eighth day.

I don’t know of any non-Jews who celebrate a circumcision on the eighth day with a party. I understand the Muslims, some of whom circumcise their sons around the age of 13 (remembering Ismael who was 13 when Abraham circumcised everyone in his camp [Genesis 17: 24-27] ) make a celebration.

Some of Jesus’ orthodox followers may actually realize the meaning of Jan. 1, but for most, I suspect any religious aspect has been as far removed from the day as it has been removed from December 25 and similar holy days.

(This is not an uncommon practice. Look at Americans on Memorial Day — find a paper poppy; veterans largely are forgotten. Go to the beach in Tel Aviv in Yom Kippor, but be careful of flying matkot balls.)

And then there is “Sylvester”

In Israel, and now elsewhere as Israelis relocate around the globe, many Jews celebrate Dec. 31 (and well into Jan. 1) as “Sylvester.”

Sylvester was a bishop in Rome who later was named pope and even later was upgraded to saint.

There is a story (Wikipedia, http://tinyurl.com/ybtxch4e) that Sylvester cured Constantine of leprosy and converts him, not from paganism, but from Judaism!

The Jerusalem Post (http://tinyurl.com/yc7462q8) makes no bones about Sylvester as an anti-Semite. According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli New Years, most commonly known as Sylvester, is named after an anti-Semitic pope. Not exactly what you’d expect in a Jewish state.

Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem, the year before the Council of Nicea convened, and during the council, the Pope arranged for the passing of various anti-Semitic legislation. Some say he is one of the most anti-Semitic Popes of all time.

As for this scrivener, I’ll try to remember to write “2019” instead of “2018” on correspondence; that’s my big celebration — and it lasts all year long.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on January 1

Opuscula Despite rabbis, Shamai is not Always the bad guy

I HAPPEN TO THINK SHAMAI, Hillel’s partner, gets a raw deal from the rabbis.

In Avot, Shamai gets one line that includes

מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פמים יפות

(Receive everyone with a cheerful face)

compared to Hillel’s many.

WHAT PROMPTS THIS umbrage?

Jos. Teluskin’s book Jewish Wisdom; specifically a discussion about commenting on a bride’s appearance. (Page 59).

Hillel’s school contends that even if the bride looks like something from a horror movie, the guests should describe her as a “beautiful and graceful bride.”

Shamai said describe her as she is.

(Babylonian Talmud 16b-17a)

Let’s consider.

The bride knows she is no beauty queen. Telling her she is “beautiful and graceful” obviously is insulting and hurtful to the bride. She knows better and she knows she's being lied to.

Teluskin’s book suggests, citing Tosafot, that Shamai probably intended to find something to praise about the bride — her eyes, her hands, her disposition.

That doesn’t satisfy Teluskin. He insists that “if instead of praising the brides overall beauty (which by all preceding accounts is a falsehood), praising one feature simply points out the ugliness of her other features."
For Shamai, it is a no win situation.

Putting down Shamai seems to be a major sport among the rabbis, both modern and not-so-modern.

Yet if anyone studies Shamai, they are likely to be disabused of that opinion.

Almost everyone knows the story of the heathen who insisted that Shamai teach him Torah while the heathen stood on one foot.

Shamai chased the man way. Shamai would not cheapen the Torah that way, and the heathen was impudent — at least in Shamai’s mind — to make such a demand.

Hillel, as we are told, accepted the heathen and told him not to do to his fellowman what he would not have done to himself. The rest is commentary; go study.

Did the heathen “go study?” Your guess is as good as mine, but I lean toward “no, he did not go study.”

Why, incidentally did Hillel use the negative approach: “Don’t do anything...”? It generally is believed it is easier NOT to do something than it is to DO something — except of course when it comes to eating desserts, when it can be very hard to not do something.

Shamai may have been a feminist. At least some of his decisions were pro-women.

*   *   *   

Jewish Women's Archive
(http://tinyurl.com/yc4h2hzr)

Bet Shammai views women as autonomous individuals possessing equal personal status, while Bet Hillel disregards women’s personal status.

Gittin 90a-b: Grounds for Divorce (http://tinyurl.com/ybnwpsy9)

Beit Shammai rules that a man can divorce his wife only if he found a devar erva – a promiscuous situation.

Beit Hillel permits divorce even in a case where the wife hikdihah tavshilo (literally “burned his food”).

Rabbi Akiva says that he can divorce her for any reason – even if he found another woman who he finds more attractive.

*   *   *   

I don’t doubt that Shamai was the stricter of the pair. Fathers often are stricter with their children than the children’s mother, but does that mean the father loves his children less? It may be he loves them more and wants to protect them from whatever dangers threaten. The children just may not realize it at the time.

If I was to put them into today’s terms, Hillel is ADL; Shamai is JDL.

Hillel would have been in Ben Gurion’s camp; Shamai in Began’s. (Remember who made the first peace deal?)

It takes all kinds — the Hillels and the Shamais — and Jews should learn more about these personalities before making blanket statements: Hillel was good; Shamai was bad.

That’s akin to the current politics in both the U.S. and Israel. Blinded by stupidity, neither the left nor the right can see any virtue in the other — to the detriment of the nations.

Shamai was not always the “bad guy,” nor was Hillel always the “good guy.”

Now if the rabbis will realize that, and treat Shamai with the respect due him, I’d be a happy camper.

* The Jewish Virtual Library (http://tinyurl.com/y8y8757t) sums up Hillel and Shamai in a short paragraph:

Both (Hillel and Shamai) lived during the reign of King Herod (37-4 BCE), an oppressive period in Jewish history because of the Roman occupation of the Land of Israel. Shamai was concerned that if Jews had too much contact with the Romans, the Jewish community would be weakened, and this attitude was reflected in his strict interpretation of Jewish law. Hillel did not share Shamai's fear and therefore was more liberal in his view of law.

Is there a modern comparison? The Romans are gone, but Jews still are tempted by the non-Jewish world.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula Something About camps To consider

I READ AN ARTICLE in World Israel News (http://tinyurl.com/ybyvhw7u) under the heading Analysis: Palestinian boy dies at hospital gates… in Lebanon that claims UNRWA and the Lebanese government failed to properly care for a dying child.

There are at least two sides to the story, and the article presents them all.

But I was left with some questions; questions for which I lack answers.

We know there are “refugee” camps in Israel. “Palestinians” can leave the camps whenever they wish to integrate into local “Palestinian” communities.

We also know that “Palestinians” — and that includes those in Gaza — regularly enter Israel for medical care, much of it funded by Israeli taxpayers. They get care at almost any “government” hospital, e.g., Hadassah, Rambam, Tel HaShomer, even if they are indigent.

They are treated by Israeli Muslim, Jewish, and non-Jewish doctors, nurses, and technicians.

“Palestinian” doctors intern at Israeli hospitals under world-class physicians.

The first question is: Why do the “refugees” stay in the camps sited in a Muslim country, e.g., Lebanon, Jordan, Syria?

Location of UNRWA refugee camps as of 1993
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/y7y2vgau)

Won’t the Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, et al allow the “refugees” to leave and be absorbed into the local Muslim communities?

Will UNRWA object? I can understand why UNRWA officials might object: after all, the organizations full name is United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. No “refugees” and a lot of UN employees might have to find new jobs. Unfortunately for UNRWA employees, there are no similar UN agencies for any other displaced persons. Every other ethnic group has absorbed its refugees — every group except the Muslims.

Yes, I understand that Muslim A and Muslim B hate each other because one is Sunni and the other is Shia. A black hat Jew may not accept a Reform Jew as a Jew — and the feeling probably is mutual — but neither wants to murder the other. Even most Democrats and most Republicans, while they may not want “to marry one,” don’t promote the other’s killing.

Yet the Shia-Sunni warfare continues as it has for several hundred years.

Worse than Sefardi and Ashkenazi.

There always is talk that “the Arabs want to keep the ‘Palestinians' in the camps." Maybe.

But I fail to see the political gain, especially since more and more Muslim countries are establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

I write “Muslim” rather than “Arab” since many Muslim-dominated countries are populated by non-Arab peoples. Iranians are not Arabs — they are “Persians.” Just ask one.

On the contrary. Until recently many Arab countries poured money into the “Palestinian” coffers and supported UNRWA in New York. Many European nations also poured money into the “Palestinian” leaderships’, pockets. Even the United States taxpayers funded UNRWA.

Is camp life a good life?

Can life in the camps be so good that a “refugee” — actually the grandchild of a “refugee” would rather be on the UNRWA dole than integrate into the Muslim society?

On the other hand, will a Muslim society any place in the Middle East welcome, or even accept, a “Palestinian” who elects to leave the camps?

Jordanians who have long memories will recall how the “Palestinians” tried to assassinate King Abdullah. The mini-war between the PLO and Jordan’s military is known as “Black September.”

I have no idea what daily life in a UN refugee camp is like.

Kids may go to school — where they learn to hate Jews in general and Israel in particular, where text books incite against all infidels.

If the camp is in Gaza, there may be a water shortage (blame Israel) or a power outage (blame it on Israel), or a shortage of medicine (blame it on Israel) — never mind that the cause of most of Gaza’s woes is Hamas, not Israel.

Let’s not forget that Gaza also borders Egypt and that Egypt’s border often is closed to Gaza residents.

What really happened to that child in Lebanon may be debated forever.

The bottom line is that it once more brings to light the fact that the grandchildren of the so-called Palestinian refugees will not — cannot? — integrate into the host country’s Muslim population.

Israel cannot — will not — absorb them; that would change the county’s demographics and make it just another Muslim country and make it a scientific, technical, and humanitarian wasteland similar to its Muslim neighbors. In other words, the “refugees” would come “home” to a land with no future.

In case anyone wonders what the returning “refugees” would do to Israel, look at what they did when the Jews left Gaza. Growing export businesses were destroyed. Infrastructure was destroyed. Gaza’s future — if not destroyed — t was seriously delayed .

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula No peace In our time

According to United With Israel (http://tinyurl.com/yc2jepru), Musa is the youngest patient to undergo heart transplant surgery at Sheba Hospital and the first Palestinian baby to received a heart from a Jewish child.

A gravely-ill six-month-old Palestinian baby is fighting for his life after receiving a heart transplant from a Jewish child.

The Palestinian boy, Musa, has a fighting chance at a long life thanks to Israeli generosity and medical care.

The same site also has an article headlined "Martyrs’ Killed by Jews Receive ‘Double Heavenly Reward,’ Says Palestinian Cleric" (http://tinyurl.com/y89pf8o8).

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS conveniently failed to note how the Jewish child died. Lousy reporting leaves the death open to speculation, not a good thing in this region.

It would be interesting — albeit it is doubtful anyone will remember this transplant in 16 years — to know if this Palestinian infant will grow up to hate Jews and Israel or will he grow up to be a peace maker.

Or even if he will be allowed to grow up.

When the child is surrounded by people such as Sheikh Nasser Maarouf, of the Palestine Islamic Scholars Association, who said that Palestinian “mujahideen,” or Islamic warriors, have the advantage of waging Jihad against the Jews, because a “martyr” killed by the Jews receives twice the reward of one who was killed by other infidels.

In Maarouf,’s world, a “martyr” is a Muslim killed by anyone defending non-Muslims. Every “Palestinian” killed by an Israeli in self defense or after the Muslim has murdered an Israeli (Jew, Muslim, or other), is a martyr.

MEMRI has translated the sheikh’s rant at https://youtu.be/Pa6_wnThyfM .

I am left with several questions:

*   Who paid for the heart transplant? Did Abu Mazen’s government pay? Did Israelis pay?

*   Did the parents of the dead child know their child’s heart would be implanted into a “Palestinian” infant? If they knew, did they hope this donation will foster peace, if not now, then later?

*   Will the child be treated differently by his fellow “Palestinians” who know his heart came from a Jewish child? Will he be tormented by his peers and by his religious leaders?

Only time will provide an answer to the last question.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula Commandment That’s Ignored By black hats

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THERE IT IS, IN BLACK ON WHITE:

לא תעשה כל-מלאכה
אתה
ובנך
ובתך
ועבדך
וכל בהמתך
וגרך אשר בשערך

IN OTHER WORDS, HaShem tells us, in Dvarim/Deuteronomy 5 14, that Thou shalt not do any manner of work,
nor they son,
nor thy daughter,
nor thy man-servant,
nor thy maid servant,
(nor thy ox nor ass)
nor any of thy cattle,
nor they stranger that is within they gate. (Translation from Hertz/Soncino humash, 1996)

So how is it that almost every congregation, no matter HOW “observant” or “Orthodox” has a “Shabbos goy”?

To their credit, most Reform congregations do not have a non-Jew to do work prohibited to Jews. Many Conservative congregations also are “DIY” (do it yourself).

An aside: I have a serious problem with the word “goy.” I know I’m wasting bits and bites on the WWW, but “goy” means “nation.” HaShem promised the patriarchs to make us a “goy gadol” —. a “great nation.” Not once but several times. It’s time to “rethink” the word “goy” — and “midbar,” too.

The rabbis play games with this very straight-forward commandment.

Well, they opine, if you invite a non-Jew to your home or place of worship and it’s dark or too cold or too hot, maybe the non-Jew will volunteer to correct the problem.

If the non-Jew fails to “get the message,” the Jew, according to the rabbis, may “hint” that it would be”nice” if the non-Jew would do what the Jew is forbidden to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have more light? Don’t you think it’s too (hot/cold) in here?

Granted, life in our generations would be exceedingly difficult if we tried to live strictly by the Torah. The rabbis have been “finding ways” to “mitigate” HaShem’s commandments since at least Hillel and his decision on loans.

The thing that “kicked off” this screed was a question asked of a friend, who happens to be an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi.

The question was:

Is it OK to prepare coffee before Shabat — fill the coffee maker’s well with water, put coffee in the filter in the coffee holder, put the carafe under the coffee holder, and set a time to start the coffee making process early on Shabat morning.

The rabbi’s answer: He would not do it, BUT his father, a rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem, would.

The issue comes down to use of electronic controls.

*  Almost every observant Jew uses timers to control lights.

*  Heat and air conditioners go on and off according to thermostats.

*  Shabat ovens and refrigerators go on and off according to thermostats.

Basically, these are “hands free” devices. The Shabbos goy is out of the picture (unless, of course, if someone forgets to set the timers or the power fails and the timers no longer have the correct time).

I suppose the question could be: Is the non-Jew a “servant?”

I hold that the person need not be an employee the Jew. A server in a restaurant is not employed by the person dining in the restaurant, but as the name implies, the person is a server/servant.

If a Jew — for example a rabbi whose timer for whatever reason fails to turn on the lights in the shul — sends a congregant next door to ask the store owner to come over and turn on the lights, to my Winnie-the-Pooh mind, that’s forbidden. That person is serving the perceived needs of the rabbi. (By the way, I was witness to this on more than one occasion.) There was no question of “hinting” about the lights.

“Things” happen and we need to “make do.”

Some children messed up the A/C timer at a synagogue in Bet Shean Israel in the summer. Bet Shean is in the Jordan valley. High temperatures for June, July, and August commonly hit 35-plus degrees C (98-plus F). The typical LOW during those three months is 22-plus C (72-plus F). While there ARE a few non-Jews in Bet Shean, no one ran to find one; the congregants simply opened the windows. Not much help, but no one broke the Shabat. (Yes, Virginia, I was there.) Temperature conversions thanks to onlineconversion.com.

I’ll admit that in many places the 12 windows in a traditional synagogue are sealed closed.

I’m reminded of a story about fans.

The difference between a “penny fan” and a “nickle fan” is that you wave a nickle fan in front of your face; with a “penny fan” you move your face left and right.

Thinking about Hillel — I wonder if his rulings would be accepted if he lived today and poskened as he did in his day.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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