Rosh HaShana 5777

The hectic pace that has been my life for the past month-and-a-half can be expected to continue.  Burn-out has begun to take a small toll, but work remains interesting and fulfilling thus far.  Commensurate with my degree of inspiration, this posting's commentary on world affairs will be terse.

Firstly, it is that time again.  In less than two weeks the year according to the Hebrew calendar will transition from 5776 to 5777.  As usual, I take this opportunity to wish all a Happy and a Healthy New Year; I may not have the opportunity to do so before.

לשנה טובה תכתבו.

Secondly, now that the series of Islamic terror attacks has hit American soil, if you are or have been given to censuring Israel for the measures it takes to protect its population and its existence, then cut it with the whining and start recognizing what you are dealing with.

Rosh HaShanah 5776

To set the bar at a low level, my family and I are now wishing all a Shanah Tovah: To set the bar at a low level, my family and I are now hoping that this coming year will be better for all than the one that is about to pass.

Rosh HaShanah 5775

Lots of things happening.  Sun will set on the year 5774 in a few hours.  Haven't much time to compose much more than a perfunctory greeting and wish for 5775.

L’Shanah Tovah U'Metukah, v'Chativah Tovah.

Rosh HaShanah 5771 (Wrap-up)

We had an interesting Rosh HaShanah. It is two days, but this year, the next day was our religious Sabbath, which meant 3 days of not doing certain tasks. Accordingly, I have just caught up on my e-mail backlog (and my snail mail backlog, for that matter).

We frequently have guests for Shabbat or the holidays. This year, our guest was of the canine species. Due to a series of miscommunications, there was a misunderstanding as to who would take care of my son's roommate's sister's Yorkshire Terrier. About 2 hours before candle lighting time (signifying the beginning of the holiday), there was this Yorkie whose mistress had left town, and whose mistress's brother and roommates were about to leave for their respective Rosh HaShanah hosts, neither of which was conducive to bring the Yorkie for the 3-day period, thus leaving the Yorkie (named Maxine) with no place to go for Rosh HaShanah. My wife agreed that we would take Maxine (after consulting with me, of course).

And so, our son dropped Maxine off with us while he was en route to his Rosh HaShanah destination (the home of a Rabbi who had been a teacher of his when he was in junior high school, whose wife is terrified of dogs). Maxine was very well behaved and dispositioned, and it was certainly a pleasure to have her.

My son has returned home. He is now doing his laundry, and will probably stay the night before returning Maxine to her mistress (or, more likely, to his roommate, who is Maxine's mistress's brother).

One of the members of our congregation is now ill, and in no condition to come to services to hear the Shofar. So I walked the 2.5 miles to his house and sounded my own Shofar, just for him and his wife. It was good to see them, but I am quite concerned about his condition.

After the end of Shabbat, I decided to go running a few miles. This layoff of 3+ days without any significant aerobic exercise (that aforementioned 2.5 miles walk plus 2.5 miles return was the closest thing to aerobic exertion I had) is beginning to take its toll. The run did me good.

Next Shabbat happens to be Yom Kippur, so there will be none of the usual eating. Until Yom Kippur, we are in a period of penitence. Accordingly, earnestly I ask forgiveness from all whom I have wronged, and, in turn, grant forgiveness to those who ask it of me in earnest.

Wishing a Shanah Tova, a Good Year, to Everyone!

Rosh HaShanah 5771

I haven't the time for an extended posting. In a few hours, the sun will set (it already has done so in the Holy City of Jerusalem) and the New Year, 5771, will be upon us.

This past one has had its plusses and minuses for me and my family. I hope and pray that 5771 will be a good one, without some of the negatives that have anguished us.

The holiday will be Thursday and Friday, and then, we go directly in to Shabbat, my religious Sabbath. Accordingly, it will be three days without doing certain types of work (including turning electric switches on or off, going online, accessing my e-mail, swimming, driving, et cetera). It will be a challenge, but I look forward to it.

I wish all a very happy and healthy New Year.

L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu!!

First Person Plural

The great ideal is that we Jewish people take responsibility for our own; not only in helping the needy among us, but some sort of responsibility for the actions of our fellow Jews. Though not fully achieved 100% of the time, this standard has sustained us through adversities of the past and present, and will ultimately redeem us in the future. Though everything, of course, depends upon G-d Almighty, we Jews are all connected to one another, and when one of us hurts, all of us feel the pain.

[Just for the record, being Jewish is not me and my wife's sole, nor even necessarily our primary, criterion for selecting providers of goods or services. Our insurance agent, lawn mowing service, plumber, electrician -- none of these are Jewish. They have served us well, so we are loyal customers and clients. My wife and I have seen too many people get into too much trouble by automatically taking their business to a lantsman. We are equal opportunity employers. But I digress.].

This concept of "Am Echad," that the Jewish people are one nation, has its obvious benefits. My wife and I each travel out of town from time to time for professional and business reasons, and we are often aided by Jewish people in the out-of-town locations. And, over the centuries, the assistance by fellow Jews has often made the difference between life and death.

The downside is that we also have to account for the transgressions of our coreligionists. Much of the liturgy of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, when we seek G‑d's forgiveness and repent from our sins, is couched in the first person plural. "Avinu Malkeinu Chatanu L'fanecha" (Our Father, Our King, We have sinned before you). "Ashamnu, Bagadnu, Gazlanu …" (We have become guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed ….).

When we go through the confessional prayers, we do NOT say "Mallayev murdered, Madoff swindled, Spitzer shtupped a hooker, Garson took bribes and Yagman cheated on his taxes." It is "WE murdered, WE swindled, WE shtupped hookers, WE took bribes and WE cheated on our taxes." It is, of course, physically impossible for a single individual to commit every one of the enumerated sins. And a goodly number of the transgressors are prosecuted, civilly and criminally, by other members of the Jewish community. But G-d -- and the nations of the world -- judge us not only as individuals, but as a group. We, as a community, are called upon to take an interest in the personal rectitude of all of our members.

And so, I shall now comment on two of our transgressors, and some of the broader implications.

First, there is Yochanan Levitansky, the New Haven man who swindled 1,077 Ebay customers to the tune of $237,257 by taking their money and not delivering the goods. He will be doing 6 - 12 months, and paying some restitution. Levitansky's attorney, public defender Sarah Merriam, argued in the sentencing memorandum that "As a young man who had been raised with the idea that he would one day become a rabbi, Yochi Levitansky was ill-prepared for the challenges of running a business on his own." Merriam further argued that Levitansky's fraud was mitigated by the fact that Ebay's insurance covered it. Hold it right there, buster!! Don't insurance companies have the Constitutional right to equal protection under the law?

[I don't know whether these really were Levitansky's own rationalizations, or whether Ms. Merriam came up with them in order to discharge her duty to zealously assert her client's interests. If it was the latter, then I can hardly blame Ms. Merriam. Sometimes, defense attorneys, civil and criminal, get stuck with piss poor clients who have little in the way of positive attributes. I myself have had such clients in years past, and was duty- bound to assert whatever arguments might lessen the negative consequences, even at the risk of ridicule by the plaintiff's attorney, judge and/or jury. I now can be more selective of whom I take on as a client. And Levitansky did get significantly less than the legal maximum, so Ms. Merriam certainly cannot be accused of being an ineffective counsel.].

Then, there is Yitty Shteierman, a Monsey, NY woman who stands accused of using a fake deed to a house she doesn't even own as collateral for two separate loans totaling $270,000, in two separate transactions. My rabbi has, of late, been talking about giving people the benefit of the doubt. Ms. Shteierman has yet to be convicted of a crime. She is legally presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. So I will give Yitty Shteierman the benefit of the doubt, however, I shall, pending further developments in the case, refrain from entering into any business transactions with her (unless, of course, my own rabbi sees fit to do so).

I shall not now dwell upon the shortsightedness involved in the commission of crimes such as the the foregoing accused/admitted ones, where the acts necessary to commit such crimes produces a reliable paper and/or electronic trail of damning evidence.

The intrusive social pressures in the insular communities in which Mr. Levitansky and Ms. Steierman dwell are notorious. Schools will reject or expel students because their fathers wear blue shirts instead of white, or their mothers wear the wrong style wigs to cover their hair, or if their homes have Internet access or a t‑e‑l‑e‑v‑i‑s­‑i‑o‑n. In arranging marriages for their children, parents will reject a match based upon the color tablecloth the prospective spouse's mother uses for the Shabbat table. And, notwithstanding the nonhereditary nature of conditions such as Down's Syndrome, some parents of such children will go to all lengths to hide the fact that there is a Down's Syndrome child in the family, lest it ruin their other children's chances for a shidduch (marriage arrangement). [N.B. This latter assertion has actually been confirmed by a reliable source -- a parent in an insular "black hat" community in Israel who has disregarded all advice to keep her own Down's Syndrome daughter in the closet (and many who would hide their Down's Syndrome child from the world do literally keep such children out on the enclosed terrace to their apartment, which effectively is in fact a closet.).

So what needs to happen? WE need to start taking a dimmer view of fraud. WE need to shun and ostracize those who commit "white collar" fraud-type crimes as much as WE shun and ostracize the children of the man who wears a blue shirt, or the person who watches television or surfs the Internet, or the siblings of Down's Syndrome children. Because if such crimes are less socially acceptable in OUR insular society, then they will, no doubt, occur with significantly less frequency.

Yes, the Rabbis have their work cut out for them in sending out the message, but, in the final accounting, WE cannot leave it all to the Rabbis. It is all up to US!

Good News & Bad News

Rosh HaShanah was basically uneventful, which is not such a bad thing, considering our experience last year. No houseguests, but we did have a guest for lunch on the 2nd day. To everyone, I wish a happy and healthy and sweet and good year.

During the Rosh HaShanah holiday, while I was incommunicado from the high tech media world, some good and some bad things happened.


The bad news: The New York Sun has ceased publication. This former subscriber will miss it greatly.

The good news: The Government Accountability Office (formerly known as the General Accounting Office) now charges for copies of its printed publications. I say that this is good news even though I heretofore have, approximately once a month, ordered my free printed copies of GAO reports of interest to me. I now will have to either charge them to my credit card, or be satisfied to read the Internet versions of the GAO reports (and print out, at my computer, those which I really, really, really want in hard copy format.

But the GAO needs to set the example of accountability to all other government agencies. By instituting the new "no-freebies" system, the GAO is (A) reducing its printing and postage costs (which are really footed, in the final analysis, by the taxpayers) and (B) engaging in some entrepreneurship to approximate a fiscal responsibility so often absent from entities which have no profit motive. So, personal inconveniences notwithstanding, I do applaud the GAO's new system.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting to see what does or does not fall into place regarding a possible excursion to Washington and/or Baltimore in about a month. I was in Washington about a year ago, and, as mentioned in the posting, I have always enjoyed visiting Washington. As an adult I have always enjoyed visiting Baltimore (when I was a little boy, my uncle and aunt lived there, and the interpersonal dynamics between me, my sister and my aunt just didn't play well). Engaging and exhausting as such an excursion would be, I'm hoping that something does happen in that regard. It's healthy to get out of your office once in a while. It is too early to tell just yet, but I'm hoping for at least one overnight in either Baltimore or Washington.

Getting Ready for Rosh Hashanah

As background for the benefit of readers who are not fully informed on the basics of the Jewish High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah will arrive at sundown on Monday night, 30 September 2008. The process of atoning for our sins is not limited to Yom Kippur, so in addition to being the start of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah also begins the Ten Days until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. During those 10 days we not only are required to settle our sins against G-d, but we also must ask forgiveness from the humans we may have wronged during the year.

It is against the foregoing background that this posting is written.

On 12 June 2003, one Mordechai Samet was given a 27-year prison sentence, following conviction in December 2002 on various fraud and racketeering charges. At the time, I thought that the sentence was a bit on the heavy side of severe. And, at the time, I wondered whether Samet's professed religious Jewish faith played any role in the perceived severity of the sentence. We religious Jews (I am not particularly comfortable with the label "Orthodox") are, after all, supposed to be a light unto the nations, and whenever we fall short of our G-d given role, it engenders much disappointment amongst the nations of the world. For this reason, religious Jews who commit crimes often do receive heavier sentences. This is not conceptually different from the especially stringent standards to which lawyers are often held in criminal matters, nor the especially stringent standards to which IRS employees are held in their personal tax affairs.

Prior to his relocation to the Federal Correctional Institution at Otisville, NY, Samet resided in a community known as Kiryas Joel, New York. Kiryas Joel is an insular community of Satmar Hassidim. I give this information by way of background, and not to per se belittle Kiryas Joel or its residents or the Satmar Hassidim in general.

Well, it has come to my attention that Samet is now complaining, via the "Rescue Samet" website (apparently maintained by his family and/or friends, inasmuch as he is unlikely to have Internet access in the Big House where he now resides), that he is a victim! Samet has purportedly written a tome entitled Crusade by a Religious Activist in our Courtrooms: The Hijacking of our Court Systems by a Fanatical U.S. Judge, wherein he attempts to make the case that Judge Colleen McMahon, the judge who presided over his trial and who imposed sentence upon him, was motivated by a religious-based bias against him. I was initially willing to buy into Samet's thesis, at least until I began to read the very first page of the Introduction to Samet's magnum opus. it. In no particular order, the following matters struck me as inconsistent or disingenuous:

A. Describing the bust made by the Federal agents on 29 March, 2001: "The operation was carried out as if the agents were arresting the 10 most wanted criminals in America, or some big crime Mafia. Access to the town was shut down by the agents toting shotguns, with helicopters hovering over. Cars were not allowed to enter or leave the town. The government labeled the 12 men arrested the 'Samet Group'".

As mentioned earlier, Kiryas Joel is a very insular town. That is the way the Satmar Rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum, the great-uncle of the two rabbis who now are locked in a contentious battle for the leadership of the Satmar Hassidim (and, not coincidentally, control over assets estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars), intended Kiryas Joel to be. And I do not denigrate the Kiryas Joel community for its engineered insularity; there is much to be said for living life free of televisions or newspapers and other sources of negative influence from contemporary society -- provided that a community such as Kiryas Joel abides by the law.

It must be remembered that the purpose of the law enforcement operation was not only to bring the suspects into custody, but also to preserve evidence. The Feds could not have expected any cooperation from the residents of the Kiryas Joel community, and therefore, the tactics used in the bust of 29 March 2001 were warranted.


B. "Kiryas Joel is a quiet religious town with no history of violence or criminal activity."

Not quite! Below are some incidents of violence and/or criminal activity in Kiryas Joel. These are just those appearing in the news media (and this is not an endorsement of the New York Times). There are more, including some of which I am not entirely familiar, and/or of which my professional confidences preclude discussion. And of course, there likely are even more which were never reported to the police in the first place.


** "On Sunday; Pious Village Is No Stranger To the Police" by Michael Winerip, New York Times, 20 September 1992, Section 1, p. 41: Seems that those who disagree with the Kiryas Joel body politic political agenda are subject to assault on their person and vandalism of their property.

** "Hasidic Men Riot Over Visit of Rabbi," New York Times, 2 August 1995, Section B, p. 5: "Five police agencies quieted a rock- and egg-throwing riot of an estimated 1,000 Hasidic men, sparked by a dissident rabbi's visit this week. The Sunday night melee left one person injured and eight vehicles damaged and resulted in six arrests, the authorities said."

** "A Village Faces Another Kind Of Storm" by Evelyn Nieves, New York Times, 14 January 1996, Section 1, p. 27: "While the snow quieted New York City, this Satmar Hasidic village 50 miles away tallied another in a long line of violent episodes. Early Monday morning, the storm in full force, vandals broke a window in Joseph Waldman's Ford station wagon, threw in a flammable liquid and lit a match. Unfortunately, Mr. Waldman is getting used to it. This was his third car firebombed in the driveway in the last four months."


** "In the Ashes of Arson at Kiryas Joel, Tensions of Bitter Factionalism" by Robert Hanley, New York Times, 29 July 1996, Section B, p. 1: Arson is a crime of violence. Don't take my word for it, though; just ask a firefighter who has been injured while fighting an intentionally-set blaze (or the widow or orphan of a firefighter who died while doing so).



C. "The total number of victims was less then ten and they were mainly financial institutions and government agencies that were protected by insurance companies."

Notwithstanding my numerous gripes concerning the excesses of the insurance industry, insurance companies are entitled to the protection of this Country's laws, and are entitled to not have their funds pilfered by criminals. The fact that the insurance companies are the ultimate victims does not mitigate the crime.

Moreover, the "government agencies" included the IRS, which paid out falsely-claimed tax refunds.

Who really pays when insurance companies or the government are swindled? Who must make up for the loss? The ratepayers and the public, that's who. The total number of victims was far more than ten!


D. "As the legal challenge in the case was ongoing, the defendants paid back in full the 3.5 million dollars to the victims of the crime they were alleged to have committed."

Would the money have been paid back had there been no arrests, and no preservation of the evidence?

Of no less moment is the fact that uncharged offenses figured into the calculus of Samet's sentence. In other words, it wasn't just the $3.5 million. On pages 28, 34 and 64 of Samet's long song of excuses, much is made of Samet's generousity to charities. Specifically, on page 34, "At most, the evidence showed, only that most of the money alleged to have been part of the offense, went to charity." This presents two problems. Firstly, if the money is not kosher then it doesn't count for tzedaka (the Hebrew equivalent for "charity" and a word whose root is "tzedek" or justice). My own rabbi, for example, has been known to refuse donations of questionable provenance. The second problem is that if so much of the money swindled by Samet was given over to charity, then where did he get the 3.5 million to make the restitution? Again, it wasn't just the $3.5 million.



All of the above is just from the first page of the Introduction (save the references to pages 28, 34 and 64)! I shall spare you the trouble of reading the remainder of Samet's whining and pouting piece. He says that Judge McMahon is biased against him! He says that the FBI and other federal agencies are biased against him! He says that the evidence was spun in a negative light! He says that he was misunderstood! It's all everyone else's fault -- It's the fault of everyone except for Mordechai Samet!


The High Holy Days will soon be upon us. I ask forgiveness of all I may have wronged, and grant forgiveness to all who may have wronged me this past year.

And I hope that Mordechai Samet will take the step of acknowledging the wrongfulness of his own misdeeds, and accept the responsibility for them so that he, too, can begin the process of atonement.

L'Shanah Tovah Tikotevu!

Thistles

I am not a Scotsman, and therefore, feel no need to coddle or tolerate thistle weeds growing in my back yard (though, in all fairness to the Scotsmen, it must be disclosed that I do imbibe their whisky, normally at least once per week.). Given my busy schedule, I have made relatively few visits to my own back yard during the past month or so, except to swim laps in the pool, when I normally do not wear my corrective lenses. And so, it only yesterday came to my attention that the beautiful pink flowers growing in the bushes by the fence were not just the minature roses, but were also the thistles going into bloom.

And so, today, after taking my wife's car to the shop and riding my bike home for the exercise, I decided to tackle the thistles before swimming laps in the pool. I put on the thick leather gloves, got the pruning shears, and proceeded. I was able to yank most of the thistle plants by their roots. I usually compost weeds, but these prickly nuisances were going to seed, so I placed them in an old cardboard box, which will go out with the trash and get burned in the municipal incinerator (which is run, under contract, by an energy-generating concern). I do not want those thistle seeds to propagate.

Then, after yanking out the thistles and some other weeds, including some Rhus Toxicodendron (commonly known as poison ivy), I dove into the pool and swam a few laps. My expeditious immersion into the pool no doubt spared me lots of itching from the Toxicodendron.

Where did the summer go? I was active, busy, and gainfully engaged in my profession, but this time around there was little opportunity to work in my garden.

And it looks like the pace will keep up. Once we get past the religious holidays, there is the distinct possibility of an excursion to Washington and/or Baltimore in late October and/or early November. Nothing definite yet, but things may have started to fall into place.

Rosh HaShanah is next week. I hope to be able to post again before then, but if not, let me wish everyone a good year. Shanah Tovah!

L'Shanah Tova Tikatevu, 5768

Got lots to do today, in preparation for Rosh HaShanah and otherwise.

New Year greetings to everyone from me and my family. Everyone have a happy and a healthy one!