Sukkot / Russia

We are now amidst the Festival of Sukkot.  There are differences between the way it is celebrated here in Israel and the way it is celebrated in America (and, for that matter anywhere outside of Israel).  In Israel, labors such as driving cars and turning electricity on and off are verboten on the first and last days; outside of Israel, the first two and last two days.  Businesses and government offices operate on special holiday schedules during the entire holiday.

Wishing all a Chag Sameach for what remains of the Festival.

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Russia's active presence in Syria has been a very ill-kept secret for the past few months if not years.  Russian forces have just bombed targets propped up by the Obama regime, a clear rubbing of excrement in the face of Barack Hussein Obama.  Now, it seems, the Russians have leaked to the Israelis a prior tip-off of their latest operation.  The way I read this, it means that Putin does not wish to get his forces into any active engagement against the Israelis.  The Russians have laid low during recent Israeli activity in Syria and Lebanon.  Putin is far more cautious about Israel than he is about Obama's America.

Sukkot 5774

As one who observes the Jewish Festivals and Sabbath by, inter alia, not doing any of the labors used to build the Temple (except for carrying and using fire, which are permitted on the holiday but not on the Sabbath), I have been incommunicado for the past 3 days except for face-to-face conversations, in observance of Sukkot. 

Note that the Festivals are two days outside the Holy Land of Israel, a practice harkening back to the times when communications options did not include any of those using electric or electronic technologies, in order to ensure that observance of the Festivals did in fact include the same full day time period as observed in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

This year, the holy days of the Festival were Thursday and Friday, followed by the Sabbath, thereby keeping me incommunicado for three days.  And next week will come another Thursday-Friday-Saturday stretch.

Which means that my wife and I are now playing catch-up with our respective professional correspondence and obligations.

Notwithstanding the doubletiming it causes, I do enjoy the holiday, and the weather was great Sukkah weather this year.

I had intended to post my holiday wishes on this blog, but a few hours before sunset on Wednesday some grassfires broke out in the case I am now litigating, and I had to put them out.  By the time I got the solar system back into balance, it was time to shut off the computer, take my shower and get ready for the holiday.

And so, I wish everyone a Chag Sameach Sukkot for what remains of the holiday.

And now, on to the big pile of e-mails to be answered, papers to be graded, a PowerPoint to be completed for a presentation, and a little legal research for the brief I will likely have to write in the ongoing litigation.

A Matter of Degree

I've got to run and make final preparations for the Festival of Sukkot tonight. My wife has just e-mailed me some more items for the shopping list. We are having guests.

And so, I wish everyone Chag Sameach Sukkot!

But before signing off, I feel inspired to post my thoughts on a recent legal development:

Ayal Rosenthal, a CPA with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (for the uninitiated, PwC is a major accounting firm), copped a guilty plea on some insider trading charges, and got a 60-day sentence. Rosenthal was enrolled in New York University's MBA program at the time, and had even worked there as a Teaching Assistant in a Professional Responsibility course.

NYU decided that Rosenthal was unworthy of an MBA degree, so Rosenthal sued. And Judge Lewis Kaplan, sitting on the bench of the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York, upheld NYU.

I am no great fan of NYU. They do get quite snotty from time to time (and I have been professionally involved in a case in which questionable ethics on the part of certain key players in the upper reaches of the NYU hierarchy played a role). NYU, then, does not have the firmest standing to deliver the morality lecture.

But Rosenthal is no better than NYU. He, too, has a nefarious arrogance about him, and he needs humility more than he needs an MBA degree.

In my book, Rosenthal and NYU are in pari delicto (Latin for equally at fault). And where parties are in pari delicto, the courts tend to leave the parties as they stand. The pari delicto theory did not play any role in Judge Kaplan's rationale, but the result is the same.

NYU's denial of Rosenthal's MBA has, in a broad sense, ever so slightly prevented my own MBA (not from NYU) from cheapening in value.

Fitness, Fatness, and Fitting into the Sukkah

We are now amidst the Festival of Sukkot (as briefly mentioned in the prior posting). It has been quite enjoyable to us, for all of the reasons it is enjoyable to everyone everywhere. My one observation thus far involves the social dynamic at the meal.

Specifically, at the first night's meal I was the only nonfatso in our Sukkah, outnumbered three to one. The three fatsos were (1) my wife, (2) our houseguest known in this blog as "He" (discussed here and here), and (3) a fellow attorney, graduate of an Ivy League law school, who has an uncanny knack for getting himself into some strange predicaments in his personal and professional life.

On the other hand, at last night's meal, the Shabbat meal during the Festival, there were six of us in the Sukkah all told, of whom, my wife was the only fatso. In fact, three of the guests (Mom, Dad and 20-something daughter) are tall, and thin as rails.

It was amazing to observe the differences in my wife's food intake when she was in the company of other fatsos, as compared with her food intake when she was outnumbered by nonfatsos. Seems that she ate less food, and healthier foods, when she was not with the other fatsos.

This observation by a non-scientist is obviously not of the quality for publication in some sort of medical journal, but maybe someone would like to do some sort of controlled scientific experiment on the effects of the presence of multiple fatsos on the dining behavior of one another.

Chag Sameach Sukkot

In a few hours the sun will set, and it will be the Festival of Sukkot. I finished building my sukkah within the past 24 hours, and now need to verify that the electrification in the sukkah is properly operational (i.e., the timer is properly working) so the lights go on and off at the proper times.

We have a house guest, namely, "He" as discussed in the post of 31 August. And, sure enough, He stopped by earlier with some pies and other fatso food, which surely will do little to help my wife get to healthy eating habits.

Fortunately, the projected weather seems to be reasonably fair, so my wife will at least get some exercise by walking the mile to shul and back.

In any event, I still have a lot to do, so everyone have a good holiday!

Chag Sameach Sukkot!!