malenkiyscot

Related to this Can Cheap Wine Taste Great post.

When a letter in a Torah scroll is erased or written incorrectly it renders the whole scroll unfit. But that is only if the letter is unrecognizable or looks like a different letter. Sometimes, when two letters differ only slightly (and in Hebrew there are quite a few letters like that,
consider: "כ" "ב" ;"ר" "ד" ;"ו" "ז" ;"ס" "ם ;"ח" "ה"), adults have hard time distinguishing between them because they are influenced by the context (they know which letter is supposed to be there). So the litmus test is to take a child that knows the letters, but does not know how to read, yet, and ask him.

I know someone whose children are very discerning wine lovers. As they do not care about the labels or price, that person when trying new wine gives it first to his children and judges the taste accordingly.

... или репортаж с места событий

Неужели Козловский Фишер-Дискау поет громче меня?

From Imagine: On Love and Lennon, by Ze'ev Maghen

Just before my latest stint in the reserves, I was in New York blading with my brother down the lower West Side promenade hard by the Hudson, and we stopped to rest near the World Trade Center. This guy a few feet away from us was trying to pick up a young lady by aggressively and intimately massaging her dog, and Alex and I switched to Hebrew in order to comment upon his original methodology. As we were talking, this be-suited fellow sitting on the bench opposite—clearly taking a five-minute lunch break from an action-packed morning of corporate raiding—kept staring at us. Finally, he rose, walked over, and stood rather awkwardly dead center in front of our bench. I looked up at him, and he faltered, gestured, fumbled, hesitated, and then just stammered, “Um … uh … Shalom!” I extended my hand and he shook it warmly and smiled. Still flustered, he half-saluted us goodbye, and went back to merging and acquiring.

What he really wanted to say was: “Hey—I’m Jewish, too.” What he really intended by “Um … uh … Shalom,” was: “I embrace you, my brother, member of my tribe from a faraway place. We share something tremendous and indescribable, something ancient and exalted, something wonderful and mysterious. We were soldered together, you and I, by the fires of hell on earth, and our bonds are since unsunderable. I’m glad you are in the world, and it gives me strength and pleasure to see you. Here: Have some genuine affection.” He meant all this, and more. He wanted to momentarily close that circuit and tap into that energy flow.

Chabad’s Lost Messiah
By Tomer Persico

Why the Lubavitcher Rebbe believed he was the Chosen One.

( Read more... )

Для тех, кто нефкурсе: Мордехай бен Дэйвид - исполнитель, Мона Розенблюм - композитор.

Я в свое время слышал это в исполнении с хором (кто пел и какой был хор - не помню). Ни у кого нету?

Учил вчера своих еще-не-трехлеток говорить "ма ништана". Подумал, что "У лукоморья" они уже знают, а вот "ма ништана" - еще нет.

Ита, после втупительной лекции: "Это евеи нас обижали?"