Stealing an Idea

For those of you who don't know, I'm a little bit of a science fiction nerd, and I am a "Trekkie". No, I don't go to conventions, but I do follow some authors (like Peter David) because I like science fiction, and the way they write. I think it goes back to when I was I kid, but I digress. One of the things I always liked about Next Generation was the Holodeck. Now I'll digress. When I was a kid, my FAVORITE cartoon was a series called Starblazers. It was really cool. I always wanted to point out that they had the idea for a Holodeck first, and animated it.
Pre Holodeck-Holodeck So much for an original idea!
Enjoy!

My March With the Penguins

This past weekend, I got to go home and spend Shabbos with my parents. It was a bit unusual as experiences go because the Shul my parents daven in has become so old, that it no longer has a Minyan on Friday night or Shabbos afternoons. This was my first shabbos home since the Friday night minyan was declared gone. The only way they get a minyan at all on Shabbos day is by the Yeshiva that is a few blocks away sending some bochurim to make the minyan and lein. It's tough for my father because the walking has become difficult, and the Yeshiva is just to far to go, especially in inclement weather. So I went to daven Friday night at the yeshiva. I've been out of yeshiva for quite some time now, and I forgot about a few things. First, there is a break to learn between Kabbalas Shabbos and Maariv. But the cool "Penguiny" thing I forgot is watching the Rabbeim walk in. I sat in the back right, and the entrance to the Beis Hamedresh is in the front left. Whenever a Rebby would walk in you got a cool "Penguin Wave" of everyone standing up, and then sitting down. It was cool the first time, by by Rabbi #4 I was cracking up. I really like to watch the pipsqueak freshmen who standing up or sitting down has little effect on their height. I personally always stand the entire davening so I didn't pop up and down with the 400+ penguins in the yeshiva. To the yeshiva's credit, each bochur was polite and asked if I needed anything, like a siddur or some seforim during the break. It's nice to see that all penguins aren't so cold.

Cultural Norms

I haven’t posted in a while, but I had a sobering conversation today. I am a special education teacher. I work in an environment almost completely surrounded by blacks, and I keep my yarmulke on. I have a girl who substitutes in my class from time to time. She’s very nice. She’s from Guyana. She was telling me about the house her family owns in Guyana, and that her whole family is here in he states. I asked what her family does with a house there, and she said it’s a two family house. They rent out the bottom floor, and use the top for family who visits, or sometimes rent out the top to tourists. I jokingly said I’d love to go to Guyana for a visit, and she says, “No, you’re a rich Jew. You’d be beaten and robbed in two minutes flat”. I was a bit taken back, and asked if she thought I was a rich Jew. She said, “of course you are, all Jews are rich”. She then asked why I think Jews are hated. Mind you, she is not a mean angry lady, just a young 20 something person. I countered with asking if there was a problem with the expectation of being robbed as a cultural norm, and she said, and I quote, “you are rich, and Guyana people are poor. Of course you should be robbed”.
I thought about this and responded, you know, if you went to the poorest Jewish part of Israel, you may be beaten on if you dress immodestly. But you’d still wake up with your wallet. It seemed to give her pause for thought. But maybe not.