Torah study

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord." -Lev 19:16, JPS translation

We spent a while talking about this verse this morning. We started out talking about gossip and ended up talking about whistle-blowing.

(Rashi interprets the first part as: don't be a peddler of tales, a "retailer" (I wonder who introduced the pun, him or a translator).)

We talked about how the Chofetz Chayim says that gossip harms three people: the subject, the speaker, and the listener. We talked about how a need to know can override (that's where the whistle-blower thread came from). For example, the talmud argues that if you know of evidence that would clear someone of an accuastion, you are required (under Jewish law) to testify to that effect. (The judicial system under Jewish law is very much weighted toward the defendant, in case you're wondering. It's not clear that a death sentence was ever carried out, for example.)

I asked if the talmud draws this conclusion based on the fact that "don't be a tale-bearer" and "don't stand by the blood of your neighbor" are linked in the same verse. (The rabbi said yes, that's right.)

Some people who were there didn't see the real harm in gossip; I guess it's part of current American culture. I'm with the Chofetz Chayim (though not nearly as careful as he was): spreading rumors can do a great deal of harm, and it's harm that's very hard to undo should you later determine that you were in error. It's tempting, but I try to resist. Often fail, but I try to do better.

One thing that makes gossip especially bad is that most people seem to be pre-disposed to believe what they're told; critical thinkers are in the minority, from what I've seen. One thing I've been trying to work on is to look for the positive (or at least neutral) explanation for what appears to be bad behavior. And y'know, sometimes that guess even turns out to be right. Nifty when that happens.

that LJMatch meme

( I wonder what their definition of 'compatable' is... )

I finally got the thing to load, a couple days after registering with the site. I think the numbers aren't bi-directional; that is, I think I've seen different numbers for myself on other people's lists than I see for them on this list.

Of course, it's really just a parlor game; they don't ask the right questions to really judge compatability. Still, it's an amusing bit of trivia.

short takes

This video is a hilarious compilation of feline "I meant to do that" moments, some of them probably even real. :-) Thanks to cortego for the link.

Dani's birthday was yesterday. I bought him a copy of Puerto Rico, a Rio Grande game, because that many of my friends can't be wrong. :-) So now we just have to get some locals together to try it out.

After several days of silence the third-party seller (through Amazon) said he'd refund my money. I don't think he ever shipped the DVDs. What an annoying twit. And according to his feedback, he's done this to lots of other people too. (Feedback also suggests that promised refunds don't always happen, so we'll see.) Why in the world would you set up shop and then not bother shipping, when your customers can get their money back through Amazon and Amazon can presumably nail you? I mean, it's one thing to rip off individuals through your own shop; most of them don't have the resources to nail you for small-stakes amounts, so you can probably rake in some loot. But the idea of being able to hide from Amazon or eBay or the like seems...unlikely.

This afternoon we helped Ann and Karen move. It went well, and the final unloading of stuff went much more quickly than I expected.

Mid-afternoon they passed around Luna bars, which I'd never had before. The one I had was pretty tasty, and according to the nutrition information, provides much better bang for the buck than other nutrition bars I've encountered. I may have to keep a stash of these at work. (Ironically, I just read the latest Consumer Reports, which had an article on nutrition bars, and it pretty much panned them all. Different strokes, I guess; they tended to use chocolate-flavored bars for their tests, and I much prefer non-chocolate flavors in such things.)

I wonder what bad things happen if you average well over 100% of RDA on Vitamin A. The nutrition-tracking software I use thinks I'm tending rather high on that, presumably because baby carrots are among my favorite munchies.

Thursday night is Shavuot (and Friday). The service starts at 7:30, with late-night study beginning at 10. (Tradition calls for staying up all night studying Torah, though we usually finish around 1:30 or 2.) I don't think there's any way I can get home from work, prepare dinner, eat dinner, and walk to shul in time for a 7:30 service, so maybe I won't try and will instead just go for the study (and the morning service, of course). I'm not sure yet. I don't want to skip the evening service, but I also don't want to bail from work early enough to make it feasible. And I don't think something like ravioli (which cooks quickly) is really ideal for a festive holiday meal.

Shavuot meals are traditionally dairy. Mmmm, cheesecake. :-)