parsha bit: B'shalach (Shirat HaYam, the song at the sea)

When Israel stood at the Sea of Reeds, the angel Shmu'el challenged God, saying: until now they have been idol-worshippers, so how can you split the sea and redeem them? Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed be He) responded by turning over Job to Shmu'el to prosecute. God reasoned: while Shmu'el is busy with Job, Israel will go down into the sea and cross, and then I will save Job. Then God spoke to Moshe, telling him to tell Israel to proceed. (Exodus Rabbah 21:8)

This same midrash asserts that Job was one of Paro's counselors but was, nonetheless, an upright man. The midrash sometimes moves people around like that; I'm not sure why.

I'm not sure which reading of Job is worse: that he was God's focus for a time, or that he was merely a decoy.

short takes

You know you're among geeks when questions like "but really, what is the true nature of a book?" make perfect sense. (A group of mostly tech writers and moi, discussing the partitioning of a doc set into DocBook-sanctioned units like sets, books, parts, and chapters.)

Quote of the day: ...And adjectives, like gang members, seldom ventured out alone. They went out in twos and threes, and God help us, fours, and piled up on any person, place or thing that got in their way. "Look! It's a noun -- let's get it!" -- Robert Masello, quoted by mabfan here. This is one in a series of excellent posts on rules of writing fiction.

Rabbi Micha Berger posted an article about types of halachic rulings that I found useful.