Random

It's unfortunate I wasn't able to write anything about Shavuot here before it occurred, but I think for someone who is or once was a yeshiva student the most important thing to remember is that Shavuot is like a "Rosh Hashana" for Torah. On it is judged how our 'learning' will be throughout the year (and our 'learning' of course is the basis of our spirituality, and therefore our lives).

I dislike the fact that from all the thoughts I have in my solitary quiet of Shabbat and Yom Tov I remember nothing after they're through (I'm like Harrison Bergeron's father, just without the noise).

One thought I found amusing would be to write a story about two lovers in the era of the destruction of the Second Temple in which they would be separated; the girl perhaps being taken captive to Rome and the guy then going with his father to start a new life in Babylon. And the second half (or flashbacks perhaps) would be the woman's Ashkenazi descendant and the man's Sefaradi descendant falling in love in the homeland of their ancestors. (The idea obviously came to me due to the fact that I was born in Israel to an Ashkenazi mother and a Sefaradi father. And it is likely that my mothers family emigrated from Germany before they came to Poland, and from Italy/Rome before they came to Germany, and of course from Israel to Rome. On the other hand my fathers family came from Spain before they settled to Morocco, and were probably in Morocco originally before they came to Spain. Before that they probably lived in Babylon and had come to there from Israel. Therefore it is in fact possible that my ancestors became separated when they left Israel centuries ago, and were recently reunited., etc.).

Another thing I pondered about a lot is how easily children are influenced by everything they see or hear. I came to think of that by reading many autobiographical notes of Orson Scott Card, which brings me to recall just how impressionable I was as a child. ..and it will inevitably be us who will be the ones to decide the earliest memories of our own children. It's quite mind boggling to me when I think of it. Every time I consider it I come to the conclusion that most people (including myself) aren't quite worthy of deciding what should form the basis of a child's memories and thought processes... ..oh well..

Speaking of Scott Card, I read "Ender's Game" over the holiday (not quite appropriate, I know). ..interesting..