Thread by @JoshuaCypess

141.01/ Week one-hundred and forty-one, March 25-31, 2023 thread begins here.

Week 140 below.

141.02/ I believe in being as religiously inclusive as possible, so I very much appreciate this thread.

141.03/ OMG, things are getting a bit hectic and tense in Israel right now.

Histadrut calling for a general strike is a logical move

But protesters breaking through security barriers of the PM's residence is scary

141.04/ Israel's consul general in NY has resigned. His name is Assaf Zamir, in case you needed a stronger Biblical parallel to make sense of things [It is thought that Assaf was the head of King David's choir]

141.05/ Things seem "unsound" right now (in the Apocalypse Now usage of the term)

141.06/ The Likud coalition is starting to weaken. If history is any guide, of the 3 major factions - the greedy, the ideologues & the cowards - the first group should be the ones to crack b/c they're guided by objective self-interest. And this is madness.

141.07/ Sign of a successful protest, when the police have run out of water for the water cannon

141.08/ It's midnight in Israel (literally and... ya know)
and these protests are seemingly just getting stronger

141.09/ I'm following the news via a Twitter list I made many years ago and just now I've made it public, just in case others could use a place with trusted news sources:
twitter.com/i/lists/112503…

141.10/ Wow

141.11/ Very informative analysis of the situation in Israel by the always good Haviv Rettig-Gur @havivrettiggur
timesofisrael.com/things-fall-ap…

141.12/ My son is in Israel this year and is keeping up a proud Cypess tradition of being around for unprecedented civil unrest (e.g. I was in yeshiva for 1995-1996). Praying that democracy and the state endures.

141.13/ The stock exchange going on strike seems significant, no?

BTW, @NTarnopolsky has been invaluable in real-time reporting from Israel.

And this crisis is an example of why I need Twitter to exist: news in real time. Darn you M*sk!

141.14/ Gotta love it.

141.15/ I not only employ the line "the fingers you have used to dial..." nearly every week, but I use the intonation of that line for something nearly every day (e.g. "the president you have just impeached is too orange")

Please vote wisely.

141.16/ Reading my notes for Tzav & in 2020 everyone was writing about the frightening new conditions of the pandemic & it got me thinking about how the Seder is supposed to remind us of our distress. A COVID seder would have us wear masks, wash hands constantly, hear sirens etc.

141.17/ All of this Simpsons Bracket voting has made me revisit some other resources on this here sputtering bird site and I missed this thread the first time around. What an extraordinary piece of work this is. Highly recommended!

141.18/ It's #MLBOpeningDay! This morning's musical selection is the great "Centerfield" by the estimable John Fogerty. #LGM

141.19/ How inevitable was this? Ya gotta be a grim realist to be a Mets fan. #LGM

141.20/ We knew that the day Trump (ym'sh) was indicted would be a great & fun day on this site. I'm glad that (a) the website still works & (b) it's not on Shabbas. So far, the party is just getting started and hasn't disappointed.

141.21/ New meme template just dropped #LGM

[Alt: DeGrom as a Texas Ranger looking peeved after giving up 5 runs in 3 innings]

141.22/ This was weird, but I'll take it. Anyway to get into the playoffs.

And I had no idea Baba O’ Riley is a #NYR song. I approve.

141.23/ Reminder that it's overtly antisemitic to accuse a political opponent of being a tool of "S*ros." This is not debatable.

[And this despicable thread alerted me that I hadn't blocked Puddingfinger yet. Done and done.]

141.24/ [From March 26th]

If they reload it with hummus, watch out

141.25/ This is such a great point

141.26/ Not sure why these sales occur on Amazon, but they're selling Rav Soloveitchik z'l books, new condition, for about $5. Maybe in honor of his 30th yahrzeit? Grab 'em, chevra, while you can.
amazon.com/Family-Redeeme…

141.27/ One of the signs of adulthood is when you dread cleaning for Pesach more than you do the 8 days of meh food. And what an undersell the word "make" is in the phrase "making Pesach," what incredible amount of work, stress and expense that entails.

141.28/ A storytelling trope that irks me is the idea that a total jerk can reform & become a hero. I don't want to watch that! Almost every good person I know was good when they were young. They were unselfish, self-sacrificial & compassionate, even in tough circumstances.

141.29/ The aphorism "Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships" is going to be put to the #MLB test this year. So far, I like it.

141.29b/ Baseball corollary is that Defense is often the most entertaining part of the game. E.g. I loved watching DeGrom pitch, and the catch below is incredible & worth a ticket. (Ironically that's from an LAA game & they can't sell tickets.)

141.30/ #ChochmatNashim for #Tzav 5783
@ChochmatNashim

Downloadable PDF with working links to Divrei Torah by Orthodox women on the parsha and other weekly Torah.
drive.google.com/file/d/1uromzl…

141.31/ #HumbleBragAlert: a little known minhag found in a sefer (that I guess I will need to write) holds that you need to keep your Chanukah menorahs up until Pesach and I was able to fulfill that this year, without even intending to. Appreciate the congrats.

141.32/ Am I getting this right? The NYT is bothsidesing Russia about NATO?

141.33a/ There's what I call a "Taco Bowl Moment", named after TFG's 2016 Cinco de Mayo tweet where he posed with said food as an act of politics. It was so stupid that I was able to use it to prove to normies that TFG was inept and any earlier success came from structural luck.

141.33b/ M*sk's malfeasance towards Twitter has been a never ending cascade of Taco Bowl moments. He doesn't understand the product. Verification is why anyone wants to read the news on this bird site - verification *is* the product they provide me. He doesn't get that still.

141.34/ I have no idea if the website will exist Motzei Shabbas. Signing off for now; have a "great" Shabbas and BE"H see you on the other side. Stay safe and #ShabbatShalom!

@threadreaderapp please unroll.