לכל זמן ועת לכל חפץ

I was thinking how public legislative changes arise and public policy is guided. Often the government (the מלכות) is fully aware of dysfunctions and problems in the system and yet it's unable to pull together all of it's citizens in unison to deal with the problem. Instead it finds itself pulled between it's various constituents and their interests. Only at certain opportune times (usually of crisis) is it given the window of opportunity to legislate sweeping reform that can be supported by internal consensus. Take the growing Medicare budget problem of the U.S as an example.

And so my thought was that the 28 עתות in קהלת are not just arbitrary 'times' but rather are directly a result of the others. Namely, there's an עת שלום specifically because during other times there is a special interest for מלחמה. There's a specific time for לחבק because at other times there's an actual desire and interest לרחוק מחבק. They're not 28 arbitrary עתות separate from each other but rather directly and at all times emerging from the interrelated tugging and interests of the others. The עת שלום is only possible because the other 27 interests at that moment are in consensus to forego of themselves, similar to a governments process in legislating significant policy reform and changes. There's only certain opportune times when you can "pull it all together" and make a move.

שם יהוה -- מלכות

ברכות נו א במעשה דאביי ורבא בבר הדיא -


אקרינן (דברים כח) וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם יהוה נקרא עליך וגו' לאביי א"ל נפק לך שמא דריש מתיבתא הוית  אימתך נפלת בעלמא לרבא אמר ליה בדיינא דמלכא אתבר ומתפסת בגנבי ודייני כולי עלמא קל וחומר מינך ואמרי רבא איתפס, אנן לא כל שכן?!


מהא מוכח דשם ה' היינו מלכות

David Ben-Gurion: "I Understand the Arab Position"

Excerpt from Ben-Gurion's discussion with Tewfik Toubi taken from a website I found (I hope it's authentic):

Ben-Gurion: I didn’t try to explain all the problems to you . . . but I’m

willing, if you’re interested, to continue the conversation in other directions

. . . because it’s very important to me that Arabs understand [us]—even

if they don’t accept my position. I see some things [you] can’t agree with.

Just as I don’t agree with your views . . . It is hard for an Arab to fathom

the Jewish position. I understand this. When I spoke with Arabs, the first

thing I told them was that I understand the Arab position. Before the

establishment of the state, I once stated in the Zionist Executive that talks

with the Arabs demanded only those people who have two qualities: no

Jewish inferiority complex (many Jews [suffer from this]), and second, that

they understand the Arab position as [the Arabs] understand it. Whoever

cannot grasp that, shouldn’t speak. I understand the Arab position. Not

only the position of our [Israeli] Arabs, but of Arabs much [more hostile] to

us than you. I perceive this. And it is very natural that Arabs should think:

what do these Jews want here? What do they want from this country? We

have been here for twelve hundred years. I can understand this. 

הבטה מלמעלה למטה

במדבר רבה ב:יב   ויוצא אותו החוצה ויאמר הבט נא השמימה וגו'. אמר רבי שמואל ב"ר יצחק: אינו אומר הבט, אלא שהוא נתון למעלה, כמה שנאמר (תהלים פ): הבט משמים וראה. 

Note the implications for the following pesukim:
ויסתר משה פניו כי ירא מהביט אל האלהים

ותמנת יהוה יביט

Paul H Appleby Quotes

Couldn't get a hold of any of his books save for "Big Democracy".
Paul Appleby quotes that I particularly liked:

"I have been only a small part of the Department of Agriculture, but the Department of Agriculture has been a great part of me."


"The newspapers give us daily snapshots of government, not panoramas. Nor do the snapshots run together present a panorama. They are chosen for dramatic or spot interest, not for completeness and perspective. Correspondents at the Dumbarton Oaks conference told State Department officials: "We are not interested when you agree; we want to know when you disagree." That approach and its limitations are implicit in newspaper conventions. Press competition for advance news leads to such a high percentage of speculative news that at times I suspect the people of knowing more about what their government did not do than they know about what it did."
[consider Don Henley's Dirty Laundry]

Rav Dr. Michael Avraham - רב ד"ר מיכאל אברהם

Was very comforted to find his shiurim and writings on the various issues like מדרשי הלכה and the dynamic/changing/ processing nature of תורה שבעל פה.

http://www.mgl.org.il/he/torah/Results.asp?psearch=&cat1=-9&subcat1=-9&ignoreSub=yes&file_rav=142&task=search

Etymology: פלוני אלמוני

I was just struck by the usage of the Latin plenus "full, complete" in many languages (English plenty, plenary/ French plein/ Russian полный polniye ) and was thinking if it had any connection to the hebrew aramaic usage for the generic - פלוני...

I also looked up alimony in Latin and it apparently means sustenance, support.

So that put together פלוני אלמוני would mean "full support".. quite an odd connotation given the context in מגילת רות ... I think R' Matis has talked about that in his shiurim on רות.. will have to look into that further...

p.s.  Note the אותיות בומ"ף connection of ploni with the word "baloney" and the phrase "full of baloney". Is that why it's called baloney? because it's filled up with things? Maybe then we can understand פלוני אלמוני  i.e. he's "full of it".