Anansi the Spider and His Six Sons

So we received a children's book for my daughter, Anansi and his six sons. It's based on the African Ashanti folklore, and the glaring question i have after reading it is how in the world did kabbalistic concepts make their way into Ashanti Folklore?!

A brief summary: Six sons that jointly and together save their father and then quibble about who is deserving of a prize, a seventh element (a glowing ball) that then becomes none other than -- the Moon. That sounds peculiarly kabbalistic to me...

Full story can be found here.

Peculiar.

Economic Base Analysis

Interesting to me that there is this economic theory called "economic base analysis" which essentially sees an economy divided into two two sectors -- Basic (Export) and Non-Basic (local) sectors.

The basic sector being defined as :

• Consists of activities that bring money into the local economy from the outside
• Consists of activities that meet external demand
• Consists of activities dependent on factors external to the local economy

Note how nicely that matches the concept of יסוד (base) being a function of relationship with the external world.

Taking it a step further, according to EBA the local sector only thrives as a result of the Base sector. Put in our terms a person's internal self only thrives insofar as his connection and relationship to the outside world.

T

Passover Thoughts - מכות, ד' בנים

The lengthy multiplication of the מכות in Egypt and at ים סוף in the Haggada. Consider that given the fact that the word of מכה itself in kabbalistic writing is often used in terms of multiplication.


ד' בנים -- Was thinking to say that the order of the 4 sons is actually by order of greatest to lowest, the רשע then being second best to that of the חכם. The reason being that in terms of development a man with passion to question -- even if misdirected -- is still significantly greater than a man who has very little drive to question (תם) or even worse a man who has no drive to question at all (שאינו יודע לשאול). Mediocrity and "living life on auto-pilot" being then the greatest evils of all when seen from the perspective of Pesach self-growth and development.

Opportunity Costs of Today

(Have to be terse. No time)

Learning some fundamentals of Finance of late. One of the concepts I found to be really insightful. It goes like this:

If you purchased a home 20 years ago for $100,000 and today it's worth say $1,000,0000 - How much should you rent it out for? One school of thought is to compare it against whatever rate of interest you have readily accessible to yourself. The thought goes that if I can get a 5% interest rate today on my money, then in theory I could sell my 1 million dollar home and deposit the cash while getting $50,000 interest. That being the case I have no reason to rent the house out unless I atleast get that amount. You then are receiving a 5% return on your investment.

Maybe it's obvious to others, but the thing that really struck me was this -- there's no relevance to what your purchase price was of the home in regards to the present calculation of managing your house. You could have looked at the house as a running investment -- from the date of purchase to the current day. in which case you've had a great run -- 10X your initial investment plus the future cash flow of rent, whatever amount you decide to rent out for.

But you don't. Why? Because today you're making a separate choice of investing $1,000,000, not $100K. The question is not anymore what to do with a house that i bought for $100K, it's what to do with $1 Million, and it's on that number alone that you benchmark your success or failure.

And so, the insight for me -- no matter what a man has made of himself; no matter what great talmid chacham he has become, what institutions he's founded, what families he's grown -- vis-a-vis the future outlook of the rest of his life -- it's entirely irrelevant. That would be all fine and dandy if he dies today. Then  you could take a look back and benchmark where he started and where he ended. But so long as he's alive -- today, tomorrow and the next -- the only relevant issue is how are you optimizing the resources and achievements you have in your life - today!  Because you're not gauging what has Daniel Mokhtar become since the day he was born. You're gauging what has the Daniel Mokhtar of the past done with himself for that extra day he was given existence today - March  2, 2015.

Is there any positive ROI for today alone?

Here's to hoping.

Etymology - אף על פי

Consider the phrase אף על פי meaning literally "nose on my mouth" and being used ubiquitously as "even though" as in the sense even though you would have thought X to be the decisive factor, in fact it is Y.  How does even though derive from nose on my mouth?

Consider the use of the possesive form -- "my mouth"  (פי) -- as opposed to the plain word of  "a nose" אף. Consider also the defining of the nose in relation to the mouth and not the other way around -- פי מתחת אף.

Those points mentioned I think the answer is thus: the phrase of אף על פי having the meaning of even though built into the very words themselves:   the nose, naturally being the greater of the two organs by virtue of it's being elevated above the mouth, is nonetheless subordinate/subservient to פי. Even though you would have thought the nose should be the primary -- אף על פי כן -- primary focus is in fact given to the פה.

והבן היטב.

אנעים זמירות

Note the constant theme in אנעים זמירות of the head and crown:

• וּשְׂעַר רֹאשְׁךָ בְּשֵׂיבָה וְשַׁחֲרוּת
• חָבַשׁ כּוֹבַע יְשׁוּעָה בְּרֹאשׁוֹ
• טַלְלֵי אוֹרוֹת רֹאשׁוֹ נִמְלָא
• לַעֲטֶרֶת צְבִי
• כֶּתֶם טָהוֹר פָּז דְּמוּת רֹאשׁוֹ, וְחַק עַל מֵצַח כְּבוֹד שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ
• אֻמָּתוֹ לוֹ עִטְּרָה עֲטָרָה
• רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ
• ועוד

Consider then the words of R' Chaim Vital that the tefillah of Musaf Shabbat is an aliyah of זעיר אנפין to כחב"ד of אבא ואמא. In which case it being more proper to sing this song after the tefillah of Mussaf and not as per some congregations that sing it immediately after shabbat shachris.

Birkat HaGomel

This blog has had quite a history to it -- many posts, many thoughts, many ramblings, and many rants. I would imagine the casual reader stumbling onto this blog would think of me as anything ranging from a peculiar yeshiva guy with a lot of creative torah thoughts  to a twisted and embittered crotchety old man with  a lot of pessimism and negativity.

I remember once learning with an old friend -- i think it was yerushalmi bikurim but i could be wrong -- how the main function of ברכת הגומל is in expressing one's thanks in public forum thereby making a statement of declaration to the tzibur as to the particular goodness that שמים had bestowed upon him. I remember us asking at the time how then if that's the case could you ever be יוצא the חיוב of ברכת הגומל by answering אמן since there's no way to distinguish the amen of the בר-חיוב (who needs to demonstrate thanks for the kindness done to him) from the regular people in the crowd (who had not gone through any such experience for which they were obligated to be מברך on)... I never got an answer to that...

In any event, it behooves me to make my statement of thanks to all the goodness that הקב"ה has given to me. After all has been said and done, after all the bitter years of difficulty, frustation -- pain, after all the different lives i've lived, and after all the various rants I've given  ---- to be be given the opportunity to get married to a woman kind enough to be my wife and to be blessed with a daughter who brings such joy and hope to my heart -- It behooves me to tell the world my thanks to my Creator for the kindness he has bestowed upon me and blessed me with; it behooves me to let the world know -- to let all those going through their own personal dark years of hell know -- that there can be Hope, there can be an end to the suffering, an answering to their tears and wimpers.

When does it come -- I do not  know unfortunately. To whom does it come -- I also sadly do not know the answer to that. But I'm here to say that it does happen -- that atleast i know, and i'd like to think it would comfort the heart of those who might think otherwise, that it can equally someday happen for them.

I thereby call her אלי-ענה תקוה. May there be hope for us all in a brighter future ahead. Amen.