Rabbi Jason Miller

Friday, April 22, 2005

Almost #1

Here's an e-mail I got from Dr. Alex Sinclair, my good friend and JTS professor at the Davidson School. I am shocked that this blog is only the second listing that comes up with that Google search.

Jas

Imagine if you were unsure what to do about your freezer's icemaker for Pesach (you found that some challah had got lodged in there, weren't sure whether or not it could be kashered, etc). What would you do? Obviously, you'd google "icemaker kosher pesach" and see what came up.

Try it. You might be surprised at the second page that is listed.

Chag kasher vesameach to you, Elissa and Joshie from all of us.

Update

...And then this e-mail trickled in:

hmmm

I'm beginning to suspect a conspiracy. I just googled "lo bashamayim hi", looking for a translation of the text I could print out a few times for seder night, and lo and behold, what is the first site on the list...?

What are you paying google?

Alex

Jib Jab for Jews

It's a Kosher-for-Pesach Eminem! Click here for the Jib Jab tribute to matzah.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Stealing a computer from the wrong guy

A World of Pain (courtesy of BoingBoing)

Professor Jasper Rine lectures at UC Berkeley. Recently his laptop was stolen by a thief who was after exam data. Unfortunately for the thief, Professor Rine had some important stuff on that laptop. Click here to download the lecture in MP3 format.

Here's a transcript of the last few minutes of his lecture:

"Thanks Gary. I have a message for one person in this audience - I'm sorry the rest of you have to sit through this. As you know, my computer was stolen in my last lecture. The thief apparently wanted to betray everybody's trust, and was after the exam.

The thief was smart not to plug the computer into the campus network, but the thief was not smart enough to do three things: he was not smart enough to immediately remove Windows. I installed the same version of Windows on another computer - within fifteen minutes the people in Redmond Washington were very interested to know why it was that the same version of Windows was being signalled to them from two different computers.

The thief also did not inactivate either the wireless card or the transponder that's in that computer. Within about an hour, there was a signal from various places on campus that's allowed us to track exactly where that computer went every time that it was turned on.

I'm not particularly concerned about the computer. But the thief, who thought he was only stealing an exam, is presently - we think - is probably still in possession of three kinds of data, any one of which can send this man, this young boy, actually, to federal prison. Not a good place for a young boy to be.

You are in possession of data from a hundred million dollar trial, sponsored by the NIH, for which I'm a consultant. This involves some of the largest companies on the planet, the NIH investigates these things through the FBI, they have been notified about this problem.

You are in possession of trade secrets from a Fortune 1000 biotech company, the largest one in the country, which I consult for. The Federal Trade Communication is very interested in this. Federal Marshals are the people who handle that.

You are in possession of proprietary data from a pre-public company planning an IPO. The Securities and Exchange Commission is very interested in this and I don't even know what branch of law enforcement they use.

Your academic career is about to come to an end. You are facing very serious charges, with a probability of very serious time. At this point, there's very little that anybody can do for you. One thing that you can do for yourself is to somehow prove that the integrity of the data which you possess has not been corrupted or copied.

Ironically, I am the only person on the planet that can come to your aid, because I am the only person that can tell whether the data that was on that computer are still on that computer. You will have to find a way of hoping that if you've copied anything that you can prove you only have one copy of whatever was made.

I am tied up all this afternoon; I am out of town all of next week. You have until 11:55 to return the computer, and whatever copies you've made, to my office, because I'm the only hope you've got of staying out of deeper trouble than you or any student I've ever known has ever been in.

I apologise to the rest of you for having to bring up this distasteful matter, but I will point out that we have a partial image of this person, we have two eyewitnesses, with the transponder data we're going to get this person."

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Ratzinger becomes pope

From the Michigan Daily

Catholics react to pontiff's ideology
By Christina Hildreth, Daily Staff Reporter
April 20, 2005

Almost three weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, the international council of cardinals selected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a close confidant of John Paul who is widely considered a hard-liner in terms of orthodoxy and doctrine, as the Roman Catholic Church’s 265th pontiff yesterday.

Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict XVI, was confirmed after two days in one of the shortest conclaves in the past century. History Prof. Brian Porter, an expert on the Catholic Church, said he did not expect the announcement for several more days. [...]

Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director of the University’s chapter of Hillel, said he hopes Benedict will continue the work started by John Paul. “We recognize that it was Cardinal Ratzinger who was the architect of the ideological policy to recognize and have full relations with Israel,” he said.

RC sophomore Monica Woll, chair of the governing council of Hillel, said Benedict’s participation with Nazi activities such as the Hitler Youth during World War II have also caused anxiety about the future of Jewish-Catholic relations.

“A lot of people are nervous only because he did have membership in Hitler Youth, although most people realize that was 60 years ago and he is most likely a different person today,” she said, adding that Benedict said in a recent interview that his membership in Hitler Youth was compulsory, and that during his service in the army he never fired a shot.

Despite these concerns, Miller said the pope’s efforts to reach out to Jews will be important to the maintenance of understanding between the two faiths which was started by John Paul.

“Catholic-Jewish relations are extremely important in our society, and we hope that the new pope will be our partner for peace, justice and the appreciation of each other’s faith traditions,” he said. [...]

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Funny Pesach Animation

This animation for Pesach is created by Ben Baruch, a direct descendent of the Vilna Gaon, who has been asking unconventional questions about Judaism ever since he was a young boy in Yeshiva. While his queries about the Jewish faith were often met with disapproval, his passion for finding humor in religion only grew stronger. Eventually, he found that his only outlet was to express these feelings in the form of an innocuous comic strip. Today, Ben lives in Brooklyn, and in fear of God.

Monday, April 18, 2005

New Fleishig Kosher Restaurant in Detroit!

From the Detroit News

By Molly Abraham / Detroit News Restaurant Critic

Owner Eli Weingarden will close 173 Grille for Passover April 24 to May 2. All food is kosher, including this chocolate cake with mixed berries.

ROYAL OAK--You'll have to forgive me if I can't remember all of the establishments that have tried to make a go of it at this address.

Let's see. There was Maximilian's way back, then Juke Box, followed by the Avenue Diner, America, Little Daddy's and WOW (Wong's on Woodward) -- and don't even tell me if I missed one.

It seemed that the shiny, outsized diner on Woodward just south of 14 Mile, despite what would seem to be a prime location, was simply jinxed.

Would one more fearless entrepreneur come along and try again?

Yes, indeed. The now much toned-down building has a new occupant, 173 Grille, and it is already notable for at least two reasons.

One: The upscale menu of such dishes as filet mignon and lamb chops in rosemary and merlot is completely kosher. Two: The proprietor is surprisingly young (just 24 this week), and with his youth, apparently, comes the confidence that the location can be made to work.

Eli Weingarden (look at 173 upside down and it spells Eli, thus the name) took over under a management contract in January, closed for the remodeling that has given a fresh, understated look to the place, and opened quietly early this month.

Somewhat ironically, 173 Grille will close again on April 24 for the observation of Passover. Weingarden is a tad worried about that, and I don't blame him, given the history of the place. He doesn't want people to think it's really closed, and it won't be. It will reopen on May 2.

Meantime, both lunch and dinner are being served to nicely spaced tables swathed in white linen. Fresh, deep-green paint is on the walls, graceful new draperies in the windows, light fixtures are new, except for the eye-catching gold-and-blue chandelier at the entrance that has been around since Avenue Diner days.

The mirrored back wall above a row of booths is gleaming again, and the sushi bar left by the previous regime will be reactivated after Passover.

At lunch, a small menu offers chicken soup, salads including baby spinach and chicken waldorf, and sandwiches ranging from burgers and four-decker creations of corned beef, roast beef, turkey, tomato, romaine and caramelized onions.

Choices are wider in the evening, with several cuts of steak, veal and chicken Marsala, glazed salmon and seared tuna among the choices, with steakhouse-style sides of steak fries, onion rings and garlic-mashed potatoes.

Weingarden says the menu will be expanded as time goes on, and he intends it to be eclectic.

The menu is in the hands of executive chef Asa Schwartz and sous-chef Jeremy Burean as well as Rabbi Binyomin Rothstein, who functions as the kosher supervisor. Neither pork nor dairy products are being used.

The wine, beer and liquor dispensed by the bar are also kosher, of course, and that is not as limiting as it may sound. For instance, you might not have known that everything from Heineken and Killian's Irish Red to Bud Light is actually kosher.

Weingarden says that while his restaurant is kosher, "It's not Jewish," and by that he means it is aimed at a wider audience. "The environment services everyone," he says.