Michael el Chayil

At work, we need to take harassment training -- no, smart guy, not training in how to harass (a class that I could probably give, actually), but what the term harassment means in the work place. It's cute; lots of little vignettes and "what-if" scenarios. Mostly pretty obvious (and I am not at all sure what benefit any of this would be to someone to whom these situations are not obvious!), but they said something at the end I thought was worth the price of admission. At the end of the training they mention that each state has it's own rules and they actually list some of the rules unique to Illinois. Then the voice said, "But instead of memorizing a lot of detailed rules, just keep this in mind: treat everyone with respect and dignity". I listened to a shiur on TorahAnytime.com from R' Shraga Kallus, entitled simply: The 3 Weeks: The Minhagim Of Not Being Self Absorbed ( audio ) ( video ) I think that concept is quite brilliant. (The shiur is also very...

There is an old and not very good movie about someone who is 50,000 years old. The only reason I mention it is that there was one very good line in the movie. At this point in his life he happened to be a history teacher. One of his students, playing along as though they really believed him, said she now understood why he was such a good history teacher -- he had, after all, seen and lived it all. "No," he replied, "I am one person with one perspective. The history I teach is from what I have read, just like you." I cannot possibly understand, let alone express, the magnitude of the loss the world experienced this last Shiva Asar b'Tammuz with the sudden -- and wholly unexpected -- p'tira of Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Levin zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Telshe Chicago. I can express the deep sense of loss I personally feel. I can also tell you about the profound impact the attendance of his levaya had on me. A few months ago, I attended the H3 Business Halach...

There is a YouTube star (nebbich...) who has a popular series of her taking to her past self through the pandemic. It's cute. The first one was particularly brilliant and (it seems to me) was the hit that launched her to fame. Part of the shtick is that her future (ie, present) self has to talk in code to her past self in order to not "disturb the space time continuum" more than she already has. The coded messages are part of the fun. The most recent episode included this jewel:  <present>Well... let me put it this way: If you order a pizza and it comes with pineapple -- even though you didn't order pineapple on your pizza -- it is illegal for you to remove it. <past>But it's my pizza! What if I get someone else to remove the pineapple? <present>No... then you'll both get arrested. <past>But what if I am allergic to pineapple and eating it could even cause me to die? Then can I remove it? <present>Uh... nope! My first reaction was...