Author: haimshore

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General

Current Detoxification of Israeli Society

(This post may also be viewed on Times-of-Israel: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/current-detoxification-of-israeli-society/ )

In Exodus (19:6), God calls unto His people:

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”.

Why should you become a holy nation, and how do you become a holy nation?

The answer and prescription are delivered in no uncertain terms in a certain segment of the Jewish Torah, generally referred to, in Jewish tradition, as Parashat Kedoshim (Segment “The holy ones”).

First the answer (Leviticus 19:1):

“And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, speak to all the congregation of the Children of Israel and say to them: “Holy shall you be because holy am I, Jehovah your God”.

In a verse, prior to the end of the Parashah, the same assertion is repeated (Leviticus 20:26):

“And you shall be holy to me for holy am I, Jehovah…”.

The prescription to becoming a holy nation is delivered in the Parashah in a series of ‘Do’s and ‘Do-not do’s. However, throughout the Parashah, the signature of the Divine is repeated, time and again, as if to remind the listener (or reader), of their Divine source: “I am Jehovah” (For example, Leviticus 19:16).

Here is a sample of those ‘Do’s and ‘Do-not do’s (see elaboration and references on my post “Becoming Holy” — The Bible Prescription):

“Do not walk around offering your merchandise of slander” … “Do not stand still, while your fellow human-being is in a potentially threatening blood-shedding situation. I am Jehovah” … “Do not hate your fellow human-being in your heart” … “Do not do wrong in return for wrong-doing committed unto you” … “Do not reserve resentment” … “Love thy neighbour as yourself. I am Jehovah”.

Let us relate to resentment (see also my post “Speak Hebrew and Be Righteous”).

Hebrew for “Resentment” (or “Grudge”) is Tinah. Tin is Hebrew for “Silt” (mud that sinks to the bottom of the pool).

The Hebrew language educates: Resentment is like silt.

The latter rests silently at the bottom of a pool of water, nearly undetected, until the pool’s water is disturbed. The mud then rises up to blur and obscure all that shape up under the surface of the water.

Likewise, resentment can be hidden from view (even your own) until triggered into action. Once activated, old grudges rise up to blur and obscure all that is shaping up inside your psyche, rendering your soul non-transparent. This results in distorted vision of reality, in impairing relationships with family and friends and ultimately in poor judgement in decision-making scenarios.

However, there is also an extremely positive side to Tinah. Once activated due to stormy water, it generates an opportunity for Tikkun (“Correction”). The dirt in your soul becomes visible, in full view for you to understand the negative sides of your soul, and to take action to purify yourself from all the dirt and poison that have sunk into you, becoming invisible over the years.

In other words: As a result of stormy water, you undergo a process of Detoxification. Your heart becomes purified.

I believe this is an accurate description of the root of the mayhem, now generating big waves throughout Israel.

The process is both positive and negative.

The positive side is that one may consider the gigantic waves, now rattling Israel, and their expected final result, mass Detoxification, as fulfillment of a biblical prophecy:

  • Ezekiel (11:19): “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will remove the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh”;
  •  Ezekiel (36:25-26): “..I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I would remove the stony heart out of your flesh and gave you a heart of flesh”.

However, this process of cleansing, of Detoxification, is not riskless. It may expose Israel to grave dangers. Israel’s enemies smell internal weakness within the country as predators smell blood. We have been there before. Prior to the Six-Day War (June, 1967), Israel was in decline, economically and otherwise. The general sentiment of Israelis was that of despair and lack of hope. Emigration out of the country assumed unusual proportions. The most widespread cynical joke of the time stated that at the gate of outgoing flights, at Ben-Gurion Airport. there is a label stating: “The last one, please turn off the light” (!!!). Some humor!

Will the current status of the country, outwardly looking like fragile and falling apart, will it trigger an all-out assault against Israel’s very existence?

We hope not.

And we hope that the current internal turmoil the country is going through ultimately prove to be a necessary change of heart (from stone to flesh), and a healing process that started with quarrel (Yariv*) but would end up in great joy (Simcah*).

______________________

* Yariv and Simchah are first names of, respectively, Israel Justice Minister and chair of Knesset Judicial Committee, both main figures to carry out the planned (and controversial) judicial reform.

Categories
Forecasting and Monitoring of Surgery Times General Statistical Applications

Modeling and Forecasting Surgey-Time (published article, now Free Access)

My paper of 2020:

An Explanatory Bi-Variate Model for Surgery-Duration and Its Empirical Validation ,

which outlines a novel approach to modeling and forecasting surgery-duration, has now become Free Access (namely, open for all to read).

The paper has become cornerstone for a series of related papers that followed.

If you feel qualified (in terms of basic knowledge of Statistics),

Read and enjoy!!

Categories
My Research on the Bible and Biblical Hebrew Podcasts (audio)

Why a Jewish Rabbi wondered that Sun in Hebrew not named Eretz? (Podcast)

Living in the period of the Geo-Centric worldview, a Jewish Rabbi wondered (claimed) that it is the sun that should be named Eretz (Hebrew for Earth). With the later science-based shift towards the Helio-Centric worldview (Sun is “still”, Earth is “running” around it), biblical Hebrew once again proved to describe accurately physical reality:

Categories
My Research in Statistics

Tutorial on Response Modeling Methodology (RMM)

I have now uploaded to YouTube my presentation of March, 2006, delivered at Auburn University (USA), in which I explain my new methodology (RMM) to model variation (random or systematic).

Recent progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has allowed enhancing the quality of the video audio so that it could be uploaded to YouTube.

Associated PowerPoint presentation, first in PowerPoint format, second in PDF format (helps preserve the correct form of the equations):

Haim Shore Seminar_ Auburn Univ_March2006

Haim Shore seminar_RMM_Auburn Univ_March 2006

Entry at Wikipedia: Response modeling methodology – Wikipedia

YouTube link:

Categories
Historical Coincidences My Research on the Bible and Biblical Hebrew Shorties

Why a Jewish Rabbi wondered that Sun in Hebrew not named Eretz (Earth)?

(Related podcast:  Why a Jewish Rabbi wondered that Sun in Hebrew not named Eretz? (Podcast) ).

Comment: This post is based on an excerpt from my book “Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew” (Shore, 2012, 2nd Ed.), Section 8.1.

As reported in Jewish written sources, the name Earth in biblical Hebrew was the subject of much debate and puzzlement over the ages.

The source for these was the fact that the name for Earth in biblical Hebrew resembles the word for… “run”— namely, “move fast” (Earth in Hebrew Eretz; run is ratz).

A Geo-centric world view, according to which all heavenly bodies are rotating around Earth,  was dominant for over 1500 years, until the late 16th century and onward, when it was replaced by the Helio-centric model of modern science (Wikipedia, Geocentric Model).

Living in the geocentric world view, Jewish scholars over the ages were puzzled about this resemblance of Eretz and Ratz (same philological root). They explained that this similarity is most probably due to the “fact” that the moon and the sun and all stars are “running” around the earth.

Rabbi Don Yitzchak Abarbanel (1437– 1508), a well-known commentator of the Bible, did not accept this interpretation. In his commentary to Genesis, he explained that “since the earth is a still center, it would have been appropriate that the wheel [meaning sun] should be called Eretz, and not the still center around which it revolves.”

Obviously, living prior to the historic shift towards the heliocentric worldview, Jewish sages have tried to fit their interpretations to the scientific knowledge of the time. Abrabanel rejected their explanations, based on pure logic.

The Jewish rabbi was obviously unaware that not many years later, Copernicus (1473–1543), in his book published not long prior to Copernicus death, would start the heliocentric revolution.

This resolved the quandary, raised by the Jewish rabbi, about a single biblical Hebrew word, Eretz, which to this day is used in Hebrew and in other languages (Earth),

describing accurately what planet Earth is actually doing, namely,

“running” around the sun.

Categories
General General Statistical Applications

“Quality by Design” – Lectures (Hebrew) Delivered to Engineers from Israel Industry

I have now uploaded the complete series of thirteen lectures (Hebrew) on “Quality by Design”, delivered by me to graduate students (engineers from Israel industry) in the summer of 2014.

Recent AI techniques to improve audio have allowed me to upload this series to YouTube, for the benefit of Hebrew-speaking quality professionals.

Enjoy, and please share:

Categories
Podcasts (audio)

How I Repaid Maccabiah for Saving My Father from the Holocaust (Audio-podcast)

The story of my father, participating in the first Maccabiah (1932), how his life was spared, and how I repaid my debt:

( Related post: How I Repaid Maccabiah for Saving My Father from the Holocaust )

Categories
General

How I Repaid Maccabiah for Saving My Father from the Holocaust

(A related podcast: How I Repaid Maccabiah for Saving My Father from the Holocaust (Audio-podcast) )

Maccabi World Union is a Jewish International Sports Organization, spanning more than 450 clubs in over 70 countries in 5 continents. Every four years, Maccabi organizes the Maccabiah, routinely called the Jewish Olympics, during which time (summer time), thousands of Jewish athletes come to Israel to compete in various sports branches.

The First Maccabiah opened on March, 1932. A large delegation from Poland participated, among them my late father, Daniel, who was part of the soccer team. My father grew up in Levov, then of Poland (currently Lviv of Ukraine). After the Maccabiah ended, my father decided to stay in Eretz Israel (then named Palestine, under British mandate).

Doing so, his life was spared. Not so with the rest of his family members, most of whom perished in the Holocaust.

On July of 2009, the 18-th Maccabiah was scheduled to take place. About a year earlier, the organizing committee of the 18th Maccabiah approached me with a request to organize a Satisfaction Survey, intended to be administered online after the Maccabiah ended. The survey was to be conducted separately for three groups of people (Athletes, Delegation Officials and Staff).

At the time, I was affiliated with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where I served as a tenured engineering full professor (retired 2015). As common practice, Israeli universities allow employees, after obtaining proper permission, to engage in delivering services outside the university, even when services rendered are not in academia. I started negotiating with the representative of the organizing committee of the Maccabiah on the terms of the contract, under which the planned Satisfaction Survey would be carried out.

Shortly after negotiations started, it dawned on me that my own life would not have come into existence were it not for the First Maccabiah, which hosted my father and ultimately caused him to stay in Eretz Israel.

I notified the organizing committee of the 18-th Maccabiah that I would conduct the requested survey free of charge. I explained the motivation.

At the time (summer of 2008), 3rd year undergraduate students in my engineering department were supposed to find a subject for their final project, to be carried out during the final 4th year of study. The final project was supposed to be carried out by a pair of students, although larger teams were occasionally allowed. Two students responded to my call, Rinat Bidany and Keren Farm. During their fourth year of study, the three of us worked diligently to build the necessary tools to conduct the survey. Once the tools were ready, they had been submitted to the Maccabiah, which administered the survey during the summer of 2009. By that time, the academic year was already over, Rinat and Keren got their high mark for their final project, and all three of us were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Eighteenth Maccabiah, held in Ramat Gan, with participation of the Israeli president, the late Shimon Peres.

I spent most of the summer of 2009 statistically analyzing the results of the survey, culminating in a three-volume report that was submitted to Maccabi World Union Executive body. The first volume is attached herewith.

As a token of appreciation, I was granted a nice three-dimensional figure, representing the Maccabiah 18 emblem. The label (Hebrew) reads:

“Prof. Haim Shore. With Gratitude for Your Contribution to the 18th Maccabiah”.

Maccabiah 18th Feedback Survey _Final Report Vol 1__Haim Shore_Summer 2009Download

Categories
My Research on the Bible and Biblical Hebrew Podcasts (audio)

“Diber” or “Dever” – Two Modes of Divine Dialogue with Humankind in a World of Free-Will (Podcast)

The Ten Commandments, in their original biblical Hebrew, are — The Ten Devarim, or Ten Dibrot (the singular of which is Diber); The Holy of Holies, where the tablets with the Ten Commandments were held in the Jewish temple, is — Dvir; A plague is — Dever.

All these share a common root in biblical Hebrew — D.B.R (ד.ב.ר).

What does this root mean?

Categories
Historical Coincidences My Research on the Bible and Biblical Hebrew Shorties

A Succinct Description of Current Status of Israel

Deuteronomy 32:21:

“They have made Me jealous with Lo-El (literally, “No-God“),

provoked Me to anger with their vanities (Havalim, literally, “Nonsense“);

And I will move them to jealousy with Lo-Am (literally, “Non-people“),

with Goy-Naval (literally, “vile-nation“) will I provoke them to anger”.