Times: Lap Swimming in the NYC Outdoor Public Pools

From The New York Times: "The Water's Fine, and So Is the Competition - Lasker Pool is part of the city's Lap Swim program, where outdoor swimmers can compete."

...It’s no secret that New York has outdoor public pools that are open throughout the five boroughs in July and August. What you generally find are parents and young children, and teenagers horsing around. Lesser known is the Lap Swim program, open from 7 to 8:30, a.m. and p.m. for Early Bird and Night Owl sessions. It’s a quiet, orderly affair, where adults swim laps in roped-off lanes in otherwise empty pools...

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Summer at the Teaneck Swim Club, the Tenafly JCC Outdoor Swimming Pool + 10 more world class dramatic pools to think about

The start of summer. With nice weather ahead we look forward to swimming outdoors every day in Tenafly or Teaneck.

TSC open every day starting.

JCC OTP open every day starting.

And here are some of the other pools that we'd like to swim in...We've been to some of them...[reposted from 08].

Cool pools: 10 favorite hotel swimming spots By Gary Warner

The Orange County Register

Some like it hot. I do not. After a steamy day of going from museum to shop to cafe to hotel, I am in dire need of something big, cold and relaxing. No, not a beer. Well, OK, a beer would be nice, too.

I'm talking about a pool. A hotel swimming pool. A beckoning oasis of deep, crisp blue.

Over 10 years, I've dived and dipped into hundreds of Olympics, kidneys, minerals and infinities, from Bali to Baltimore. Most are fine but forgettable, so I cling to fond memories of laps gone by on my short list of classic dips. Come dive into the deep end of my list of favorite pools. You don't even have to shower before entering.

Hotel Gellert — Budapest, Hungary

The Turks invaded then receded from this part of Europe, but they left behind a love of watery luxury. Bathhouses decked out with fountains and colonnades still offer a classic soaking experience, with a rubdown costing a little extra.

You can stay at the Hotel Gellert or simply pay less than $10 to play pasha in its art nouveau 27-meter indoor swimming pool ringed with butterscotch-colored marble columns and lion heads spitting water.

Hotel Inter-Continental — Chicago.

The liquid miracle of The Miracle Mile. Rooftop pools are all the rage today, but people were agog in 1929 when what was then the Medinah Athletic Club built a 129,000-gallon junior Olympic-size pool above the grand ballroom.

With its tiled walls, viewing stand and potted plants, what is now the Inter-continental's pool retains the feel of a Jazz-era hangout. After a long day of dirt, grime and noise wandering the exciting urban scene in central Chicago, the pool seems like a great secret oasis in the heart of the city.

Inexpensive splashes:
Great pools usually come with the steep price tag of a luxury hotel but here are a few of my favorite "cheap dips" from around the country:
Best Western Ramkota Inn, Sioux Falls, S.D., 605-336-0650. Great indoor water park with 130-foot slide.
Caliente Tropics Motel, Palm Springs. 888-277-0999. www.calientetropics.com. Poolside tiki and torches.
American Inn, Hardin, Mont. 406-665-1870. A 140-foot slide at a simple motel near the Little Big Horn National Historic Battlefield.
Days Inn, Memphis. 3839 Elvis Presley Blvd. 800-329-7466. www.daysinn.com. Guitar-shaped pool across from Elvis' Graceland mansion.
Chico Hot Springs, 1 Chico Road in Pray, Mont. 800-HOT-WADA (468-9232). A rustic spa with a large hot mineral swimming pool.

The Palace of the Lost City — Sun City, South Africa

The Palace of the Lost City is the epic top-end hotel of Sun City, the once-controversial gambling resort in an enclave within racially segregated South Africa. Today it's a swimmers' paradise open to anyone with a fat enough wallet.

The Valley of the Waves pool area has 13 waterfalls, 20 cascades, two man-made rivers and six ponds. A wave pool featuring six stone lions that spew fountains of water from their mouths can churn out 5-foot-high breakers. The Temple of Courage is topped by a crumbling stone rotunda from which a nearly vertical water slide sends the brave on a swift 210-foot descent into a pool. If you can't make it all the way to Africa, many of the same water effects are at its sister hotel, Atlantis, in the Bahamas.

Park Hyatt Tokyo — Tokyo

Long before "Lost in Translation" made the Park Hyatt Tokyo an international celebrity, it was my favorite hotel in Asia. The hotel occupies several high floors of the Shinjuku Park Tower, one of the city's tallest skyscrapers. The aerie atmosphere extends even to the hotel pool, which sits in a cathedral-like space on the 47th floor. The 20-meter pool is pretty in itself. But it's the setting that is so stunning. From lounge chairs at poolside I could gaze out at the forest of steel and glass of the business district's high-rises. In the evening, the neon of the Shibuya and Ginza districts shimmered in the distance. Mesmerizing.

Renaissance Esmeralda — Indian Wells, Calif.

Since the mercury here regularly gurgles above 100 degrees, it's little surprise that the desert resorts scattered around Palm Springs have one of the best collections of cool pools in the country. The Korakia Pensione's small, lovely Moroccan-style pool made the Travel Channel's national Top 10 list.

My personal favorite is the array of splash spots at the Esmeralda, also one of the area's top golf and spa resorts. Three adjacent pools, one with a gushing waterfall, create a kind of aquatic garden.

Kids are the key here. Nearly all the pools are no deeper than 3 feet, so Mom and Dad can hang around the central bar watching a ballgame while the offspring cavort a few feet away. A stretch of trucked-in beach is the spot to make sand castles in the desert.

Flamingo Las Vegas — Las Vegas

Vegas is one of the true pool Meccas of the world. You can choose from the wave pool at Mandalay Bay, the massive classical-tinged swimming areas at Bellagio and Caesars Palace, and the acres of shaded pools at the Tropicana.

But my choice is the Flamingo, boasting 15-acre grounds with four pools. The centerpiece is a massive lagoon with an 18-foot waterfall that is the hotel's party place on hot days. Kids like a linear pool that's connected by a series of small waterslides. My favorite is the small adults-only oval pool, with its fantastically shocking-pink world. It's ringed by tall flamingo statues in front of pricey cabanas that come with their own television and telephone. Be prepared: It can be very crowded on weekends.

Amandari — Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

In the quiet hills far from the tourist routes sits one of the heartbreakingly lovely Amanresorts of Asia. The luxuriously cool and shady cottages are hard to leave. But I loved spending a couple of hours lolling in and around the hotel's infinity pool, the tag put on pools that use a flat rim with a gutter just below to create the illusion that the water simply floats off into space.

The far wall dropped into a ravine with a green forest canopy sitting above some of Bali's iconic terraced rice fields. Palms swayed in the warm, humid breeze and a small river rushed down the hill toward the sea. I folded my arms over the edge and watched as a Balinese woman with a large kayak balanced perfectly on her head walked by. A remarkable travel moment experienced without even getting out of the pool.

Grand Wailea — Wailea, Maui, Hawaii

For pure "wow" factor, this ultra-expensive Maui resort can't be beat. My preteen son and his friends prefer the wild times of the Grand Wailea to any other hotel pool in the islands. The eye-catching Hibiscus Pool features 2.2 million Mexican tiles. It's the quietest pool — no one under 16 is allowed.

The kids won't squawk. All the real action is over at the Wailea Canyon Activity Pool. A series of interconnected pools feature six waterfalls, slides, swinging ropes, whirlpools, an infant pool, a swim-up bar and a poolside sandy beach. The Lava Slide is a 238-foot-long ride, while the churning Ana Puka Slide spins swimmers in circles.

Spending over $400 a night gives the guests a sense of entitlement, and the crowd at the Grand Wailea can get a bit testy when the lounge chairs near the pool run out around midmorning. Do try to tear yourself away from the pool for a dip in the beautiful beach that fronts the hotel.

Hyatt Regency Kauai — Kauai, Hawaii

There are other great pools on nearly every island, from the water-park atmosphere of the Westin Maui and Hilton Waikaloa Village on the Big Island to acres of water at the Marriott Kauai and Princeville Resort in Kauai to smaller jewel-like pools at the Halekulani in Waikiki and the Hotel Hana-Maui.

My favorite among these is the pools at the Hyatt Regency Kauai, on the sunny south side of the Garden Island. The Hyatt requires a major water-park-like experience, since it fronts the rugged, rough Shipwreck Beach, making ocean swimming an unwise proposition on many days.
Guests can splash in a five-acre saltwater lagoon or a couple of freshwater pools. But what gets the Hyatt Regency on my list is the wandering man-made river that flows from the hotel's terraced gardens down to a small pool next to the saltwater lagoon. Along the way are lots of inlets and grottoes for a watery version of hide and seek. On the downside, the channel is about 4 feet deep and covers a lot of territory, so keep an eye on the youngest of your swimmers.

The Biltmore Hotel — Coral Gables, Fla.

A gorgeous landmark in the town that dubs itself "the city beautiful," the Biltmore's 700,000-gallon pool is the largest hotel pool in the continental United States. It would be hard to feel crowded here. Sometimes the pool can be oddly empty — the high-end clientele seems to prefer sitting waterside to performing cannonballs or cherry bombs.

Before World War II, the pool was the site of spectacular water "galas" that would draw thousands of onlookers. Johnny Weissmuller, the future Olympic swimmer-turned-movie Tarzan, once taught swimming here.

If you are a pool fanatic, check out the nearby Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, which has been called the most beautiful public swimming pool in the United States.

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Is it kosher to bring a gun to the swim club?

Unless we are talking about a super-soaker toy, no, not in my backyard. It is not kosher to bring a gun into my swim club. I don't really care what the gold old boy yahoos in West Virginia do - see the story below. Just don't bring any gun to the Teaneck Swim Club or the JCC where my friends and relatives go to swim in safety.

And by the way even the toys are getting downright dangerous. Consider you can "ice" your friends with the NERF SUPER SOAKER ARCTIC SHOCK Water Blaster - about which we are told by Hasbro:

This powerful soaker lets you freeze your friends with icy blasts of water! The ARCTIC SHOCK soaker’s Ice Drum has a large 25-fluid-ounce capacity and you can fill it with ice for a super-chilled soak. Fill the drum and pump for a freezing blast of water at targets up to 30 feet away! The Ice Drum works with other Clip System SUPER SOAKER blasters (sold separately) and SUPER SOAKER Water Clips work with the ARCTIC SHOCK soaker. Fill additional Water Clips (sold separately) and use them to refill fast. Put the competition on ice with the ARCTIC SHOCK soaker!

From ProPublica, some dangerous summer news.

Now, You Can’t Ban Guns at the Public Pool
by Lois Beckett, ProPublica

If you feel unsafe at a public pool in Charleston, W.Va., you may soon have the right to lie there on a towel with a handgun at your side.

For 20 years, Charleston has been an island of modest gun restrictions in a very pro-gun rights state. But its gun laws — including a ban on guns in city parks, pools and recreation centers — are now likely to be rolled back, the latest victory in a long-standing push to deny cities the power to regulate guns.

Since the 1980s, the National Rifle Association and other groups have led a successful campaign to get state legislatures to limit local control over gun regulations. These "preemption" laws block cities from enacting their own gun policies, effectively requiring cities with higher rates of gun violence to have the same gun regulations as smaller towns.

Before 1981, when an Illinois town banned the possession of handguns, just a handful of states had preemption laws on the books. Today, 42 states block cities from making gun laws, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Even Illinois, which has long allowed its cities to pass gun control measures, is about to invalidate local restrictions on concealed handguns and ban any future local regulation of assault weapons.

Gun rights advocates argue that allowing cities to have their own gun laws creates an impossible situation for law-abiding gun owners, who cannot be expected to read ordinances for every town they might pass through.

The preemption campaign has racked up so many victories nationwide, it's now focusing on holdouts like Charleston, population 51,000.

Charleston's current gun restrictions include a three-day waiting period to buy a handgun, and a limit of one handgun purchase per month, as well as bans on guns on publicly owned property, such as parks and pools.

West Virginia Delegate Patrick Lane crafted an amendment to an unrelated state bill, now passed, that will likely force Charleston to erase those restrictions.

"Crime could happen anyplace. You obviously want to be able to defend yourself and your family if something happens," Lane said, when asked why anyone would want to bring a gun to a public pool.

The NRA did not respond to requests for comment, but its website calls Charleston's restrictions "misguided" and "unreasonable." Its site has closely tracked the progress of the repeal of the ordinances, which it states "would have no negative impact whatsoever on Charleston." The site has repeatedly criticized Charleston's Republican mayor for "speaking out publicly against this pro-gun reform."

It's not clear what effect the spread of preemption has had on public safety. "It's very hard to determine what causes crime to go up and down, because there are so many variables," said Laura Cutilletta, a senior attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

But in Charleston, Police Chief Brent Webster says he's worried about losing the city's current restrictions, in particular the law banning guns at city pools, concerts and sporting events.

"You will have some citizens say, 'I can do that now, so I'm going to do that,'" Webster said. "I am greatly concerned."

"When they're diving off the diving board, is that [gun] going to be in a book bag? Is that going to be lying under their towel and an eight-year-old kid is walking through the pool area and picks it up?"

Two of the city's former police chiefs also say they're worried about losing the ban on guns in public places that attract kids.

"That has nothing to do with the Second Amendment right. It has to do with public safety," former Chief Dallas Staples said.

Charleston's mayor, Danny Jones, who's fought to keep the gun restrictions, said the city now has no choice but to do what the state legislature wants and roll them back. The state legislature packaged the rollback requirement with a popular measure giving Charleston more leeway in how it raises taxes.

"I'm still reeling from all this, because it's going to affect us in a very negative way," Jonestold reporters after the law passed.

Keith Morgan, president of the West Virginia Citizen's Defense League, a gun rights group, said the group been pushing for an end to Charleston's ordinances for years, and that the change would protect law-abiding gun owners from a "minefield" of conflicting local laws.

Lane, the West Virginia delegate, also said that gun-owning commuters were put at risk as they traveled through different cities with different rules.

But neither Lane nor Morgan could cite an example of a gun owner being prosecuted for accidentally breaking the law during their commute, or by accidentally wandering into a city park. When Morgan himself once showed up at the Charleston Civic Center with a gun, he said, he was simply asked to leave, and he did. In lawsuits the West Virginia Citizen's Defense League filed against gun ordinances in Charleston and Martinsburg, the plaintiffs cited their fear of potential prosecution.

The main burden of Charleston's laws for gun owners has been the inconvenience of waiting three days to purchase a handgun, and only being able to buy one handgun at a time — something that can be particularly troublesome "if you're buying a present for your family and there happens to be a Christmas sale at the retailer," Lane said.

Former Charleston law enforcement officers say the handgun restrictions, passed in 1993, helped the city tamp down on the drugs-for-guns trade that was rampant at the time. But since then, gun stores have sprung up right at the city's borders, said Steve Walker, a former Charleston police officer and now president of the West Virginia branch of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"Honestly, I don't know whether with them repealing it, it is going to help them or hurt them," Walker said of the handgun restrictions.

State legislators said that city officials are overplaying their fears.

"I don't see everyone with a concealed carry permit deciding to go to a pool and carry a gun," said Democrat Mark Hunt, a state delegate, "So what if they do? They're law-abiding citizens."

Charleston’s mayor said he has a plan if somebody brings a gun poolside: “We're going to close down the pool."

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Is Ryan Lochte, Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol, Jewish?

No, we do not think that swimmer Ryan Lochte is a Jew. His national team bio does not specify his religion. We would guess from his last name that his family goes back to Dutch Protestant roots.

The Times' Style section had an extensive article about Lochte.

Ryan Lochte, Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol

The U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte is poised to be the breakout star of the 2012 Summer Games, both in and out of the pool.

Ryan Lochte, Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol - Slide Show

Mr. Lochte, 27, is being groomed to be a breakout Olympic superstar, with millions in corporate sponsorships.

Update April 2013: Lochte has an E! reality show, starting Sunday April 21 at 10pm EDT.

Here is a funny video interview about the show - watch to the end.

Hat tip to anonymous!

Talmudic Books for Kindle The Kindle Talmud in English

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Is Geraldo Rivera Jewish?

Yes, attorney, journalist, writer, reporter and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera is a Jew. Rivera has worked with distinction for 40 years in TV journalism and entertainment. He has hosted the program Geraldo at Large, and appears on Fox News Channel.

In February 2013 Rivera disclosed that he was considering running for the Senate as a Republican candidate in New Jersey.

Rivera was born July 4, 1943 at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City (where this blogger was born some years later). He is the son of Lillian (née Lillie Friedman), a waitress and a cashier for the E. J. Korvettes store in Massapequa, N.Y., and the late Cruz "Allen" Rivera (October 1, 1915 - November 1987), who managed a kitchen at Republic Aviation, formerly in Farmingdale, N.Y. Rivera's father was Puerto Rican of Spanish ancestry and his mother is of Ashkenazi Russian Jewish descent. According to Wikipedia, Rivera was raised "mostly Jewish" and had a Bar Mitzvah.

We met Geraldo's wife Erica one time {10/4/2010) at the JCC on the Palisades where she served on the board of directors (and swims laps in the pool). The couple resides in Edgewater, N.J., with their young child.

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Amazing Shanghai glass bottom swimming pool in the sky

Rooftop pools are nothing new. But now CNN reports on a 24th floor pool that juts out and has a glass bottom. Quite awesome and breathtaking. Makes us want to take another trip to Shanghai.

CNN also reports on the worlds 15 most spectacular swimming pools.

Now that the weather has moderated, we continue on our incredible summertime 100-laps-a-day-program.

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Talmud: Try to swim 100 laps every day

The Tosefta quotes Rabbi Meir saying that everyone should strive to recite 100 blessings each day. It then goes on to explain how one can do this.

Blessings are berakhot ברכות in Hebrew. In modern Hebrew the laps that one swims in a pool are called berechot בריכות.

I playfully read the Talmud such: Don't say berakhot, say berechot.

And so I have my Talmudic encouragement to swim 100 laps a day. On occasion I get to to that goal.

Here are a few of my reflections of the past on swimming...

Some time ago, JTA reported that "Liberal men take the plunge into ritual immersion, slowly" -- Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish men were going to mikvah and finding it meaningful. Sue Fishkoff wondered why and so did I.

She ended her article with a quote from mikvah user and attorney Merrill Hassenfeld, “We’re always doing things for others, why don’t we set aside time to go to the mikvah?” he asked. “It prepares us to go out into the world and start yelling and screaming again.” (A greater non-sequiteur has never been uttered.)

Now, my confession. I am a pool addict. I am a serious lap swimmer. Since 1982 my aim has been to try to swim a mile of laps every day. Finding the time. Finding a pool. Finding the energy. Not easy.

When I come out of my pool, I find that I feel healthier, more centered and completely relaxed. Swimming a mile in around 30 minutes is hard, aerobic work. That is what I have to invest to get results from my "mikvah" experience. I'm happy to hear that others can achieve their own "incredible" positive benefits from splashing around in a state of heightened imagination.

I have sought out pools to swim my laps all over the world. My most favorite pool was the old Gordon Pool on Tel Aviv beach near the Sheraton, pictured from a few years ago.

It was one of the wonders of the world. Each night they emptied the entire 50 meter pool, cleaned it and refilled it from underground saltwater wells 120 meters below. The pool opened at 5 AM at 24 degrees, which was just fine for us serious lap swimmers.

Unfortunately, the Gordon pool was leveled in 2008 without warning by the city of Tel Aviv. They rebuilt and reopened it as a more modern facility. I swam there in 2011.

[repost in part from 5/20/09]

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Israeli swimmer Yakov Toumarkin finished seventh in the final in the 200 meter backstroke

Israeli swimmer Yakov Toumarkin advanced to the final in the 200 meter backstroke in the London Olympics.

He finished seventh. We are proud of this achievement.

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Is Michael Phelps Jewish?

No. Michael Phelps is not a Jew.

Phelps is the all-time Olympic medal winner with 19. Newsday reported on 7/31/2012:

Phelps swam into history with a lot of help from his friends, taking down the last major record that wasn't his alone. He took the anchor leg for the United States in a gold medal-winning performance of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay Tuesday night, earning the 19th Olympic medal of his brilliant career, and the 15th gold.

By winning 8 gold medals at the Olympics in 2008, Phelps eclipsed the record of 7 Olympic gold medals in a single Olympics, set by Mark Spitz in 1972 in Munich. Mark Spitz is considered to be one of the greatest Jewish athletes of all time. Spitz spoke about Phelps in an interview with ESPN.

The efforts of Jason Lezak, a Jewish swimmer on the American team, helped insure that Phelps would indeed win 8 gold medals in the 2008 Olympic games.

Michael Phelps was back in the spotlight in February 2008 because of the publication in News of the World of a photograph of him smoking marijuana.

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Is Tisha B'Av Relevant?

Is Tisha B'Av relevant? No we do not think that the fast of Tisha B'Av is relevant anymore. We need a holiday from Tisha B'Av.

That day was for a long time a commemoration through fasting and prayer over the destroyed city of Jerusalem and the Temple. We've last visited Jerusalem in May of 2011 and can attest that the city is not desolate. It is without reservations, glorious.

Who then wants the bleak story to be told? Archetypally the "celebrity" archetype wants to keep recalling defeat, destruction and desolation, to spur team Jews on to fight the foes and to triumph at the end of time. That scheme may work for that archetype as long as the facts of reality do not fly smack in the face of the narrative. And when they do, what then? The narrative loses all of its force. We cannot imagine Jerusalem in ruins. Period. And indeed, why should we perpetuate an incendiary story of gloom and doom into a diametrically opposite positive world of building and creativity? The era of desolation has ended.

For at least twenty-five years, we've been lamenting the irony of lamenting over a city that is rebuilt. It's more rebuilt now -- way more -- than it was twenty five years ago. What do we do then about Tisha B'Av, the Jewish fast day of lament and mourning? Here is what we said those many years ago.

We wrote this op-ed for the Jerusalem Post in 1986 where we summed up many of our thoughts about Israel in our day, and of Jerusalem in particular. The article appeared in the Post on the day before Tisha B'Av:

I shall be fasting this week from sundown Wednesday until sundown Thursday. But this year, more than ever before, I feel silly mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem. I really do not know what to do when it comes time to listen to and to recite for myself the classical laments for the fast of Tisha B'Av.

Much of what we say about Jerusalem in the synagogue is just not true any more.

It is obvious to anyone and everyone that Jerusalem does not lay in ruins. On the contrary, this is my fourth extended visit to Jerusalem in the last seven years. [They say: your not in galut if you commute.] Over the last seven years I have watched as buildings spread out from the center of town to the new neighborhoods. Now Jerusalem sprawls across the hills of Judea, south and north from Gilo to Ramot and beyond.

On the ninth day of Av this year the observant Jews of Jerusalem will congregate in synagogues throughout the city to mourn and lament. What they say inside these halls will not reflect the reality immediately outside them.

And so this year I have resolved to add some few paragraphs for myself, silently, to my prayers. Then when I leave the synagogue and step out into the rebuilt city of our people, I will feel that I have been candid in my meditations and forthright in my worship. I shall say something like this:

"Jerusalem is not desolate. It stands glorious above our Land. Our capital looks down on the miracle of the modern state of our people, rebuilt by the sweat and labor of our brethren and sisters. A thousand settlements testify to our return and we our homeless no more.

"The inhabitants of Jerusalem are not homeless. Beautiful buildings abound. Apartments, condominiums, villas, large and small. Hotels and hostels, old and new. Whosoever wishes may come and live here. Whosoever is hungry shall find sustenance here.

"Enemies do not govern our land. The Kenesset building, the site of our self-government, stands at the center of our new metropolis, a vibrant testimony to our freedom. Independent and sovereign we struggle with each other, and with the states of the world, and somehow we manage to live in harmony among ourselves, and to survive in the swirling community of nations.

"Yes, the Temple was destroyed. But we have built other edifices in its stead. Long ago, in another age, our national center was taken from us by forces we could not resist. But now we have built new structures where we symbolize and express our spirit, our minds and our creative energies, and most of all, our freedom.

"A great synagogue and many more stand in our capital. They serve as the many beating hearts of our spiritual organs. In dozens of Yeshivot teachers build the religious minds of our youth. Schools abound. When school is in session, wherever you turn their are children on their way to classes from kindergartens to high schools, soaking up the knowledge of our world.

"A great Hebrew University answers to the essence of our wider educational appetites, right here in the capital of our nation. In its laboratories, classrooms and libraries, students try to unravel the mysteries of nature and society and strive to construct a new and better order.

"The Israel Museum, the Bezalel School, the Jerusalem Theater and other institutions small and large, cater to our cultural needs. In Jerusalem today we display our past and our present. We sing and dance and we mourn no more. We paint and draw and sculpt and adorn the urban hub of our people, the crown of our Land.

"As we watch, day-by-day, luxury hotels go up and up. Lush green gardens bloom before us. We repose in parks and swimming pools. We find our needs in supermarkets, bakeries, and department stores. And we indulge our extravagances in shops and markets, elegant restaurants and offbeat cafes.

"The city of Jerusalem has been rebuilt. Still, the work is never done. And the struggle will not end. But our city is not desolate. How can we mourn? We must, yes, we are obliged, indeed, it is the highest duty, for us to celebrate. For with God's help, but in accord with our own will and with our own hands we have raised Jerusalem beyond its highest heights. Never before in all of our history has this city attained such glory.

And so that is what I shall add as I conclude my lamentations on Tisha B'Av this year. I shall be cheerful this year, and I will not mourn. But I shall do so silently because this is my own private devotion. Will others join me?

In a public lecture in Minneapolis in October 1986 I read this editorial and expanded upon it:

The personal response I received to this article was enormous. More people read this than any other piece I have written and almost all agreed with its sentiments. Only a few Orthodox friends hesitated in their praise because they interpreted my words as a call to abolish Tisha B'Av. Not at all, I told them. And they had better be more careful in what they read lest they make a mistake in interpretation when they consult the shulchan aruch. More than a month later I am still hearing good words about my reflections on the rebuilding of our holy city.

I could say much more, though the Jerusalem Post is not the only forum for criticism and discussion of the impact of modern Israel on the future of Judaism.

I felt strongly and for the first time without equivocation that we in the galut do not adequately appreciate the achievements of those who built the modern state. Never, even in the greatest ages of our people's history, in the kingdoms of David and Solomon, after the rebuilding of the Temple by Ezra and Nehemiah, or in the era of Herod the Great, never did our people achieve so much in the building of our land. Israel today is a true marvel. Its streets and infrastructures in all of its settlements, its political system, and of course, its military might, make it one of the great countries in the world.

And this accomplishment is even greater in light of the destruction and devastation which preceded it in Jewish history. Yet does the average American Jew understand or appreciate the modern state? I often doubt it.

[edit and repost from 2007]

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VIDEO: Waves sweep Tyler Madoff out to sea in Hawaii

A tragic act of nature swept a New York boy out to sea. A high unexpected "freak set" of waves caught a group of young hikers off guard near the Captain Cook monument on the Big Island of Hawaii.

We visited there last year and spent two hours snorkeling in the cove near the monument. The seas were calm that day but they can get big and rough on other days. (And as far as we can tell, the victim of this terrible act of nature is not related to Bernie Madoff.)

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The Talmud of Swimming

In a Talmud-like fashion, the Times discusses which of the two main styles of swimming the freestyle is superior, more effective, or as we would like to say, more kosher.

"Delineating the Perfect Swim Stroke," by GRETCHEN REYNOLDS, describes the dispute over whether the best stroke is the drag or is the scull.

Here is how the article explains the dispute between the "ancient saints" of swimming and the "House of Counsilman." (It helps if you chant this out loud in a sing-song Talmudic fashion.)

...until Doc Counsilman weighed in, it was widely believed that swimming, for humans, involved primarily drag forces. You pulled against the water, like someone paddling a canoe, your arm remaining straight, palm perpendicular to the body. This stroke technique is often called a “deep catch” style of swimming, since you pull long and deep against the water.

Coach Counsilman was convinced, however, that lift could and should provide a majority of the propulsion for human swimmers, and that the way to generate lift was to scull, or move the stroking arm through an S-curve underwater...

We've always decided the Halakhah of the stroke in favor of the House of Counsilman, mainly for the reasons that the article describes.

44 New Talmudic Books for Kindle | The Amazing 36 Volume Kindle Talmud in English | Whence and Wherefore | God's Favorite Prayers

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Times Mag: Does Swimming Make You Smarter?

Yes, according to an article in the Times Magazine, "How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain" by Gretchen Reynolds, swimming does make you smarter.

The value of mental-training games may be speculative, as Dan Hurley writes in his article on the quest to make ourselves smarter, but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering evidence of the beneficial relationship between exercise and brainpower. But the newest findings make it clear that this isn’t just a relationship; it is the relationship. Using sophisticated technologies to examine the workings of individual neurons — and the makeup of brain matter itself — scientists in just the past few months have discovered that exercise appears to build a brain that resists physical shrinkage and enhance cognitive flexibility. Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does...

Just how exercise remakes minds on a molecular level is not yet fully understood, but research suggests that exercise prompts increases in something called brain-derived neurotropic factor, or B.D.N.F., a substance that strengthens cells and axons, fortifies the connections among neurons and sparks neurogenesis. Scientists can’t directly study similar effects in human brains, but they have found that after workouts, most people display higher B.D.N.F. levels in their bloodstreams...

We swim a mile a day. That's why this blog is so darn smart.



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