3 August 2007 (19 Av 5767)
Simply by greeting others you cannot generally make them like or love you, but by failing to greet them consistently in contexts where greetings are expected you can surely make them dislike or even hate you, or at least have very negative feelings about you.
In the place where I was born in Japan, which is a very small town, people still greet each other on the street even when they do not know each other. On the other hand, I remember beeing greeted (back) by few of my neighbors in the same buildings where I lived in several big cities there. I was always shocked to see some students who passed by me in campus did not greet me (back). I fear that greeting each other face-to-face is dying out in Japan.
In Israel people generally greet each other far more frequently, and that more openly and less formulaically. Unfortunately, however, I have been bothered and even offended by one person who has never greeted me (back) though he must have seen me on a weekly basis for almost a year. Actually, he does not even say "excuse me" when he has to bother me with something every time he has to do something; instead he simply touches my shoulder or just keeps silent. I feel my total existence is ignored by this behavior of his. He seems quite sociable, so he must have another reason for not greeting me (back) or not speaking me. But I have been wondering naively what the use of all the religious rituals he seems to be meticulous about if he does not show the minimal respect to another human being.
I am surprised to find how I can develop such strong negative feelings toward someone who does nothing but fail to greet me (back) consistently, whatever the reason is.
10 August 2007 (26 Av 5767)
I am often amazed to find how people can be "imaginative" in transmitting rumors about other people. Some of these "imaginative" rumors about me that finally reached my ears were not only far from truth but also often disturbing. I could not always laugh them away.
I witnessed the powerful "imagination" of people most vividly when I taught Yiddish at an adult education program of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem around 1990 and was naive as to agree to be interviewed on TV and in newspapers. There were even those who wrote about me on the basis of groundless rumors. After so many years since then I still suffer from rumors that have nothing to do with truth. Here are two recent examples.
This Thursday I received a weird message from someone in Vancouver. He thanked me for a PhD dissertation I was supposed to have written and was mentioned in a talk someone else in the local Jewish community center made on the linguistic and historical population movement of the Jewish people. I have no idea how my dissertation, which is a synchronic description of the word formation of verbs in Modern Hebrew, has anything to do with this talk. Unfortunately, I am not so imaginative to connect the two. He must have heard "imaginative" rumors about me and confused me with someone else, who must be far more talented and brilliant than I.
I also heard a most "imaginative" rumor about me this week. A colleague of mine told me that some scholar in Japan wrote in his article on Yiddish in Birobidzhan that I had been there. I wish I had been there, but of course, I have never ever been there! I wonder how this scholar, of whom I did not even know until this week, fabricated such a nonsense. I find this extremely bothering firstly because such an anecdote that someone was there has no place in an academic article and secondly because he wrote something on the basis of a totally groundless "imaginative" rumor he must have heard.
17 August 2007 (3 Elul 5767)
The recent funeral of a neighbor of mine raised in me a few questions about this rite of passage. The first question is for whom funerals are held at all, for the dead themselves, for their family members and close friends, and/or for the society at large. I am not so sure any more. The neighbor of mine who passed away was only nominally Jewish, and her family members are no less detached from Jewish tradition, but since she did not leave any will about her own funeral, it was conducted according to a traditional Jewish manner, with which none of them as well as few of her close friends was familiar. It seemed to me that they had taken it for granted that it would be arranged that way, as it is the most accepted way in the Jewish sector of Israeli society, though it may not mean much to them.
The second question is what those who are secular or have little or nothing to do with any institutionalized religion should do if they do not want their funerals in a nonreligious manner for their integrity. Apparently, we human beings have a tendency to ritualize many social events, especially rites of passage that are considered important in a society they live in. One has to have a special will as well as sufficient reasoning, whether intellectual or emotional, to convince one's own family and relatives so that one's funeral may be conducted in a nonconventional, i.e., nonreligious, manner. It seems to me that conducting a funeral in a manner that is against the belief or lack of belief of someone dead is the worst kind of respect we can show him or her just like conducting a funeral according to a religion that is different from his or her.
Suppose that how the funerals would be held was arranged in advance by the dead or they were conducted by what is considered the default rite in a given society. The third question is how much those who attend their funerals should respect the decisions of the dead of the society. Specific rites according to which their funerals are conducted may oppose the religious beliefs or lack thereof of those who attend them. I think they should follow the specific rites of the funerals, whatever the reasons for their choices are. In this respect I was quite shocked (and to be honest, also disgusted) to see one male family member of my neighbor, who is no less detached from Jewish tradition than she herself, came to her grave without covering his head. I instinctively put a piece of paper I had with me on his head, but I soon realized that he did not like what I did, to say the least. In spite of that, I do not think that funerals should be where you proclaim to all the other attendants that you disapprove the traditional rite of a society of which you are considered a member.
24 August 2007 (10 Elul 5767)
[no update due to a busy schedule]
31 August 2007 (17 Elul 5767)
Since I was an undergraduate student back in Japan, I have built my own library on languages (mainly Hebrew, Yiddish and Esperanto) and linguistics so that it may be more or less self-sufficient wherever I live. When I was still a student, I naturally studied in the university library during the day. But now that I do not have to be in the university all day long every day, I prefer working at my own study in my apartment. Only once in a while I visit the libraries of Bar-Ilan University, where I teach now, and the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, which is the biggest library in Israel.
This week I had to be in the latter to check some Bible translation stored only there and spend some time there as the book was not for loan. I was rather surprised to find there some of my colleagues in Jerusalem sitting and working in the reading rooms. Since then I have been asking myself what makes them prefer working them, i.e., what are the pros and cons of working in a library and at home, even by spending an hour or more to go there and come back home.
In terms of the books and periodicals I need for preparing my courses and writing papers-shmapers, I have most of them at my private library, so I feel no need to sit in any library. I just visit there just to borrow books and copy articles from periodicals I do not subscribe to. I am almost sure that those who work in the library must also have their own self-sufficient research libraries at home. So the reason(s) for this preference of theirs must lie somewhere else.
At least as far as I am concerned, there are two things that prevent me from concentrating on my work when I stay home. The first are telephone calls. I am more and more convinced that telephone is the worst enemy for academic productivity. Naturally, I have no mobile phone, and I am even thinking of not answering any phone calls or turning off my telephone during the day. The second is a permanent Internet connection, which is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, we, or at least I, have to be on the web to check some information available only online or more easily available online, but on the other, it is not so difficult to waste our precious time surfing the net for other things, too. Email is also a serious problem. I have already decided to close my mailer except when I check it three times a day.
The greatest advantage of working in a library I can think of is the atmosphere there, which we do not have at home. It leaves us no choice but to concentrate on our work there. I felt this on my flesh when I had to spend a few hours checking a certain Bible translation in some obscure language at the Jewish National and University Library this week. This atmosphere definitely helps a person like myself who is not so self-disciplined and can easily succumb to temptation other than work.
In spite of this advantage, I am not sure if I will start working in a library as the main place for academic productivity. It is offset by the inconvenience of not having an Internet connection and books I need within my reach and the trouble of going there. So the key to more productivity at home seems to depend on more self-discipline.