Demonstrations
I saw pictures from the demonstrations against everything, all sorts of things from last weekend. In Tel Aviv, Palestinian flags proliferated, and in Haifa a Jewish demonstrator carried a sign with pictures of the children killed in Gaza - her hands dipped in red. It was strange to me that none of the demonstrators said anything against the ambassadors of the Palestinian cause. They were not renounced, they were not isolated, they were not expelled.
The extreme left, which is unable to buy a place in the hearts of the people, is dressing up on the demonstrations against the judicial reform, which have been greatly weakened because there will probably be no reform anymore, and as the cuckoo's act - takes a nest not for it and lays its eggs in it. To me, this is a usurpation for its own sake. You take a reputational asset and associate it with a group that did not create it, only dressed on its tail. And the issue is not only the obscene dressing, but in this act of takeover, the smell of the original move of the organizers is abruptly blamed, which apparently succeeded quite well, but like any success did not know how to stop in time.
There is a phenomenon in Israel of falling in love with demonstrations, on both sides. Once a line of demonstrations has been launched, they do not let go, every week, sometimes every day, until the object of the demonstration is exhausted, as well as the entire public that has to bear the side effects of the demonstration - road blockages, noise, false employment of police forces and so on. And I understand. For many people, the demonstrations become a great social club, a huge youth movement for adults, there are actions, and there are costumes, and there are props, and there are songs, and slogans, and you can bring the children and we will be happy.
I say - Halas. The goals have been achieved? This is not the time to find additional goals to sustain the fire of rebellion. Let breathe. A demonstration is an important democratic tool, but that too has a virtue. When there is a demonstration every week with a changing agenda, no goal is achieved, political power is not built, the government gets used to it and becomes indifferent, and those who suffer are only the road users.
It is inconceivable that now, every time a government is formed from here or there, life will be permanently disrupted. It's not democracy, it's nijos-cratia. Go unite, function, create a functioning political front. Interfering with the functioning of others will never pay off in the long run, only make life miserable. A demonstration on this issue on Saturday night in front of my house.
intelligence
My human intelligence is busy a lot these days with artificial intelligence and its implications near and far. If I thought until a week ago that my work was at least protected, then came the new application of intelligence, GPT radio, which broadcasts programs with artificial content in a completely human voice, made by intelligence, and an ear will not notice. American podcast star Joe Rogan aired an entire show a few days ago that created an intelligence that synthesized his voice based on texts he might say, and it was completely him. Soon I'm out.
I ask myself where all this will go. And I also answer: everywhere. For example, to artificial politics. Why should disabled people like our politicians, and all over the world, keep running things when AI can do it better, based on more data, without bias of interest and at breakneck speed? Why don't we choose in the elections which intelligence engine will take power, and from there it will run us? What's bad?
Illustration: Yehuda Noni,
And what about morality? Last week we debated weighty questions: Is it moral to kill uninvolved people, including children, in order to harm vile murderers who want to kill our children? Why do we need the responsibility for such decisions? That artificial morality will weigh cost versus benefit and inform the pilot whether to launch or not. Many people will sleep better at night if this is the case.
And the trial? The pressure on the courts could end in a day, if an artificial judicial system is introduced. Enter all the details of the case, press enter, and a reasoned verdict, including precedents and excerpts, comes out within half a minute. The same goes for halachic decisions. Put the entire Jewish bookcase with all its rulings into the machine, and then each question is solved in a second. Shabbat elevator allowed? Answer - up to the fifth floor, not included. Thank you.
And before long, we will also reach an artificial God who, unlike God who sits in heaven, will sit in a cloud, receive requests from humans and do what God does. There are worlds, may it take life and provide answers to primordial questions, how is it that the righteous and evil are good for him? Such.
And then artificial intelligence will eliminate humans, as its developers already predict, and will be left alone in the world. And the question will be asked, is there life after life, is artificial intelligence life itself when it does not obey the first rule of life, which has an end? All these questions will already be answered by the realization for herself. And a great silence will descend on the entire artificial world.
Scrolling
There was a second hand market in our neighborhood. The residents came to the school yard, opened stalls and displayed their wares. Some brought shamatas in poor condition, some brought items in great state of preservation, exemplary maintenance. I walked around the stalls, trying to imagine the order in the house of the different people according to the state of their goods.
And here I came across a great stall. They sold books and board games in better condition than when they came off the assembly and printing line. In our house, ten minutes after the game opens, the dice disappear, the rabbit nibbles on the board, and the surprise card is lost. But not in this family. Series of books in order, not missing even one.
Illustration: Yehuda Noni,
There was Galila Ron-Feder-Amit's series "The Time Tunnel." If you have not been exposed to this series of books before, this is a fictional series in which two Jerusalem children pass through a time tunnel from the Ramot neighborhood to different times in the history of the Yishuv and the state. So far, 81 books have been published in the series. I bought two. A wall and a tower and the heroism of Masada, each for 10 shekels.
I brought the client home, I gave to the girls. They read books because they don't have phones. Within minutes, they were each swallowed up by a book, and it was not known that they had come to them. A few hours later, they finished and demanded "more." Since the used market is over, and you will know where the sellers live, I ordered a few more books online. They, too, were swallowed like watermelon on a sweltering day.
Not that there haven't been books that have created such magic, Harry Potter, for example, but language has added value. Suddenly, the girl talks to me about Operation Youth Spring and the Munich disaster, about illegal immigration, about the siege of Jerusalem, about Trumpeldor, about Black Sabbath. Each book brings its questions, every question its discussions, and suddenly, without any preparation, the girls know more about the history of the country and the important stories of the past 100 years than I ever dared to hope. And all this learning is through enjoyable reading and not through school, tests and pressures.
Galila Ron-Feder-Amit has already won more awards than even the number of her last names. And I also award her from this distinguished platform the Gilad Family Prize for connection to the people of Israel and the Land of Israel.
Thanks Galila, with your good writing you have created roots of identity that will bear fruit throughout the lives of your little readers. Buy your children books in the series, too. They'll refuse to read them, because they're exactly on TikTok, so read them.
avrigilad@gmail.com
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