Leon's Latest News Comment. (24)

Prehistoric calculator

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/11/30/astronomy.calculator.reut/index.html

Inventing new instruments isn't the only way to progress. This discovery shows that looking back into the past can also be a good way to make progress into the future.

Pioneering Space

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/11/30/space.hawking.reut/index.html

I think what Prof. Stephen Hawking is saying here is that science is dynamic;  there's no way to stop its progress; having invented the space ship and discovered other planets science compels the scientist to find ways of living there and more efficient ways of getting there. There's simply no going back. Those who believe that the Biblical injunction "Renew our days as of olden times" (Lam 5:21) negates the idea of scientific progress should rethink the profound meaning of this verse. In the opinion of the great Jewish thinking Rabbi Dov Ber Soloveichik it means that one should put the past behind us and live each day with renewed vigour as if it was the beginning. In other words one should start anew each day. The only way to put the past behind us is to study it, to discover lessons that will help us in moving forward into the future.

Kidnapped Soldier's father to talk to Hamas

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3335753,00.html#n

Noam Shalit's suffering is the same as the suffering of all the people of Israel. Nobody can blame him for trying everything possible to rescue his kidnapped son, Gilad. We all love our children and Noam Shalit is doing something that every parent should do if his child is in danger.

When I see that Israel is prepared to release thousands of the sons and daughters of the Palestinians, held in Israeli jails, in return for Gilad I realize that the people who are holding Gilad, unfortunately don't have the same love of their children as Noam or the average Israeli parent. If they did they would have made the exchange a long time ago.

The Veil in Islam

http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=1136

Muslim women aren't supposed to be outside their tent, where they don't wear the veil. The veil is only for emergencies; if she has to attend to some life saving task that requires her to leave her home. Going out in public is not permitted to Muslim woman. The issue isn't whether or not to wear a veil; it is whether or not a Muslim woman is allowed to show herself in public. She can't both show herself in public as well as hide herself from the public. She is excluding herself from being part of the public not the employer who is entitled to see her. If she's covered by a veil or doesn't go out in public she can't be seen. The reason for refusing to employ her isn't racist, anti Muslim. It's simply the need to see the person who is standing in front of you doing the job. If she wants to emphasize her pride in her religion she could wear a hat, which doesn't hide her face or she could wear some other, typically Moslem sign. The point is that the veil isn't a sign of one's religion. Not being seen in public is the Moslem rule for woman. Islam doesn't believe in signs, like hats, kippa or ornament like a star of David or a Cross. Islam involves reality, the whole person. There is no way that a woman can modernize Islam. Only Muhammad can do that and there is no single Muslim authority today, who has power to change Moslem law to suit a modern society like England.

Escaped Rapist caught

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3337653,00.html

Israeli society is very mixed indeed; we have noble prize winners and we have rapists and a whole gamut of decent and not so decent citizens who fall between these two extremes and are also products of Israeli society.

When one of our citizens wins the Nobel Prize we are all very proud and when someone like Benny Sela appears we should all be ashamed

The measure of a good society isn't the rapist or the Nobel Prize winner it is the effort which the society invests in correcting itself. This can only be done when the good and the bad are revealed. Israel can be proud of being an open society which admits its faults so that they can be publicly examined and eradicated.