Our Short Age of Electricity and Its Failure of Planning

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

As of 2 days ago, 40,000 Oregonians were still without power of electricity.  The National Guard has been deployed to help.  They've been without power for more than a week.  Portland General Electric Company has been facing outages down to 22,000 customers across the region.  Two days ago, this was reported;  MULINO, Ore. — Tens of thousands are still without power in Clackamas and Marion counties more than a week after the region was pelted with snow and ice last weekend.    

Back in our ancestor's day, people did not have electricity.  However did they manage?                       

Our eternal light in the Temple in Jerusalem  is copied  as the Ner Tamid  or perpetual eternal oil lamp.  This light kept burning in the synagogue as a symbol of the radiance of faith.  Originally it presumably served also to kindle the other lamps on the conclusion of the Sabbath, etc.  Normally it hangs before the ark, but in Eastern Europe was often in a niche in a side wall.  Similarly, fire was perpetually kept alight on the altar in the Tabernacle.  When the Greek Syrians had attacked (175-163 BCE-Antiochus Epiphanes against Judah the Maccabee), the oil was gone and needed to be replaced.  A runner ran to the next town to bring back oil.  In the meantime, only a little had been left which burned the whole time, 8 days, that the runner had to return, probably with refined olive oil.  This brought about our Jewish holiday of Chanukah.  Evidently in those days, oil lamps were used by the public for light.   

                                                          

People used oil lamps in ancient days, probably from olive oil. This came before candles.  Such oil lamps were found in Israel and Rome.                                            

  Candle dipping:  To make a candle, a chandler would first craft the wick with thin pieces of cotton or linen. Next, he would heat up tallow or animal fat before dipping the wick into it. The wick would be dipped into the burning animal fat several times. This "dipping" was done until the candle was the desired size.  Candle making was an important task for the lady of the house in Colonial America.  They had found a good resource, animal fat to replace oil they could not obtain.  Olive oil could not be had in America.                                    

                   1933 Paris used gaslighting; quite romantic 

In 1792, William Murdoch used coal gas to light his house.  He decided that coal gas as the most effective, and used it in his house, in part, as a demonstration. This was the beginning of the Gaslight Era. By the early 1800s, gas street lights were becoming common in most major cities, and the installation of gas lighting systems was well underway.  Gaslight was used for 141 years, possibly.       

Kerosene lamps are still used in times of need. A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a table, or hand-held lanterns may be used for portable lighting. Like oil lamps, they are useful for lighting without electricity, such as in regions without rural electrification, in electrified areas during power outages, at campsites, and on boats. There are three types of kerosene lamp: flat-wick, central-draught (tubular round wick), and mantle lamp. Kerosene lanterns meant for portable use have a flat wick and are made in dead-flame, hot-blast, and cold-blast variants.  Kerosene lamps are widely used for lighting in rural areas of Africa and Asia, where electricity is not distributed or is too costly. Kerosene lamps consume an estimated 77 billion litres of fuel per year, equivalent to 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, comparable to annual U.S. jet-fuel consumption of 76 billion litres per year.                    

Electricity was a great invention.  It took us out of the age of oil and candle-lighting as well as gas-lighting.  Most people give credit to Benjamin Franklin for discovering electricity. Benjamin Franklin had one of the greatest scientific minds of his time. He was interested in many areas of science, made many discoveries, and invented many things, including bifocal glasses.  He was born January 17, 1706, Milk Street, Boston, MA and died April 17, 1790, Philadelphia, PA.  Benjamin Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, soaper, and candlemaker.  I bet he told Ben a thing or two about how he was hurting his father's candle business with his new-found electricity!                                    

In pursuit of more pragmatic uses for electricity, remarking in spring 1749 that he felt "chagrin'd a little" that his experiments had heretofore resulted in "Nothing in this Way of Use to Mankind," Franklin planned a practical demonstration. He proposed a dinner party where a turkey was to be killed with electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit. After having prepared several turkeys this way, Franklin noted that "the birds kill'd in this manner eat uncommonly tender."   I guess that America's first Thanksgiving served up tough turkeys!  

Electricity is great when the weather cooperates, but when Mother Nature is wild, we lose it and are left in the dark.  Many people in Oregon this year have lost theirs and are at their wits end in dealing with a cold home and the darkness without any means of cooking.  We have learned that electricity manages our whole lives. 

Here we are in the year 2021, the future, and we can be left in the dark without means of cooking or seeing, just like our Stone Age Man, who at least must have known how to build a fire.  How did mankind ever manage their lives from10,000 BCE to 2021 CE?                              

In 1882 Thomas Edison helped form the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, which brought electric light to parts of Manhattan. But progress was slow. Most Americans still lit their homes with gas light and candles for another fifty years. Only in 1925 did half of all homes in the U.S. have electric power.  Those people born in 1934 in Portland, Oregon,  did have homes with electricity.  All our Americans  have had homes with electricity for only the past 86 years or less!  

Not only does Mother Nature play havoc with our electric wires and poles with falling trees, but our electricity is now in jeopardy of terrorists who are attacking our country.  Evidently it's easy to snuff out electricity for huge plots of land, a method better than an invading army.  

It's time our young people learn the ways of the Boy Scouts who learn so much about survival and how to cook outdoors.  The army also teaches survival methods.  We all need to learn these skills.   This plus First Aid should be taught in  public schools, and how viruses spread in a population.  There's lots of other subjects that can be dismissed and let these take their places.  Reading and Writing and Arithmetic are the necessary basics, and these are the new subjects for today.                                         

When I moved to Israel, I found I was on a different type of electricity, one more common to have in Europe.  Israel operates on a 230V supply voltage and 50Hz..  My electrical appliances needed an adaptor.  I bought a stove that had both electricity and gas; an oven of each with the gas also serving on the top for the pots and pans.  I had to use a match to start the gas. That was good planning because they could not depend on the electricity being a steady element.  

                                                       

During the October windstorm in the 60s, I lived in Eugene, Oregon and was surrounded by trees with squirrels.  It was lovely.  I had a huge fireplace where I made coffee and cooked hot dogs during the 3 days we were without electricity.                                         

Every new home built today should go back to basics and have a fireplace that works.  People have to be prepared to survive and be able to go to Plan B when necessary.
                                

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.  Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3, 1847.   This teacher died August 2, 1922.  Despite having the patent, Bell did not have a fully functioning instrument. He first produced intelligible speech on March 10, 1876, when he summoned his laboratory assistant, Thomas A. Watson, with words that Bell transcribed in his lab notes as “Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.” Over the next few months, Bell continued to refine his instrument to make it suitable for public exhibition. In June he demonstrated his telephone to the judges of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, a test witnessed by Brazil’s Emperor Pedro II and the celebrated Scottish physicist Sir William Thomson. In August of that year, he was on the receiving end of the first one-way long-distance call, transmitted from Brantford to nearby Paris, Ontario, over a telegraph wire.

                             

                        

Windpower  is being reinvented.  It has been used a lot by the Dutch.  

Water, who knew that our water would become a problem?  Here's where you need to have a survival kit such as we Oregonians are told to have in case of earthquakes which could happen any minute, another Mother Nature's fact we live with.   Unless some scientist comes up with a survival solution better than a supply of bottles of water stored away, that's what we all must have on hand.  

Solar power is a very modern source.  it's being used on our rooftops.  Our ancestors in Egypt cooked flour and water into pancake shapes on the hot ground in haste, hurrying to join the Exodus.  In theory, solar energy was used by humans later as early as 7th century B.C.E  when history tells us that humans used sunlight to light fires with magnifying glass materials. Later, in 3rd century B.C.E., the Greeks and Romans were known to harness solar power with mirrors to light torches for religious ceremonies. These mirrors became a normalized tool referred to as “burning mirrors.” Chinese civilization documented the use of mirrors for the same purpose later in 20 A.D..  Today we can have solar panels on our roofs.                              

Another early use for solar energy that is still popular today was the concept of “sunrooms” in buildings. These sunrooms used massive windows to direct sunlight into one concentrated area. Some of the iconic Roman bathhouses, typically those situated on the south-facing side of buildings, were sunrooms. Later in the 1200s A.D., ancestors to the Pueblo Native Americans known as the Anasazi situated themselves in south-facing abodes on cliffs to capture the sun’s warmth during cold winter months.  Why haven't we been smarter and have this in today's new homes?                                

In the late 1700s and 1800s, researchers and scientists had success using sunlight to power ovens for long voyages. They also harnessed the power of the sun to produce solar-powered steamboats. Ultimately, it’s clear that even thousands of years before the era of solar panels, the concept of manipulating the power of the sun was a common practice.

It all gives me an awareness of what our ancestors have gone through up to 100 years ago.  All the things they didn't have, instant heat, instant water, things we take for granted.  It's really amazing that we all made it here to be able to face such problems today. It's also amazing that we haven't take advantage of their great ideas that had and build on them.  Depending on one source of power has also been fatal.                             

 And that reminds me, why did pantries go out of style? They've already coming back in, according to my daughter-in-law who just designed hers.   They were great ideas for keeping food products.  We can't always depend on driving down to the grocery store for something.  We need our own supply of food for an extended hardship either from Mother Nature and who knows?  

Resource: 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Graham-Bell

https://www.thespruce.com/the-gaslight-era-2175011#:~:text=He%20decided%20that%20coal%20gas,lighting%20systems%20was%20well%20underway.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp

https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm#:~:text=In%201882%20Edison%20helped%20form,the%20U.S.%20have%20electric%20power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity

https://news.energysage.com/the-history-and-invention-of-solar-panel-technology/

Male and Female Jewish Religous Responsibilities

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

     
We're made differently.  We have different expectations according to our sex. Not only are our bodies a bit different, but we have different hormones that are set up for different functions.  There's a reason for having 2 sexes so that we will produce children. Let's look at women first.  

Arguments have come up about our women's rights, obligations and then there's our limitations, if any today.  Women can take part in synagogue prayer, but there are obligations that only men are expected to fulfill.  We can do them, but we don't have to.  It's isn't required of us.
                                                   

Synagogue in Tunisia; probably is Mizrachi service-
Usually wherever we go we can follow the service, not matter the country's language as Hebrew will be used.  

In 70 CE our 2nd Temple was burned down in Jerusalem by the Romans and our religion was no longer in the hands of the Cohens of the Temple as Jews became either captives of the Romans or were fleeing for their lives seeking other refuge for themselves and their families.  Some were able to hide out in other places of Judah and perhaps even in Israel in the north.  Would the religion come to an end?  Facts taught to them in the Temple remained and men took responsibility to maintain the Law of Moses.  Cohens continued in their role of maintaining the religion while the Levites, those of the tribe of Cohens who were to be teachers, continued in their role as teaching about the religion while the concept of synagogues came into being.   What we do in the synagogue has its roots from the 1st and 2nd Temples of Solomon, our 3rd king of Israel.  

Saturday (Shabbat) morning and reading from Torah,
Cohens read first, then Levites, then Israelites (all other men).  

                                                        

This man is wearing his prayer shawl around his shoulders
and over his head, and is reading from the scroll that
is all in Hebrew.  Boys are bar-mitzvahed at 13 and have
received the education to do this, leading the people
in prayer.  Any man from 13 on is expected to be able to do this.
Girls are confirmed at age 12. 

Legally in Judaism, women were exempted from practically  all positive, time- bound mitzvot because the rabbis recognized their obligation to their families. Now, Christianity and Islam have both come along trying to say that Judaism is old fashioned and passe and that they have replaced us, but our religion has continued.  It has not come to a standstill, and has been able to keep up with a changing environment and situation from Temple to Synagogue, from psalms to modern music  but that we see  what is either right or wrong has really not changed at all.  Our 10 Commandments that Moses gave us are still applicable today in order to have a healthy population and a happy people whether they be communists, socialists or capitalists.   

                                                     

A woman praying as men do with Tefillin at Kotel in Israel
This is her choice, not a Jewish tradition for women
There is a woman's section and a man's section at the wall,
used to be called the Wailing Wall.

Today's women's movements of equality causing a Jewish women's desire to have equal rights-not understanding that it is an obligation for life-wanting to be as good as men.  My answer is that when men start having the children then we should worry about this equality stuff.  Then are we trading lives and becoming men?  This woman is going all out with the tefillin ,the objects  men use in prayer.  There has been a history of RASHI's daughters wearing tefillin, though it is our tradition that men use them.  There are days to wear them and days not to wear them.  There are 2 items worn;  one is a strap on the arm and the other is a box on the head used with a special blessing and each with its own special meaning. 

Women married early in life, and many still do today.  Woman had many children, and in some quarters, they still do.  Others might think that 2 are a lot.  Women used to spend most of their lives rearing small children.  It was common for married women to have children every 2 years as biologically this suited both the mother and the nursing child that did so for at least one year without baby bottles.

Small children need attending by someone,
usually the mother if possible;
today more likely a pre-school

  Women did not have time to attend the synagogue and fulfill the ritual functions that developed in it such as praying in a minyan.  A minyan is considered as a group of 10 men.  This comes from the Biblical passage in Numbers 14:27, where the term eidah which means a congregation or a community is used.  The reference is of 10 scouts who brought back to Moses the pessimistic report of their expedition into the land of Canaan.  That any number less than 10 is not regarded as a community is alluded to in the Torah in other places, too.  Certain things are not done unless there is a minyan, such as saying kaddish.  It is, according to the Orthodox Law, that only men are religiously obligated to join in public worship, and a minyan is just that, public worship in the synagogue or at another place.  Females and male children under 13 are exempt as well as non-Jews.  These people are able to join in the minyan once it is established.  
                                                     

Immigrants entering Israel with children 

So we find that women are not bound to the formal prayer service nor to the  set times designated for the 3 daily services held in the morning, afternoon and evening.  They area not required, as are the men, to join in public congregational worship.  The established principle that women are generally exempt from  these positive ritual observances that need to be done at a set time takes into consideration of a woman's primary responsibility as a wife and mother.  A mother nursing a child was not expected to drop everything in order to attend set prayer schedules.  The man is expected to arrange his schedule and his work to conform to religious requirements.  Though not all women have these same responsibilities all their lives, the law cannot distinguish between those who do and those who don't, so the leniency with regard to some observances is extended to all.  Oh, the law could have been written with rules and sub rules and clauses and such, but was written to be easily understood.  In other words, women are let off the hook in this case.  They can attend if they wish because they are older and no longer bound by household duties, and so if they choose to, they may, but it's not a rule, a law, an expectation of duty.  They're already done their duty in many ways.  We are women.  Embrace it!  
                                                      

So far, I've only seen a man blow the shofer,
something that takes a lot of practice.  

Women are required to pray, but can do so at any time convenient for them and can do so privately without attending a public service.  While it is praiseworthy of them to make every effort to attend the synagogue on Sabbaths (Friday night and Saturday morning services) and festivals, and observant Jewish women usually do so, their attendance is not a religious statutory requirement.  

In Orthodox synagogues, women and children in Israel have their own section upstairs in a balcony and can look down on the men.  That is to not detract the men with any necessary talking they may need to do or the noise of their children.  Often little boys remain with their fathers downstairs.  A man wears a prayer shawl, and in Israel it is much much larger than the American styles found in conservative synagogues.  They put it over their heads like a personal tent that helps them to meditate when praying.  It is a beautiful sight from the balconies to look down and see a sea of tents during special parts of the service.                                           

My favorite picture of an IDF friend
praying, a man wearing teffilin.

As Jews have 613 Laws that Moses wrote down for us, we also have a certain formality that has been followed since synagogues were created that is followed.  It varies from Orthodox to Conservative to Reform synagogues.  Tradition is a big thing with us Jews.  We have a long history of it.  Whatever formal prayers represent or symbolize, one thing must be borne in mind:  prayer, or tefilah, involves talking to G-d.  It doesn't mean to watch a service performed, it doesn't even mean to just sit while others pray.  It means to involve oneself in an experience where one tries to address the Almighty Himself.  
                                                          

Women serve in the IDF
Today's world has changed for women
even more than for men

"Every Jew is required to recite the Biblical passage known as the Shema (Hear O Israel) twice a day, morning and evening, in fulfillment of the precept:  ...And you shall talk of them....When you lie down and when you rise up."  So just think our ancestors, at least many of them for many generations did this, though you may not be doing it yourself today,  or your parents, or even your grandparents may not have learned to do this...But it's so nice...
     
Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our G- d, the Lord is One, Blessed be the name of his glorious Majesty forever and ever.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your means.  And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart.  Teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up.  bind them for a sign upon your hand and for frontlets between your eyes.  Write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates."  If I took a survey, I'd probably find that only the Orthodox still fulfill this expectation.  Notice it is not sex divided.  Every Jew is mentioned.                                  
                                                       

This brings us to blessing our home with a mezuzah, which is mentioned in the Shemah.  This is usually an ornate little box filled with Hebrew writing with Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and 11: 13-21 lettered on the front, and the word Shaddai (Almighty) lettered on the back.  Usually the container has a hole through which the word Shaddai (Shin, raish, yud) can be seen.   which is a sign, like a reminder to us, of G-d's presence, and of his commandments to us and of our duties to him-like to remember the commandments an to do them.  Like prayer, it's called service of the heart, and we have the ritual of kissing it with our hand to reflect our love and reverence for G-d.  Male and female do this.  The custom of a mezuzah goes back to the time when we were slaves in Egypt.  It is known that the Egyptians used to place a sacred document at the entrance to their houses.  The word mezuzah means "doorpost" and refers to the sentence in Deuteronomy 6: 9, 11:20. 
                                                        

Women usually light the candles on Friday night and may do so along with their daughters.  If a man lives alone he may do it himself.  We light 2 candles at least which symbolize the unity underlying all apparent duality, such as man and woman, body and soul, speech and silence creation and revelation.  Lighting the candles reminds us of the line-"And G-d blessed the 7th day:  "  What did he bless it with?  Light.  We say a blessing with this lighting and also a prayer of safety for the family, the world, etc., our own prayer for the week.
                                                      

All men in this synagogue in Israel  with women
probably upstairs.  

Because women today are freer to do more in the synagogue should not be forcing men out of their role.  10 men should not be replaced by 10 women in a minyan.  Judaism is not to be a religion taken over by women.  Men included women since day 1.  We need to let men keep their role in our religion, or do we want them to drop out completely?  Whatever job the man has in this world, from garbage-man to doctor, he is king at home and in the synagogue.  This is one place he is needed and is important and has a role to fulfill.  
                                                        

As our ancestors went through life in Europe, the women bore the children and often ran the business, freeing their husbands to study Torah.  They remembered us every Friday night with the prayer book's  special prayer for the wife, which praises her highly of all she does for the family.  We haven't been forgotten or unappreciated.  


Resource:  TO BE A JEW by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
THE JEWISH CATALOG, a do-it yourself kit  by Richard Siegel Michael Strassfeld, Sharon Strassfeld.  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRbdB3jNDzQ,