FYI - A BRIEF ON YOM KIPPUR

Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement, falls nine days after Rosh Hashanah and concludes the Ten Days of Awe. Yom Kippur is a solemn day of prayer and fasting, on which Jews pray for spiritual purification from past transgressions.

Each service, Yom Kippur eve including the Kol Nidrei, the morning, afternoon, Yiskor and closing survives have special meanings.

This ritual is believed to have developed in early medieval times as a result of persecutions against the Jews. At various times in Jewish history, Jews were forced to convert to either Christianity or Islam upon pain of death.

However, after the danger had passed, many of these forced converts wanted to return to the Jewish community. This was complicated by the fact that they had been forced to swear vows of fealty to another religion. Because of the seriousness with which the Jewish tradition views verbal promises, the Kol Nidrei legal formula was developed precisely in order to enable those forced converts to return and pray with the Jewish community, absolving them of the vows that they made under duress.*

The Congregation stands while the many verses are sung often accompanied by a cello rendition.

The day services are devoted to prayers for repentance or forgiveness of sins. A special service on that day is the Yiskor service in memory of past loved ones.

It is during an afternoon service when the entire biblical book of Jonah which deals with the theme of repentance.is read.

The final blowing of the Shofar closes the services.

PUERTO RICO & TAX REFORM

Yesterday (Wednesday) was one of Trump pluses and minuses with the GOP.

Perhaps belatedly by Edict Trump suspended the 1922 Jones Act which required that only American Flag ships could go between American ports.

Puerto Ricans are American citizens without the right to vote since it is a territory, not a state. Thus despite the present catastrophe no foreign flag ship can carry relief supplies from the mainland.

Unfortunately it seems that is not the only problem because unopened needed relief containers are waiting dockside due to a lack of vehicles and drivers; neither being supplied by FEMA. Would not a Quartermasters army Corps have helped?

The real negative is yet to come in the Tax Reform action. How can it help the middle class? It reduces the Income Taxes on the wealthy, those earning over $250K and although on paper supposed has only three tax levels there is little change except for the extremely poor.

Eliminated are most deductions that can be used except charities which mostly benefits the big wealthy donors and mortgage payers which is no help to we who have outright owned our homes. But we will lose the vital state and local tax deductions which is significant in New Jersey the 3rd highest property taxed state in the nation.

The other provisions related to corporations are less critical for the average New Jersey resident. However there are many loopholes that are still not spelled out.

This will not be a factor this year. It also will most likely not be voted on in this term of Congress.

FRUSTRATIONS

I am frustrated not only by the actions of POTUS but also by the USPS.

POTUS aka President Trump continues to talk out of the side of his mouth but more deliberately and confrontational through 140  characters in multiples on Twitter.

Some think it is a plan to divert attention from the ongoing Russian interventions in the election campaign.

I think Mueller will find enough evidence that Trump himself has been guilty of criminal activity including trying to obstruct a Federal investigation.

“It’s not clear that a president can be indicted; only impeached by the House and tried by the Senate. The framers set the bar appropriately high — a majority of the House, two-thirds of the Senate — so high, in fact, that it has never happened. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached, but acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon leaped before he was pushed. He resigned rather than await the inevitable.” (Washington Post-Opinion-Richard Cohen 9/26)

Instead of paying attention to the catastrophic situation in Puerto Rico he is attacking the NFL players who are exercising their 1st Amendment right of free speech. Is he acting as a White Supremacist which he seemed to after the Charlottesville riot? POTUS ignores the fact that the 1st amendment providing for the right of assembly states “peaceful”.

At the same time he is inflaming the dangerous situation with North Korea to a point where an equally loose cannon may actual launch a nuclear missile at US territory or shoot down an American plane over international waters as happened in 1969 and again in 1990.when a helicopter had strayed into North Korean air-space.

Regarding my bitch with USPS; because my street is ½ in Scotch Plains; many years ago the Post office decided that it would be treated as a rural route and instead of a walking door deli very of mail, a box by the street was required.

Today I put two letters in the box at 11:30 to be picked up. When I went back at 12:30 for the mail there was for the second time in a month that the carrier had attempted to deliver a piece of registered mail and I who was in my house all the time was not available.

When I tried to call the Post Office I got after a very long period off ringing what sounded like a fax sound. When I tried to call the 800 number all I got was the computer with menu after menu and no way to talk to a living person.