Yom Kippur: Cooler Weather Arrives

Yom Kippur is upon us and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  A trough of lower pressure will ease in from the west and northwest over the next few days.  The result will be a drop in temperatures and a rise in humidity.  These are weather conditions that are more conducive for fasting without incident — and are more comfortable for just being around and about.

The cool weather should stay with us for the next week, and possibly through a good part of Sukkot.   In fact, we could have some light showers as Sukkot arrives.

Yom Kippur is a time for reflection, and I’d like to do just to that.

Some years ago, actually than more than some years ago,  The “Patent Trader” wrote an article: “She works, he studies, they find liberation.” Ironically, it was less about my mother working and more about my father taking time off to study for his PhD, while taking care of us kids at off hours of the day. In other words, he became liberated from his old assumptions that men must be the main “breadwinner,” while the wife takes care of the home.

Well, I’m a product of such a home and I can tell you that times have changed even more so.  I do my grilling in the back yard out of sight and out of (my wife’s) mind. I didn’t think much of this until the other day when our neighbors undertook renovations of front and back.

I can tell you that I used to see my neighbor grilling in his front garden, which means that his wife could see him too. The new and less cluttered yard has no special place for grilling, no pedestal to stand upon. Now, he tells me that he’ll have a place on the small porch near their back door, but my guess is that he’ll be down the stairs and out of sight too.

So, the way I see it is that wives have not only become liberated in the traditional sense, but they’ve also liberated themselves from their husbands.

In fact, the only place husbands see each other (not their wives) is at the garbage, as we toss our refuse into the bottomless pit of the new fangled trash cans.

G’mar Chatima Tova!