The StoryGraph

you will eat very old [produce]: [but what blessing is it to eat old food? the torah, means, however, that] the produce will remain well preserved, growing mellow with age, so that very old produce from three years ago will be better to eat than that of last year. — [b.b. 91b]
and you will clear out the old from before the new: the threshing floors will be full of new [grain, which would decay if left there, and, therefore, must be stored]. the storehouses, however, will be filled with the [abundant] old produce. therefore, you will have to remove what is in the storehouses and take it elsewhere [into your house], in order to put the new produce into them. – [sifthei chachamim, and see preceding rashi; [b.b. 91b]. has rashi considered this in relation to the laws pertaining to the produce to be left for the poor? See mishna pe’ah.
 
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tuesday week I’ll turn eightynine, that’s february eighteenth; february eighteenth, that’s the last day of aquarius in the zodiac. aquarius runs from january twentieth to february eighteenth; the water bearer represents aquarius; aquarius is the water bearer.
 
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i managed to recover enough strength to leave before they returned. from the shelter of the dense forests further up in the mountains i observed as, by dusk, the farm swarmed with nazis and cars. i had enough potatoes and bread in my sack to last me five days, and two days later i had met up with the e.a.m. i survived the war in those mountains, tending to wounded e.a.m. soldiers as they fought with the nazis – first for regional control, and then just to have safe passage for food and provisions – and then gradually amongst themselves. after the war i made my way into france with false papers belonging to a dead woman from the french resistance, and so i began a life for myself as ‘jacqueline’. my sight began to fade when i was thirtyseven. i began to play the cello. i do not know what happened to angelos… i do not know what happened to apostolos.
 
here in the care home, i listen to the radio everyday. i can no longer play the cello. mostly the programming comes to me in a blur, but news about greece still makes me prick up my ears. the last news i remember is three stories from four months ago// a beautiful blonde girl had been discovered living with a roma family. the roma were accused of kidnapping her and the authorities wrested her from the care of the roma – the couple claiming to be her parents were formally charged with abduction. the reporter quoted a man named le pen as saying that roma “steal like ravens… they are thieves because of their nature”.[21] //“an italian agricultural trade union known as feder fauna is offering a peculiar award to a member of its ranks later this month… it will honor “the personality who has particularly distinguished themselves in their work with animals over the past year.” it’s called the hitler prize, named for a person best known for his ethical treatment of animals.”[22] //“more violence has erupted in greece following the arrest of a senior member of the golden dawn party”//.
 
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i had a sister four years younger than me. our mother died giving birth to her. i used to wrestle with her for fun. when she started getting stronger I had to hit her hard to win. i was so shocked, i would beg her to stop crying. then my father would come in and demand to know what happened, what have you done? what happened? i would silently shake my head in fear and he would remind me, “you don’t know very much do you?” by the time i was sixteen I had left my father’s house.
 
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i’m confined to my bed. i cannot do anything for myself. my immediate experience is over. all i can see are the jumbled images of the past on a carousel before my mind.
 
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[21]*“dna tests have confirmed on friday that a bulgarian roma couple are the parents of a girl in greece known as maria. genetic profiles of sasha ruseva and her husband, atanas, matched that of the four-year-old girl. maria has been in temporary care since last week after authorities raided a roma settlement in central greece and later discovered that the girl was not the biological child of the greek roma couple she was living with” – the guardian, oct 26, 2013
 

[22] ** “update: this award is apparently meant to be a spoof… the general secretary of feder fauna said “the hitler prize represents a condemnation of those who trample on human rights in the name of the ideology of ‘animal rights!’” count us among those on whom the irony was lost.” – tabletmag, nov 11 2013