Lily 8

When I stated before that my relationship with my father had been superficial; that was a statement of fact, as opposed to being judgmental. I was merely comparing him with my mother. I meant there was no great emotional connection, but things were still ok.
You see, back in those days, I did not really understand his world. Now I do, lots better. He owns a rather successful business. However he does not get into greed mode, as so many other Jews and Gentiles can. Other than the standard forty hour week that his business is open, his only overtime is doing the monthend books himself. This is so he can keep a close eye, usually takes four to six hours per month.
So, compared to most other prosperous Jews, he has lots of free time. Others, like doctors, are caught up in the need to read so many professional journals.
Father's preferred mode of using free time is to be the wandering intellectual. Matters not whether he agrees with your cause or not, he'll still read up on it, just for the pure intellectual pleasure. He is fiercely anti Communist, but once or twice a year he'll buy the Communist Party of Canada newspaper at the newstand. Just so, he is rather against the Orthodox and ultraOrthodox (Haredi), but he'll still subscribe to their mags.
Myself, I've become much more like him. I intellectually wander on the web, pick up all sorts of interesting ideas which are worth a day of research in the university library.
As I find myself wandering some of the paths he has, our level of communication goes up. See I can type 65 words per minute; him 80; so debates are fun. He's up for any sort of hypothetical debate; other than Torah or sex.
I'm leafing through Bakehila, the Haredi mag. Now, it's mostly what you would expect. That is endless articles on how to be ever more kosher, splitting finer hairs. Suggestions as to good topics for Torah study. Since it is published in Israel, any news pertaining to the Haredi world; I mean that they feel is fit to print. And always with the moral tone. You see, it wasn't the Haredi who decided to pick up those rocks and throw them at seculars' cars on the Sabbath. It was the fault of the evil seculars for not having the decency to refrain from driving on the Sabbath. Just so, it wasn't their fault that 80 of them stoned the internet cafe. It was the sheer effrontery of the cafe owner, for defying their ban and allowing Haredi to surf. You do get the picture.
And about every third issue, they will have an article which could only be described as conspiracy theory. Always, some pseudo logical reason why a few Haredi disappear. You see, they simply cannot admit that - gasp - maybe some young Haredim don't like it and switch to the secular world.
Anyway, this time the conspiracy article is vigorously attacking the research arm of the Israeli Defence Force. These IDF worthies are so uptight that the Haredi get the draft exemption to do fulltime yeshiva (religious school) studies. So, they, well the IDF secretly invented a time machine. They will kidnap poor unfortunate Haredi youths and blast them off into the past.
I lay the mag down, ponder. Yes, we have invented lotsa stuff you circa 2000 people haven't even dreamed of. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever invented time travel.
You see, human nature being what it is, no one would go to that amount of effort, and then not get some large reward. Suppose the inventor wanted to charge high end tourists, jaded with ordinary travel, large sums to travel into the past. Or suppose the Ulster Protestants invented it. They might never tell the world, keep it hidden away; but massive numbers of Catholics would disappear forthwith.
And back to the IDF. Let's say they invented it. Surely there are other, more useful targets. Any number of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians. Hezbollah people. Any journalist who didn't toe the party line. Even if - gasp - the IDF did have it, surely they'd target others before getting around to the Haredim. After all, they do have a court case outstanding, has been ongoing for years. If the IDF wins it, the whole Haredi draft exemption vanishes.
In any case, I decide the article is yet one more product of an over feverish imagination.
But just for fun, I'll argue it with father. He loves this sort of thing, we spend a whole afternoon playing with it.
His final take? If the IDF had invented it, kept it secret, there would not be a soul left in the Independent Republic of Hezbollahstan. West Bank and Gaza populations would be dropped by half. Then they'd get to Haredim, but only after the court decision, if the IDF should lose. After all, if they win, the Haredim are their soldiers, why would they wish to kill them off?