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The first complete Siddur (prayerbook) I ever used was the 1949 edition of Hasiddur Hashalem, translated by Philip Birnbaum and published by the Hebrew Publishing Company.

I still love that prayerbook, despite its stilted English.

Since the Hebrew Publishing Company basically hasn’t existed since 2016, all of their works have entered the public domain through a combination of a lot of the works being published before 1975 and several more of the works having reached 75 years since the death of their authors, which automatically puts them in the public domain.

One of the things I always wondered about is why Birnbaum spends a significant portion of the introduction to HaSiddur HaShalem essentially trashing the work of every translator who came before him.

Why would you spend something like 5 or 10 dense pages basically subtweeting every other translator?

Since all these works have entered the public domain, now I know why.

Apparently this is a thing they all did up to a certain point. There are limits, (for example, everybody’s wives and kids are off limits, and nobody’s Jewish status is questioned), but other than that, everything’s fair game, personal or professional.

It is, (or was) apparently a long-standing tradition which seems to have been set aside for the most part after the Holocaust and then is completely gone by the 70’s.

And it apparently started around the first time the prayerbook was translated and edited in America.

Brittish translations, on the other hand, are on the surface more polite, however the insults are basically “bless your heart” to the Americans and a lot more backhanded to their fellows in Britain, specifically England.

The Scottish make the Americans look like they’re having milk and cookies together.

All of this is fascinating to me.

921 S Pugh St, State College, PA 16801

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#MeetTheBlind Independence means not being turned into a zoo exhibit without my consent by those who would claim the title of being my spokesmen, and it means calling out those who would lead the blind community when they attempt to coerse me into participating in inspiration porn after they have failed to convince me to join the ranks of inspiration prostitutes. Independence means calling out those who would represent me when they talk but do not walk with regard to sexism after having made repeated promises to fix it within their ranks. Independence means shining a bright light on significant accessibility failures on the part of those who would represent me when they claim the right to enforce accessibility for others. And finally, independence means that my friends and family and colleagues view and treat me like a human first and an inspiration second not because I’ve had to constantly remind them to do so, but because they didn’t need Meet the Blind Month to convince them of my humanity.

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I’ve been forcibly upgraded to iOS 13.2. Yes, it finally happened.

I was just pleasantly surprised by the fact that VoiceOver audio is no longer send to a paired bluetooth speaker. I forgot that was a new feature of iOS 12.

I was not so pleasantly surprised by VoiceOver repeating “space space” at its loudest volume even though its volume isn’t set there.

Thankfully it didn’t wake the sweety up. He’s out like a light.

117 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

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