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User:Valley2city

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This user has administrator privileges on the English Wikipedia.
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User:Valley2city
User talk:Valley2city
Special:Contributions/Valley2city
User:Valley2city/sandbox
User:Valley2city/admintools
Homepage
Talk
Contributions
Sandbox
Administrivia

Wikipedia Vitae

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)

This user's time zone is CST.
This administrator will consider reasonable requests to provide copies of deleted articles.

This user runs a bot, Rabbot (contribs). It performs tasks that are extremely tedious to do manually.

This editor is a Veteran Editor and is entitled to display this Iron Editor Star.

This user is a member of the
Counter-Vandalism Unit.

>10 ubxsThis user has created >10 userboxes.

This editor is a WikiGnome.

This user is a recent changes patroller with Twinkle!

This user believes that only articles need reflect a NPOV, and that displaying political, religious, or other beliefs using userboxes and user categories should not be banned.

This user scored 9732 on the Wikipediholic test (revision 285667092).

WikiProjects

This user participates in WikiProject Judaism.

This user participates in
WikiProject Israel.

This user is a member of the Jewish History WikiProject.

This user is a member of the Hebrew languages WikiProject.

This user is a member of the Jewish Culture Wikiproject.

CThis user participates in
WikiProject
Columbia University.

Wikiproject:WikiProject CaliforniaThis user participates in
WikiProject California.

This user participates in
WikiProject The Simpsons.

HPThis user is a participant in the
Harry Potter Task Force.

This user participates in WikiProject Musical Theatre.

This user participates in
WikiProject Council.

Personal Vitae

This user is Jewish.

This user is of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

This user is of Sephardi Jewish ancestry.

This user claims to be a descendant of King David.

This user observes Shabbat.

This user observes the dietary laws of Kashrut.

This user is left-handed.


Educational

AJUThis user attends or attended American Jewish University (formerly University of Judaism).

This user is a teacher.

JTSThis user attends or attended Jewish Theological Seminary. The bush was not consumed.

CThis user attends or attended Columbia University.

BAThis user has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

BAThis user has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Talmud & Rabbinics.

ישיבה This user is a Yeshiva / Kollel / Seminary student.

Geographical

This user lives in, or hails from, Los Angeles.

This user lives in, or hails from,
New York City.

World-wide-web...ical

This user maintains a Facebook profile.

This user maintains a blog.

Personal not-so-Vitae

This user is skilled in the sacred art of Shofar blowing.

This user has an iPod.

This user is owned by one or more dogs.

G This user is a Gryffindor.

This user reads between the lines.



Random Mild Accomplishments

ACADEMIC JOURNALThis user has had his/her work published in an academic journal.

MAGAZINEThis user has had his work published in a magazine.

POEMThis user has had one of his poems published.

SHORT STORYThis user has had one of his/her short stories published.

Misc. Interests & Minor Beliefs

This user is interested in issues related to religious pluralism.

C2H5OH-1This user drinks relatively infrequently. he is probably the better for it.

This user is opposed to online censorship.

Secondhand smoke is one of this user's pet peeves.


This user believes it is every citizen's duty to vote.


Entertainment

d'oh!This user thinks The Simpsons is simply... excellent.


This user enjoys klezmer.

PhantomThis user is past the point of no return.

CYEThis user wants you to Curb Your Enthusiasm.

ent This user rolls with Vince.

This user is Jack Bauer however, the preceding was a joke and most of us here on Wikipedia hate spreading false info.

J!This user phrases responses in the form of a question.

AD This user made a huge mistake.


Diet

This user obsessively drinks lots of Water and can be considered Aquaholic.
This user is dieting.

AerThis user does aerobics.

This user eats salad.

This user eats sushi.


This user loves to eat cucumbers.

BAM! This user believes that gaaahhhlic is a beautiful thing!

Languages

enThis user is a native speaker of the English language.
he-3
משתמש זה יכול לתרום ברמה מתקדמת של עברית.‏
yi-2דער באַניצער רעדט אַ נישקשהדיקן ייִדיש.
es-2Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel intermedio de español.
tmr-1היא מיתהנאה משתעי בארמאה דתלמודא בבלאה בדרגא נחותא.
This user has an understanding of the Phoenician alphabet.
ase-1This user can communicate at a basic level in American Sign Language.
grc-1Ὅδε ὁ χρήστης δύναται συμβάλλεσθαι ὀλίγῃ γνώσει τῆς ἀρχαίας ἑλληνικῆς.
Java-2This user is an intermediate Java programmer.
OyThis user speaks Yeshivish.
en-us-caDude, this person is totally a California English speaker.
...This user would like to be able to speak many more languages.

About Me

[edit]

I'm a rabbi and teacher, also involved in the catering industry, from Los Angeles, CA. I consider myself an expert on matters of Judaism, with a dabbling in the subjects, IRL, of the other WikiProjects (see sidebar) of which I am involved.

A Wikipedian Theology

[edit]

When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden they suddenly developed the ability to know things and to be self-aware. This came at the cost of mortality and decay, that humans would have to toil for their natural lives which would be drastically shortened from eternity to much less. Pain, sorrow, and death are introduced into the world, in exchange for the blissful innocent ignorance. I have posed the question to my students, friends, colleagues, and teachers that "if you were in the position of Adam or Eve and given the choice of whether or not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, knowing the ramifications, would you eat"? Nine times out of ten the answer I have received is "yes".

Increasing knowledge is one of the greatest things given to humanity. I do not believe that there is any sin in what Adam and Eve did. Rather, I believe God placed it in front of them so that they would eat of it. "The sum of human knowledge is the fear of God", writes Ben Sira. It is this for reason that I find Wikipedia so noble a cause and so vital a pursuit. One person cannot know even a small fraction of all knowledge; yet through this collaborative effort, perhaps we can get that much closer to true enlightenment.

And as Rabbi Yehuda ben Teima writes in Pirkei Avot 5:23, "Be bold as the leopard".

My contribution to Wikipedia

[edit]

Besides being an administrator on the English Wikipedia (where I participate mainly in deletion in its various forums and responding to vandalism and vandals) I also participate in many Wikiprojects, namely those related to Judaism In these categories I have created and done very major overhauls in a number of articles (which I will enumerate in the future). I also bill myself as a wikignome (or maybe Obsessive-Compulsive, making tiny edits all over the place, whether considered minor or major. I also tend to follow up edits with other edits (usually more minor) including things I have forgotten after clicking the Save page button.

I am quite passionate about issues regarding Judaism and Israel and love to debate topics relating to these, but I also maintain a semblance of unbias as I write or edit articles on these topics. I think one of the most important things to remember is that Wikipedia is first and foremost is to be a verifiable encyclopedic wiki (it says so right above the Save page button) and it is one thing to be passionate about something (this motivates edits on said topics) but it is another to include your bias within the articles. I am a stickler for policy and will not hesitate to bring up questions about the verifiablity, POV, et al. of any article. I am highly intolerant of vandalism and I will quickly revert any that I see. I am Pro-IP Profiling and look first at changes on my watchlist for anonymous IPs as those tend to contribute more vandalism (A recent study of the WP:Vandalism Studies concluded that about 97% of vandals are IP users). As such I am also in favor of quicker semi-protection for pages that are either vandalized or edit-warred by anonymous IPs. For other me-related things, there are links in some of my userboxes if you decide to stalk me.

Though I live in the Pacific Time Zone, you will find me editing at odd hours (probably because I'm in grad school). You will not, however, find me editing (or manipulating electricity for that matter) on the Jewish Sabbath or holidays. I will usually have a header on this page during these times (but sometimes I will forget). Therefore, understand if I don't get back to you during these times. Otherwise, I am usually pretty quick on getting back to people who post to my talk page. Occasionally I can also be found on the Freenode IRC network on #wikipedia_en and in the admin channel, on as Valley2city.

Torah Portion of the Week

[edit]
Weekly Torah Portion
Bamidbar (במדבר “In the Wilderness”)
Numbers 1:1–4:20
The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, 26 Iyar, 5785—May 24, 2025
“Take a census of the whole Israelite community." (Numbers 1:2.)
“Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.” Gen. 15:5.

In the wilderness, in the second month of in the second year following the Exodus from Egypt, God directed Moses to take a census of the Israelite men age 20 years and up, “all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.” The census showed the following populations by tribe:

totaling 603,550 in all.

God told Moses not to enroll the Levites, but to put them in charge of carrying, assembling, tending to, and guarding the Tabernacle and its furnishings. Any outsider who encroached on the Tabernacle was to be put to death.

God told Moses that the Israelites were to encamp by tribe as follows:

  • around the Tabernacle: Levi
  • on the front, or east side: Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun
  • on the south: Reuben, Simeon, and Gad
  • on the west: Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin
  • on the north: Dan, Asher, and Naphtali.

God instructed Moses to place the Levites in attendance upon Aaron to serve him and the priests. God took the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the Israelites, whom God consecrated when God smote the firstborn in Egypt. God then told Moses to record by ancestral house and by clan the Levite men from the age of one month up, and he did so. The Levites divided by their ancestral houses, based on the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

  • The Gershonites, numbered 7,500, camped behind the Tabernacle, to the west, and had charge of the Tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the entrance of the tent, the hangings of the enclosure, the screen for the entrance of the enclosure that surrounded the Tabernacle, and the altar.
    the lampstand
  • The Kohathites, numbered 8,600, camped along the south side of the Tabernacle, and had charge of the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the sacred utensils, and the screen.
  • The Merarites, numbered 6,200, camped along the north side of the Tabernacle, and had charge of the planks of the Tabernacle, its bars, posts, sockets, and furnishings, and the posts around the enclosure and their sockets, pegs, and cords.
  • Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons camped in front of the Tabernacle, on the east.

The total number of the Levites came to 22,000. God instructed Moses to record every firstborn male of the Israelites one month old and up, and they came to 22,273. God told Moses to take the Levites for God in place of all the firstborn among the Israelites, and the Levites’ cattle in place of the Israelites' cattle. And to redeem the 273 Israelite firstborn over and above the number of the Levites, God instructed Moses to take five shekels a head and give the money to the priests.

God then directed Moses and Aaron to take a separate census of the Kohathites between the ages of 30 and 50, who were to perform tasks for the Tent of Meeting. The Kohathites had responsibility for the most sacred objects. At the breaking of camp, Aaron and his sons were to take down the Ark, the table of display, the lampstand, and the service vessels, and cover them all with cloths and skins. Only when Aaron and his sons had finished covering the sacred objects would the Kohathites come and lift them. Aaron’s son Eleazar had responsibility for the lighting oil, the aromatic incense, the regular meal offering, the anointing oil, and all the consecrated things in the Tabernacle. God charged Moses and Aaron to take care not to let the Kohathites die because they went inside and witnessed the dismantling of the sanctuary.

Hebrew and English text
Hear the parshah chanted
Commentary from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University (Conservative)
Commentaries from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative)
Commentary by the Union for Reform Judaism (Reform)
Commentaries from Project Genesis (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Chabad.org (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Aish HaTorah (Orthodox)
Commentaries from the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (Reconstructionist)
Commentaries from My Jewish Learning (trans-denominational)

Commentaries from Aleph Beta Academy

Committed identity: C7E406A3271AD1FB1DD2D3C7C3B397436C1620E273D2D20657A707D3A99F72D5988C766229064BD04EF09341112291824824B0852C52B13FD21571D61AE05CAB is a SHA-512 commitment to this user's real-life identity.
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