It’s getting hard to stick to my original declaration that I will not blog about politics. Because I keep reading this article, then that post, then this one. I will be checking the Drudge Report frequently over the next few days, as well as reading the posts of my favorite political bloggers.

I am going to leave as “food for thought” something a rabbi told my father, that he likes to use as a guideline:

Don’t worry about which politician will take care of Israel or the Jews. God will take care of that. Vote for the one with the best midos. Because the President sets a tone for the country. If the president is lying and thinks lying is OK, so will others.

Midos (or midot) = character traits, good or bad

Whether you are Jewish or not, whether you believe in God or not, you probably have a reaction to that statement. And many of you who are American voters have probably already made up your minds, so, thankfully, no need to have a discussion about that on my blog! There are plenty of bloggers who specialize in politics, and I don’t plan to become one. Feel free to comment on the photo. That’s more my comfort zone.

I hope by Wednesday I will be able to focus on how I did the layout for JPIX; also, I have a whole post in my head for Parshat Noach (the section of the Torah about the flood and the Tower of Babel and the beginning of the Abraham story). Maybe at some point it will show up on this blog.

Meanwhile, please read this sweet little story. Poor little post got lost among the others!

Finally, I have hearts hanging from my bleeding heart plant (Dicentra), which I planted two years ago. Last year it produced green leaves but no “hearts”, the flower of the plant. Seems like the term “Bleeding Heart” may be Christian in origin, referring to the Sacred Heart. The political term may have originally been used for Eleanor Roosevelt. At the bottom of this post is same plant, about a month before the pretty pink hearts appeared.

You can take a mini-course on the Israeli Political System, for free:

The course is taught by Professor Yaacov Yadgar, who was a visiting professor last year at the Rutgers Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life. There is also a course called the Bible and History, taught by Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, the chairman of the Rutgers Department of Jewish Studies.

Here’s an opportunity to ask academics (by posting on the forum for each course) any questions you have on their particular fields.

I worked with each professor to put these courses online. It seems that people who read my blog may be interested in either of these topics, so I’m giving these mini-courses some publicity.

Also online: an audio recording of the Bildner Center’s Dead Sea Scrolls lecture by Shalom Paul of Hebrew University

I wrote a bit about the Dead Sea Scrolls here.

One of my hobbies is, while I am driving around this bitty borough of ours, to note political lawn signs. During local elections, many lawns here have signs. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noted the national election lawn signs going up. My block now has one Obama sign and two Hillary signs.

A few weeks ago I saw one Hillary Clinton sign and several Obama signs in all of Highland Park. As of this past weekend, however, that changed: now there are quite a few of both. On Sunday, our mayor, Meryl Frank, held a meeting with Senator Robert Menendez called: “Hillary Clinton:the best choice from a Jewish Perspective” (which I would have liked to attend, but life with three kids makes such things difficult). So Meryl is publicly supporting Hillary.

We don’t do signs on our lawn. I once put a political sign on our lawn for a local election. My husband and I decided we were not doing that again. For one, we like our neighbors, no matter how they may vote. And for two, I got an unpleasant phone call as the result of putting up the sign.

I have not seen any political lawns signs on any of the Orthodox Jewish homes here. (No, I take that back…I did see one Hillary sign.)

No Republican signs. I do know of at least one Highland Parker who is planning to cast his vote for McCain.

The signs merely reflect the most vocal people here in our borough. Someone once said: “just because a person is the loudest in the room does not mean that he/she is right.”

What does your neighborhood look like?