On Tisha b'Av, I translated several kinot from the Sepharadi tradition, because there are no translated Sepharadi Tisha b'Av Siddurim in print (as far as I know) and I want to help others understand these in the unfortunate event that we should be singing these again next year.

Please send me suggestions for improvement at kbloom@gmail.com. Though the hebrew is a lot easier in the Sephardic tradition than in the Ashkenazi traditoin, I'm still a rank ametuer at this, and this was a big learning experience for me in terms of vocabulary. I may have (and probably did) make mistakes.

Also, I'm not sure how much more I'll translate in the year to come -- I'll probably restrict this project to the 3 weeks themselves if I put much more work into it at all, but there are a couple other translations you should be aware of if you want to print these for distribution: The Kinah אש תוקד בקרבי (on page 220 in the Avodat Hashem Tisha b'Av Machzor) has a substantially similar version in the Ashkenazi tradition, and a translation can be found in the ArtScroll Kinos (#31, I think). Additionally, the psalm מזמור לאסף אלהים באו גוים (on page 210) is a psalm, and many translations of psalms are available.

Translation of the Kinah אליכם עדה נאמנה (found on page 219 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). The hebrew text and is available at http://www.shaar-binyamin.com/70480/אליכם-עדה-נאמנה

I ask of you a question, oh faithful nation: Why is today different from the rest of the year

On Pesach day, we pray in a pleasant voice. Why now, in our sins, does our voice wail like a raven. Because the holy city is destroyed, by spears and the sword. Why has she become like a prostitute, the faithful city?

Why is today different from the rest of the year

On Pesach day, all of Israel is joyous. Why now, in our sins, are we groaning in mourning? Becasue the faithful are like leaves [which have been eaten by] the worm, killed by the head of the butchers. The day had been bitter like wormwood to the faithful nation.

Why is today different from the rest of the year

In times of old, the tribes of Israel were princes. Why now, in our sins, are we abandoned to the hands of strangers, and to the children of Moav and Hagar to be destroyed and plundered? We are refuted by him every year, the nation of little faith.

Why is today different from the rest of the year

In times of old, we were the head of nations. Why now, in our sins, are we benath all of the nations -- Exiled and distressed in the hands of men of blood? Until when and where will this great nation be like a widow?

Why is today different from the rest of the year

Translation of the Kinah בת ציון (found on page 204 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). The hebrew text and recordings are available at http://www.piyut.org.il/textual/748.html

I have heard the daughter of Zion, her embittered words I wail becuase I drank from the cup and found its dregs.

I gnaw over the grace of the Shechinah, that its light has been darkend like a young woman who girds herself with sackcloth over her husband of her youth.

You wail, oh forest of Lebanon, your cedars have been consumed by fire. The gate of Zion mouns, because God brought this end. The courtyard wallows [in despair], because the elevation offering has ceased. The chamber [of hewn stone] sings dirges becuase there is no Sanhedrin.

I gnaw over the grace of the Shechinah, that its light has been darkend like a young woman who girds herself with sackcloth over her husband of her youth.

The chamber called "Birah" weeps, "Oy!" over the children of Aharon. The house of the holy of holies: "Oy!" over the hiding of the ark. The parochet screams out "there is no advantage to my [being here]" because savages have seen it and revealed its secrets.

I gnaw over the grace of the Shechinah, that its light has been darkend like a young woman who girds herself with sackcloth over her husband of her youth.

And the incense pan sings dirges "Where are the fragrant insence?" Aharon's heart is torn over the Urim and Tumim. The altar is angry about the Elevation offerings and Peace offerings, "Why don't you prepare the order [of these offerings] in their time?"

I gnaw over the grace of the Shechinah, that its light has been darkend like a young woman who girds herself with sackcloth over her husband of her youth.

The lyre of the levi'im wails "who will rouse my melodies?" The pure menorah asks "who will kindle my lamps?" The tent complains "nobody establishes my walls." The Torah thunders because they have ceased to support it.

I gnaw over the grace of the Shechinah, that its light has been darkend like a young woman who girds herself with sackcloth over her husband of her youth.

The shulchan's anticipation is desecrated "Nobody is setting out [my showbreads]." The kohanim pronounce "Alas! The service has ceased." On this the daughter of my people cries -- because of her oppressors, her leaders have been captured.

Translation of the Kinah אל היכלי (found on page 167 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). The hebrew text and recordings are available at http://www.piyut.org.il/textual/285.html

On my heichal, I will cry day and night. And on the glory of Jerusalem, the praised city.

My soul cries over the double destruction, the lovely land, the lovely Jerusalem and on her nation which went into exile.

And on the glory of Jerusalem, the praised city.

The house of my glory the enemy put to desolation they returned to my hand Nevayot and desolation. on this I cry constantly with the sound of wailing.

And on the glory of Jerusalem, the praised city.

I mourn you, torah, because your glory has been desecrated. Your crown has fallen since the day your house was destroyed. And I raise up dirges about Aholivah and Aholah.

And on the glory of Jerusalem, the praised city.

(Be strong, my nation -- I will quickly rebuild your [inner] sanctuary I will wear vengance, and I will restore your captivity Within the hichal, I will rest as in times of old Then Torah and prayer will come forth from Zion.)

Translation of the Kinah ספדי והילילי תורת יקותיאל (found on page 167 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). I'm not sure where the hebrew text can be found online

I mourn and priase the torah of Yekutiel and I don sackcloth and rope on the exile of Ariel Who are steeped in troubles between Edom and Yishmael I cry on the death of the holy nation, the nation of God. Because the sword has eaten the remnant of Israel

I mourn and praise the holy Torah To the land of Israel, the head of all lands And the many sins for which she was conquered I cry over the holy mountain, the desolation of Harel.

Because the sword has eaten the remnant of Israel

I mourn and praise the perfect Torah on the Beit HaMikdash that aliens entered It was diepatched with fire -- with anger and rage. I cry on this with tears and (?).

Because the sword has eaten the remnant of Israel

Translation of the Kinah קומי וספדי תורה (found on page 168 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). I'm not sure where the hebrew text can be found online

Arise and mourn, oh Torah! and I make direges of rememberance on the 9th of Av, day of trouble and tumult, the day of anger -- the day anger flared up against me and the [inner] sanctuary and courtyard were destroyed. A loud and bitter scream -- this is the decree of the Torah

I ask, please, in my great sorrow. Where is the camp of the Shechinah, and the house of the Levi'im and their platform, and were are the men of faith? Where is your face? Where is the the glory of the faithful city? How could she become a prostitute? Most holy, for this your heart cries out in bitterness, like the heart of a woman in distress.

A loud and bitter scream -- this is the decree of the Torah

Where are the heads of the yeshivot, and where is your Sanhedrin? And where are those who walk the roads for the glory of your rays to shine? And where are the paths of return for those who ask of your secrets and for the thousands of myriads who explain your orders? They are all arrested in exile, they have gone into the hand of men of trouble.

A loud and bitter scream -- this is the decree of the Torah

Where are those who offered sacrifices and where are those who made oils and where are those who arranged the pieces and those who knew the secret of the showbreads? The head of the butchers came, and killed fathers and sons and we morn openings that the assistants arranged because God called out his destruction, and shot the arrow of his anger.

A loud and bitter scream -- this is the decree of the Torah

Translation of the Kinah אליכם עדה קדושה (found on page 45 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). The hebrew text and recordings are available at http://www.piyut.org.il/textual/288.html

To you, holy nation, I ask of you questions: Why is this night different from all other nights?

On pesach night we eat Matzah on Maror. Why, now, on this night, are we satiated on scorn and bitterness? On the death of k'sherim and the seed of the upright. Therefore with tears of bitterness, I raise my voice like sick people do.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On Pesach night, the table is set with joy. Why now, in our sins, on this night, is there the voice of sighing? Because now we have not found rest for the soles of our feet. Oy! Because misfortune has come, I will forget forigveness.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On Pesach night, we drink cups [of wine] for a blessing. Why now, on this night do we read megillat Eichah [the book of Lamentations]? Why do I sit in this exile, having come from my land in embarassment. Thus on this I raise my voice in wailing.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On Pesach night, we always read the Haggadah. Why now, on this night do we cry short and bitter cries? Oy! Because during my life the time came that we were ordered [to leave] Oy! On the desirable city and on the houses of prayer.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On Pesach night, we always finish Hallel. Why now, on this night do we eulogize and wail. Because, in our sins, we can't pray because the Beit HaMikdash has been desecrated and the Heichal destroyed.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On pesach night we say "pour out [your wrath upon the nations]" in soing. Why now, on this night, do we drink wormwood, hemlock, and bitterness? Oy! Because joy is absent, and the way of Zion is mourning.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Translation of the Kinah בליל זה יבכיון (found on page 41 of the Avodat Hashem Tisha B'Av siddur). The hebrew text and recordings are available at http://www.piyut.org.il/textual/287.html

Tonight my children cry and wail. The night my house was destroyed and my palace burned. And all of the house of Israel groans in grief. They cry over the fire that Hashem burned.

Tonight, five harsh things were brought upon me: It was decreed on our ancestors and tehy were punished. That they would not enter into the holy land.

And the temple was destroyed and also plowed over -- the first temple and the second, the old one and the new one.

And the city of Beitar was trapped -- it becamse the object of the snare and stumbling block.

Tonight, because of Hashem's reasons.

They cry over the fire that Hashem burned.

Tonight, wailing, bitterness, poverty, and isolation. Today she is forsaken from the house of her father, and the time of her crying is lengthened. She wails direges because her house was destroyed in a consuming fire, and coals were a flame were sent by Hashem.

They cry over the fire that Hashem burned.

Tonight I was exiled, and my house was destroyed. On the 9th of the month [of Av] at the time of Ma'ariv.

I was on my watch, the watch of Yehoyariv, and the enemy entered and offered his sacrifices, and he came into the Mikdash, which Hashem had commanded that he may not do.

They cry over the fire that Hashem burned.

A slashdot article has asked what is the best backup stragtegy for home users in this day and age when hard drive space and peoples' media collections far outpace the sizes of removable media used for backups just a few years ago. I commented there, and then decided to turn my comment into a blog post, because the general principles are important.

To decide how best to back up, we must lay out the kinds of failures that can occur and goals of a backup. (I keep my documents in a constellation of git repositories, so many of my backup needs are covered by replicating the repositories to several places, and some of my examples are based on my experience with git.)

1. We would like to protect against mechanical drive failure. This can be done with a RAID.

2. We may also want to protect against the failure of other components of the computer. My primary computer (the one that holds my master git repositories, and is the center of my star for replicating my live copies of my data, and takes care of my email downloading and mail filtering) recently died because its motherboard died. The hard drive was totally intact, but it took about two weeks to get a new computer, and in the meantime, I still needed something to perform the functions of this computer without losing productivity. When the new computer came, it had a brand new generation of most of the technologies on the motherboard, switching from x86 to AMD64, and from IDE to SATA, and after an additional week that it took me to borrow an appropriate adapter I could restore anything I wanted from the old hard drive.

3. We would like to protect against accidental deletion of files, file corruption, or edits to a file that we have now reconsidered. This can be done with snapshotting. In source code, to reconsider and edit to a file is fairly common, and is the reason why most programming projects use revision control systems. Other options like nilfs or ZFS snapshots can also fill this goal. This goal is accomplished more easily if the backups area automatic and the backup device is live on the system.

   Depending on your needs, this goal may be counterbalanced by a need to not retain the history of files for legal or other reasons, and this should inform your choice of backup strategy.

4. We would like to protect against filesystem corruption, whether by an OS bug, or by accidentally doing cat /dev/random > /dev/hda. This can be done by having an extra drive of some sort that isn't normally hooked up to the computer. Tape drives, CDs, and DVDs have traditionally fulfilled this purpose, and this is where the use of additional hard drives is being suggested. Remote backups, via rsync or git, can also accomplish this. When deciding whether to do this remotely or locally, consider the amount of data you're backing up, the size of backing up incremental changes, the size of the initial upload, and whether you have a one-off way of getting more bandwidth for the initial upload.

5. We would like to protect against natural disasters. For someone living in New Orleans, it would be nice to have a backup somewhere outside the path of Hurricane Katrina. Remote backups may be pretty much the only way to accomplish this, unless you're a frequent traveler and can hand-deliver backup media to remote locations.

6. In addition to any of the above, the code you use create said backup may be buggy, or may become buggy or misconfigured or obsolete over time. Checking the integrity and restorability of your backups after creating them, and keeping several (independent) previous versions of a backup, at least for a short time, may help here.

You may not be concerned with the various modes of failure described here occuring simultaneously. For example, it may be unlikely that you need to deal with file system corruption at the same time that you regret one of the edits you made on your file. In that case, your offline backup device doesn't need to hold all of your snapshots.

Also, consider the importance of the data you are backing up, and your ability to regenerate it as needed. For example, I use Debian Linux. Pretty much any software I need to restore is available from Debian's mirrors (for free), so there's no need to backup the software I use or the operating system. I can content myself with backing up /etc, and /home, and knowing that anything else is out there in the cloud because hundreds of other people are using it.

After that, there's stuff that's just not that important, I'm more willing to permentantly lose 2GB of photos, than the few megabytes that is the core of my Ph.D. thesis research.

And there's also a diary and GPG keys that (though important) I'd rather lose permenantly than have anywhere other than my one primary computer.

No backup strategy is perfect. There's a story about how a five-year old password foiled one company's otherwise immaculate backup scheme.

Somewhere out there, in a far corner of the Web that I won't find again, there was a Gem of Ruby/Odium 0.4, a ruby binding for the QDBM inverted index APIs. I'm going to mirror it here until I come up with some better idea of what to do with it.

My old computer died, and I got a new one, and now I'm working on recovering documents from the old hard drive. As the new comptuer has SATA (and the old one had IDE), I needed to borrow a USB-IDE adapter to recover the drive.

Because I can't seem to find any documentation about the adapter on the web, I'm going to post a tip here about making it work.

The adapter is a JMicron JM20337 adapter. It shows in lsusb as

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 152d:2338 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron
USA Technology Corp. JM20337 Hi-Speed USB to SATA & PATA Combo Bridge

and it shows in dmesg as:

usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=2338
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5
usb 1-1: Product: USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge
usb 1-1: Manufacturer: JMicron
usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 152D203380B6
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

It's still waiting for the device to settle, as I write this, becuase I haven't turned on power to the drive yet. When I first connected it last night (with the drive attached) and turned it on, I got the message:

scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access                                    PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

No partition table, and if I tried to dd if=/dev/sdb (for example to try and recover the partition table), I got a zero length file.

After some failed googling and experimentation, I discovered that the drive has to be jumpered as an IDE slave. (Not a master, and cable select won't work.)

Then I get the partitions, and more information about the drive

scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WDC WD12 00JB-00EVA0      5R15 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 234441648 512-byte hardware sectors: (120 GB/111 GiB)
sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 234441648 512-byte hardware sectors: (120 GB/111 GiB)
sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
 sdb: sdb1 sdb2 < sdb5 > sdb3
sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

You may also need to plug the USB cable in to the computer after turning on power to the disk for things to work properly. (If you plugged in the USB cable first, you can just unplug it and replug it.)

I haven't seen any books or pamphlets with the Birkat HaHamah according to sephardic custom yet, so I thought I'd post a couple. According to the Ben Ish Hai, the Petach HaDevir (brought also by the SdeHemed), and according to Rav Ovadia Yosef.