Shalhevet has hired five replacements. There may be a sixth.

Three teachers at Shalhevet have not been rehired for the new year because their classes are being consolidated. Five assistants are not getting rehired. Seven teachers are not getting rehired due to performance issues.

The Bureau of Jewish Education requires accredited Jewish schools to give notice to their teachers by May 15 about their status for the coming year.

Last year, Rabbi Meir Prengler received a late notice. He brought a lawsuit against the school and eventually settled it for about a month's salary (another report said $40,000).

Shalhevet did a much better job this year in giving timely notice to its teachers.

There's a full page ad on page two of this week's Jewish Journal advertising Shalhevet's Early Childhood Center which will offer care to kids down to two years of age. This should be a money-maker for the school.

Last year Shalhevet settled a claim by Rabbi Jawari for $80,000. He claimed that he had been fired from Shalhevet by Jerry Friedman (the founder and former head of the school) as retaliation for his telling the school board some negative things about the operation of the school.

There's still a pending lawsuit against Shalhevet by a former art teacher.

Sculptor Simon Sananas says that over $100,000 worth of his sculptures at Shalhevet were destroyed in addition to the sculptures of many of his students who will not be able to get AP credit for the class.

I'm curious if Shalhevet's new head of school, Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach, will follow in Jerry Friedman's footsteps by hiring friends for multi-year contracts (Rabbi Tzabo, Sam Gomberg). It ticked people off that Jerry would spend money like that.

I hear Rabbi Weinbach was called to task a couple of weeks ago by a member of Shalhevet's school board for making a three-year contract with a rabbi-friend who's coming in from Montreal, Rabbi Feinerman (who's highly qualified and would appear to be a responsible hire in any school). Rabbi Weinbach's wife was going to teach first grade at Shalhevet but will be teaching elsewhere.

"That's Shalhevet's loss," a Shalhevet teacher tells me, "because she's an excellent teacher."

Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach is not taking his scheduled pay raise for this year.

Jeff emails: "Is Ed Eiseman one of the poor performance firings? That would be a huge understatement if so. But he was a principal, not teacher. Also, are the two techies that were let go counted in this tally?"

Answer: All included in the count.

Yes, he did it to himself with his off-the-handle emails but who has not sent off emails that would be embarrassing if they were to be made public?

If you went to his High Holiday services, you wouldn't have noticed any dropoff however. He was just as inspiring a teacher. The crowd was just as large. The cake and apples were just as sweet.

I pop into glatt mart to find something to flavor beans and the like. Taco seasoning is usually good.

And there's Orit in a startling blue top.

I was in God space and not ready to handle her formidable sexuality, so I said not a word and kept on with my humble shopping.

In its grandest forms, speech is the Divine gift which enabled Moshe to say to Pharaoh, "Let my people go," and the gift which enables us, to this day, to protest injustice and decry evil. It is the Divine gift through which we are able to express love, shared hopes and communicate our vision to others.

But both the story of Bilaam and Targum Jonathan instruct us to see beyond the grand, deep, transformative moments of speech and realize that each and every time we speak, we are taking advantage of a Divine gift. In an elevator, on the checkout line, when asking our child to do her homework, when responding to a person looking for a handout, we are deploying this Divine gift that is within us. And as such, every time we open our mouths we are either affirming God's decision to entrust us with this power, or we are proving ourselves — for that moment — unworthy and unappreciative of it.

Reb Shlomo Carlebach taught that a person should pray before each time they open their mouths. In light of the awful damage we can cause with speech, or the great blessing we can bestow with it, this is surely not a bad idea. But a more practical suggestion perhaps would be to just meditate for a split-second on the image of Bilaam's donkey, or on Targum Jonathan, "and with [God's] breath the human became a creature of speech."

My initiation into Hollywood has begun—in downtown LA where I booked my first acting gig as an “extra” for a Fox TV pilot.

It was a 12-hour shoot, consisting mostly of walking up and down an office set looking busy.

I met a nice man named Kurt (aka EZ), an aspiring filmmaker, who I was privileged to commission as my personal cinematographer for the day.

The library is a great place to stay cool during hot days.

Another favorite hangout of mine in the summer is the Starbucks on Pico/Robertson. Iced tea refills are only 50c.

From the Jewish Journal:

The Pico-Robertson neighborhood is the spiritual, cultural and commercial center of L.A.’s Modern Orthodox community.

There are schools, shuls, David Suissa, and, of course, fools, Miriam and Shoshana, and now, it seems the Hood is the world headquarters of a new kosher water bottling enterprise, Mizmor Kosher Water.

Bloggish co-blogger Jay Firestone wrote about Mizmor here.

Until I heard about Mizmor I had no idea water could be kosher — or un-kosher for that matter. I had to turn to the WWW to research it for myself. Yes, Google is my Rebbe.

Sure enough, the Orthdox Union is on the case. Teeny weeny shellfish like critters could be in your water and they’re too small to see. Ergo, don’t drink the tap water in New York City
— filter it first.

And it’s the OU that certifies the Mizmor mayim, as we learn in VideoJew Jay Firestone’s video, in which he tests the water, so to speak.