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21 Adar I 5765 - March 2, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
Suggestions for Adar

To The Editor:

The first mishnah in Shekolim states that Adar is the appointed time for marking kevorim. I would like to propose a practical suggestion which would benefit many.

As is often reported in your newspaper, there are nowadays several selfless and public-spirited askonim who travel to sites in Europe and elsewhere identifying and sometimes restoring the kevorim of gedolim, ancestors and amcho Yisroel. Many of us who lack the same degree of initiative and energy would like to visit these sacred spots on our travels, whether on business or on pleasure, but lack precise and easily-followed directions and indications of location.

Modern technology has produced a device known as a G.P.S. which, using reflected radio signals to satellites, enables one to identify one's precise location. These instruments have become quite common in more expensive cars and are now being included even in some mobile phones. Specialized hand- held ones are also available at reasonable cost.

These remarkable gadgets provide the user with a precise reading of his current location. This is shown in the form of a latitude and longitude reading (to several decimal places), enabling the user to pass on to others an unparalleled and unique location identifier with a precision of less than ten yards!

My suggestion and plea to those visiting old botei kevoros — yes, even in the UK — is as follows. Buy or borrow a GPS device. Take a precise latitude and longitude reading and record it carefully. When writing a letter, article or sefer for publication mentioning your visit, publish the exact GPS reading of latitude and longitude. With this data to hand any later visitor with a GPS will be able to make a beeline to the spot without frustration. The published information will be an immediate and eternal resource — a zikui lerabbim.

Yours sincerely,

Elozor Reich

UK


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