Chevre, this week’s parsha is Achrei-Mot - Kedoshim (אחרי מות-קדושים). We are in the story of the death of Aaron’s sons and this is what happens afterwards. The parsha starts with The Temple Service performed on Yom Kippur. And then at the end of Achrei-Mot the Torah tells us to not become contaminated so that the land will not throw us out. What does it mean to be holy, Kedoshim tells us. Observe Shabbat, what to do with rejected offerings, gifts to the poor, honest dealings in business, love your fellow (I read this as not judging others), not to destroy fruit trees even in a time of war, forbidden relationships, keep kosher. To me these are instructions on how to be a good person and a good Jew.

Before the cloud there was an idea about being a good Netizen. A citizen of the net. Secure your systems, respond to being informed that something went wrong (reported abuse). Keep your systems patched. This is how to be a good Netizen or a good sysadmin. These days, a lot of these things can be automated like patching and security response. And there is a whole team (or multiple teams) inside the cloud that are automatically checking that your systems are not being bad Netizens. We are automatically informed when our systems are misbehaving. We are automatically informed when we release our security keys to the wild (hopefully by accident). And there are automated systems to keep our systems safe from the wild internet.

Be Holy, because HaShem is Holy. Be a good person. Be a good Netizen because it’s better for everyone. Shabbat Shalom.