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Emunah Magazine March 2010
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March 2010 Vol. 1 Issue 4 MAGAZINE Life of a Poker Player: Successful and Frum p28 Sushi: 50% Off p19 The Day I Watched A Man Die p12 Parents: Kid Driving You Nuts? p25 EmunahMARCH10.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 5:11 PM Page 1
Transcript
Page 1: March 2010

March 2010 Vol. 1 Issue 4

M A G A Z I N E

Life of a Poker Player:Successful and Frum

p28

Sushi: 50% Off p19

The Day I Watched A Man Die

p12

Parents: Kid Driving You Nuts?

p25

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SUDOKU

5x5 Boggle Word Game

JokesThese  are 2 jokes submitted by other Emunah Magazine readers, Please choose your fa-vorite joke and submit your vote to Us. Every person who votes will enter a raffle. Winnergets $35 to use at any of our advertisers. Please send all votes to: Call/TXT 718 577 2387,Email [email protected]

STUDENT SPECIAL! Any student who wins contestwill get FREE Pizza and Soda for his/her whole class. Enter to win & be your classmates’ hero. Winner above age 18 will receive $25 prize. EMAIL your entries to:[email protected] or FAX to: 718 228-2644.All words will be reviewed in Webster’s Dictionary.

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B A B I F

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E Y A R T

JOKE 1 An orthodox Rabbi dies and goes to heaven. As he's ap-proaching the gates, he hears a band of singing and dancingangels approach, and begins to get excited. The lead angel ap-proaches the Rabbi and asks if he would mind stepping aside fora moment. Shocked, the Rabbi does so. The angels march out ofthe gates and encircle a man who has also approached thegates. The man is an Egged bus driver [Egged, pronounced likeegg-head without the h, is the Israeli tour bus company.] The joy-ous parade of angels carry the bus driver in ahead of the Rabbi.

When the parade is gone, an angel returns to the Rabbi andsays, “You can come in now.” The angel begins to lead theRabbi inside alone. The Rabbi, somewhat confused, says, “I'mnot one to make waves or anything, but I need to know some-thing. I think I've been a good Rabbi. I've worked hard all mylife. Why is it that the Egged bus driver gets led in by a band ofangels ahead of me?” The angel says, “Well, frankly, Rabbi,whenever you preached, people slept. But whenever he drove,people prayed.”  (submitted via email by Yakov W, Ave M area )

JOKE 2 A little boy once returned home from Hebrew schooland his father asked, “what did you learn today?”

He answered, “The Rabbi told us how Moses led the childrenof Israel out of Egypt.”

“How?”The boy said “Moses was a big strong man and he beat

Pharaoh up. Then while he was down, he got all the people to-gether and ran towards the sea. When he got there, he has theCorps of Engineers build a huge pontoon bridge. Once they goton the other side, they blew up the bridge while the Egyptianswere trying to cross.”

The father was shocked. “Is that what the Rabbi taught you?”The boy replied, “No. But you'd never believe the story he

DID tell us!” (submitted by letter Delores W., Marine Park)

PERSON WHO SUBMITS JOKES AND WINS THE VOTES WILL ALSO RECEIVE A

$35 CREDIT TOWARDS ANY ADVERTISER IN EMUNAH MAGAZINE, SUBMIT TO

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An American Boy’s FantasyAn American Boy’s Fantasy

Alan Veingrad lived anAmerican boy’s fantasy.From 1986-92, he was

an offensive lineman in theNational Football League,first for the Green Bay Pack-ers, then for the DallasCowboys, playing alongsidesuch stars as Troy Aikmanand Emmett Smith. Vein-grad is the proud ownerof a Super Bowl ring forhis participation in theCowboys’ 1992 victoryover the Buffalo Bills.

But that wasn’t enough. These days, Veingrad, whowas elected to the NationalJewish Sports Hall of Fame inApril, goes by the name“Shlomo.” He spends mostof his time speaking to Jew-ish organizations about hisexperiences and how theynow pale in comparisonwith his love for Judaism.

As a player, Veingradbegan talking to kidsabout the dangers of drugs. Now it’sprimarily Jewish groups, “from black hats to Chabad toyeshivas to Hebrew day schools, Young Israels,” he said in arecent interview.

Veingrad recently spoke to high school students in Montrealabout diversity. “You have 600 eyes looking at you. You haveno idea of what they’re digesting. When I was finished theyasked the most thought-out questions about my life today, notabout my life yesterday.”

He said the football seems trivial to his “greater purpose.” This all happened because of the note that was left for me.

One night in the locker room there was a message for him to callMr. Lou Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein invited Alan to have lunch withhim at his gold club. Mr. weinstein said he had read about a jew-ish player on the Packers and i wanted to meet and welcome therarity. It was there that Mr. Weinstein invited the player to accom-pany them to the Rosh Hashona prayers at the local CnessesIsrael, a synagogue near the Green Bay Packers stadium.

It had been a long time since Mr. Veingrad had spent muchtime in shul, nearly a decade since his bar mitzvah. He knew

the date of the Packers’ Monday night game against the Chica-go Bears better than he did Yom Kippur. “But when I heard theHebrew,” he recently recalled of that service in Green Bay, “Ifelt a pull.”

These days Alanspends his time speak-ing to large audiencesthroughout the world.

The story Mr. Veingradtells in about 40 speechesa year attests to a fero-ciously competitive spirit.He started playing highschool football as a teenagebeanpole in Miami, could geta scholarship only from a Divi-sion II school, East TexasState, and was cut by his firsttwo N.F.L. teams.

A full year later, he caught onwith the Packers, beginning a six-year career with Green Bayand Dallas. From high school through the pros, he defied theodds with a rigorous program of weight training and a relent-less study of technique.

In retirement, Mr. Veingrad brought a comparable focus and

intensity to his emerging religious life, which was nurtured byMoshe Gruenstein, an Orthodox rabbi in South Florida, withwhom he studied the Torah for eight years, and then by severalChabad rabbis.

At a recent speaking event Spense Kassimir came over toAlan saying “I drove all the way to Orange County to get thissigned,” showing Mr. Veingrad an official N.F.L. football.

Mr. Veingrad obligingly signed with his name, his uniformnumber, and his message: “Jewish Pride!”

For comments or feedback please email me at

S H I M S H O N @ E M U NA H M AG . C O M

by S H I M S H O N G E F F E R

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The Day I Watched a Man Die The Day I Watched a Man Die

Florida Shliach Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky writesabout the heart-wrenching experience of being with Martin Grossman in his final moments.

Today I watched a man die.The call came in at about 2:00 pm. “Can you be with Mr. Martin Grossman during his execu-

tion?” How can you say no? How can you say yes? What canyou say? After speaking to my wife, I decided to go. I made afew phone calls and found a companion for the road and offwe went. Along the way, another friend offered to join and thethree of us departed down the I95 to the I10 to be with Mr.Grossman. A little background.A few months ago Rabbi Mendy Katz from Aleph sent out anemail to the local Chabad Rabbis. In it was a very simple re-quest. Due to the financial downturn Aleph could no longerafford to send Yeshiva students to all the prisons in Florida -would any community be willing to go visit a few prisons intheir area? We volunteered. Rather, I volunteered and subse-quently invited members of our community to come along.

On our first visit, during Chanukah, our group was dividedinto pairs of two for maximum efficiency. David Sall, a localpsychiatrist and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lieberman, my life-time friend and a local law student teamed up and I partneredwith Dovid Moyer, a local financial repair specialist and busi-nessman. Our group went to a number of prisons that dayincluding Union Correctional. Mendy and David went to deathrow. As you know by now, death row housed the now world-fa-mous Martin Grossman A”H.

Several days after our visit to death row, the Governorsigned Martin’s death warrant and set the date of executionfor February 16th at 6:00 PM. Saddened by the news, but notreally sure what to do, I went about my daily business andeven went back to visit the prison one more time with a group.

Sometime during January, Rabbi Katz called me, “Martin is

going to die,” he said. “What we can do to help him?” At first, Ihave to admit, I was hesitant. What could I do? I’m a localChabad Rabbi. This is for the national organizations. Afterreading the proclamation by Rabbi Shochat of Los Angelesthat one could even violate Shabbos to save Mr. Grossman, Iwas convinced.

First, I called Rabbi Mendy Katz back and told him I was onboard but only to assist him, not to take charge of this. Then, Icalled Rabbi Oirechman, the Chabad Rabbi in Tallahassee andasked if he was on board. After giving it some thought, he saidthat he was fully on board. Now was time to get the plan inmotion. (Let me also add that tremendous work was beingdone by many organizations at the time. This is just my ac-count and the events that led me to watch Martin Die.) RabbiKatz put together a letter that most of the 150 Chabad Rabbisin Florida signed. Another letter was written by Rabbi ZviBiarsky which many Rabbis from every Jewish group signed aswell, and they were both later hand delivered to the Governorby Rabbi Oirechman.

In addition, I started an online petition. On the first day wehad 23 signatures, day two we had 200 on day three 1,000. Atabout that time, many in the broader Jewish community got in-volved in the cause to encourage the Governor to grant aclemency hearing to Mr. Grossman. Leaders from Agudath Is-rael, the OU, the RCC, many in the Yeshiva world in Monseyand Lakewood, and Satmar Chassidim were getting involved. Itwas simply amazing! The cause was taking on a life of its own.Every day emails were being sent out to thousands upon thou-sands of people from all walks of life encouraging them to signthe petition. At its close, the petition had in excess of 33,000signatures; many people wrote personal and some heart-rend-ing notes. The Achdus/togetherness of Klal Yisroel/the Jewishpeople was heart-warming.

Just to give further insight into this, we put together a web-site called www.savemartingrossman.com. While putting thesite together, I realized in amazement, that the man with theidea for the site was a Litvisher/yeshivish Jew, the man whopaid for the site was a Satmar Chosid and here I was, a card-carrying Lubavitcher shliach working on the site throughChabad.org’s unbelievable server system. Incidentally, nearly20,000 people logged onto the site during the last week alone.

That’s the background for today’s events. I’m now on theway to the prison with my two friends, Dr. David Sall and RabbiMendy Lieberman, who by Divine providence are the same twopeople who visited Martin during Chanukah. I did not specifi-cally call them. I asked some others first. As they say, a Jewplans and G-d laughs. I planned on spending my afternoon andevening with some teenagers at the local high school doing aJewish teen group and helping my wife who just had a baby

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 2 2

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DIAL UP INTERNET

Noisy, slow, erratic, and wired. Nostalgic? I miss those sounds…

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Users have traded Britannicas on the bookshelf for the collab-oratively-built, online-only Wikipedia or Google.

CDS

CDs, and the stores that sold them, have all but been replacedby digital music that can be downloaded online, one track at atime.

HAND WRITTEN LETTERS

Thank you notes, and invitations have gone being hand-writtento typed, and from the mailbox to the inbox. Sending onlinemessages is a bargain next to $ 0.44 stamp.

PHONE BOOKS

There was a time when "let your fingers do the walking" meantopening a phone book -- not typing in a search query. Phonebooks, address books, and the Yellow Pages have been madeobsolete, their information transferred from paper onto smart-phones, and the web.

FAX MACHINE

Seems like its inconvenient to have another landline to handlea fax, use a scanner and send, or just plain old email.

FILM (and Film Cameras)

Digital cameras on phones, point-and-shoots, or computersare capturing memories, instantly and cheaply, in place of filmcameras.

LANDLINE PHONES

Unless you’re over 80 years old… does anyone actually giveout their home number anymore?

A Few Things That Became Obsolete This Decade

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give the kids dinner and do bedtime. David was busy withsome needed recreation and Mendy was at school. None of usever expected our day to turn out the way it did.

We got to the prison and were told, as expected, that only Icould go in. Mendy and David were to wait with the mediaacross the street. I was escorted in and given the rundown.There was to be only respectful behavior. There would be nocontact with Martin. No books or metal were allowed in. I hadthe opportunity to meet with and thank a few of the chaplainsand department heads who had been very helpful in our pastprison visits. I also met Martin’s attorney. It was touching to beable to meet the man who put up such a fight for Martin overthe years.

At about 5:30 we were escorted together with all the otherpeople who were to witness the execution H”LS. Amongst thegroup were about 7 or 8 members of Ms. Parks' family. Therewere a number of state witnesses, and about 6 or 7 membersof the press. We were taken through the metal detectors andsearched. We then passed through a number of security doorswhich I was all too familiar with from previous visits. The moodwas a mix. People were chatting nervously and were very cor-dial with each other. I was so thoroughly impressed with theParks family and the other people present. They handled them-selves so courteously despite the obviously intense tension.

We were taken into a van and driven to another section of theprison. We were then escorted into a room at about 5:45. Theroom was about 30 feet by 15 feet; it was lined with 3 rows ofchairs each about 10 chairs deep. On the last row, furthest fromthe front, sat the members of the media. In front of them, thestate witnesses, and in the first row was the Parks family andmyself. For fifteen minutes you could hear a pin drop in thatroom. Nobody looked at each other. People sat in silence, justreflecting. I put on my ‘gartel’ [special belt for prayer] and start-ed to daven/pray. First I said a number of prayers by heart andthen I started to say Psalms. I became oblivious to my surround-ings, just simply lost in thought and prayer. Suddenly, I beganthinking, what am I doing here? Why would Hashem want me tobe here? What purpose does this serve? After all, there is somuch pain and hurt in this room, the Parks family suffered terri-bly. They are obviously still dealing with much of it. Tens ofthousands of Jewish people throughout the world are sitting inprayer, hoping and praying that Hashem will have mercy andgrant Mr. Grossman reprieve. And much of that burden falls onmy shoulders as the one Jew, the one rabbi, the one ‘shliach’ ofthe Lubavitcher Rebbe sitting in this room.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind about all of those peo-ple, those individuals that the Rebbe had reached out tothrough the years - one Jew at a time, mostly through hisshluchim. The Rebbe loved EVERY Jew. Here again there is oneJew sitting in a faraway place in the middle of nowhere, nofamily with him, no love from the audience. He would have

died alone. The only person that cared about him was theRebbe, who sent Rabbi Katz to spend 4 hours with him on hisdying day and me to be here while he breathes his last breath.

I started to daven that whatever I think, whatever I feelshould be what the Rebbe would want me to think and/or feel.What does Hashem want me to do now? I started to sing a nig-gun to myself based on the words “Kiayil taarog al afikei mayimkein nafshi taarog eilecho elokim.” My soul wants to be withyou Hashem …..

Almost immediately the curtain opened and there was Martinin the next room. He was only four or five feet from us, but hewas strapped down and covered up until his neck. The only visi-ble part of him was his arm, in which was an IV that would deliverthe sam hamoves, the poison, and his face. In the room with himwere a police officer and someone who stood with a paper andnotebook presumably recording every detail of what transpired.The room also had a large clock behind Martin as well as videocameras and microphones hanging from the ceiling. Otherwisethere were freshly painted walls, a sparkling clean floor, and aone way glass leading to a third room behind Martin.

Martin did not look at the crowd nor at the police officernext to him, he just stared up at the ceiling. There was silencein the room, the tension was so thick you could cut it with aknife. I for one was almost convulsing. The clock read 6:02.

The officer asked “Mr. Grossman do you have any finalwords?” to which Martin replied “Yes.”

Martin began “I completely regret everything that I did onthat night, both that which I remember and that which I donot.” He then said, “I would like to say a prayer,” the officersaid okay.

At that point Martin says “Shema Yisroel adon- elokenu adon- echod” in a loud voice and then said something that I will never forget so long as I live.

“Ahavat Yisroel”.At that point I began to weep so loud that the guy behind me

asked me if I would like to leave. There are no words to describethe way Martin died. Martin committed a terrible crime, one thatwill haunt a family as long as they live. But with those two wordshe showed that, “ein dovor bo bifnei harotzon,” nothing stands inthe way of a man’s will. Martin died proclaiming his affection forYisroel, his brothers and sisters throughout the world, more forG-d and his Torah as well. Martin died a repentant man, but morethan that. Martin died a man that accomplished something thatwe as Jews have been trying to do for nearly 2,000 years. Hebrought us together with true Jewish unity -Ahavas Yisroel.

Who knew a child born to an abusive father and sick mother,a boy who could not make it through school, a young man whoshopped for drugs in his mother’s closet, a man who killedsomeone- and not just a person, but a beautiful Park Ranger,who was just doing her job, while he was high on a cocktail ofdrugs, could have such an incredible impact.

Martin died as a true bal Teshuvah Al Kidush Hashem, sanc-tifying G-d’s name in public, the highest level a Jew can reachon this earth.

I Watched A Man Die C O N T I N U E D F R OM P A G E 12

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Parking Ticket BlitzParking Ticket Blitz

New York City Council Candidates David Greenfield andJoe Lazar have fired off a letter to NYC officials askingthem to stop the parking ticket blitz that targets the

Brooklyn Orthodox community on Erev Shabbos. The Parking meters throughout the areas most common to

the Frum community are in effect until 7pm on Friday, despitethe winter months when Shabbos starts as early as 4pm. Even ifthey feed the meter at 5pm (the approximate current start ofShabbos), they are only allowed to pay for one hour, resulting inparking tickets that they are unable to prevent.

David Greenfield sent his letter on February 16,2010 to

the attention of NYC Department Of Transportation Com-missioner Janette Sadik-Kahn as well as Raymond Kelly, theNYPD Commissioner.

In his letter Greenfield says "I'm not suggesting that obser-vant drivers be excused from paying to park, but I'm proposinga solution that would allow them to park in hundreds of park-ing spots throughout the neighborhood.

One solution that Greenfield proposed would be the installa-tion of muni-meters along these avenues with a Shabbossetting that would allow all drivers to pay for parking through7pm (up to three hours in advance) on Friday only.

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Less than tenyears ago thosewho identified

themselves as profes-sional poker playerswere shunned. Thethought of giving cre-dence to such aprofession, onethought to be based ongambling, was absurd.But in the early part ofthe last decade the

game of poker gained widespread appeal, not as form of gam-bling but as a game of skill, where a person can get betterthrough study and practice. Indeed even the Internal RevenueService recognizes poker as a legitimate profession, allowingthose who play the game for a living to declare their winningsas earned income rather than as unearned income. But this ar-ticle does not purport to debate the merits of gambling butrather to showcase one individual in particular who is able tomaintain his Jewish identity in a game not known for its overtlyreligious participants.

Five years ago, a young twenty-one year old living in Brooklyn,NY quit his day job to become a professional poker player. Buthis story is not unique. What is unique is that he is a frum Jew.Ari Engel, better known as BodogAri in the poker world—namedfor a popular online poker site, has amassed over $2.1 million inonline poker tournament winnings alone. He has also enjoyedmajor success in traditional poker tournaments as well, earningnearly $400,000 in that arena. In addition to playing poker for aliving, Ari divides his time between playing tournaments andteaching poker to others. The self-described “Poker Rebbe” runsa sophisticated poker training center in Las Vegas and online atthemavenvt.com and aristrainingcenter.com. He has “traineddozens of people from various backgrounds” including two play-ers who have received a prestigious Player of the Year award, thegame’s version of the Most Valuable Player award.

Even with his success, there are those who might take issuewith Jewish people “gambling” for a living. There is possibly ahalachic prohibition against gambling as well, although I am notan authority on this issue so I cannot debate that here. I askedAri for his thoughts on this subject and he readily admits thathis “job has an element of gambling to it.” But he was alsoquick to point out that every job contains much of the same el-ements as his. He notes that people “can only control certainelements of [their] jobs” and must rely heavily on outside fac-tors such as the economy and decisions made by others tomaintain a level of success. The same holds true for Ari and hisjob. He likens himself “to stock trader rather than a blackjackplayer.” “Poker is a psychological and mathematical game

rather than a game of luck,” explains Ari and “thank G-d for thelast five years I’ve been able to consistently make a living fromplaying poker,” he adds. He also points out that he does not“partake in any other forms of gambling” and clearly notes thedifference between games of pure chance and games of skill.

While Ari currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, he has trav-elled a long road to get there. Born in Toronto, Canada, Ari hasspent his share of time living in various countries includingSouth Africa, Australia and Israel as well as many places in theUnited States including Maryland, Illinois, New York and nowNevada. His travel schedule mimics his diverse living pattern aswell. While Ari finds it rela-tively easy to keep kosherin his home town, citieslike Tunica, Mississippiand Council Bluffs, Iowa—popular stops on thepoker tournament circuit—are not as kosher friendly.Keeping strictly kosher,Ari “manages fairly easily”by travelling with his ownfood.

On his blog, bodogari.blogspot.com, Ari noted that “from a pok-er perspective, having ' forced ' religious breaks” helped hisgame tremendously as he has a difficult time “limiting [himself]naturally.” Shabbos gave him the break he needed “which wasdefinitely good for my long term mental health,” he says. Unlikeother players, who might feel stressed by the often psychologi-cally and physically tough tournament schedule, Ari takescomfort in the fact that he can guiltlessly take the much neededbreaks from the long hours of playing required to be a successfulpoker player. His religion has given him a leg up on the competi-tion. Ari designs his schedule around tournaments that start atthe beginning of the week so he does not have to play on Shab-bos. During some of the more popular poker tournaments, mostnotably the World Series of Poker (WSOP) each summer in LasVegas, Ari is conspicuously absent from the series’ Main Event,the year’s largest tournament both in terms of money and play-ers. Doing well in that tournament would mean that he wouldhave to play on Shabbos so he chooses not to enter at all.

While he is not the only professional Jewish poker player, youwould be hard-pressed to find one who more proudly displaysit, wearing his yarmulke during tournaments. He is “proud tobe a Jew and do my best to make a Kiddush Hashem wheneverI play.” Ari’s success is twofold. He is flourishes in a gamewhere only a small percentage of people enjoy success. Andwhile others might have strayed in his world, Ari has thrived;not in opposition to but as a result of his religion.

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AV I @ E M U NA H M AG . C O M

Shuffle Up and Deal: The Poker Rebbe Shuffle Up and Deal: The Poker Rebbe by A V I N O R E N S B E R G

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Guide To PerplexedGuide To Perplexed

“Is today my birthday” my kids are shouting with joy. “Whyam I getting all these new toys” they would shout. No it’snot your birthday or a prize, it’s Pesach cleaning. Yes, that’s

right. Pesach is on the way. My children especially love this time ofyear because their favorite long lost toys seem to be found every-where. In between couch cushions, under the dresser and in thebottom corner of their closets. I used to get a headache when think-ing of Pesach. The cleaning is overwhelming, the food shopping istremendous and the overall preparation is a conquest. More recent-ly I have a new view on this special Chag. Pesach to me is a time tonot only explore my house for chometz (and of course all the lostitems) but it’s a time to take a deeper look at ourselves. Hashemhas given us this beautiful Chag to prepare and inspect our homeand to make sure we are rid of chometz. But if we take it one stepfurther, we should realize that we should be inspecting our soulsand general personality as well. Just like we are certain we don’thave a crumb of bread in our pantry, we should cleanse ourselvesfrom any misdeeds we may have done. The household chores arefar less important than the hidden meaning behind this holiday. Soin between scrubbing the ceiling tiles, vacuuming the curtains andretrieving lost items, take a moment to close your eyes and reflecton your inner self and what ‘cleaning’ needs to be done.

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R AC H E L @ E M U NA H M AG . C O M

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