In this week’s parsha we read about Noach, though we first learn of his birth at the end of Parshat Breishit. There we are told that his Lemech calls him Noach because “this one will relieve us (yeNACHamenu) from our work and from the toil (itzavon) of our hands” (5:29). Lemech creates a midrash to explain his son’s name: Noach, whose name means comfort, will provide relief to a humanity that has just been cursed by God with the burden of working the soil with toil (itzavon) all the days of their lives. (Yeats: “It’s certain there is no fine thing / Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.”) The midrash relates that Noach provided this comfort because he was the first human being to be created with opposable thumbs, which made it much easier to till the earth or do nearly anything with one’s hands.

I thought about this midrash when Matan began sucking his thumb for the first time this week. He has been trying to master this skill for quite some time now: First he noticed the thumb and stared at it for a few days; then he realized that he could put it in his mouth; and then he would chomp on it and gag himself, only to stick the thumb back in and gag again. Yet now he sucks away gleefully. As a result, his parents can sleep at night – in the past, each time Matan would stir, one of us would have to reach over the side of our bed, feel around for the pacifier strewn somewhere across his crib, and poke our hands around in the dark (like a blind person groping around in broad daylight, to invoke an image from the Tohekha) until we found (oops, that was the wrong side of his head; nope, an eyelid; yeah, there it is!) his mouth and could stick the pacifier back in and then roll over back to sleep. But now Matan knows how to pacify himself: He wakes up, finds his thumb, and sticks it in his mouth with gusto. This one will comfort us indeed! Matan can rest (Nach) more deeply, and this solution finds favor (Chen) in his parents’ eyes much as Noach (in another anagrammatic midrash – chen is Noach backwards) found favor in the eyes of God.

Inevitably, in our lives as parents, I’m sure Matan will be the source of some Itzavon, which Rashi interprets as ??? ????? ????, the pain of raising children. It is not just pregnancy and childbirth that are part of God’s curse to Eve, but also the gap between expectation and reality: Parents invest everything in their children, only to find that thorns and thistles spring up from the soil in which they have planted their hopes and dreams. Itzavon, like Teshuka (desire), is the difference between what we have and what we want. Eve is saddled with Teshuka for her husband and Itzavon for her children, leaving her with little room for satisfaction. And yet until this point, Matan has been only a source of Naches, which of course comes from the Hebrew word Nachat, itself a variant on Noach/comfort. When I peer into the Teyva (ark) of his crib at night and watch him fumble for his thumb, I find myself paraphrasing the most poetic line from this week’s parsha: So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night; my love for you, Matan, shall never cease.

Note: Like everything I write, this dvar Torah owes much to the insights of Avivah Zornberg. For more on Noach and Itzavon, see “Despondent Intoxication” in The Murmuring Deep.

A slew of acquisition news came out this Monday morning, as major names like Oracle (ORCL), Mattel (MAT), J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM), and Cigna (CI) made moves to cement their top position with key purchases. As is always the case, some takeovers will pan out and some won’t. Even though it is important to make key acquisitions over time, innovation is what will give shareholders the biggest long-term reward. Like in sports, it’s the companies whose executives and workforce remain hungry that get out over the long term. It certainly felt like a bit of melt-up in the markets this day as fund managers chased the recent winners.

We also had a good amount of earnings reports out this morning, but the rest of the week promises to be much heavier. Moving the needle up on better-than-expected earnings were shares of Caterpillar (CAT), V.F. Corp (VFC), and Eaton Corp (ETN). On the flipside, stocks like Kimberly-Clark (KMB) was lower and Lorillard (LO) bounced off earlier lows to close fairly unchanged.

New Mortgage Refi Proposal Coming from President Obama

Our president will unveil a plan later today to help borrowers (as many as 1 million perhaps) refinance underwater mortgages. The move is aimed to prevent homeowners from walking away from their mortgages, but the even larger goal is for the borrowers to take the new-found cash they’ll be saving and spend it, thus augmenting the economy.

Unfortunately, the message from Washington is never to save your money. But then again, the saver has seen tiny in the way of thanks in the past several years. Maintaining historically low interest rates and bailing out people who can’t afford their loans are a kind of slap in the face to responsible savers.

Again, the more we see Washington intercede in the economic cycle, the more a true recovery will be delayed. Don’t forget there are millions of people who are set to see unemployment benefits run out at year-end. What do you think will happen to those folks? Their benefits will no-doubt be extended yet again. Rather than putting the emphasis on getting people back to work, the easy choice is to buy time and print more dollars to add to everyone’s eventual tax burden.

International regulators are following America’s lead now, and are pushing through their own brand of fiscal irresponsibility. The ramifications of all these programs that are created with the purpose of short-term relief are usually never thought out when it comes to the long-term effects. Eventually all the being printed will cause a good dose of inflationary pain. The danger is if the pain comes quickly, and when many least it.

The irony will be when the real estate market starts to show signs of life, but the Federal Reserve being behind the inflation curve needing to raise rates dramatically to soak up all the currency they printed. This development will lead to yet another hard landing that politicians will have to patch together a makeshift solution. It’ll be just enough to extend their own careers, of course.

We continue to eye these economic developments closely, as well as how the markets react to the news. If and when we see a true recovery in the works, we won’t be be afraid to things have reached a turning point.

Employment-Based Health Insurance Coverage Declining

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), employment-based health insurance coverage remains well below the levels of the 1990s. The percentage of workers with coverage either in their own name or as a dependent was slightly above 61 percent in 1998. Fast forward to April of 2010, the percentage of workers with employment-based coverage was down to 56.2 percent.

We are hearing more and more about people rolling the dice on not carrying health insurance, which could deal a fatal blow to one’s chances of building wealth in the event of an unexpected health event. If you are struggling to afford health care for your kids, there are government programs worth checking out, including a site like InsureKidsNow.gov. States also tend to have plans you can look into, so be sure to check these resources out. A simple Google search for “NJ children health insurance” (substitute your own in there) yields plenty of free resources to look into.

Speaking of health insurance, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) announced late last week that all future part-time employees who work less than 24 hours a week on average will no longer qualify for any of the company’s health insurance plans. Also, any new employees who average 24 hours to 33 hours a week will no longer be able to include a spouse as part of their health care plan, but can still be covered. This is a big change from the stance the company took just a couple of years ago. If you remember, I noted recently about the big hike in health insurance rates we saw for our company after a couple of years of little to no increase.

A wealth plan without a viable health plan can be quite precarious, so I would advise anyone that is currently “rolling the dice” to do whatever you can to get some sort of coverage against a major health event that could jeopardize your financial future.

Preview My Be a Dividend Millionaire Book

My publisher (FT Press/Pearson) is giving away a free chapter of my popular Be a Dividend Millionaire book to download for free. Anyone interested can visit the Facebook page here to check it out:

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Did You Miss Our Weekend Updates?

I hope everyone had a chance to check out our Dividend.com Premium members-only weekend articles, including new features that highlight some of the biggest winners and losers from the week that was, such as analyst upgrades/downgrades and earnings/story stocks. These articles are a great way to catch up on the week that was in the markets. We also have a rundown of how various Dividend ETFs performed on the week.

Thanks for reading everybody. I’ll see you tomorrow!

Be sure to visit our complete suggested list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.

In Christ Jesus, God befriends us, as I blogged the other day.  That God is friends with us propels you and me to lovingly befriend our neighbours and help them to enjoy God’s friendship, too.  We sang about this yesterday at Telkwa CRC, using this hymn by Roy Berkenbosch of The King’s University College and CRWRC…

In Christ Jesus, God befriends us,
comes to meet us in our need;
by His wounded flesh Christ heals us,
from the powers sets us free.
With a shepherd’s eyes He finds us,
in His arms we are embraced,
through His teaching we learn wisdom,
in the cross we meet God’s grace.

God brings help for those who struggle
and relief from poverty
when we act with love towards strangers,
risk ourselves to set them free.
Lay the walls of hate to rubble
‘til the cries of war are ceased,
when the rich share hoarded treasures
with the ones who have the least.

Creeds can’t dispel the hunger
that brings kids to their knees,
nor can weekly rites of worship
ease the pain of dread disease.
Only love made real in service
reaches others in their need.
Holy Spirit, move our faith from
empty words to living deeds.

All my neighbours, near and distant,
must enjoy God’s friendship too.
They are waiting to be welcomed
to the feast where life’s made new.
Let us join our hands together,
raise our voices, shout our prayers,
live the life that Christ commands us
‘til there’s justice everywhere.

© 2002 Roy Berkenbosch
You can sing this hymn to the tune “BEACH SPRING” (Psalter Hymnal 579)
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As health care costs rise, the need for health insurance is a vital one for most Americans. Most have access to insurance plans through an employer or a retirement program but for those who don’t qualify for a plan, there is a solution: temporary health insurance.

Recent graduates, new hires who have not yet completed a probation period, part-time employees, early retirees, recently divorced individuals, unemployed individuals, and students who no longer qualify under a parents’ health coverage plan are just some of those who may seek temporary or short-term health insurance.

Unlike standard group coverage plans, temporary health insurance is often inexpensive and flexible. Most short term options range from one to twelve months, few are available for more than a year. Pre-existing conditions – a health condition previously diagnosed – can limit access to some temporary plans. Many services often require pre-certification before treatment is allowed. Even though deductible amounts are often low with temp insurance, it’s wise to make sure that the deductible needs to be met one time only because some plans will require a deductible for each service. That could up the out-of-pocket expenses for medical treatments, even a office visit to your doctor. And, short term plans can vary from state-to-state so be aware of your state’s regulations and requirements.

Most short term plans do offer a greater flexibility than many standard health plans but with choice often comes lower coverage or payment for services. Depending on the options chosen, short term health insurance may or may not pay for surgery, blood work, x-ray, hospitilization, and other treatments. Know what is and is not covered.

If you’re between jobs, maintaining your former group coverage can be an option. the 1984 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reduction Act (COBRA) qualified employees to continue group coverage for a specific period. Such coverage may be superior for your individual needs than temporary coverage so ask if you might be qualified.

These points are the most vital to consider when contemplating short-term, temporary health insurance:

1. Coverage is available in a broad range, from very basic to total coverage that includes catastrophic care

2. If you are willing to bank on good health, coverage for ONLY catastrophic medical care is available. I.e., such coverage be valid on an office visit for an illness but would cover a major accident or serious illness.

3. Short-term coverage is available for no less than thirty days but no more than 365 days or one year.

4. If you suffer from a pre-existing condition (including but not limited to high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, etc), you may be denied temporary health coverage.

5. Know the disadvantages of short-term health care coverage and remember that a ongoing plan is best in the long run.

Be wise when considering short term health care coverage. Ask for quotes from more than one insurance company or agent. Consider your options and plan for the future, whether that includes a new job, marriage, or other life change that can affect insurance. Knowledge is the key to finding the temporary health care coverage you may need that will work for your individual needs.