And it sounds as if he's leaving Java for good, too. Any idea what effect this departure will have on dynamically invoking super packages and the other stuff he was the spec lead for?

Dunno. I suspect that he won't be going far - maybe applications of the technology for new software distribution/service models. SaaS or streamed apps or whatever they call it.

As for the JSR's, Sun is the spec lead, not Gilad, so I expect it will be another Sun engineer, maybe the person mentioned in the blog.