"The Story of the Jews"
31 de março de 2014
30 de março de 2014
28 de março de 2014
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
The poet's illness
"Your showers of tears, like a torrent,
have made the plains rise like mountain ranges.
Why not celebrate the grape-vine,
why not sing the praises of wine,
which could pursue your sorrows and
make them flee as Jeroboam son of Nebat fled to Egypt?"
I answered him: "Yes, the heart forgets its trouble
and rejoices in wine as does a man in riches.
But disease has consumed my flesh and
set the shreds of my body ablaze like brushwood.
[I have grown so thin] that a nose-ring
could serve as crown and a ringlet as an ankle-band.
Sickness burned my innards with a fever like fire,
till I thought my bones would melt.
Sores infested my innards and carried out
Time's orders faithfully.
Bones that are filled with suffering -
how should they not disintegrate?
I rage against the disease that has wasted away my body.
[It has made me so weak] that a myrtle
looks to me like an oak.
And I rage against the night that spreads out its tents of gloom."
Then when I asked: "How is the East robed?",
they answered: "Covered with blue and dawning light."
And at last, when the dawn lifted its flags and
raised its morning stars like banners,
my innards were soothed, for they were filled with dew,
and drops of water flowed upon me.
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27 de março de 2014
Ucrânia
"Sviatoslav Richter, The Enigma" (Monsaingeon, 1998) (1/2)
"Sviatoslav Richter, The Enigma" (Monsaingeon, 1998) (2/2)
"Hatikva" at Bergen-Belsen
April 20th 1945, inmates at Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp sing the anthem of hope 'Hatikva.
26 de março de 2014
Vida
A jawfish nurses a clutch of his own eggs in the shallow waters of the Philippines near Coron Island.
The male fish incubates around 400 eggs inside his mouth but has to open it slightly for the water to circulate and provide oxygen for the eggs.
The male fish incubates around 400 eggs inside his mouth but has to open it slightly for the water to circulate and provide oxygen for the eggs.
25 de março de 2014
Shai Held
LESS EGO, MORE GOD: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in conversation with
Hasidic Masters
and Christian Mystics on the Spiritual Project of Prayer
24 de março de 2014
23 de março de 2014
Morte
Followers gathered around the body of Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager at his funeral in Bnei Brak, Israel, 2012.
Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the leader of one the world’s largest Hasidic sects, the Viznitz Hasidim.
22 de março de 2014
21 de março de 2014
20 de março de 2014
19 de março de 2014
The Dark Side of Purim
By Shaul Magid
These days, many liberal Jews think of Purim as a play date for the
kids and a night of drunken debauchery for the grown-ups. We think of
costumes and songs and noisemakers, a kind of carnival spirit. But the
levity with which we approach Purim is actually pretty astonishing.
Because this holiday, fun as it may seem on the surface, has a dark and
dangerous underside to it.
Orthodox Israeli scientist and philosopher Yeshayahu
Leibowitz (1903-1994) was once asked whether he would consider living
outside Israel. Leibowitz allegedly responded that, no, he would not,
one reason being that Israel was the only place he could live where he
never had to celebrate Purim. On Purim he would be in Jerusalem (as a
walled city, Jerusalem celebrates Purim a day after everyone else,
called Shushan Purim) and on the evening after Purim Leibowitz would
travel to Tel Aviv. Thus he never had to read the Megillah nor drink to
celebrate an act of bloody revenge — that time we killed Haman, his sons
and 75,000 of the Jews’ enemies throughout the ancient Persian empire.
In typical fashion, Leibowitz cut to the chase. Purim is essentially
about the celebration of violence.
Let us not forget that on Purim we drink to celebrate
blotting out the nation of Amalek, of whom Haman is said to be a
descendant. The Shabbat before Purim, called Shabbat Zakhor, Jews gather
in synagogues to read the only biblically mandated Torah reading of the
year, the verses that command genocide against the Amalekites. Perhaps
we are commanded to get so inebriated on Purim to simulate the seemingly
paradoxical notion of blotting out the memory of Haman through the very
act of remembering Amalek. We must remember not only to not forget, but
to blot out the enemy — not mercifully, but through genocide.
It is true that the rabbis long ago were aware of the
danger of this commandment and put it to rest by saying we no longer
know who Amalek is. But as Elliot Horowitz shows in painful detail in
his must-read book Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence,
Jews never really gave up on Amalek. In his introduction he cites an
interview Jeffrey Goldberg did with now Knesset member Moshe Feiglin in
Haaretz in 1994. Feiglin told Goldberg “that although he could not link
the Arabs with Amalek ‘genetically,’ their behavior was ‘typical of
Amalek.’” What did Feiglin imply here? A young settler, Ayelet, was
asked if she thought Amalek was alive today, and she said to Goldberg,
“Of course,” and pointed toward an Arab village in the distance.
This Purim is the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Hebron
massacre. Since then, every year at this time many Jews feel a twinge
of embarrassment as they remember Baruch Goldstein, the American-Israeli
who murdered 29 Palestinian Muslims at the Cave of the Patriarchs on
Purim 20 years ago. But a mere twinge of embarrassment is too easy.
Moshe Feiglin is an elected member of the Israeli government. And Ayelet
is not an atypical settler supported by the government. And Goldstein’s
grave in Kiryat Arba is a shrine for a whole community of Israelis.
Amalek is arguably alive today in the minds of many Jews in ways it has
not been in a long time (I recently saw a picture of Ahmadinejad with
Hamantaschen ears on the Internet). An enemy is one thing. Amalek is
something quite different.
I have taken Purim very seriously my entire adult
life. And I have paid for it the next day in spades. But Baruch
Goldstein ruined that for me. It was a loss of innocence. Like many
others, I could never celebrate Purim the same way after 1994. Because
the problem with the Jews today is not only the liberals who don’t take
Purim seriously. It is also the Jews who take Purim seriously. Very
seriously. Too seriously.
So what should be done about this holiday? If you
want to approach Purim with a spirit of open-mindedness this year, I’ve
got an idea of how to do it. There is a story about blotting out Amalek
told in the name of the Hasidic master Zvi Elimelekh of Dinov
(1783-1841). I heard the story from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. During the
Purim feast, Zvi Elimelekh suddenly stopped the festivities and said,
“Saddle the horses and get the carriages, it is time to blot out
Amalek.” His Hasidim were petrified. “What could the master mean?” Being
obedient disciples, they got in their carriages and followed their
rebbe. He rode into town to a local inn where the Polish peasants (the
Amalekites of his day?) were engaged in their own drunken bash.
The rebbe and his disciples entered the inn. When the
peasants saw them, they stopped dancing. The music stopped. Everyone
circled around the rebbe and the Jews as they walked to the center of
the dance floor. The room was silent. The rebbe looked at one of the
peasants and put out his hand with his palm to the ceiling. Silence. The
peasants looked at one another. Suddenly one of them stepped forward
and took the rebbe’s hand. They slowly started dancing. The musicians
began playing. In a matter of minutes, all the Hasidim and peasants were
dancing furiously with one another.
You want to blot out Amalek? Go to the mosque at the
Tomb of the Patriarchs. Or any mosque. Reach out your hand. And dance.
That is how you blot out Amalek. Crazy? Ask Zvi Elimelekh of Dinov. That
is what it means to take Purim seriously after 1994.
http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/194161/the-dark-side-of-purim/
http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/194161/the-dark-side-of-purim/
Vida
Transverse section through a stained lilium bud showing the male and female reproductive organs
18 de março de 2014
17 de março de 2014
16 de março de 2014
15 de março de 2014
14 de março de 2014
13 de março de 2014
11 de março de 2014
Alain Oulman
Amália Rodrigues: "Abandono" e "Fado Português"
"Abandono", letra de David Mourão Ferreira e música de Alain Oulman.
Por teu livre pensamento
Foram-te longe encerrar
Tão longe que o meu lamento
Não te consegue alcançar
E apenas ouves o vento
E apenas ouves o mar
Levaram-te a meio da noite
A treva tudo cobria
Foi de noite numa noite
De todas a mais sombria
Foi de noite, foi de noite
E nunca mais se fez dia.
Ai! Dessa noite o veneno
Persiste em me envenenar
Oiço apenas o silêncio
Que ficou em teu lugar
E ao menos ouves o vento
E ao menos ouves o mar.
Foram-te longe encerrar
Tão longe que o meu lamento
Não te consegue alcançar
E apenas ouves o vento
E apenas ouves o mar
Levaram-te a meio da noite
A treva tudo cobria
Foi de noite numa noite
De todas a mais sombria
Foi de noite, foi de noite
E nunca mais se fez dia.
Ai! Dessa noite o veneno
Persiste em me envenenar
Oiço apenas o silêncio
Que ficou em teu lugar
E ao menos ouves o vento
E ao menos ouves o mar.
"Fado Português", letra de José Régio e música de Alain Oulman
O Fado nasceu um dia,
quando o vento mal bulia
na amurada dum veleiro,
no peito dum marinheiro
que, estando triste, cantava,
que, estando triste, cantava.
Ai, que lindeza tamanha,
meu chão , meu monte, meu vale,
de folhas, flores, frutas de oiro,
vê se vês terras de Espanha,
areias de Portugal,
olhar ceguinho de choro.
Na boca dum marinheiro
do frágil barco veleiro,
morrendo a canção magoada,
diz o pungir dos desejos
do lábio a queimar de beijos
que beija o ar, e mais nada,
que beija o ar, e mais nada.
Mãe, adeus. Adeus, Maria.
Guarda bem no teu sentido
que aqui te faço uma jura:
que ou te levo à sacristia,
ou foi Deus que foi servido
dar-me no mar sepultura.
Ora eis que embora outro dia,
quando o vento nem bulia
e o céu o mar prolongava,
à proa de outro velero
velava outro marinheiro
que, estando triste, cantava,
que, estando triste, cantava.
Ai, que lindeza tamanha,
meu chão , meu monte, meu vale,
de folhas, flores, frutas de oiro,
vê se vês terras de Espanha,
areias de Portugal,
olhar ceguinho de choro.
meu chão , meu monte, meu vale,
de folhas, flores, frutas de oiro,
vê se vês terras de Espanha,
areias de Portugal,
olhar ceguinho de choro.
10 de março de 2014
Reino Unido
The Beatles, "A Day In The Life" (1967)
I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the house of lords
I saw a film today oh, boy
The English army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I'd love to turn you on.
Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream
Ah
I read the news today oh, boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you on
8 de março de 2014
Max Weber
"The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.
Precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from
public life either into the transcendental realm of mystic life or into
the brotherliness of direct and personal human relations. It is not accidental that our greatest art is intimate and not monumental".
Max Weber, "Science as a Vocation" (1918)
Platão
Philosophers and Kings: Plato's Republic, I-II
Philosophers and Kings: Plato's Republic, III-IV
Philosophers and Kings: Plato's Republic, V
7 de março de 2014
Uasin Gishu
The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to Theodore Herzl's Zionist group in 1903.
He offered 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) at Uasin Gishu (at the time spelled "Gwas Ngishu"), an isolated area atop the Mau Escarpment in modern Kenya (not Uganda)
6 de março de 2014
5 de março de 2014
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