30 de maio de 2014

Vida



This is the moment a hungry group of whale sharks were seen trying to find an easy dinner - by gobbling up a whopping school of fish caught by a fisherman

Anti-Judaism


"Enemy to Brother: Jews Catholics and Vatican II"
John Connelly, David Nirenberg

29 de maio de 2014



By Babylon's streams,
                       there we sat, oh we wept,
                                   when we recalled Zion.
On the poplars there
                     we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors had asked of us
                      words of song,
and our plunderers - rejoicing:
                     "Sing us from Zion's songs."
How can we sing a song of the LORD
                     on foreign soil?
Should I forget you, Jerusalem,
                      may my right hand wither.
May my tongue cleave to my palate
                       if I do not recall you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
                      above my chief joy.
Recall, O LORD, the Edomites,
                      on the day of Jerusalem, saying:
"Raze it, raze it,
                       to its foundation!"
Daughter of Babylon the despoiler,
                      happy who pays you back in kind,
                                   for what you did to us.
Happy who seizes and smashes
                      your infants against the rock.


 Psalm 137
(translated by Robert Alter)

"Fill The Void" de Rama Burshtein



"Eim Eshkachech Yerushalayim"
 

Árvores


Kaweesak's dragon tree

The dragon tree is found in the limestone mountains of the Loei and Lop Buri provinces in Thailand and may also be found in Burma. Just 2,500 dragon trees remain, making the species endangered.

Morte


"Death", Professor Shelly Kagan, Yale: 1. Introdução

Diane Arbus


“A Jewish giant at home with his parents, in the Bronx, N.Y." (1970)

28 de maio de 2014

27 de maio de 2014

Musée Juif de Belgique




Auto de fé



1683 painting by Francisco Rizi depicting the auto-de-fé held in Plaza Mayor, Madrid in 1680

Primeira Guerra Mundial




Las llamadas “fotos trofeo” sacadas para humillar y degradar al enemigo, son tan viejas como la presencia de cámaras en el frente. En la Primera Guerra Mundial tuvieron gran difusión, convirtiéndose en un fenómeno viral. Esta foto postal fue sacada en el frente del este, entre 1915 y 1916, y muestra a un grupo de soldados alemanes cargando los cadáveres de combatientes franceses y británicos, una funesta premonición de las imágenes de pilas de cuerpos que vendrían con la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

25 de maio de 2014


 Bienvenue au Musée Juif de Belgique
IMPORTANT

Communiqué de presse

Fusillade mortelle au Musée Juif de Belgique

C'est une véritable onde de choc qui s'est abattue ce samedi 24 mai 2014 sur le Musée Juif de Belgique. Entre 15h30 et 16h un individu armé s'est introduit dans le musée et a tiré sur un couple de touristes présents dans l'entrée du bâtiment, pour ensuite se diriger vers la réception où il a tiré sur le préposé à l'accueil et sur notre bénévole, présente sur les lieux. Le bilan actuel est de 3 morts et un blessé grave

Comme l'a dit le président du musée, Philippe Blondin, à ce stade nous n'avons ni information, ni explication sur les motifs de cet acte odieux. Il s'agit d'une immense tragédie pour notre institution, et pourtant rien ne laissait présager de celle-ci.
Après les discussions entreprises avec le Bourgmestre de la Ville de Bruxelles, il a été décidé qu'une cellule de réflexion autour de la sécurité du musée allait être créée.

Nos pensées s'adressent en premier lieu au personnel du musée, aux visiteurs, aux parents et aux amis des victimes, ainsi qu’à toute la communauté juive.

Aujourd'hui c'est un sentiment de tristesse et de stupeur qui nous envahit. Nous faisons confiance à la justice et à la police pour retrouver le coupable et faire toute la lumière sur cette terrible tragédie.

Le Musée Juif de Belgique sera fermé ce lundi. Néanmoins, sauf avis contraire, Il ouvrira ses portes le mardi à 12 h le personnel du musée et le Conseil d'administration seront présents.

Responsable de la Communication -
Relations Presse
Musée Juif de Belgique - Rue des Minimes, 21 -1000 Bruxelles
Chouna Lomponda – Tél : 02 500 88 35 - lchouna@mjb-jmb.org

http://www.new.mjb-jmb.org/

22 de maio de 2014

Plantas


Early spider orchid

"Mr. Tambourine Man" de Bob Dylan



(Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1964)


"Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it.

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you"


Ori Gersht


 
"This Storm is What We Call Progress"

Vida


"Sleeping Puppy", Rembrandt (1640)

21 de maio de 2014

Tefilah


Sonia Wieder-Atherton plays a jewish prayer

Salónica


(1913)

ADL


Maio 2014

Jacques Derrida



Deconstruction (1/2)
 
Deconstruction (2/2)
Yale, 2009

I
00:00 - Chapter 1. Origins and Influence of Jacques Derrida
06:33 - Chapter 2. Derrida's Style
09:25 - Chapter 3. The Eiffel Tower and Wallace Stevens' "Anecdote of the Jar"
17:00 - Chapter 4. Levi-Strauss and the Oedipus Myth
22:39 - Chapter 5. Derrida and Semiotic Science
28:13 - Chapter 6. "Event" and History
33:42 - Chapter 7. Language and Writing
42:34 - Chapter 8. Language, Supplementarity, and Différance

II
00:00 - Chapter 1. Derrida and Levi-Strauss
10:37 - Chapter 2. Writing and Speech
16:06 - Chapter 3. Paul de Man and Nazism
24:37 - Chapter 4. Similarities Between De Man and Derrida
33:35 - Chapter 5. De Man and Derrida: Differences
39:24 - Chapter 6. Examples: "All in the Family," Yeats, and Proust

Egipto


Mummy of the priest Nesperennub

The mummy of the priest Nesperennub, discovered at Luxor in the 1890s, has recently been the subject of a ground-breaking experiment. Non-invasive X-ray and Computerised Tomography (CT) scanning techniques have made it possible to look inside the mummy without disturbing the wrappings in any way. This has provided a unique insight into the complex process of mummification and life in ancient Egypt, and it has even been possible to reconstruct Nesperennub's likely appearance.
Nesperennub was alive around 800 BC and died aged approximately forty years. His skull shows a small unexplained hole above the left eye, which might indicate an illness which could have proved fatal. After death Nesperennub would have had his internal organs removed, except for the heart, before being embalmed with resin. Next the corpse was decorated with pieces of jewellery - the X-rays show rings on both hands - as well as amulets. The body was wrapped, then placed inside its painted cartonnage case, which was in turn put inside a wooden coffin. The text on the cartonnage case reveals that Nesperennub and his father worked as priests in the great religious complex of Karnak.
The 3D images of Nesperennub show that, very unusually, he was mummified with a shallow, irregular-shaped bowl on his head. This does not belong to any known ritual aspect of embalming and was probably part of the embalmers' working equipment. Perhaps during the embalming process the bowl was placed on the head to catch surplus resin. This may then have hardened unexpectedly quickly, cementing the bowl firmly to the skull. Damage to the skin at the back of the head may have been caused by attempts to remove it. The embalmers may then have decided to carry on with the wrapping of the body, hoping that their mistake would pass unnoticed - which it did for nearly three thousand years.

Majdanek


Germany Identifies 20 Former Majdanek Guards

Probe into 1,000 former guards reveals nearly two dozen still alive in Germany




Majdanek concentration camp. (Patryk Kosmider / Shutterstock.com)


In the latest German probe into Nazi concentration camp guards, investigators have identified 20 suspected former guards at Majdanek who are still alive and living in Germany. The Associated Press reports that the results of the investigation by Germany’s special Nazi war crimes office into more 1,000 former guards at the concentration camp would be handed over to state investigators.

Lead investigator Thomas Will told The Associated Press that about 30 suspects were identified and located, but around ten had already died. The remaining 20 men and women all live in Germany, he said, but refused to elaborate further.
Some 220 others are still being investigated for possible charges but have not been located.
It’s not up to state investigators to decide whether or not to press charges. Yet federal prosecutor Kurt Schrimm, who heads the Nazi war crimes office, told Reuters that even if charges are filed, it’s unlikely that the cases will proceed much further.

“With a few exceptions, most of them won’t lead to investigations by prosecutors,” he said. Although many of the suspects are still alive, their cases might not get to trial “because the proof is too thin.”
A similar German probe last year into 50 former guards at Auschwitz, 40 of whom were still alive, yielded three arrests. One of them, 94-year-old Hans Lipschis, was charged with 10,510 counts of accessory to murder but ultimately deemed unfit for trial by a German court due to dementia.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/173533/germany-identifies-20-former-majdanek-guards?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=f126e4214a-Wednesday_May_21_20145_20_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-f126e4214a-206801785

20 de maio de 2014

Vida



ADL


Maio 2014

Walter Kaufmann


"Nietzsche and the Crisis in Philosophy" (1960)

Babilónia



Old Babylonian relief - The Queen of the Night (probably an image of Ishtar) (c 1800-1750)

Hoje


Mt. Scopus Hospital (1939)
The Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem. The hospital, designed by renowned Bauhaus architect Erich Mendelssohn, opened as a modern, 300-bed academic medical facility.

19 de maio de 2014

Saul


"Saul and the Witch of Endor", Gustav Doré (1866)

Majdanek


Majdanek-Memorial at the "entry gate" to the camp. 
The symbolic Pylon meant to represent mangled bodies.

Vida


 El paleontólogo Pablo Puerta, al lado del fémur de dinosaurio

Descubiertos en Argentina restos del mayor dinosaurio del mundo. 
Mediría 40 metros de largo y, con sus 77 toneladas, pesaría como 14 elefantes.

17 de maio de 2014

"El Male Rachamim"


 
Cantor Shalom Katz


"El Malei Rachamim shochein bamromim,
hamtzei menuchah nachonah tachas kanfei hashechinah,
bema'alos,
bema'alos kedoshim,
kedoshim utahorim,
kezohar harekia mei'irim umazhirim,
es nishmos acheinu B'nei Yisrael hakadoshim,
hakedoshim vehatahorim,
shenaflu bidei rotzchim venishpachu demom
be'Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka
usha'ar machanos hashemam beEuropa
sheneheregu,sheneheregu, veshenisrafu,
shenisrafu venishchatu
venikveru chayim bekol misos meshunos ve'achzorios
al, al, al kedushas Hashem
ba'avur she'anuchnu baneihem, ubenoseihem, acheihem,ve'achoseihem
nodrim tzedakah be'ad hazkaras nishmoseihem
beGan Eden beGan Eden t'hei menuchasam.
Lachein Ba'al Harachamim yastiram beseiser kanafav le'olamim,
veyitzror veyitzror betzror hachayim es nishmasam,
Ad-noi hu nachalasam, veyanucham beshalom al mishkavam,
venomar Amen"


"God, full of mercy, Who dwells on high,
grant proper rest under the wings of the Divine Presence,
in the lofty levels
of the holy and pure ones,
who shine like the glory of the firmament
for the soul of our brothers the Jewish people,
the holy and pure, who fell at the hands of murderers,
whose blood was spilled
in Auschwitz, in Majdanek, in Treblinka
and the other camps of destruction in Europe,
who were slain, burned, and slaughtered,
and who were buried alive with extreme cruelty
for the sanctification of the Divine Name.
For we, their sons, their daughters, their brothers, and their sisters,
will contribute to charity in remembrance of their souls.
May their resting place be in Paradise--
therefore may the Master of Mercy shelter them beneath His wings for eternity
and may He bind their souls in the Bond of Life.
God is their inheritance,
and may they repose in peace in their resting place.
Now let us say-- Amen"

Leo Strauss



América



CLICAR

Susannah Heschel


"A Conversation with Susannah Heschel"

16 de maio de 2014

Vida



A five-month-old orphaned elephant calf holds a vigil by the body of his dead mother in Samburu, Kenya. Worried that the five-month-old might succumb to cold or be targeted by predators, keepers from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Kenya Wildlife Service and Save the Elephants worked through the night to capture the bull - who stubbornly refused to leave his mother's side. Vets were eventually able to tranquillise the youngster in the early hours of the morning, before driving him to the Samburu airstrip, and then flying him to his new home at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in the Nairobi National Park. After the flight, the severely dehydrated calf was driven to the orphanage, where keepers quenched his thirst with some milk and water. Some of the other 30 orphans at the nursery were brought in to welcome and comfort the new arrival, who was named Sokotei. And despite the shock of his new surroundings, it wasn't long before the grieving calf was making new friends. An autopsy later revealed that Sokotei's mother, an elephant known as Cherie, died due to a serious internal infection caused by a twisted gut.

14 de maio de 2014

Chanukah



"The Hidden Story of Chanukah", Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Walter Kaufmann



Hoje



Adolf Eichmann, a key party in implementing of Hitler's "final solution," was captured by agents of the Israeli "Mossad" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eichmann was in charge of all transportation required for the shipment of Jews to the extermination camps. The height of his career was reached in Hungary in 1944, when he managed to transport 400,000 Jews to the gas chambers in less than five weeks.
After the war, Eichmann fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him on May 11, 1960 and smuggled him out of the country to stand trial in Jerusalem for his crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
During the four months of the trial over one hundred witnesses testified against him. Eichmann took the stand and used the defense that he was just obeying orders. "Why me," he asked. "Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the death camps. Everybody killed the Jews."
Eichmann was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to death and hanged at Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962.

(Chabad)

13 de maio de 2014

Brasil



João Gilberto, "Águas de Março" (1973)


"É pau, é pedra, é o fim do caminho
É um resto de toco, é um pouco sozinho
É um caco de vidro, é a vida, é o sol
É a noite, é a morte, é o laço, é o anzol
É peroba do campo, é o nó da madeira
Caingá, candeia, é o Matita Pereira
É madeira de vento, tombo da ribanceira
É o mistério profundo, é o queira ou não queira
É o vento ventando, é o fim da ladeira
É a viga, é o vão, festa da cumueira
É a chuva chovendo, é conversa ribeira
Das águas de março, é o fim da canseira
É o pé, é o chão, é a marcha estradeira
Passarinho na mão, pedra de atiradeira
É uma ave no céu, é uma ave no chão
É um regato, é uma fonte, é um pedaço de pão
É o fundo do poço, é o fim do caminho
No rosto o desgosto, é um pouco sozinho
É um estrepe, é um prego, é uma ponta, é um ponto
É um pingo pingando, é uma conta, é um conto
É um peixe, é um gesto, é uma prata brilhando
É a luz da manhã, é o tijolo chegando
É a lenha, é o dia, é o fim da picada
É a garrafa de cana, o estilhaço na estrada
É o projeto da casa, é o corpo na cama
É o carro enguiçado, é a lama, é a lama
É um passo, é uma ponte, é um sapo, é uma rã
É um resto de mato, na luz da manhã
São as águas de março fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida no teu coração
É uma cobra, é um pau, é João, é José
É um espinho na mão, é um corte no pé
São as águas de março fechando o verão,
É a promessa de vida no teu coração
É pau, é pedra, é o fim do caminho
É um resto de toco, é um pouco sozinho
É um passo, é uma ponte, é um sapo, é uma rã
É um belo horizonte, é uma febre terçã
São as águas de março fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida no teu coração
Pau, pedra, fim, caminho
Resto, toco, pouco, sozinho
Caco, vidro, vida, sol, noite, morte, laço, anzol
São as águas de março fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida no teu coração"

Vida



"The 50 Years War: Israel And The Arabs"



(1/2)

(2/2)
PBS, 1999
 

Robert Alter


"On Modern Hebrew and Israeli Literature"

Nietzsche



12 de maio de 2014

Bob Dylan


"The Times They Are A Changin'" (1964)


"Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin".

Palestina


Jordan River with Bedouin (Beginning of 20th century)

Parokhet


Itália (1676)

Abraham Joshua Heschel



"We are concerned with the problem of man because he is a being afflicted with contradictions and perplexities, because he is not completely a part of his environment. A good horse, properly cared for, lives as a part of his habitat and is unencumbered by problems. In sharp contrast, man is a problem intrinsically and under all circumstances. To be human is to be a problem, and the problem expresses itself in anguish, in the mental suffering of man. Every human being has at least a vague notion, image, or dream of what humanity ought to be, of how human nature ought to act. The problem of man is occasioned by our coming upon a conflict or contradiction between existence and expectation, between what man is and what is expected of him. It is in anguish that man becomes a problem to himself. What he has long disregarded suddenly erupts in painful awareness". 

'Who is Man?' (1963)

Walter Kaufmann


"Kierkegaard and the Crisis in Religion"

9 de maio de 2014

Vida


Emperor tamarin 

Yizkor



As a people, we stand silent and remember. As a family, we stand silent and remember my brother-in-law, Arele Katz, z”l, who died when his plane was shot down over the skies of Lebanon, 32 years ago this July.
Yizkor – I remember.
I remember – the tragedy that accompanies the gift which is Israel. Our return did not follow the prophetic script. God did not pave the highway, nor did God alone defeat our foes. The blood and heroism of our family members did. I do not merely owe a prayer of thanks but a debt which I can never repay. That debt forever haunts me and obligates me.
I remember – that the joy of victory is diluted by pain. War is at times necessary, but it always remains a necessary evil. Its end can at times justify its means, but can never erase its horrific price.
I remember – that if we are to be a free and sovereign people in our homeland we have to unfortunately at times be willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice. We, too, like Abraham, have to be willing to offer our children, not for a senseless and immoral test of loyalty, but rather as a consequence of living in an unredeemed world.
I remember – Arele, and am obligated to do everything in my power to ensure that no other death be an unnecessary one, that no war be an unjust one. Anyone who saves one life, has saved a whole world, and anyone who takes one, has destroyed a whole world.
I remember – Arele and the tens of thousands of Areles on both sides. Enough is enough. His and their deaths obligate us to find another way.
I remember – Arele. There are no “those who have died.” The dead don’t constitute a community. Each one is an individual who was ripped out of their families and away from their friends. Death is the most un-personalizing of events. In one’s grave, one is faceless. It is the living and in the living that one’s identity, who one was, and what one did, is preserved.
I remember – that it is hard to remember. As the years pass, memories fade, and it is easy to forget the tragedy. While part of us struggles to remember, part of us struggles to move on. Forgetfulness is a blessing but also a curse.
I remember – that some of us move on and some of us do not. For my sister, there are scars and pain and loneliness that are permanent. For Arele’s children, the consequences of his death will forever mark their lives. Some of us move on, but we must remember, that some cannot, and it is for us to stand at their side.
I remember – that Arele is still 32 years old. Time has passed, and as we have gotten older, he remains frozen in time. There are 32 years of life that he did not live, 32 years of experiences that he did not share. It’s hard to tell who has suffered more.
I remember – the importance of mourning. Noble circumstances may ennoble the dead, but in the end they don’t give it meaning. Mourning reminds us that death obligates sadness and silence. That it be allowed to be, a blackness without light, a hole that must be forever a part of our life.
I remember – Arele, but I am not alone. I am blessed to be in the midst of a people who even if they did not know him, are saddened by his death and mourn with me. Every year our family’s life comes to a stop. Every year, we re-experience the power and comfort of living in the midst of a people who do not forget.
I remember – Arele the Cohen, who loved to bless our people. May your memory be a blessing, and may our people and the whole world be blessed with peace.

Donniel Hartman 

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/yizkor-i-remember/

Napoleão



"The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries", Jacques-Louis David (1812)

Plantas


A valerian flower