Iraque

"History and Memory: The Jews of Iraq", Mark R. Cohen

Menasseh ben Israel

"Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel", Rembrandt, Amsterdam (1636)

Jews had been exiled from England in 1290 but in 1656, following an intercession by Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam, Oliver Cromwell concluded that there was in fact no legal barrier to Jews living there. So for the first time since the thirteenth century Jews were able to worship openly.

Vida

 

  Three orcas dive through the Salish Sea in San Juan Island, Washington, United States, 

showing off their stunning aerial skills, with dorsal fin slaps and belly flops

Maimónides

"How Rambam Read the Rabbis and How Rabbis Read Rambam", Menahem Kellner

Gene Wilder ע״ה

Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

Bob Dylan

"Jokerman"

Standing on the waters casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing
Distant ships sailing into the mist,
You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

So swiftly the sun sets in the sky,
You rise up and say goodbye to no one
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,
Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don't show why
Shedding off one more layer of skin,
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

You're a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds,
Manipulator of crowds, you're a dream twister
You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain't nobody there would want to marry your sister
Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame,
You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy,
The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers
In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed,
Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features
Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space,
Half asleep near the stars with a small dog licking your face

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

Well, the rifleman's stalking the sick and the lame,
Preacherman seeks the same, who'll get there first is uncertain
Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks,
Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain,
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin,
Only a matter of time 'til night comes steppin' in

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

It's a shadowy world, skies are slippery gray,
A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet
He'll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat,
Take the motherless children off the street
And place them at the feet of a harlot
Oh, Jokerman, you know what he wants,
Oh, Jokerman, you don't show any response

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

 

Mar Morto

“The Salt Bride,” the latest project by Israeli artist Sigalit Landau: It turns out an amazing thing happens to traditional black Hasidic dresses when submerged in the Dead Sea for three months: 
They turn white and start sparkling with encrusted salt crystals. 

Grécia

 

The Athena Giustiniani, a Roman copy of a Greek statue of Pallas Athena with her serpent, Erichthonius

"Fiddler On The Roof"

"Sunrise Sunset"

Vida

  

A group of baby spotted hyenas emerge from their den in Liuwa Plain national park, Zambia

Modigliani

"Nu Couché au Coussin Bleu" (1916)

Ludwig Wittgenstein

"A Wonderful Life"

David Oistrakh

"Chaconne",  T. A. Vitali

Iluminismo

"The Enlightenment and the Public Sphere" (Yale)

^{משלי ו:כ} נְצֹ֣ר בְּ֭נִי מִצְוַ֣ת אָבִ֑יךָ וְאַל תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ תּוֹרַ֥ת אִמֶּֽךָ:
^ו:כא קָשְׁרֵ֣ם עַל לִבְּךָ֣ תָמִ֑יד עָ֝נְדֵ֗ם עַל גַּרְגְּרֹתֶֽךָ:
^ו:כב בְּהִתְהַלֶּכְךָ׀ תַּנְחֶ֬ה אֹתָ֗ךְ בְּ֭שָׁכְבְּךָ תִּשְׁמֹ֣ר עָלֶ֑יךָ וַ֝הֲקִיצ֗וֹתָ הִ֣יא תְשִׂיחֶֽךָ:

Proverbs 6:20:   Keep, my son, your father's precepts, forsake not your mother's teaching.
Proverbs 6:21:   Bind them always upon your heart, tie them about your throat. 
Proverbs 6:22:   When you walk about it will guide you, when you lie down it will watch over you, when you wake up it will converse with you.   
  

Palestina

"Israel Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About the West Bank",

Danny Ayalon

"The Truth about Israel", Danny Ayalon

Vida

  

A rare pygmy elephant with tusks growing downwards instead of up 

to give it a look like a sabre-toothed tiger has been found in Borneo island, Malaysia

Estados Unidos da América

 “A Portrait of Jewish Americans”, Pew Research Center (2013)

Abraham Sutzkever

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Rabbi Edward Feinstein

Censura

Three versions of the frontispiece of Rabbi Menahem Abraham Rapa Porto’s "Minchah Belulah": 

Left: The original coat of arms, Verona, 1594. 

Middle: With the mermaids clothed, Bnei Brak, 1989. 

Right: With the mermaids transformed into men, Bnei Brak, 2010.

(The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

To see more: click Here.

Síria

A picture drawn by a Syrian child

Ludwig Wittgenstein

 John Searle on Ludwig Wittgenstein (1987)

Vida

  A blue shark surfaces near Santa Maria in the Azores

Itzhak Perlman

"Tati un Mama Tants" ("Mom and Dad's Dance")

Amy-Jill Levine

"From Donation to Diatribe: How Anti-Jewish Interpretation Cashes Out"

Casamento

 

This rare ketubbah celebrates the symbolic union between God, the bridegroom, and the People of Israel, the bride. 

This spiritual wedding takes place on the holiday of Shavuot, and the witnesses are the Heavens and the Earth. Italy (17th-18th century)

Susan Neiman

"Past Evils, Present Problems"

Gracia Nasi

Medal of Gracia Nasi's niece, Beatrice (Ferrara, Italy, 1558)

Fyvush Finkel ע״ה

 Fyvush Finkel's last interview

Vida

  Three swans swim the Landwehr channel in Berlin

Coração

Sigmund Freud

"Freud's Helplessness", Adam Phillips

Chaim Soutine

"Eva" (1928)

Daniel Matt

"Wheat and The Four Levels of Torah Study"

Escravos

"The Atlantic Slave Trade" (Anthony Hazard)

Yehuda Amichai

 "Celebration of Yehuda Amichai"

Vida

400 year old Greenland shark is the oldest vertebrate animal

Berlim

Berlin, July 1945

John Zorn

"Night Thoughts"

Chaim Soutine

"Les Maisons" (1921)

Médio Oriente

"Whose War?: Syria, the West and the Rest" 

(Lennart Meri Conference 2016)

אֵת

"Adam, Eve and The Zohar", Daniel Matt 

Bildad the Shuhite said in reply:

How long will you speak such things?
Your utterances are a mighty wind!
Will God pervert the right?
Will the Almighty pervert justice?
If your sons sinned against Him,
He dispatched them for their transgression.
But if you seek God
And supplicate the Almighty,
If you are blameless and upright,
He will protect you,
And grant well-being to your righteous home.
Though your beginning be small,
In the end you will grow very great.

Ask the generation past,
Study what their fathers have searched out -
For we are of yesterday and know nothing;
Our days on earth are a shadow -
Surely they will teach you and tell you,
Speaking out of their understanding.
Can papyrus thrive without marsh?
Can rushes grow without water?
While still tender, not yet plucked,
They would wither before any other grass,
Such is the fate of all who forget God;
The hope of the impious man comes to naught -
Whose confidence is a thread of gossamer,
Whose trust is a spider's web.
He leans on his house - it will not stand;
He seizes hold of it, but it will not hold.
He stays fresh even in the sun;
His shoots spring up in his garden;
His roots are twined around a heap,
They take hold of a house of stones.
When he is uprooted from his place,
It denies him, [saying,]
"I never saw you."
Such is his happy lot;
And from the earth others will grow.
Surely God does not despise the blameless;
He gives no support to evildoers,
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
And your lips with shouts of joy.
Your enemies will be clothed in disgrace;
The tent of the wicked will vanish.

Job 8
(JPS)

Vida

Adult male Spiny Flower Mantis (Threat pose)

Tisha B'Av

Singing at the Kotel 

Nineveh

 

Bronze head of a king, perhaps Sargon of Akkad, from Nineveh (now in Iraq)

 Akkadian period, (c. 2300 BCE) in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad.

Jesus da Nazaré

(1/3)

(2/3)

(3/3)

"How Jesus Became God", Bart Ehrman

Itzhak Perlman

 

"Vi ahin soll ich geyn?" ("Where shall I go?")

Norman Podhoretz

"Reflections of a Jewish Neoconservative"

Benjamim de Tudela

The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela

Vida

A bee on a flower

Farhud

Bagdade (1941)

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis

Oxford Union

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.

Deuteronomy, 34:7
(JPS)

Rio Tigre

 

Picturesque homes of wealthy Jews along the Tigris River in North Baghdad, Mesopotamia.

Note the woman in the window and the boat, a "kufas" row boat on the Tigris.

Christine Hayes

"Forms of Jewish Identity: Biology, Covenant and Memory", II

Eddie Rosner

"Bei mir bist du schön", Paris (1938)

Vida

"La Maison Sublime"

 L’École rabbinique de Rouen (XIIe siècle)

Benjamim de Tudela

Benjamin of Tudela in the Sahara (12th-century)

Rav Soloveitchik

"On the Avodah of Yom Kippur"

The Klezmatics

"Romanian Fantasy"

Marianne Ihlen

Greek island of Hydra (1960)

Bagdade

"The Last Jews of Baghdad", CNN (2004)

Vida

Norman Podhoretz

"Conversations with History" (1999)

I believe sometimes.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Denkbewegungen"

Histórias

"The Stories We Tell About Ourselves", Melila Hellner Eshed

Egipto

Drawing of Fustat (1906)

Agar

"Hagar in the desert", Marc Chagall (1960)

Judaísmo

Moshe Halbertal (2013)

Vida

Jewelled flower mantis

Shavuot

"A Tale of Two Women", Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Judaism is a non-coincidence with its time, within coincidence: in the radical sense of the term, it is an anachronism, the simultaneous presence of a youth that is attentive to reality and impatient to change it, and an old age that has seen it all and is returning to the origin of things. The desire to conform to one's time is not the supreme imperative for a human, but is already a characteristic expression of modernism itself; it involves renouncing interiority and truth, resigning oneself to death, and, in base souls, being satisfied with jouissance. Monotheism and its moral revelation constitute the concrete fulfillment, beyond all mythology, of the primordial anachronism of the human.

Emmanuel Levinas, "Judaism and the Present", in "The Levinas Reader", pp. 256-257

Rins