Rosh Hashanah

Shanah tovah u’metukah!

Howard Jacobson

Howard Jacobson on comedy, identity and the state of the world (2018)

Vida

 

A kangaroo with a joey in her pouch stands in a drought-affected paddock as rain falls on the outskirts of Dubbo, Australia

David Berman

"Nights That Won’t Happen", Purple Mountains

The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind
When the here and the hereafter momentarily align
See the need to speed into the lead suddenly declined
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind

 

And as much as we might like to seize the reel and hit rewind
Or quicken our pursuit of what we're guaranteed to find
When the dying's finally done and the suffering subsides
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind

 

Nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Time we won't spend
With each other again
With each other again

 

Ghosts are just old houses dreaming people in the night
Have no doubt about it, hon, the dead will do alright
Go contemplate the evidence and I guarantee you'll find
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind

 

Nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Nights that won't happen
Never ever again
Nights that won't happen
Never reaching the end
Nights that won't happen
Never even begin
Never even begin

 

This world is like a roadside inn and we're the guests inside
And death is a black camel that kneels down so we can ride
And when the dying's finally done and the suffering subsides
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind

 

On nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Time we won't spend
With each other again
Nights that won't happen
Never reaching the end
Nights that won't happen
We can't even begin
We can't even begin

 

Shofar

Yuval Levin

"Tradition and Freedom: Philosophy, Theology, and Literature"

Avinu Malkeinu

Avinu Malkeinu, followed by instructions for the Torah and haftarah reading service, and the blessing on the shofar; 

The Forli Siddur, folios 237v & 238r , MS 26968, Italy (1383)

וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם הַשִּׁשִּֽׁי

And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 

Genesis 1:31

(Sefaria)

Maimónides

 "Is it compatible that Maimonides is both a Jewish Rabbi and a philosophical skeptic?", Josef Stern 

Vida

Barnacle goose

Veneza

Venice, Mortier (1704)

David Wolpe

On "The Portal"

Erica Brown

"Jewish Education and the Crisis in Moral Leadership!"

Kafka

Drawing by Franz Kafka

David Berman

"Snow is Falling in Manhattan"

"Snow is falling in Manhattan
In a slow diagonal fashion
On the Sabbath, as it happens
Snow is falling in Manhattan
If it looks like it might be a bad one
The good caretaker springs to action
Salts the stoop and scoops the cat in
Tests an icy patch for traction

Snow
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa

Levels rising on the island
Shows no sign of soon subsiding
Drifting deeply down in Brooklyn
So much joy in merely looking
Inside he's got a fire crackling
And on the couch, beneath an afghan
Lies an old friend he just took in
Seeking shelter from the cold wind

Coming down in smithereens
On Staten Island, Bronx and Queens
It's blanketing the city streets
And the streets beneath are fast asleep
Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the song's design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines

Snow
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa
Snow, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, whoa

Snow is falling in Manhattan
Inside I've got a fire crackling
And on the couch, beneath an afghan
You're the old friend I just took in"

 

Cairo

"Sha'ar Hashamayim" Synagogue, Cairo, Egypt (1994)

Vida

Barnacle geese on coastal flats in Norway prepare to migrate to Svalbard
 

Amsterdão

Amsterdam, before the semi-circular ring of canals was added (circa 1544)

Job

"What is the most important message of the book of Job?", Josef Stern

Israel

 Haifa, Robert Capa (1949)

וְהִגַּדְתָּ֣ לְבִנְךָ֔ בַּיּ֥וֹם הַה֖וּא לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּעֲב֣וּר זֶ֗ה עָשָׂ֤ה יְהוָה֙ לִ֔י בְּצֵאתִ֖י מִמִּצְרָֽיִם

And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I went free from Egypt.’ 

Exodus 13:8

(Sefaria)

Triangle Shirtwaist

Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, NY (March 25, 1911)

Shai Held

(1/2)

(2/2)

("L'Chayim")

Vida

Orcas playing with swimmer at Hahei Beach, New Zealand
 

Alan Mittleman

"Being Human: Is there more to us than Body & Brain?" (2015)

Bari Weiss

TimesTalks: Bari Weiss

Amsterdão

This is the oldest city map of Amsterdam. It was created by Cornelis Anthoniszoon (in 1538)

As was the custom at the time, the city is depicted as seen from the IJ looking South. Damrak, the wide waterway in the middle of the painting, leads to what is now known as Dam Square. This is where early settlers build a dam in the river Amstel -- thereby giving Amsterdam its name, and laying the foundation for its evolution from a fishing village to a major trading port in medieval times. Beyond Dam Square lies what is now known at Rokin. The Damrak-Rokin traject separate the so-called 'Old Side' from the 'New Side'. A moat, the Singel, surrounded the city -- outside the city wall with its towers and gates -- from 1480 till 1585, when Amsterdam again expanded. To the East, here shown on the left, the moat was named Kloverniersburgwal. From what is now Niewmarkt (where to-date the structure seen on this map still stands) to the harbor it was named Geldersekade. Most of Damrak and Rokin were eventually filled in, and now form main thoroughfairs into the city. The Singel still exists, now as the inner-most canal in Amsterdam's semicircular ring of canals.

Espinosa

Ban (חֵרֶם) of Spinoza by the Portuguese Jewish synagogue "Talmud Tora", Amsterdam (27 July 1656) 

(signatures not shown)

Freud

A page from the Freud family Bible

Saul Bellow

Zachary Leader on Saul Bellow, with Martin Amis (2018)

David Berman

"That’s just the way that I feel", Purple Mountains

"Well, I don't like talkin’ to myself
But someone's gotta say it, hell
I mean, things have not been going well
This time I think I finally fucked myself
You see, the life I live is sickening
I spent a decade playing chicken with oblivion
Day to day, I'm neck and neck with giving in
I’m the same old wreck I've always been

And when I see her in the park
It barely merits a remark
How we stand the standard distance
Distant strangers stand apart

Course I've been humbled by the void
Much of my faith has been destroyed
I've been forced to watch my foes enjoy
Ceaseless feasts of schadenfreude
And as the pace of life keeps quickening
Beneath the bitching and the bickering
When I try to drown my thoughts in gin
I find my worst ideas know how to swim

Well, a setback can be a setup
For a comeback if you don't let up
But this kind of hurtin' won't heal
And the end of all wanting
Is all I've been wanting
And that’s just the way that I feel

I met failure in Australia
I fell ill in Illinois
I nearly lost my genitalia
To an anthill in Des Moines
I was so far gone in Fargo
South Dakota got annoyed
That’s the shit I'm talkin’ 'bout
When I talk to you about
Ceaseless feasts of schadenfreude

And a setback can be a setup
For a comeback if you don't let up
But this kind of hurtin' won’t heal
And the end of all wanting
Is all I've been wanting
The end of all wanting
Is all I've been wanting
The end of all wanting
Is all I've been wanting
And that's just the way that I feel"

Vida

 

Feeding birds in Saltburn-by-the-sea at sunrise are disturbed by waves breaking against the shore, in North Yorkshire, England

This July 5, 2018, photo shows the wristwatch that once belonged to Israeli spy Eli Cohen

Daniel Gordis

 

"The Rift Between American Jews & Israel"

9/11

Robert Frank ע״ה

Bat Yam

David Wolpe

"Inspiring Jewish Life" (2015)

Vida

 

A crane stands on the shore of Kivu, on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda

Marc Chagall

 "Interior with flowers", Marc Chagall (1918)

Narrativa

 "Why should philosophers, especially philosophers of religion care about narrative?", Moshe Halbertal

Eli Cohen

"The Spy", Trailer

Robert Capa

Photographer Robert Capa during the Spanish civil war (1937)

Carl Burgos

(1941)

"The Painted Bird" de Vaclav Marhoul

Trailer

Vida

 

An egg of the long-tailed blue butterfly, a fast-flying migratory butterfly from the Mediterranean 

that is appearing in large numbers across southern England this summer as a result of global heating, experts say

David Berman

"Margaritas at the Mall"

Drawn up all my findings
And I warn you they are candid
My every day begins
With reminders I've been stranded on this
Planet where I've landed
Beneath this gray as granite sky
A place I wake up blushing like I'm ashamed to be alive

How long can a world go on under such a subtle god?
How long can a world go on with no new word from God?
See the plod of the flawed individual looking for a nod from God
Trodding the sod of the visible with no new word from God

We're just drinking margaritas at the mall
That's what this stuff adds up to after all
Magenta, orange, acid green
Peacock blue and burgundy
Drinking margaritas at the mall

Standing in the shadows of the signpost on the road
50 gates of understanding, 49 are closed
Yes, I guess this time I really hit that number on the nose
What I'd give for an hour with the power on the throne

How long can a world go on under such a subtle god?
How long can a world go on with no new word from God?
See the plod of the flawed individual looking for a nod from God
Trodding the sod of the visible with no new word from God

We're just drinking margaritas at the mall
This happy hour's got us by the balls
Magenta, orange, acid green
Peacock blue and burgundy
Drinking margaritas at the mall
We're drinking margaritas at the mall
Drinking margaritas at the mall

שֵׁ֤שֶׁת יָמִים֙ תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה מַעֲשֶׂ֔יךָ וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י תִּשְׁבֹּ֑ת לְמַ֣עַן יָנ֗וּחַ שֽׁוֹרְךָ֙ וַחֲמֹרֶ֔ךָ וְיִנָּפֵ֥שׁ בֶּן־אֲמָתְךָ֖ וְהַגֵּֽר

Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your bondman and the stranger may be refreshed. 

Exodus 23:12 

(Sefaria)

Rembrandt

"Balaam and the Ass", Rembrandt (1626)

AMIA

"Argentina Jewish Center Bombing unpunished 25 years later" (1994)

Segunda Guerra Mundial

 The Majer family from Belgrade, in a happy moment before the Second World War; 19 people in the photograph were murdered in the Holocaust

Yad Vashem marks 80th anniversary of start of WWII with a online exhibit: Eighty years have passed since the start of the World War Two on September 1, 1939, an anniversary being marked by Yad Vashem with a new online exhibition, portraying the experiences of a dozen Jewish families in those first months, when they had no way of knowing the events that were going to unfold.

 

Vida

 

A photo taken with a macro lens of lubber grasshoppers on a leaf in Karura Forest, Nairobi, Kenya

Espinosa

"Spinoza and Menasseh ben Israel: Facts and Fictions";

"Spinoza’s Ethics as a Theological-Political Treatise"

Steven Nadler (2019)

Alfred Dreyfus

"An Officer and a Spy", Roman Polanski (clip)