20 de agosto de 2018

Martha Nussbaum


"The Monarchy of Fear" (2018)

Ugarit


The ruins of Ugarit (Syria)

Torah


"There are four basic assumptions shared by all ancient biblical interpreters:

  1. The belief that the Torah is a fundamentally cryptic text, so that when it says A it often really means B;
  2. The assumption that the Torah is a perfect text, without any internal contradictions or even any unnecessary words;
  3. The idea that, although the words of the Torah were uttered in the past and in a specific historical setting, those words are nonetheless directed to us today, teaching us what to do and think; and
  4. The idea that the Torah is a divinely given text from start to finish—not just the parts that are explicitly labeled as divine speech, “And the Lord said to Moses…” and the like, but every single word.

All four of these assumptions might be described nowadays as counter-intuitive, in the sense that they are not what we generally assume about, for example, the laws of Hammurabi or the Legend of King Keret or other writings from the ancient Near East—and, more to the point, they’re not what modern scholars generally assume about the Pentateuch. But they are what people came to assume about the Torah, and ultimately this changed the meaning of the text as a whole. It also became a mark of the Torah’s specialness. The Torah was the Book, the profound, unitary, and eternally valid revelation of divine truth, and the fact that it was interpreted in these special ways only vouchsafed its unique standing."

James Kugel in "Not a Naive Reading: An Interview with Prof. James Kugel" (here)  

14 de agosto de 2018

12 de agosto de 2018


It was late evening when K. arrived. The village lay deep in snow. Nothing could be seen of Castle Hill, it was wrapped in mist and darkness, not a glimmer of light hinted at the presence of the great castle. K. stood for a long while on the wooden bridge that led from the main road to the village, gazing up into the seeming emptiness.

"The Castle", Kafka (beginning)

Vida


Peacock Spider

"O Polícia" de Nadav Lapid




"The Policeman" ("HaShoter"): Trailer 

11 de agosto de 2018


If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner—and he gives you a sign or a portent, and the sign or portent that he named to you comes true—saying, “Let us follow other gods—whom you have not known—and worship them,” do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For YHWH your God is testing you to see whether you really love YHWH your God with all your heart and soul.

Deuteronomy 13, 2-4

Jerusalém



A gold Hellenistic-era earring unearthed in the City of David’s Givati Parking Lot excavations 
belonged to an upper class man or woman in Jerusalem (2nd or 3rd century BCE)

"Les Quatre Soeurs" de Claude Lanzmann



Trailer

9 de agosto de 2018

Primo Levi


"Back to Auschwitz" (1983)

Ludwig Wittgenstein


"Wittgenstein's Beetle in a Box Analogy"

Vida


 A king penguin colony on Ile aux Cochon, part of Frances Iles Crozet archipelago

The world’s largest colony of king penguin has declined by nearly 90 percent in three decades, researchers report
Recent satellite image show the population has collapsed, with barely 200,000 remaining 

4 de agosto de 2018

23 de julho de 2018

Houdini


"Straight Jacket Escape"


All who possess these three things,
praise as disciples of our father Abraham.
But if these three other things,
they are disciples of the wicked Balaam.
A good eye, a humble spirit, and a forbearing soul -
a disciple of our father Abraham.
A bad eye, a haughty spirit, and a greedy soul -
A disciple of the wicked Balaam.

Avot 5:22
  

Rembrandt


"Belshazzar's Feast" (1638)

18 de julho de 2018

Menorah


 "Menorahs in Ancient Israel", Steven Fine

Memória



"Jewish Cultural Memory & Its Multiple Configurations", Paul Mendes-Flohr (2001)


The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Start out and make your way to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates. 

Deuteronomy 1, 6-7
 

15 de julho de 2018

Tanach


"Teaching the Tanach", Rabbi Benjamin Lau 

Vida


Cobalt-winged Parakeets in Yasuní national park, Ecuador.


The day is short and the work much; the workers are lazy and the wages high; and the Master of the house presses.

Avot 2:20

12 de julho de 2018

Sinagoga de Huqoq


 
A mosaic found in the 2018 Huqoq excavation is labeled 'a pole between two' and depicts a biblical scene from Numbers 13-23. 
The images show two spies sent by Moses to explore Canaan carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes.

Direitos Humanos


Leora Batnitzky (and Anver Emon)

Akedah


"Abraham and Isaac", William Blake (1800)

11 de julho de 2018

Rabbi Arthur Green


(2016)


To be elsewhere - the great vice of this race, its great and secret virtue, the great vocation of this people. Any crossing for them means the crossing of the desert. The most comfortable houses, the best built from stones as big as the temples pillars, the most real of real estate, the most overwhelming of apartment houses will never mean more to them than a tent in the desert.

Charles Péguy, "Basic Verities"

Vida


A dolphin in the coastal waters of Musandam, Gulf of Oman 
 

4 de julho de 2018

1 de julho de 2018

"Fauda"



Trailer (Season 1)

Vida



A Dixie Valley toad at a laboratory in Reno, Nevada. 
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to consider Endangered Species Act protection for the toad, which was only recently discovered

Selichot


Selichot at the western wall