The game of dreidel (yiddish – the Hebrew is sivivon) is associated with Chanukah because when the Assyrian Greeks came to see if the Jews were studying Torah, a practice which was banned, the Jews would take out the spinning top and play that game instead. The four Hebrew letters on the dreidel are Nun, Gimel, Heh and Shin – short for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham (a great miracle happened there). In Israel the dreidel has a Peh instead of the Shin, for Nes Gadol Hayah Po (a great miracle happened here).
There is a game with the dreidel that involves pennies and taking the pot of pennies if you get a gimel, giving it in if you get a shin, half the pot for heh, but it is all luck. My kids just spin them and spin them and spin them. What do you do with your dreidels?
I did the above drawing with black marker, then I colored it in with Photoshop. I promised my daughter she could color in the original with colored pencil. If she does, I will post that version as well.
Welcome to JPiX – the Jewish Photo Blogger’s Blog Carnival, Fall 2011 edition. Thanks to everyone who participated. We have a village in France, Rosh Hashana challah, Kfar Adumim, an olive oil factory, havdalah, a Jewish wedding, a lion in Jerusalem and more.
Left to right: Ilana-Davita, G6 and Wing Chun Jew (aka Jacob da Jew):
Batya:
Chosid’s Blog (Leah):
Real Jerusalem Streets (Sharon):
Cosmic X:
Mrs. S:
Leora:
I hope you will take the time to visit the photographers’ blogs and leave comments. The next JPiX will be in the spring. If you want to participate, please submit an entry here. If you are brave enough to volunteer to host, please contact me, and we can discuss the details.
Last week I saw this brown mourning dove wander about in my yard.
Soon after he noticed that I was following him (her?) around with my camera, he settled on this high phone wire in the back of my yard.
Oh, by the way, did you know that Noah sent out a dove: “And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.” But before the dove, he sent out a raven. I didn’t have any ravens showing up in my back yard.
My neighbor’s burning bush is quite spectacular – bright red at this time of year. Ah, another Biblical reference, except the burning bush doesn’t show up in the weekly Torah reading until winter time.
Here’s the how the dry oak leaf hydrangea flower looks – this photo was taken the same day as the red hydrangea leaf photos.
Note that this post is not called The Diamond in the Window (book by Jane Langton). It’s a post about Noah, who was considered a righteous man in his generation.
So here’s the question: was Noah a righteous individual who might have not been so great in a different generation or was a shining light unto all the generations? And why is he looking at this diamond?
Or maybe he’s really looking out the window:
For the answer to these and other tantalizing questions, you will have to visit my friend’s Harry’s post Noach – Is righteousness relative?
The illustrations of Noah with diamond and window were executed by me (with some critical helpful feedback from my daughter) with pen, ink, and then a lot of playing in Photoshop. The aim was whimsical and playful.
Etrog, watercolor on paper by Leora Wenger, October 2011
What is beauty? Is it the Doryphorus, as the Greeks believed, the young man with the slender, slightly bent posture? According to Judaism, strangely enough, the elderly are considered beautiful, as it says in Kedoshim 19:32 –
“Rise in the presence of the aged and honor the face of the old man”
מִפְּנֵי שֵׂיבָה תָּקוּם, וְהָדַרְתָּ פְּנֵי זָקֵן
Honor the face of an old man could also be translated as “ascribe beauty to the elderly.” Who has knowledge like an elderly person? Who has overcome so much and come so far?
Note the word used here: hadar. Hadar is also used to describe the etrog. Unlike other fruits, the other “lives” for a long time on the tree and does not fall off on its own. The word in Hebrew is dar, similar to hadar. Does the etrog watercolor remind one of an older person? How?
(Credit for these ideas goes to Rabbi Bassous, for helping me remember parts of his speech to my husband, and for help with locating the pasuk to my middle son).
In honor of my father, my favorite elderly person, and in memory of my aunt, my father’s older sister who died earlier this year and who lived admirably as an older person (she was also an artist). In memory of my dear mother – her yahrzeit is next week. And in memory of Linda Greenberg, who tragically lost her battle with cancer this week and will never experience old age.
May it be your will, LORD our God and God of our fathers,
that those who hate us be ended (yitamu – from tamar, dates in Aramaic)
Would you go on a date with a girl named Tamar? Tamar is the Hebrew word for date, so you can play with words and come up with some funny phrases.
If you are getting ready for Rosh Hashana, you may want to read this post: Symbols for Sweet New Year – the Simanim to double check if you got everything you need.
Last week we visited a farm and bought way too many apples. So anyone have any good apple recipe ideas? I’ve already made apple cake (I skipped the nuts), and I plan to make apple pie. I cooked some apples with raspberries for my daughter last week when she wasn’t feeling well (no added sugar – I’ve been convincing her sugar is no good for the healing process).
Here’s a link to Flamingo Musings’ brisket. She soaks hers in coffee. I’ve done wine in the past. My kids don’t like when I use a lot of cloves. Hers has no cloves. It does have garlic cloves. That would work for them.
I’m planning to make a Moroccan carrot salad – the kind where you steam the carrots briefly, then add the spices and bits of parsley at the end. My middle son said he is mostly likely to eat the simanim for carrots if the carrots are cooked, so I’ll leave some unspiced in the hopes our children will join us for this one.
I saw a recipe for quinoa salad among Rosh Hashana recipes in a local paper – it had pomegranate seeds and nuts. I will skip the nuts, as it is our family custom not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. Do you eschew nuts for this holiday, or are you like some of my friends who poo poo this custom as superstition or plain false?
Zucchini (or squash or gourds) are one of the simanim. Ordinarily, I would cook the zucchini (we have some new baby zucchini growing in front of our house, just in time for the holiday) with onions, but it seems more appropriate to skip the onions for the simanim dish. I will add some spices to some sauteed zucchini. No point in trying to get my kids to eat zucchini unless disguised in a cake.
More side dish ideas: as a friend who is a vegetarian will come one of the days (when I am serving meat), I will consider making kasha with mushrooms and onions. Maybe potato salad, too – that could be a side dish at any meal.
Finally, I might try Mrs. S.’s blondies. At first, I was tempted in my mind to add blueberries (before carefully reading the recipe and realizing this would be a vulgar addition). But as this is really for my kids, chocolate chips will remain the only flavoring.
Elul: Shofar, ram's horn blown during Elul and on Rosh Hashana and at Yom Kippur's end
The Jewish month of Elul started last week, and it is a special month in the Jewish calendar.
Shofar in Elul
One does not have have to wait for Rosh Hashana to hear the shofar. Every morning (except on Shabbat) it is blown in the synagogue. If you are fortunate to attend a Jewish day school, you may hear it blown in school. In Elul shofar is an important reminder and symbol.
Repentance in Elul
Elul is known as a month of repentance (in Hebrew: tshuva – more explanation of tshuva would require a whole book). Introspection and reconciliation are themes of this period. For example, I like how the family of Ima 2 Seven is using this as a time to be kind (one would hope the trait will continue beyond Elul).
Mrs. S. reminds us: “Sephardim begin reciting Slichot (the penitential prayers) at the start of the month. Ashkenazim wait until closer to Rosh Hashanah.”
Food in Elul
Ah, finally, you say. Some are already prepping for the holidays ahead (see challot by G6). I’m trying to remember the simanim or symbolic foods to display on the Rosh Hashana table:
Fox standing in the ruins… too much color. I copy the layer, desaturate, make it a revealing mask, highlight the fox, select the inverse, and allow all color to come through for the fox but not for the rest of the painting.
Now the fox stands out in the grayed background.
The story:
Shortly after the destruction of the second temple, a group of rabbis went to visit Jerusalem or what was left of it after the Roman conquest. When they saw the destruction, they ripped their clothes in mourning. On getting closer, they saw a fox coming out from the site of the holiest part of the Temple. This was too much for the rabbis. They all broke out crying. Rabbi Akiva, however, started to laugh. “Why are you laughing?” they asked, in amazement. He replied: “now that the destruction prophecy of Micha has been fulfilled, we may look forward to the prophecy of Zecharia that Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt!”
Mrs. S. adds: ‘The end of the story is that the other rabbis said in response, “Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.”‘ (thank you, Mrs. S.)
If I have time tomorrow, I’m going to put up a post telling the story of Rabbi Akiva and the fox with cartoon bubbles – update: no time this morning and no energy this afternoon – I’ll aim for next summer.
