לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה כֵן, לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ: כִּי כָל-תּוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵא, עָשׂוּ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם--כִּי גַם אֶת-בְּנֵיהֶם וְאֶת-בְּנֹתֵיהֶם, יִשְׂרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם.
It may be hard to imagine, but several thousand years ago people sacrificed their children on altars to gods. Here the Torah teaches us that is not right, not proper. We might think, how could anyone do such a thing, burn their children alive as a sacrifice, but there are archaeological findings that show this really did happen.
I read this while sitting in shul, listening to Parshat Re’eh, the Torah portion for the past week. And I spoke with a friend, an older friend who has had many experiences in life. She said that pasuk can be open to many interpretations, but she thinks of her friends whose children did not stay in the Jewish world, who married out. She feels they sacrificed their children. I think of this occurring today in a more concrete way, as unfortunately some children are taught at a very young age (5) to hate, to hold a gun, to kill, to blow themselves up and be a martyr and to kill as many Jews as possible in the process. See summer camp in Gaza.
I’m going to try to write something about the parsha each week, though that has proven to be a difficult task. Some weeks are so busy one can’t even think straight. Other weeks, I get a chance to look at the parsha, but I can’t find one particular theme that motivates me enough to write a post. I’ll keep working at this. It should get easier, one would think, the more years one tries to write about the parsha.
Oh, and Gila did a wonderful job on this week’s Haveil Havalim.
This past week we (my daughter, my middle son, and I) spent some time at Jill‘s. We all painted. Jill spent a lot of time with my daughter; this was her second art lesson with Jill. My middle son has been taking classes with Jill for about one year. I finally finished my broccoli painting (see my broccoli drawing), which I started months ago:
Here’s the ballerina that my daughter painted:
I finished my broccoli painting before my daughter finished hers, so I did this sketch:
This is my son’s artwork:
My son is excited about surrealism (Jill taught him about Salvador Dali).
What do you see in his painting?
Views of the area near the Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, in Northern Israel: I took these photos in late June while on our two week trip to Israel. The top one shows the hills of the Golan, with cars on the right parked near a Kinneret beach. Before Israel took over the Golan Heights in 1967, snipers would shoot down at the inhabitants of this area indiscriminately. The middle one shows the lake itself, with the Golan Heights in the distance. The bottom one is the beach at Ginosar, a resort on the Sea of Galilee. The old boat one sees gives tours on the lake; as this area is important to both Jews and Christians, I wonder if they tell one set of stories to Jews and another to Christians? And what do the Japanese tourists hear?
For more Skywatch participants, please visit:
Update: if you want to hear a little more about the tourist tales, please read my comments below (comment #16, #20, #34). I love all the interest! Wish I could take more photos of Israel.
Yesterday this painting, “Contemplating a Stream”, made its debut on the blog of A Simple Jew. Today I will tell you a bit more about the painting. It is a copy of a watercolor by John Singer Sargent, one of the great masters of watercolor. Next week another watercolor will be shown, that one a copy of a painting by another great American watercolorist, Winslow Homer.
One of the best ways to learn art is to copy great artists. That is why in the 19th century so many Americans went to Europe. Nowadays, we have reproductions in books and online. By copying both of these painters, I learned so much about how to describe water with paint. I hope I can use some of my talents toward making a watercolor of one of my canoe photographs.
Click on the painting to see it enlarged.
What do you suppose the man is thinking?
Read this post to find out why I chose this man by the water theme.
In many public places in Israel one can find art. Above is a detail of a mosaic at Rosh Hanikra.
Even mailboxes (at left, mailbox in Tsefat) and utility boxes (at right, in Jerusalem) are often decorated with beautiful, colorful paintings.
We were introduced to the art of Sol Baskin at the military museum in Latrun. I believe the large painting at the bottom is of the Six Day War.
Ginosar, a resort on the Kinneret, has a sculpture garden. And too much green grass, considering water is in short supply in Israel.
The above realistic mural is on a building on Rechov Yaffo, Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Depicted is the light rail train that is under construction and will run in the city.
There are some wonderful art museums in Israel (Tel Aviv Museum, Israel Museum), but we didn’t get a chance to visit these on our recent trip. We did, however, go into the above building, which is the original building for the Bezalel School of Art. It now has art exhibits on each floor of the building.
On Loss
Received a treasured thank you note in response to the card I sent.
Here’s a quote from the card (Habakuk 2:4):
“The righteous shall live through his faith”
צַדִּיק, בֶּאֱמוּנָתוֹ יִחְיֶה
On Community
I am thankful that I belong to a wonderful community here in Highland Park, both the Jewish community and my little borough as a whole. I am glad Batya, Jack, SoccerDad (good philosophy joke here) and Jameel believe there is a Jewish community online, because I value it very much, as I express myself better on my keyboard than I do verbally. And I love all the wonderful bloggers I have met, of many backgrounds and from a multitude of countries.
On one post RivkA with a capital A of Coffee and Chemo wrote:
If you comment, you are a part of the community.
On Loss and Community
Community is especially important at a time of loss. This morning, a blogger Twittered that she had lost a favorite aunt. I expressed my sadness to her in a responding Tweet. (If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm leoraw). Online community can be special; it can be a way of saying, hey, I'm having a hard time here. Does anyone else get this? And hopefully, someone does.
Art fans: please visit A Simple Jew today for a little treat. I’m planning to post the painting here on my blog tomorrow.
This was sort of like an art challenge, similar to the photo challenges one finds on blogs. It started with his asking me to write something, but I wanted to paint something.
Here’s a quote he sent to me as a suggestion:
The Degel Machaneh Ephraim taught that a person must have two abilities if he wants to be able to serve Hashem in absolute truth and sincerity. First, a person must have the ability to visualize that he is alone in the world with only his Creator. Second, he must be able to join himself to all of Hashem’s creations, no matter how big or small, and to all the neshamos of His people.
I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this, but after a few emails, we came up with the idea of a man in a forest near a stream contemplating. Another watercolor will be posted next week.
An elegant way to serve a tomato that I learned from my mother, z”l:
Slice the tomato. Put sweet or red onion in between each slice. Dribble with olive oil. Sprinkle with fresh basil or dried oregano (or any other favorite herb). Add salt and pepper to taste.
Other ideas:
My easy kettle method for a simple sauce: Cut slits in the skins of the tomatoes. Place in a bowl. Pour boiling water, enough to cover. Wait 15 seconds. Peel tomatoes and place in a 2nd bowl. Drink up the remaining water; I’m sure it has some nutrients in it. Chop tomatoes; add fresh basil and/or sweet onions, maybe garlic or olive oil or scallions or parsley. You can serve this on pasta, rice or fish. I ate mine with some feta cheese.
For those of you who’ve painted in traditional oils, I’m sure you’re aware of the pros and cons of this medium. I’m very excited about the newer water soluble, sometimes called water miscible oil paints.
