A new Torah was dedicated on Sunday at Congregation Etz Ahaim, a Sephardi Orthodox synagogue in Highland Park, New Jersey. Sephardim read the Torah with the Torah scroll in an upright position, whereas Ashkenazim read the Torah scrolls placed flat on the bimah (raised platform). So the Torah cases of the Sephardim are made out of fancy metal, and the Ashkenaz ones are typically embroidered cloth.
The happy occasion was in honor of a bat-mitzvah; the bat-mitzvah girl conducted the dedication, along with her grandmother. It was a lovely community affair, and children were in attendance, including some who got rather sleepy (such as my daughter) because the ceremony was happening at their bedtimes. When they brought out all the Torah scrolls, the children woke up, with all the lively singing and dancing.
Pomegranate, watercolor on paper, 2008
This is a re-post of my pomegranate painting I did last year. The pomegranate has many seeds; some say there are as many seeds in a pomegranate as there are mitzvot in the Torah (613). Well, years ago, my brother and I counted the seeds of a pomegranate one afternoon. We put the seeds in bowls spread across the table. Then I reported back to the teacher that indeed this pomegranate had way more than 613 seeds. His response: “Did the pomegranate grown in the Land of Israel?” I responded no, as it probably grew in California. Anyway, it is customary to eat a pomegranate on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. You can read more about the symbols for Rosh Hashana in last year’s post.
For more images with a little red or a little of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
Three Squash, watercolor on paper
This coming week is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and it is traditional to put certain symbolic foods on the table (see my post from last year about the simanim). Yesterday I did this watercolor of three squashes (or simply ‘squash’ – looks like the plural can be with or without the ‘es’).
What to do with squash? One of my friends said she will make my squash into a delicious squash soup. Will she share the recipe? Hmm. I could chop up the zucchini and saute it with onions, fresh garden basil and a bit of tomato. The little pumpkin, I told my son, is too tiny for a jack o’ lantern, but I told him we could buy a bigger one for that purpose for Sukkot (holiday in three weeks). I will probably make a stuffed squash for Friday night.
Robin has been hosting Summer Stock Sunday all summer, and this week is the closing week. I couldn’t decide what to post, so I went with the 44th photo of the 44th album of my 2009 directory of photos. And here is a striking yellow and orange flowery umbrella from Sandy Hook Beach. Bye, bye summer.
I read a graphic novel called Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi today. It is a young girl’s tale about living through the Iranian Revolution. I would like to write more about the book, in another post; but I’ll first ask: have any of you ever read the book? Or seen the movie? I relate the book a bit to going to the beach, because at the beach I often find people wear less than my comfort level, and in the book, the women and girls are obligated to wear the veil (two extremes). Her story reminded me of my grandmother’s own story, of living through the Russian Revolution. Marjane, however, had it easier: at least her family had food to eat. During the starvation period, my grandmother used to tell me, she had to walk many miles in the cold Russian winter just to get a frozen potato that was often black inside. One ate what one could find.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my new “Websites for Small Biz” blog project. This morning I tried to put a fancy magazine theme on the new blog; the fancy shmancy theme crashed the blog, so I had to delete it. I will be experimenting with themes for a while on that blog. There are lots of details to fine tune on a new blog.
I am excited to have another guest blogger that I interviewed. She is from New Jersey, and she writes about: playgrounds! Come back on Wednesday to learn more.
Rosh Hashana is coming next week – for the Jewish New Year, Jews around the world are (supposed to be) preparing themselves spiritually for the day. I approach the upcoming holiday by exploring the simanim, the food symbols that we put on the table. Beets, pictured in the above watercolor, are one siman. More on the simanim next week.
Gull over the water by the beach at Cape May, New Jersey
This is probably a greater black-backed gull. Thursday Challenge theme is FLIGHT (Birds, Insects, Kites, Helicopters, Jets, Boomerang,…). Nature Notes is brought to us by Michelle of Rambling Woods. I didn’t include the nature note button this week because the colors conflicted with the photo and upset the mood.
I took so many pics of Cape May, and of course many of them have red, appropriate for Ruby Tuesday. Feel free to tell me which is your favorite of these.
Bottom left and bottom center is the Southern Mansion. Bottom right is the Chalfonte Hotel, built in 1876, which has “Victorian” air-conditioning (a special method of cooling off the large hotel with the attic windows).
For more photos with a little or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
Chalfonte Hotel, Cape May, New Jersey (built in 1876)
While I am waiting patiently for Mary to post her Ruby Tuesday Mr. Linky,
Batya posted the next edition of JPIX (the Blog Carnival of Jewish Photo Bloggers). So enjoy that while you are waiting! The next one will be in December, and I will be hosting, so, Jewish photo bloggers, please photograph upcoming Jewish holiday preparations, especially your sukkah.
I happily award James and James – both are posting beautiful photos.
The first James has recently posted he is thinking of changing his blog name to something that reflects his current interest in walking (“Views from my Walking Shoes”?).
The second James lives in nearby Newtown, Pennsylvania, and I greatly enjoy his collection of photos of familiar and less familiar locations.
Ghost of Cape May on Lafayette Street
Boo! There are two ghost tours in Cape May, New Jersey. The one above is on Lafayette Street; the other, located in an inn on Beach Avenue, calls itself the “original” ghost tour. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to go on either ghost tour (boo, hoo). My middle son, who typically likes getting scared, insisted that it would be too much history (both are walking tours). And for my daughter, who wanted to go, well, the next tour *started* at 9 pm, which is only 1/2 hour past her bedtime. And I’m afraid she *would* be scared.
Here’s the above ghost on Lafayette Street in her setting on the porch of Elaine’s Bed and Breakfast. Maybe this is Elaine?
We went into the office of original Cape May ghost tour at the Hotel Macomber, which was across the street from this dusk scene. The woman behind the counter assured my son that the tour was indeed scary, but my son didn’t take the bait.
We visited two great haunted houses when we were at Lake George a few years back. Do you have any memorable haunted house stories?
I wanted to post something fun this morning, and I stumbled upon James’ fine photo of Glenside, Pennsylvania. It turns out this was a challenge to post the fourth photo from my fourth folder and explain it. I had previously posted about these American sycamores on a Skywatch post here. The photo was taken in the depths of January winter, and I love the idea of posting off season photos.
The rules are below:
1. Open the fourth file where you store your photos.
2. Pick the 4th photo.
3 . Explain the photo.
4. Pass challenge onto 4 other bloggers.
Please, anyone who wants to do this please do so, but to give some of my photo blogger friends a poke I’ll pass this on to Ilana-Davita, Jientje, Robin, and Ellie. Do it whenever you are in the mood for something different.
Lorri of Jew Wishes has 
