What do blooming garden flowers and the shocker I used for a title have in common?
In S. Y. Agnon’s short story “The Sign” the main character learns that all the Jews in his hometown in Europe have been killed by the Nazis. He learns this at the same time his house in the Land of Israel has been decorated for Shavuot in the traditional way, with flowers and plants:
The sun shone down on the outside of the house; inside, on the walls, we had hung cypress, pine, and laurel branches, and flowers. Each beautiful flower and everything with a sweet smell and been brought in to decorate the house for the holiday of Shavuot. In all the days I had lived in the Land of Israel, our house had never been decorated so nicely as it was that day. All the flaws in the house had vanished, and not a crack was to be seen, either in the ceiling or in the walls. From the places where the cracks in the house used to gape with open mouths and laugh at the builders, there came instead the pleasant smell of branches and shrubs, and especially of the flowers we had brought from our garden. These humble creatures, which because of their great modesty don’t raise themselves high above the ground except to give off their good smell, made the eye rejoice because of the many colors with which the Holy One, blessed be He, has decorated them, to glorify His land, which, in His loving-kindness, He has given to us.
A little later in the story Agnon teaches us a little of the halachot (laws) of Shavuot:
Although on the Sabbath and festivals one says the evening prayers early, on Shavuot we wait to say Maariv until the stars are out.
For if we were to pray early and recieve the holiness of the festival, we would be shortening the days of the Omer, and the Torah said, “There shall be seven full weeks.”
Later, the main character is standing in the synagogue, facing the six memorial candles shining among the roses and the wildflowers and the garden flowers that have been used to decorate the sanctuary. “Is it possible that a city full of Torah and life is suddenly uprooted from the world, and all its people—old and young; men, women and children—are killed, that now the city is silent, with not a soul of Israel left in it?”
Who is S. Y. Agnon? Shmuel Yosef Agnon was born Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes in Buczacz, Galicia. In 1908 he immigrated to Israel and in 1913 he went to Germany, where he married his wife. He returned to Israel in 1924. If you have heard of Saul Bellow or Isaac Bashevis Singer, S. Y. Agnon won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, years before Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer won their Nobel Prizes. Agnon wrote his stories in Hebrew, one of the first modern writers to do so. I hope one day to read his stories in Hebrew, as one loses a lot in translation.
Many thanks to Lorri (Rayna Elianna) for recommending A Book That Was Lost: Thirty Five Stories (Hebrew Classics),a lovely book of short stories. The holiday of Shavuot, which is a major Jewish holiday (as opposed to say, Chanukah, which is only a minor holiday) begins on Thursday night, May 28th. It is traditional to decorate one’s home with flowers, to stay up all night learning Torah, and to eat dairy dishes (we’ll be having ice cream for dessert).
Who can tell why I am posting white flowers for a Ruby Tuesday post? The answer is very red.
In honor of memorial day, here are three pics from our local parade down Raritan Avenue. The motorcyclist is so un-me (the clothes, the motorcycle, the whole look), but I liked the photo and wanted to share it.
My friend is the leader of this Girl Scout troop. I used to march when I was a Cub Scout Leader.
To me, this picture says “Memorial Day.” We have so much to thank for, living in this country because of those who fought for our freedoms. May those who lose their lives fighting for freedom be remembered and cherished.
For more photos with a little red or a lot of red:
I usually make tabouli with lemon. The way I learned to make tabouli was from Mollie Katzen, author of the first Moosewood Cookbook. But last week it was Friday afternoon, and I discovered I had no lemon. But I did have an orange! And a beautiful bunch of curly parsley. I was also in the mood for ginger instead of garlic. Thus a new recipe is born.
Ingredients:
1 cup bulghur wheat
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil (or enough to coat)
fresh parsley and/or fresh mint
1 orange
1 tsp. chopped ginger root
optional but highly recommended: chopped fresh tomato, chopped fresh cucumber
optional if you like: chopped radish, chopped sweet onion, chopped carrot
Put the bulghur wheat in a bowl. Add a pinch of salt (not too much). Boil water in a kettle. When the water boils, pour 1 cup over the bulghur wheat. Cover the bowl with a pot lid. Leave it for about twenty minutes. Then add the olive oil, enough to coat the grains but not too much. Add the chopped ginger root. Squeeze the orange juice into the bowl. Stir. I tried adding the orange rind, too, but that was too bitter. Not a good part of this experiment. You can add the chopped parsley now, or wait until serving time. Add all the other vegetables before serving time. I didn’t have a fresh tomato, so I didn’t add other vegetables, but tabouli is so delicious when you do have the fresh vegetables, too. If not yet tomato season, add lots of parsley or mint. Refrigerate before serving. One usually has to wait a day for the bulghur wheat to soften. Enjoy! Serve at room temperature.
Love irises. We had them at our wedding almost 16 years ago. Can someone please remind me to buy some next fall to plant in my own garden? Sometime after October 18, because my middle son’s bar-mitzvah is that weekend, so I will be a tad busy up until then.
So glad I have neighbors that grow these purple beauties that I can photograph for my blog.
Can anyone name these lovely orange flowers? They look a bit like snapdragons from a distance, but when one gets up close, one can see the petals are not like those of a snapdragon. I think the orange looks nice with the purple of the iris, don’t you? I found these orange flowers growing in front of a business on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park.
A detail of the orange flower: is it a snapdragon? Or something else?
This post is dedicated to the many U.S. soldiers who have died for American freedom and for world freedom. Monday, May 25 is Memorial Day in the United States.
Yes, it is another exciting episode of What Do You See?, brought to you by Leora and her daughter. The daughter specifically requested that this be put online. Any thoughts, ideas, ponderings about what is going on this drawing?
Upcoming in Highland Park: Memorial Day Parade down Raritan Avenue (starts in New Brunswick – Highland Park scouts and teams start at South Adelaide) – See Memorial Day Parade 2008
Elsewhere on the Web
Ilana-Davita is taking the Trep challenge and walking. I’ve been doing gardening as exercise, so Ilana-Davita asks if it hurts my back? Links on digging without backache:
I think the key is I never spend more than ten minutes at a time gardening. I do it in between everything else. Am I holding the spade properly? I have no idea. I just noticed both those links are from the UK; is it because more UK folks are gardeners?
Deep Vein Thrombosis – one of the causes is sitting too long in one spot, like on a plane (I know someone who had similar problems after returning from Israel – get up and walk around on a long plane ride).
Wall of the Old City, Jerusalem, July 2008
Fifty years ago Jews could not walk here, along the walls of the Old City. There was a barbed wire fence preventing entrance. In 1967 all this changed, and thus tonight begins Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. After June 1967 not only were Jews and others allowed into the Old City and to visit the Kotel, the City was once again in Jewish control, as it had not been for 2000 years. Jerusalem has been a holy city for the Jewish People since the time of King David.
From Wikipedia, here is what Moshe Dayan said on that day:
This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples’ holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity.
Posts on Jerusalem Day or about Jerusalem in the news:
I used a plugin called WordPress Gallery Slideshow to create this slideshow of the annual Highland Park Street Fair on May 17, 2009. There was also a 5K Run in the morning that ran close to my home; you can see one tired friend who did a great job of running pictured in his lime green t-shirt in the slideshow. The run was in memory of Riki Jacobs, a Highland Park resident and social justice advocate who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
One advantage to slideshows as opposed to posts of individual pictures is that sometimes you don’t have a lot to say about each photo, but you have a lot of photos to show. See if you can find the photo of me squinting at my daughter who has taken the picture. Raritan Avenue was crowded and diverse, as it always is on Street Fair day.
I liked the booth of paint your own bags the best. For $3/for a plain white canvas bag, kids painted the bags with acrylic paints. More on the paint your own bags booth in a coming “Guess what it will be” post soon.
. But last week it was Friday afternoon, and I discovered I had no lemon. But I did have an orange! And a beautiful bunch of curly parsley. I was also in the mood for ginger instead of garlic. Thus a new recipe is born.
