What is This?
Not the glove at the left, but what is in the center of this photo? This post idea is brought to you by my middle son, the creative filmmaker and owner of the gloves and hands.
Leora
A Week on My Blog
On My Blog
Photo Memes:
Today’s Flowers
Ruby Tuesday
Thursday Challenge: Cup (can anyone guess where this was taken?)
Sky Watch in the Berkshires
In Which My Son Makes Matzo Balls that are Light and Fluffy
Upcoming Highland Park Public Library Teen Film Festival
Parsha Posts:
Parsha Questions (there’s one at the bottom that has not yet been answered)
Symbol of the Moon in Judaism
Elsewhere on the Web
Why We (Continue to) Pay Lavishly
(a friend now has a blog on Psychology Today)
I’ll leave you with some humor:
An Israeli Examines a Map of the United States
And Wonders Why the Midwest isn’t in the West
Upcoming Teen Film Festival
I am greatly enjoying the work I do for the Highland Park Public Library, especially the page for 2009 Teen Film Festival. I must admit some bias in this project; I have a talented filmmaking son whose film will be one of those screened on Sunday, February 8 at 2 pm. I understand he has some cameo roles in some of the other films. A beaming mom!
Sky Watch in the Berkshires
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
Last week my family and I had a fun time skiing the Berkshires. My focus was more on skiing and my family than on getting great photos, especially since: 1) it was cold 2) the skies were mostly gray 3) skiing is more of a tactile sport; you spend a lot of concentration (or at least I do) on getting good form and traversing the slopes and 4) did I mention it was cold? It’s hard to take photos with two layers of gloves on your hands.
My boys are getting quite good at skiing. I think they might be two dots far ahead in this photo.
In the summer, the Berkshires are a fabulous source of cultural activities: Tanglewood (classical music), Jacob’s Pillow (modern dance), museums and theater. Great skies all year round (even when they are gray).
Thursday Challenge: Cup
The Thursday Challenge theme this week is CONTAINER (Cup, Can, Box, Basket, Bog, Pan, Envelope, Shipping,…).
Symbol of the Moon in Judaism
הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם, רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים: רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם, לְחָדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exodus 12:2)
I learned this week that the Chinese calendar is like the Jewish calendar, as it follows the moon, but it has a correction, a leap year of some sort so the holidays stay in the right seasons. So some bloggers this week were wishing me Happy Chinese New Year while others were wishing me a good month (it was the beginning of the Hebrew month of Shevat). It occurred on the same day because of the moon.
In this week’s parsha, the moon first becomes a symbol of hope and renewal for the Jewish people. There are many Jewish laws (halachot) regarding the sighting of a new moon. In the days of old, witnesses who saw the new moon would set fires on a string of hilltops to let neighboring and far communities know of the new month. Now we follow a calendar.
In his book Ancient Secrets: Using the Stories of the Bible to Improve Our Everyday Lives Rabbi Levi Meier talks about the moon:
Note that God’s symbols, as presented in the Bible, are generally elements of nature: a tree, a rainbow, a rock. The Bible imbues these natural elements with meaning, and each symbol is intended to give us strength to face the challenges that arise.
So when the pharaoh’s rage is unleashed as he is threatened with the last of the ten plagues—the death of all firstborn Egyptian males—the Israelites are told to look to the new moon.
It does seem strange, that amidst these plagues, the concept of Rosh Chodesh, the new month, is introduced.
Rabbi Meier continues:
The new moon silently speaks to them of renewal, of a new beginning. The moon returns each night to light the darkness, changing its shape, waxing and waning, only to rise afresh after a cycle of twenty-eight days. It speaks to them of the cyclical nature of life.
Just as the Israelites are getting ready to leave Egypt, they are given not only a symbol of hope but also a reminder that life is like the moon. It, too, moves in cycles. In the worst of times, it is important to remember that there will always be renewal.
The cycles of waxing and waning, of trust and mistrust, of intimacy and distance, of joy and despair, are all normal. A great deal of unhappiness in this world comes from our refusing to acknowledge this simple fact. When things are going well, we want to hold on to those feelings of happiness and bliss. But happiness gives way to sadness, as it surely must. And we suffer needlessly, agonizing over the realization that happiness, once achieved, cannot last forever. In the midst of our disappointment, we forget the moon will rise again, bringing joy once more.
The great figures of the Bible understood that we need “down” cycles in order to have “up” cycles. Thus, even in the worst of times, they were never immobilized by despair. They used the dark moments to change, to grow, and to move forward.
What do you think of when you see the moon?
Ruby Tuesday Homework
I am trying to get my daughter to do her homework without my help. Except she won’t even start it unless I am sitting next to her. In an effort to pay as little attention to her as possible while she worked, and noticing a lot of RED, I took photos of her and her environment.
How many red things do you see?
For more Ruby Tuesday pics, visit:
Experimental Answer
The Thursday Challenge photo from last week was of a junk-jewelry necklace belonging to my daughter that seems to have found a “home” in the cup holder near the driver’s seat of my car. I looked at my camera settings for the two photos, and the only difference seems to be shutter speed, 1/40 for the experimental and 1/50 for the boring, shows you exactly what it is photo.
Today’s Flowers: Gaillardia
Since last week I posted a gazania flower, this week I am featuring a gaillardia (also known as a blanket flower), taken at the same farm back in September.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz, for this lovely and fun meme.
Parsha Questions
On Friday, I asked:
- Why mention Elisheva’s brother? (and who is Elisheva…)
- Why the Nile? Why was the first plague on the Nile?
1) Elisheva, who married Aaron the brother of Moses, was the brother of Nachshon Ben Aminadav. Why mention her brother? Because when you get married, you should check out your future wife’s brother (according to Rashi). So my husband said to my sons, he checked out my brother before marrying me, that’s how he knew he would have sons who love computer games. To which my middle son said, “And chess, too!”
2) Nile:
Raizy came up with a good answer:
Why was the first plague on the Nile? It was mida k’neged mida (direct retribution). The Egyptians threw newborn Jewish boys into the Nile, so now the Nile is being used to punish them in return.
Her second answer is similar to the one Rashi gives in 7:17 — the Egyptians worshiped the Nile, as the Egyptians were dependent on the rise of the Nile to water the land, as rain did not fall in Egypt. So God struck their deity.
Raizy adds: “So turning the holy water of the Nile into blood demonstrated that the God of Israel is more powerful than the gods and sacred places of Egypt. It was meant to instill fear and awe.”
Another answer is found in the Rashi of 8:17 with an aggadic story: God came against the Egyptians following the tactics of the wars of kings, in the order of measures a kingdom takes to when it lays siege to a city. At first it ruins the city’s springs of water (bloody Nile, as shown in the watercolor above). Afterwards the besieging forces sound and blow shofars at the inhabitants of the besieged city to scare them and confuse them. By the same token, the frogs croak and make noise, etc., as it says in Midrash Rabbi Tanchuma. The shofar blasts are followed by hails of arrows, comparable to lice. Then foreign mercenaries are sent in, like the mixture of wild beasts. The pestilence corresponds to a mass seizure of captives. This is followed by an attempt to burn the enemy out — the boils. The hail is like a bombardment of catapult stones. Next comes an attack by a large army (locusts). If the enemy does not surrender, they are held in prison (darkness). If the enemy is still not vanquished, its leaders are executed — the killing of the firstborn.
• • •
Here’s one more quicky that I learned from my son: how can you remember how many plagues are in Parshat Vaera and how many are in Bo? (hint: if you know gematria, that helps. Gematria is adding Hebrew letters as if they are numbers. So aleph is one, beit is two, and so on).
A reminder: just as we empty drops of wine on Passover because we are not allowed to rejoice over the death of the Egyptians in the sea, we are not allowed to enjoy the suffering of our enemies, even if they have created pain for us.
