New Jerusalem picture for Yom Yerushalayim

Friday is Yom Yerushalayim – the day (by the Jewish lunar calendar) that Jerusalem was re-taken / conquered / liberated / occupied in the 1967 “Six Day War“. In Jerusalem they are having all the celebrations tomorrow because Friday is a short day. However the real day is Friday.
In the circles I mix in it [...]

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Why Lag Ba’Omer?

Tonight is the (very) minor festival of Lag Ba’Omer. Lag Ba”omer is such a minor festival that no one really knows why we celebrate it. There are three theories (that may be connected in some way):

Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students who died because of a lack of respect between them and they stopped dying on [...]

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Birkat HaHama, NY 1897

Quite an amazing story as told in the New York Times of 8th April 1897.
Birkat HaHama is coming up again in a couple of weeks on the 8th April again. Last one was 28 years ago in 1981, though I don’t remember that at all.
The whole story of Birkat Hahama is pretty weird. If you want [...]

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Hatimah Tovah

A Hatimah Tovah to all my readers. May this year be one of creativity, enjoyment and satisfaction.
The last few weeks have reminded us of the difference between creating wealth and creating real value. Let’s all create something great this year and enjoy it.
BTW the image illustrates the sentence from Selihot:
VeNislah LeKhol Adat Bnei Yisrael VeLaGer [...]

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Wishing all my readers a great new year

Tuesday 30th September 2008 (and the next day as well) is Jewish New Year’s day otherwise known as Rosh HaShanah.
Rosh HaShanah is held by tradition to be the final day of the six-day creation, on which humankind was created. In order to celebrate the official birthday of our species, we do a lot of praying [...]

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On Teshuva

I mentioned in my post yesterday that with the start of the Jewish month of Ellul we are entering the annual period of introspection and improvement – a process known in Judaism as Teshuva.
Teshuva is a very big thing in Judaism. the idea is that we are required to be in a continuous process througout [...]

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End of the summer

Yesterday the summer ended officially as the children went back to school after their (excessively) long summer vacation. Also the weather has been slightly more autumnal (?) over the last day or two which puts me in a good mood.
Maybe I’ll get some more time for painting in the next few weeks. Not only haven’t [...]

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Lag BaOmer – not green, but fun

Last Thursday night was Lag BaOmer. This is the 33rd day from the festival of Pesach and is held by tradition to be amongst other things the day that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai died. He is acredited as having written the major mystical work - Sefer HaZohar (literally “the book of luminance”). As a result there is a [...]

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Yom HaAtzmaut

Thias year we are celebrating 60 years of Israel’s independence. Independence Day is on Thursday. As good Israeli’s we are meeting with friends for a barbeque on the day and before that going to see some naval display, marching bands and whatnot in Haifa. Most Israelis just go for the barbeque.
A happy day to all [...]

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Pesach in the air

If you have been wondering why I haven’t been doing any painting recently (or blogging a lot either) it is because Pesach is in the air.
Pesach is the Jewish festival that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. For those unfamiliar with the story, the family of Jacob went down to Egypt where in the course of a [...]

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