I’m having a home reading of Eicha – from a klaf – *because* of reading from a klaf, yay – in Washington Heights, on leyl 9 Av, 9pm. If a minyan of people are interested, there could also be maariv, kinot, etc. Normally I would append “and watermelon, cookies and so forth” to such sentiments, […]
MarGavriel points us to a little Agnon story. A story appropriate for the season: סיפר לי ר’ אהרן פריימן ז”ל משמו של ר’ אליהו פלנסר ז”ל. ר’ איציק אייכל וחבריו מצאו להם נכרית אחת שבישלה להם לתשעה באב. שבאותו הדור קשה היה ליהודי בברלין למצוא תבשיל בתשעה באב. היו קוראים לאותה נוכרית הגויה של תשעה […]
I finished writing the sefer Torah for Dorshei Emet. You might have worked this out, from the lack of Torah-writing posts of late, but I didn’t actually get round to making a post about it yet. I tweeted the final stages of putting the sefer together on May 11 and 12, and it was delivered […]
(Joint post from me and MarGavriel) I don’t know about you, but when someone says “Selihot,” my heart sinks, because in my experience, selihot are Hebrew Text Walls of Doom, muttered incomprehensibly and far too fast, punctuated by wails of Divine Attributes which are the only bits I actually recognise. Sound familiar? Apparently (who knew?) […]
This is the piece of artwork I was working on the week before last, a little piece of illuminated poetry. I had the most glorious time with it; waking up in the morning and bouncing out of bed going “ooh!” with anticipation, working long, long days at it because it was so delicious I didn’t […]
Here’s a rudimentary calligraphy worksheet, which you can use with ordinary calligraphy markers. To do things like this: Clicky for more…
Another interesting titbit from Eisenberg, absolutely courtesy of Gabriel, because Jen is not in the habit of reading long Hebrew introductions to random books, and Gabriel is. Remember that Eisenberg dissed Edomites, and said that they were sexually iniquitous. Well, there is an “Important Disclaimer” (מודעה רבה) in the front of the book: To anyone […]
Joint post from Jen and Gabriel Part 1 – Gabriel writes: When Moses sends messengers to the King of Edom, requesting passage for the Israelites through his land, their message includes the following line: נעברה נא בארצך, לא נעבר בשדה ובכרם ולא נשתה מי באר May we please pass through thy land? we will not […]
Very egalitarian, my synagogue. Ladies can do practically anything on the bima. Anything that gentlemen can do. And since we’re so very egalitarian, our dress rules are egalitarian too. Gentlemen on the bima must sport headcoverings and therefore so too must ladies. The headcovering of choice for your standard American Jewish gentleman is a kippah. […]
Fitting text into shapes, the bane of ketubah artists everywhere. First thing with funny shapes is to check them out with the officiant. Some officiants are DEAD AGAINST funny shapes – anything that doesn’t have four sides and right-angled corners. Others are okay with it so long as the lines are horizontal and any added […]
