I had never seen it, and my dad is of the priestly persuasion, so the three of us went down to the kotel in the Old City yesterday to hear/see/be present at the ginormous Birkat Kohanim for chol hamoed Sukkot.
Birkat Kohanim - known as ‘duchaning’ in Ashkenaz circles - is like a representation of the [...]
Because I already have posted my past homemade sukkot, New York and ghetto Israeli style, I figured I’d post my first own semi-respectable Tzur Hadassah sukka:
Spacious because we have a decent-sized mirpeset. Sturdy, because we have paychecks that can buy metal poles. And fun, because I did a search for ’sukkot’ on Google Images and [...]
For me, there aren’t daily Israeli-firsts anymore; it’s more like periods of firsts washing up on the shore. I pick them up and hold them to my ear and listen to the waves of meaning they try to offer.
At least, some of the time.
I participated as a support/witness for a friend undergoing conversion (of sorts). [...]
I attended a secular wedding last night; if it wasn’t my first Israeli secular wedding, then I have only been to one or two before this. The secular Israeli wedding is something I don’t fully grasp.
A Jewish wedding is so chock full of beautiful, wacky and wild traditions, why not have that be a part [...]
I’ve always suspected this myself, but a Hebrew University researcher is daring enough to say it out loud in a recent article:
Hebrew University researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai
On perusing the momentous occasion of Moses’ trip up Mount Sinai to collect and deliver God’s words to the people, Professor Benny Shanon is [...]
Something I’m going to miss about my little Jerusalem hometown of Katamonim are the amazing Sephardi beitay knesset that pepper the streets:
Most of the residents in this neighborhood are some strain of Mizrachi, mainly Kurdish, Bucharian, Moroccan or Yemenite. The synagogues carpeted and fluorescently lit, reflect that.
I feel 100% comfortable attending services at Beit Aharon, [...]