פירגון

Abigail. ל. She/her. ‣ Halakha hobbyist.

[maimonideznuts]

I know that we often think of Shavuot as cheese/cheesecake day... But the day is a Celebration of Ruth (well King David, but we have to read the Megillat Ruth for that).

So Chag Shavuot Sameach to all Jewish Converts and those converting, our Gerim Tzedek. Thank you for loving Judaism and Jews so much that you felt compelled to be one of us, and importantly thank you for an excuse to make and eat cheesecake every year.

וַתֹּ֗אמֶר הִנֵּה֙ שָׁ֣בָה יְבִמְתֵּ֔ךְ אֶל־עַמָּ֖הּ וְאֶל־אֱלֹהֶ֑יהָ שׁ֖וּבִי אַחֲרֵ֥י יְבִמְתֵּֽךְ׃

So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Go follow your sister-in-law.”

וַתֹּ֤אמֶר רוּת֙ אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃

But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

[estera-shirin]

Megillat Esther — Amsterdam, Netherlands ca. 1686

This Esther Scroll was created in the 17th century in Amsterdam but now resides in the collection of the New York Public Library.

[estera-shirin]

Megillat Esther bound in silk — Amsterdam, Netherlands ca. 1640s

Via the museum: "The scroll adorned with an engraved border designed by Shalom ben Mordecai Italia (also known as Shalom D’Italia) and colored by hand. The first membrane opens with a decoration unique for this exemplar - a fashionably dressed woman (a queen?) holding a long ribbon in her hands and a large diamond is incorporated into her dress; it was most likely dedicated to the benedictions or any other inscription but remained blank. The upper margins are almost undecorated. The columns of text are written within elaborately decorated arcades and are separated by the niches in which the figures from the Esther story are standing: King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, Haman, and Mordecai. Above them and at the same time, between particular segments of the decoration, garlands are suspending. The figures stand on small octagonal pedestals filled with various land- and cityscapes. Other landscapes appear in decorative cartouches in the apexes of the arches. The pattern repeats on all the membranes in the scroll. After the last arcade appears a hand-painted cartouche with a heraldic helmet flanked by acanthus leaves above it and a ribbon below it.

The right edge of the first membrane is trimmed into a decorative shape. Underneath the first membrane, a belt of green striped silk is stitched.

The scroll is mounted on a roller with ivory handles."

[zebratoys]

תענית אסתר הוא יום צום המצוין בי"ג באדר, ערב חג הפורים. צום אסתר נמשך משחר ועד צאת הכוכבים בערב חג פורים, זכר לצום בן שלושת הימים שקיים העם היהודי בסיפור מגילת אסתר. 

Yesterday commemorated the Fast of Esther. It is a day of fasting observed on the 13th of the Hebrew/Jewish Month of Adar which is the eve of the Purim holiday. The Fast of Esther, also known as Ta’anit Esther, is a fast from dawn until dusk when three stars sparkle in the sky and observed in honor of the 3 days fast held by the Jews in the scroll of Esther. 

[girlactionfigure]

There’s a pattern in Judaism/Torah. A pattern we don’t always want but we always need.

When G-d wanted to make David a king … He didn’t give him a crown. He gave him Goliath.

When He wanted to make Joseph a leader … He didn’t give him a palace. He sent him to prison.

When G-d wanted to elevate Moses … He didn’t give him a stage. He gave him decades in the wilderness.

When G-d wanted to make Esther a queen … He gave her a crisis, and Haman.

Time and again, we see: G-d doesn’t elevate people through ease, rather through struggle.

Because it’s not despite the challenge that we rise. It’s through it. That’s how the human spirit is made and rises higher.

We don’t know what the new year will bring. But we do know this: We were not born for comfort. We were born for meaning.

We weren’t placed in this world to hide from its problems—we were created to illuminate and solve them.

And if, this year, you find yourself walking through a wilderness … or standing before your own personal or professional Goliath … Remember: That’s not a detour from your destiny. That is your calling.

Written by Rabbi Mendel Mintz, founder of the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Aspen

[moss-opossum]

Image description: Three versions of the same picture: a digital painting of a cluster of yellow dandelions on a dark earthy background. Handwritten in white above and below the flowers is the same text in Yiddish in the alef-beys, in romanisation, and then in English. The text reads: "מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן", "Mir veln zey iberlebn", and "We will outlive them". /end description

[dukeofwinthrope]

[shabbatshalomcutiestosendtobubbe]

May it be a thrillifying one 💚🫧

[ancestralsurvival]

They tried to kill us.

No cutsey “we survived, let’s eat.”

They tried to kill us.

And they did kill 1,200 of us. They tortured us. They took hundreds of us hostage. They said they would do it again and again and again until there were no more of us.

And the world cheered.

I see posts about Oct. 7, and I cannot let the memories of those who died be a blessing. Not yet, not while worldwide infantilization and encouragement of Hamas continues, not while people march in the streets calling for more of our blood, not while Israelis and diaspora Jews both must fear for our safety due to lies perpetrated by those who wish to hate, scapegoat, and find a whipping boy instead of face their own inhumanity toward their fellow humans.

Pelvises broke from rape.

Appendages were sliced off.

Civilians at home, at a concert, freshly returned from a peace conference were killed, murdered, tortured, taken away to be shot, locked away from sunlight, strangled to death.

Oct. 7 is a memorial day, a day of pain and suffering and carnage, and I am not yet ready to find the blessings in it.

[gliklofhameln]

Jour de fête (Le Rabbin au citron) — Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Oil on canvas

Signed Chagall (lower right)

Jour de fête (Le Rabbin au citron) represents an aspect of Jewish ritual. As described by Susan Compton: “In his right hand, the rabbi holds an etrog, a lemon, and in his left the lulav, a palm branch, to which are tied a branch of myrtle and willow. This identifies the feast of the title with Succot, which Chagall presented in another form in 1917. The Feast is first mentioned in Leviticus XXIII, 40, ‘On the first day you shall take the fruit of citrus trees, palm fronds, and leafy branches, and willows from the riverside, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.’ The artist has added a touch of fantasy in the doppelganger perched on the rabbi’s head. Dressed slightly differently and lacking the ritual emblems, the ‘other’ faces away from his host as though reluctant to celebrate the Feast. Or maybe he simply represents 'another’, the one who 'gets on my back’: Chagall’s symbol is a potent myth with multiple possible interpretations.

[slyandthefamilybook]

So this guy, Moshe, is pretty down on his luck. He starts praying every night, "Hashem please! Let me win the lottery!" He prays for three nights, "Hashem, I need to win the lottery!" And on the third night he hears a voice from heaven say, "Moishele. My love. Meet me halfway. Buy a ticket."

[aprettyjewishyear]

High Tea in the Sukkah. ink, graphite, and gouache on paper by Solomon Joseph Solomon, 1906. Solomon Joseph Solomon was a British Jewish painter whose art ranged from portraiture to dramatic depictions of Biblical or mythological figures. In World War I, he applied his skills in art to developing camoflauge technology.

[hiddurmitzvah]

Marc Chagall: Sukkot (1916)

[maimonidesnutz]

Berakhot 28a

[maimonidesnutz]

I love that the concern isn’t with the practice of bringing an animal into the bathroom, the concern is “why didn’t you bring a goat?”

(Berakhot 62a)

[maimonidesnutz]

“Aleinu l’shabeyach l’adon hakol” = it is our duty to praise the foundation (master) of all. One of the concluding prayers of the Jewish service that paints a picture of a new world.

As Jews, we know what it means to believe in a better world. That often means letting go of things that bring comfort. Very rarely is that pretty. Olam Haba’ah will not come with the twiddling of thumbs. We are the “And” in the statement “And then”

[finallyrivka]

I just poured my life into a Discord server and I don't really know how to feel about it.