Praise Is My Passion

This blog is dedicated to Jewish Culture. My personal tumblr is artemages

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“accidental renaissance” photograph of a chasidic bride.

[hailruth-deactivated20260123]

an example of the hungarian language written using the yiddish alphabet. this is an early 20th century embroidery on velvet.

it reads "boldogult / jó anyák emlékére / zahar pál és neje" (trans. "in memory of our deceased, good mother / zahar pál and his wife").

[jewishoftheday]

Great Synagogue, Rome

credit u/zgido_syldg (reddit)

[jewishoftheday]

Jerusalem Synagogue, Prague

[eretzyisrael]

Parashat Balak

by  Meir Anolick

Written for Shabbat  Parshat Balak, ז בתמוז תשע”ד:

This week’s Parsha is very unique in that almost the entire Parsha is about events that we were not really involved in, and would have no way of knowing about it if not for the fact that it was written in the Torah. Balak sends word to Bilaam to curse us, and the two of them stand somewhere that they could observe us, and all the while we are sitting in our camp, oblivious to their plans.

There are many lessons to be learned from the Parsha for this very reason. The one I am going to focus on is a lesson I learned from my aba.

When Bilaam goes to curse the people, he instead blesses them three times, with some important distinctions between the first two and the third. With the first two, he went out on his own, waited for Hashem to speak to him, and then gave over God’s words… almost. Like with any prophet that is not Moshe Rabbeinu, he was not given the words to say verbatim, but rather concepts that he himself articulated.

While yes, Bilaam did bless us, he also used phrasing specifically to hide a bit of curse in there as well. Not so with the third blessing, however. With the third one, he did not wander off alone while he waited for God to speak to him, rather he gave over the blessing of his own accord, seeing finally the beauty of the nation, and this time it was pure blessing.1

What was the difference between the first two blessings and the third? The verses clearly state that for the first two blessings, Balak brought Bilaam to a place where he could see the “edge” of the camp, just a small part of it, and hoped that he would curse them from there. With the third blessing, it does not say what he was seeing, but it is evident that he was seeing the greatness of Beni Yisrael for the first time, since he started with his praise of how their camp was set up. Though previously he was focusing on the “edges”, now he was looking at the camp itself.

If someone wanted to denigrate, or God forbid even curse, Jews or Judaism, they would start by focusing on the “edges”, looking at the little things on the side that don’t make sense or that seem wrong. It is easy to focus on the little things at the end and say that the entire religion is wrong based on that, as many people do. For example, as I have seen before, someone will take some examples of biblical marriage out of context, misrepresent them, and state that therefore everything is wrong.

However, if you see “that it is good in Hashem’s eyes to bless Yisrael” (24:1), if you approach it not from a perspective of attack, but with an open mind and an eye to find what is good, then you see how beautiful it all is. When the spite and anger are lifted, you can see the camp for what it is, you can see how everything fits together, and you can see the beauty in it all. This applies equally to non-Jews and Jews, since we have among our number, unfortunately, who only see a bit of the edge, but have not taken the opportunity to look at the whole, beautiful, picture. Shabbat Shalom.

1Up to here is what I learned from my aba, the rest are my own thoughts.

Source: amchachamvnavon.wordpress.com

[girlactionfigure]

Yasser Arafat allegedly stole over $3 billion from the ‘Palestinian Fund’, which he stashed in over 200 overseas bank accounts under false names. He gave his wife Suha over $200,000 a month in ‘housekeeping money.’ Between July 2002 and July 2003 alone, over $10 million was transferred from a Swiss account into 2 Paris-based accounts in her name (Arab Bank & BNP). Ismail Haniyah bought vast tracts of land on the Gazan coast and spent many millions building homes for his 13 children. Khaled Mashal and his cohort Mousa Abu Marzuk are said to have ‘misappropriated’ around $2.6 billion each of money intended for Gazan homes, schools and hospitals. Mashal now lives an opulent life in Qatar. Mahmoud Abbas spent $17 million building a mansion in Ramallah, $50 million on a private jet and is said to have paid many millions in ‘salaries’ to family, friends and those loyal to him ( in addition to the hundreds of millions paid to convicted terrorists and their families). ‘Palestinian’ business is big business for these so-called leaders. The last thing they want is peace, for as long as there is conflict, as long as the media can be fed pictures of ‘disillusioned’ Gazans ‘living in poverty’ and as long as Israel can be blamed, the money will keep rolling in.

Likud UK

[monkeysdownunder]

Yom HaShoah

today is Yom HaShoah. it's the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day. *This is going to be a very long post*

Here's a couple things:

- if we held a minute of silence for every Holocaust victim, we would be silent for 11.5 years. related to this, on Yom HaShoah in Israel, there is a siren that goes off in the middle of the day and the entire country comes to a complete standstill for 2 minutes. cars-stopped-on-the-highway-people-getting-out-to-stand type of standstill. it's truly one of the most powerful things I have ever experience and it's also genuinely scary. here's a video of it:

- we are quite possibly the last generation to live amongst Holocaust survivors. LISTEN TO THEM. TALK TO THEM. SHARE THEIR STORIES. don't ever fucking forget. i don't think people understand that its heartbreaking to listen to Shoah survivors and realize they're going to die soon. it's scary if you think about it too hard. it's frightening because it wasn't so long ago (for example, my mom told me that growing up, a lot of her friends parents had numbers tattooed on them from the camps). it's heartbreaking because people deny the Holocaust and want to forget about it as it is and once there are no more survivors it will be easier than ever to do so. to listen and watch some survivor testimonies, go to namesnotnumbers.org or just search "names not numbers" on youtube

- there was something that I saw on social media a while ago thats extremely relevant. it goes something like this: if you're Jewish, you either VIVIDLY remember the first time you heard/learned/were told about the Holocaust or you simply don't remember the first time." to unpack: the second option is scarier because the unsaid part is that you don't remember because it's so prevalent. you don't remember because its always been talked about with/to/around you. it's normal for you to hear about it. that's extremely scary. and for me personally, when i heard this I tried to see if I can recall the first time and I can't. honestly, it gave me a WHOLE new perspective.

- effectively every jewish activist account on social media is posting something right now about this. here's a couple on instagram: @rootsmetals @jewishlgbtq @whatisjudaism @progressivejudaism @jewishpridealways @standwithus theres more, look for them, read the posts.

Watch this:

it's chilling. its a group of schoolchildren at a Jewish school in 1933 in Munkacs. they are singing the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah [the Hope]. some of the words are different, instead of it saying "to be a free nation in our land" it says "to dwell in the land of our forefathers." the words are different because this was before the establishment of the modern state of Israel. all of these children were later murdered in the Holocaust (this is paraphrased from @jewishlgbtq's caption on instagram).

and now watch this:

Koolulam is a group that aims to bring people together in peace through song. This video is of several thousand people singing the song "Chai" ("Life") 3 years ago in honor of Yom HaShoah. all of the people singing in this video are Holocaust survivors and their descendants. this video is full of life and hope.

it's not enough to say "Never Again" or "Never Forget". speak up, stand up, condemn antisemitism, genocide and all forms of hatred. Antisemitism did not start OR end with the Holocaust. in the US, Jews account for ~2% of the population but about antisemitism accounts for ~60% percent of religious hate crimes. antisemitism is on the rise according to ADL statistics and it's not always outright "I hate Jews". i STRONGLY encourage you to visit an activist account on instagram because they all have posts on this.

For many people, this day holds greater weight and sorrow than International Holocaust Remembrance Day back in January. Most Jews have ties to the Holocaust and it impacts them to this day. Also, while Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust, Yom HaShoah is specifically in commemoration of the 6 million Jews who died.

i'll reblog with some way you can commemorate so it's an easier place.

Never Forget, Never Again

[girlactionfigure]

[hiddurmitzvah]

Few more pics from the first part of the saving of the historic jewish cemetery of Tállya, Hungary. Please support our work in order to continue the project and finish the restoration of this wonderful place, which is the last reminder of the jewish community that once lived there!

https://gogetfunding.com/volunteer-action-to-save-the-abandoned-jewish-cemetery-of-tallya-hungary/

[hiddurmitzvah]

This is from our second session at the cemetery, please support our work here:

https://gogetfunding.com/volunteer-action-to-save-the-abandoned-jewish-cemetery-of-tallya-hungary/

Volunteer action to save the abandoned jewish cemetery of Tállya

Please support the independent, civic, volunteer action for saving an abandoned jewish cemetery of Tállya, in Hungary! We already started th

[hiddurmitzvah]

Pay Csodák vándorai using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/mahaza and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

You can also support our work also through paypal.me here

[eretzyisrael]

Saudi Tweeters downplay importance of Temple Mount

Are we seeing a sea change in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel? Saudi Tweeters have lately been digging a trench between themselves and the Palestinian cause, which has always tried to rally Muslim opinion to protect the Al-Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount. From the time of the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, Palestinian leaders have periodically claimed that the mosque has been threatened with  destruction  by the Jews.  Now Saudi users of Twitter are insisting on the primordial importance of Mecca and Medina to Islam. Although this line is not being promoted by the Saudi government, it is clear that the Tweeters are acting with its tacit approval. (With thanks:  Edna, Adrian)

The Temple Mount, neglected and overgrown with weeds in the 1930s, before its protection became a rallying cry for the Palestinian cause.

Saudi Twitter users have recently been pushing a new line of thought that plays up the importance of Muslims praying towards the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, while downplaying the importance of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Israel National News(INN) reported Sunday. 

The controversial campaign appears to be designed to push the message emphasizing the importance of the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina as the holy places of Islam, and to eliminate the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount for Muslims, thereby decreasing any Islamic authority the Palestinians have over the site. 

One of the messages reportedly comes from well-known Saudi cartoonist Fahd al-Jabiri, who tweeted that “the direction of the prayers of the Jews is not important to us, what is important to us is only our homeland.

Read article in full

[ta-chazei]

יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר, וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת:

Joshua ben Perahiah used to say: appoint yourself a teacher, and acquire for yourself a companion and judge everyone with the scale weighted in their favour. - Pirkei Avot 1:6

[girlactionfigure]

Rabbi Benji

Today is 29 years since the passing of Israel’s 6th Prime Minister and giant of history, Menachem Begin z"l. When reflecting on this quote in times like this, the world could do with a few more politicians like him:

“Within our Homeland: justice must be the supreme ruler, the ruler over all rulers. There must be no tyranny. The Ministers and officials must be the servants of the nation and not their masters. There must be no exploitation. There must be no man within our country-be he citizen or foreigner-compelled to go hungry, to want for a roof over his head, or to lack elementary education.

‘Remember ye were strangers in the land of Egypt-this supreme rule must continually light our way in our relations with the strangers within our gates. ‘Righteousness, Righteousness shalt thou pursue!’ Righteousness must be the guiding principle in our relations amongst ourselves.”

(Speaking shortly after Israel declared independence, May 15th 1948)

יהי זכרו ברוך.

[girlactionfigure]

Incident in a NJ Supermarket

At the supermarket today, I found a small, elderly woman standing in front of a high shelf holding @BonneMamanUS preserves. She was having trouble finding the flavor she wanted because the jars were set back on the shelf. 

She couldn’t read the labels. She could barely reach them. I offered to help. After I handed her the raspberry preserves, she thanked me, paused, and then asked, “Do you know why I buy this brand?” I laughed and replied, “Because it tastes good?”

“Yes, it tastes good.” She paused again. “I am a Holocaust survivor.” This was not the conversation I expected on a Sunday grocery run.“During the war, the family that owns the company hid my family in Paris. So now I always buy it. And whenever I go to the store, my grandkids remind me, ‘Bubbe, don’t forget to buy the jelly.’

I told her that that was the best reason I ever heard to buy any company’s product. And then we both smiled behind our masks and went our separate ways.

@ProfessorPerino

if you dig deeper you’ll see the family did produce it…actually before WW2, it just wasn’t a “company”

[girlactionfigure]

[thewolfcatcher]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=97YZ4QluFaE

Young evangelist with a perfect Christian testimony

Swords and arrows, crossed sparows

[honeysuckle-venom]

Happy 7th night!!!

[girlactionfigure]