Showing posts with label Days of Awe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Days of Awe. Show all posts

Friday, October 7, 2011

Entering into Yom Kippur

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In a few hours, just before sunset, Israel's streets will be empty of cars, except for any needed emergency vehicles.
Ben-Gurion Airport is already closed to all air traffic.
Judea and Samaria are under general closure and the Taba crossing into Sinai is closed.
Soon we will have our last meal and last drink of water until Saturday night, when the fast ends.
And soon I will shut down my computer for its yearly day of rest.

Jews will congregate, the religious and the one-time-per-year observant will be praying together in neighborhood synagogues all evening and all day tomorrow until sunset; the seculars will flock to the car-less roads on bicycles or skates or with strollers.

Yom Kippur, the solemn Day of Atonement, God's day of reckoning, our day of introspection and repenting, begins.
This year it falls on the Sabbath, so we get a double dose of holiness.

You can already feel the special hush falling over the land.
This is something you can feel only in Israel.

So I leave you now, until tomorrow night, wishing you all Shabbat shalom and a gmar chatima tova, "a good final sealing," i.e. May you be inscribed (in God's Book of Life) for all good.
May all the world have a peaceful, healthy, and fulfilling new year.
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Thursday, September 29, 2011

The binding and unbinding of Isaac

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The frightful story of the binding of Isaac, in Genesis 22, is read in the synagogue every Rosh Hashana.

I talked about it and showed other artistic portrayals of the almost-deed here and here.
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But the photos in today's post are of Sam Philipe's sculpture "Akedat Yitshak" (the Binding of Isaac), on exhibit at Jerusalem's Mamilla mall.


We can be glad that the angel was sent just in time to stop Abraham's hand.

In the story's happy end, the angel quotes God as saying to Abraham
". . . in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice."

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By the way, Christians are celebrating today too. It is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, also known as the Feast of the Archangels.

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More about Rosh Hashana in previous posts:

Friday, September 10, 2010

Imagining the binding of Isaac

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Today is the second day of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
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The Torah portion that is read on this day is Genesis 22, God's testing of Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son on Mount Moriah.
In Hebrew we call it the Akedah, the binding of Isaac.
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Below is a wide variation of artistic portrayals of the story, on display at the Jewish museum in Jerusalem's Hechal Shlomo.
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"Abraham's sacrifice," designed by W. Breathe, England, 1870, porcelain, manufactured by Wedgewood.
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On the other extreme is this simple brass tub drilled with holes, made in Israel in the 20th century.
The inscription is "Lay not thy hand upon the lad," the welcome words of God's messenger-angel.
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This is an illustration on a 1743 map of Eretz-Israel, painted in France.
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A painting by Moshe Castel, 1925.
We can see the ram, tangled in the branches by its horns, which will be offered instead of Isaac.
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"The way to the mountain," wool thread on cushion cover, embroidered in Ethiopia in the 1980s.
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The servant boys stay behind with the donkey, Isaac carries the wood for the fire, Abraham carries the knife. Vultures circling above?
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You have to admit, religion has a lot of drama at its core.
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More about Rosh Hashana in previous posts:
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The akeda, the binding of Isaac

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The Days of Awe, the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, are upon us.
On the second day of Rosh Hashana the Torah portion read in the synagogue is from Genesis 22. The binding of Isaac!

The sculpture portrays Abraham's hand covering the mouth of Isaac while his other hand grips the knife with which he was commanded to slay his beloved son.

One face of the rock has the altar on which Isaac was bound. But mercifully, there also appears the ram with the curved horns, caught in the thicket, which God sent as a substitute sacrifice.

Engraved in Hebrew on the back is pahad Yitzhak, meaning Isaac's fear.
And above the words, a dove.
The rock stands in the Municipal Garden, between the Jerusalem City Hall and Jaffa Road.
The artist is the same man who did the giant mural in the Post Office.
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Like our patriarch whom God tested, the artist is also named Avraham. Avraham Ofek created this sculpture in 1987, after he had lost his own daughter, and just a few years before he died of a long and painful illness.
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