fencesandfrogs

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Facts I was not prepared to learn this morning: there’s a broadway version of the diary of anne frank

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My stepdad is over here eager to ask my questions about bread and share in my learning and my mom wants to know if i really have to put the mezuzah on the basement doorframe

My mom when being supportive requires making a space slightly different to accommodate me

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Feelings tonight

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My mom when being supportive requires making a space slightly different to accommodate me

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Remember as days get colder animals are attracted to the warmth of cars so check wheel arches or other hiding places.

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Dara horn really hits it on the head every time

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Hi friends! I’m trying to make a magazine/periodical of joy in the Jewish community. There has been so much antisemitism and fear recently, and I think we should have things that remind us of the good of being Jewish. No politics please. I’m taking submissions for the first edition already! The categories are:

Art: painting, drawing, poetry, etc.

Jewish Pet of the Month: bonus points if they’re wearing something Jewish or participating in Jewish traditions!

Opinion: Analyze or discuss a certain part of tradition or Jewish writing and what it means to you/your interpretation.

Memories: Historical heirlooms or photos of ancestors and any story about them you’d like to share!

Joy: Happy events in your life, especially anything related to your Judaism.

The Convert’s View: From those in the process of conversion, a new thing you’ve recently learned about Judaism/your favorite part of being Jewish so far. I love hearing converts bring in new perspectives on things.

Crafts/Rituals: Basically hands-on things people can learn to do at home!

Food: A recipe for a Jewish food you enjoy.

Reviews: Review Jewish literature, movies, music, give recs!

I’m really excited for this project, and I hope we can make something everyone in the community can enjoy. :)

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i forgot how fucking weird november is theres no afternoon its just night after 2pm

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Spiritual seekers need one another as mirrors. A member of the Hopi nation once asked me about our holy days. I was telling him about Passover, our celebration of freedom, and Sukkot, our Feast of Tabernacles, and how they fit in with the cycles of the year. "I think I get it," he said finally. "You people don't want to be in slavery. And you want to pass this on to your children. But when you tell your kids on Passover, 'We have to go away from here; we can't stay here because it will cost us our freedom,' your kids will say, 'Yeah, but what are we going to eat?' So you teach them how to bake bread on stones, how to roast a lamb if you are hungry, how to find dandelion greens, and so on. When the kids ask, 'But where will we stay?' you show them how to build a lean-to, so they will have somewhere to live." An Indian perspective on the mitzvot to eat the Passover lamb with matzot and bitter herbs and to build a sukkah on Sukkot gave me a completely different insight into my own traditions.

-Jewish with Feeling, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. 2005, p. 198-199

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Absolute highlight of my day was when a 3 yr old took off, crawling, towards the Torah ark. Girl was on a mission. She had already got there by the time they scooped her up. This let, then, to SEVERAL preschoolers trying to storm the bimah like a fortress, crawling under the cantor and rabbi’s chair to try and approach the little step. 10/10 experience.

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On one hand I understand not teaching cursive in school anymore, because it actually is slower than regular handwriting and almost everything is typed on a keyboard now anyways.

On the other hand, so much of our (even recent!) history was written in cursive, and having a whole generation of kids who can't read letters written by their grandparents, momentos saved by their great-grandparents, or even photo albums from theur immediate family seems like a dangerously quick way to detach us from previous generations.

And on the third, related but slightly malformed hand, I feel bad that yet another form of small, everyday art that brings joy in the middle of mundane tasks, which celebrates personality and individual style and self-expression, is about to fade into obscurity because it wasn't efficient enough for today's world to put up with.

Like... if we continue to whittle away the small arts out of every day life, what's going to be left except stark, ruthless pragmatism?

Maybe writing a grocery list is less mundane when you get to feel elegant for a moment. Maybe you're a little more proud of what you write when you see it flow together like a painting

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people often cite concerns about aid donations to gaza somehow benefiting hamas. this is why i always recommend donating to anera.

anera addresses this concern on their FAQ page.

how i understand it - anera procures aid and then organizes and distributes it. i mean, if you're concerned about aid distribution in gaza, this is exactly who you should be donating to.

they keep a daily log of all of their activities.

they post videos of their activities

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and they are vetted by charity navigator, charity watch, better business bureau, and candid.

I highly recommend checking their gaza faq

and their donation page for gaza.

ceasefire and hostage deal now

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the empath

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jesus was such a freak. "eat my flesh. drink my blood. i am your father, you are my child. i will die for you." he would have done numbers on tumblr.

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when we were studying the bible in literature class (so we have the context necessary for later works that reference the bible), i think we were at the book of jonah, and one of my classmates was studying the text very intently, and then looked up and earnestly said "professor, i don't understand the will of god"

the teacher was just like. well sadly i am a literature teacher and not a priest so i can't help you there. but if it helps, many people throughout history had the same problem.