#Jewish custom

[edenfenixblogs]

re: your comment about the misinterpretation and misuse of "tikkun olam" by non-Jews, could you please explain what it *does* mean? I've heard that it roughly translates to repairing the world (like with Rabbi Tarfon's "it is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it"), but idk if that's what it actually is or not (sorry if any phrasing is weird, i've been awake for way too long today)

Your understanding is correct.

It does mean repairing the world. This means doing charity and choosing kindness whenever possible and generally doing small and large things without recognition in order to leave the world better than you found it. Plant a tree. Read at a nursing home. Save all your loose change for ten years then donate that amount to a cause you care about. Make kindness that helps others heal a part of your daily practice. This is tikkun olam.

I have seen bigots who consider themselves progressive try to goysplain tikkun olam as Jews attempting to impose their idea of perfection on the world around them and that we use it to justify violence. I have seen people say that Jews consider the bombing of Gaza and Rafah to be the ideal practice of tikkun olam. And it is a blatantly and horrifically false and disingenuous to say this. Tikkun olam is my absolute favorite aspect of my faith. I wake up and choose kindness and peace every single day and have since I learned about this concept. It is not always easy, but it is always worth it.

And to see others pervert it into something violent and to associate that violence as synonymous with Jewish religious ideology is truly one of the most painful things I’ve experienced in this conflict and one of the most bigoted things I’ve experienced in my life.

[askjumblr]

Hello! I have a question about acceptable challah covers (I want to make one for my family). I know it needs to be big enough to cover two loaves and cannot be translucent, but how completely does it have to cover the loaves?

Like am I allowed to have small decorative holes? If so, how many? And how big? I’ve seen fillet crochet challah covers (see below) before, but I’m not sure they’re technically allowed.

.

[queer-jewish-spoonie]

Today at work I rang up an older Jewish lady. I noticed her magen david, and complimented it. She froze for a second and then relaxed, and asked me where mine was. I showed her my necklace and we had a short conversation. She said that she could tell all the way from the queue line that I was Jewish. At one point she said, "these days we just want to-" and she closed her shirt a bit to hide her magen. I wish I weren't so socially awkward because instead of nodding along, I would have told her, "no, we can't hide, not anymore, not again." I wish I could have hugged her and told her how much she- a total stranger- means to me. Every time I run into another Jew when I'm not expecting it, it takes my breath away. I'm reminded of why I converted- because I fell in love with Judaism, the Jewish people, Jewish culture, Jewish everything. Jews, I love you so much. We are amazing. We have each other. עם ישראל חי

[jewreallythinkthat]

I love that Judaism focusses so much on the here and now of our actions rather than what happens after death. I think it's so important that so many beliefs and rules are about how we live and not how we die because at the end of the day, how we live impacts other while how we die, in theory, does not (obviously grief etc but physically the way I die shouldn't really have a material affect on others, unlike living my life to help and raise other up).

I honestly think it's something a lot of people struggle to understand as the dominant global religions of Christianity and Islam put so much importance on heaven and hell and like... Should those exist, then that's a problem for me once I get there. I cannot believe a good and loving G-d would send someone to hell when they have led a life to better the world however that same person didn't believe in the right deity? I cannot understand the idea that faith will protect you from all sins and negative actions - that you could harm and hurt but because you believe in G-d then all of that is forgiven and completely fine.

It's why I find the notion of atonement and forgiveness in Judaism so healing and important. If you have harmed your fellow man, they are the one who must grant forgiveness if you are truly apologetic, not G-d and not a priest. It is only after you have shown true contrition for what you have done, and tried to make amends, that you can go to G-d for forgiveness. The only person who can grant forgiveness is the one harmed and you have to face up to that. The idea that a priest can just relieve you of the harm you've caused someone else is so insulting to me. That they could still be hurting and confused and dinstead of trying to find out why and growing as a person, you leave them in that state to satiate your own need for release from the guilt.

I feel lucky to be from a people who value our time on earth as important and not just a temporary sojourn before heaven and a people that understands that to apologise and atone, you must face up to what you have done in the realest possible way.

As a note, I am not trying to bash religions. I'm sure there are some with similar views, it's more that I can probably count on one hand the number of times he'll and heaven have been discussed in shul because they are just not the most important thing?

[is-the-thing-actually-jewish]

When I was a kid my grandma was my only close Jewish relative so I just assumed everything she did was universally Jewish (including the French language) and I'm still trying to figure out which are real- I know it could be a minhag and you wouldn't know, but have y'all ever heard that you have to eat something parve between eating meat and dairy? or was my grandma just trying to make me eat my vegetables before desert?

Rating: Who are we to argue with the wisdom of your mothers? 

We surveyed a range of family, friends, and acquaintances with different minhagim (customs related to religious observance, as distinct from halakha, the requirements of religious law). Some folks wait one, three, or six hours between meat and dairy. Some people say that it’s making the distinction between meals that matters, so if you sit at the Shabbes table all afternoon after a nice cholent lunch and you only clear away the dishes when it’s time for seuda shlisheet, you should not have a dairy meal, but if you have a pastrami with friends and then come home and want ice cream before bed, those are clearly separate things regardless of how many hours it has been. Some people say that you should just brush your teeth between meat and dairy so you don’t accidentally mix meat and milk in your mouth if you’ve got some meat residue between your teeth. However, none of the people we surveyed were familiar with the minhag you have described.

That said! It is still entirely possible that this minhag does exist somewhere— there is, as we said, a range of customs and traditions around this matter, and it’s hard to prove a negative. Furthermore, there is also a Jewish principle of following the practices of your elders when it comes to matters of minhag. It is for this reason that many Ashkenazi Jews today continue to avoid kitniyot on Passover, even though we no longer have the same concerns about mixing up our grains—we are simply following the traditions of our ancestors.

Additionally, there is a rule for eating something parve between dairy and meat, as in dairy first. Unless the dairy is a hard cheese, which takes longer to digest (at least according to the rabbis) you don’t have to wait at all, depending on your custom, but should eat something parve as a “palate cleanser.” See the second paragraph here.

If you assume that the foundational principle of all the various minhagim around eating dairy after meat are about maintaining the clear distinction between the two categories, eating something parve between them is a perfectly cogent position to hold.

And hey, it got you to eat your vegetables.

[petrichoremojis]

IDs in alt

Symbols for: Jewish, halakha, two variants for "born Jew", two variants for "Jewish convert"

The forearm crutches variant of the convert one was self-indulgent, the kippah on a baby variant was just for fun

[shalom-iamcominghome]

When I was a kid, I used to pitch a tent in my bedroom to sleep in, so you can imagine why sukkot is one of my favorite holidays

[eldritch-emojis]

Various religious symbols

Cross | Star of David | Grimoire or Spellbook

can be used for symbols "Christian" , "Jewish" and "Pagan" or simialr

[the-first-man-is-a-cat]

1. Instructions in Mourning Customs

2. Funeral Procession

3. Burial

Manuscript made ca. 1450 - 1500, currently in Princeton University Library.

[this-is-z-art-blog]

[ID: digital drawing of Sam Manson and Danielle Phantom in her human form sitting on a blue carpeted floor. Sam is wearing a long sleeved purple baseball tee, black and green plaid skirt, purple tights, and a black Star of David choker necklace, sitting with her feet tucked under herself, one hand on her ankle and the other shyly behind her head. Dani is in her usual outfit hoodie and beanie, red pants with a tear in one knee, and light red socks. She's sitting cross legged with balled up yellow wrapping paper around her, holding in her lap a short rectangular hanukkah menorah, where the shamash is a Pac-Man and the regular candle holders are the ghosts. She's saying "Wow, this is awesome!" to which Sam responds "Thanks, my Bubbe helped me make it."]

Eight Ecto Nights 2024, Night 3: Custom

[feygaleh]

I have a question about that Twitter thread you reblogged (I'm East Asian so I am coming from a point of 0 reference). One its the criticisms of Israel is that it is based on Hebrew and western laws. I'm assuming Hebrew law is a code of ethics based on context, is it specifically associated with Ashkenazi Jewish people? What does that criticism mean in the context of erasing other Jewish cultures?

i read it as based on hebrew (language) and western laws as two separate subjects so maybe im dumb. 😭😭😭 but hebrew being the standard language in israel while also recruiting many jews to move to israel means a dying out of ladino, yiddish, and other jewish languages.

jews in the comments are saying it’s about ~45% ashkies and ~50% sephardi and mizrahi combined. so the message i got from the thread is by combining these cultures for a pan-jewish culture we are inevitably going to be erasing the other parts in one way or another esp if we’re only following one traditional set of laws etc etc etc

idk if i answered the question 100% correctly pls let me know if i misread ur ask

EDIT: these things are not the complete fault of israel. gentiles and the shoah are the biggest oppressors of erasing jewish history and customs. im answering for how israel is complacent

[pimento-playing-hopscotch]

If you looked in TK’s camera roll, you’d be sure to see-

12 pictures of stranger’s dogs

11 “keep going” mantras from Cooper

10 pictures of Buttercup

9 of Carlos cooking

8 of Carlos doing yoga

7 sensational selfies

6 game night victories

5 unhinged memes

4 saved recipes

3 Mateo close ups

2 FaceTime screenshots

And an article about leaving the bag in your teaaaa 🎶

[shkatzchen]

Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year! I've been sitting on this for half a year now and I'm glad to finally share it with you all. I actually started this before my Independence Day dress, and this was the reason that I discovered the 'heal' function of Gimp, to remove the flowers so I had a blank canvas to add these Stars of David. I wanted to make a dress my Jewish sims could wear to proudly show off their faith and/or ethnicity, for holidays or just because.

I'm sorry the gif is terrible (this is the best I could do) but, at least it gives some idea of the different colors available.

Requires Cottage Living. Comes in 16 swatches.

Download from SimFileShare here.

Made with S4S.

[afrenomes]

Hmmm I shouldn’t really complain about this because it’s my parents’ house, not mine, and I’m just (hopefully temporarily) living here, but it really rubs me the wrong way that my mom insists on putting up a bunch of Christmas decorations, meanwhile we’ve put up nothing for Chanukah :/

[silly-jewish-vents]

Sfira begins and with it my acapella playlist. Naturally my tendency to relisten to the same song on repeat has gone into full force too.

[polishwomenartists-sztukakobiet]

Anna Binkuńska (1908–1997) "Żydowskie wesele”

Autorka przykleiła kartkę z opisem jego treści:

"Żydowskie wesele. Państwo młodzi siedzą z rodziną ze starszymi. Młodzież bawi się w innym mieszkaniu. Wódka nie stoi na stole ani wino. Nalewa się gościom trochę do szklanek lub kieliszków. Żydzi tańczą oddzielnie starsi. Pochylają się, przysiadają, nie udało mi się tego odtworzyć. Żydówki tańczą starsze taniec z chałkami, podrzuca jedna z nich te chałki w górę, inna łapie i później ona podrzuca. Wreszcie kroi się na kromki i zjada z faszerowaną rybą lub z galaretką z nóg wołowych. Czasem bywa też rosół na weselu."

Źródło: Muzeum Etnograficzne we Wrocławiu/Ethnographic Museum in Wrocław

✍️ Joanna Kurbiel, Dział Sztuki ME @folkmania