#aleinu

[applesauce42069]

Peace will come upon us yet.

And everyone.

Peace will come upon us yet.

And everyone.

Peace. Upon us and the entire world.

[captaintiny]

literally can't sleep thinking about gaza

[littlestpersimmon]

I really just want to fucking vomit when I see other Jews denounce us and curse our names to be forgotten, knowing that this kind of insult is reserved for literal nazis- just because we have, principles.

Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba b’alma di-v’ra chir’utei.

I don't know, I feel like I am going insane, living my life under the fascist duterte regime, I know my own kind can be depraved, cruel and brutal. I also have lived my life as someone who was more "jew-ish" rather than "actual jew", and I've been excluded and denied for my appearance and upbringing. I know Israel banned Yiddish and Yiddish literature but when put in scrutiny then suddenly the shoah is brought up multiple times. I've known Israel to treat white converts so much better than they treat Ethiopian Jews and other Jews of color, but when a white convert was kiIled, she was not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Ultimately, apartheid relies on Jews knowing only one monolithic and artificial identity rather than the rich and diverse cultures we have in diaspora- Israel depends on Jews being afraid and clinging to it as indoctrinated cash cows to continue to remain beneficial to the global north, whom are funding their military.

I'm in tears thinking about how Israelis have told me I had no right to wear my magen David for having the audacity to fucking weep over the ark of bodies left before the world to see. How can so many call this bastardization judaism. How can so much of jewry turn up their noses over this. I've seen Israel do literally the same things that the duterte regime has done to fellow filipinos, I've seen both deny human rights and try to get any forces that work for human rights decommissioned, I've seen bodies pile up high because their families were too much in danger to claim them and give them proper burials, and I've seen both filipinos and israeli jews say "where is the proof that this brutality is happening" or "not nearly enough have died.", n the fact that people who have literally argued with holocaust deniers still have the audacity to say "hm! This sounds like a conspiracy! It must be fake!" When human rights watch themsleves have confirmed that idf forces left literal babies to melt into their mattresses, when the American government themselves bragged about sending exploding meat grinders to Israel, when random journalists keep having to find someone else from Gaza to be interviewed because the one they were supposed to talk with died from carpet bombing or whatever else. And so much more. Your own can do depraved and immoral things, and judaism says that you cannot stand for this cruelty. You must not!! Judaism is and will always be the antithesis of inaction!!

I know people from Egypt and people from Lebanon feel complicit just from not being able to do enough, how can so many Jews say nothing to a genocide literally being done in our names, by an ethnostate that ultimately will not care about us. Why HaShem, why is this happening!!

Y’hei sh’lama raba min sh’maya, v’hayim, aleinu v’al koi yisrael, v’imru amen.

[sunshine-tattoo]

So I work in a 2nd grade class and today I got to tell the story of Hanukkah.

The children (who are all gentiles of some sort except one lad who is Hindu) gathered around and listened, enraptured as I told them about the miracle of this little community kicking out these imperialistic invaders and preserving their victory in a story of light.

And it got me thinking about Palestine.

There have been more than a few Jews in my city lately who have used Hanukkah as propaganda for their genocide against the Palestinian people.

"The Greeks invaded our land and we heroically kicked them out! Just as the Israeli government must drive away the Palestinians from our lands!"

But... thats not actually why the Hanukkah story is important.

The Greeks had been the Hebrew people's neighbors for years and freely traded with them.

We exchanged goods and ideas and traditions.

It was only when the Greek King Antiochus IV decided that the Hebrew's lands must belong to him alone, and that the Hebrews could only live by his peoples' customs, that we rose up.

He desecrated our cities and massacred thousands of innocents.

And I guarantee if bombs and guns were around back then he would have used them relentlessly.

Yet. We fought on. Because this was our home and we would not see its fall.

And we won! A miracle of miracles that this band of shepards drove out the greatest army to yet ever live.

In today's world Israel is no longer the Maccabee resistance.

They are the Greeks.

They are funded by the most powerful militaries in the world and force all peoples in their borders (regardless of creed) to live as they demand.

And when someone has had enough, when someone says no, they attack with no regard for innocence or preservation of human life.

Because to them, Palestinian lives mean nothing.

As Hanukkah approaches this year, I am keeping the Palestinian people in my thoughts.

What would the ancient Hebrews say about the barbarism their descendants are committing against people (plenty of them Jews themselves) who only wish to live freely in the only home they have ever known?

What would they say to Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently persecuting thousands of his own people because they refuse to fight in his army and massacre their neighbors?

Ans what would they think of their holy land now? Once a beacon of hope against Greece's imperialism, now the lapdog of the west's militarily industrial war machine?

I think that they would be ashamed.

I think they would slap the Israeli soldiers across the face and spit on them.

"This is what we fought for?! We risked everything so that our children could grow to be peaceful scholars! Not dogs of war for some faraway kingdom!"

I don't pray very often and sometimes I'm not sure about my relationship with God.

But lately I pray for a new Hanukkah miracle.

One where the brave Palestinians can throw off the decades-old shackles placed on them by the Israeli government.

Where Jews, Muslims, Christians, and anyone else who calls Gaza home can create a government together where everyone is welcome.

And most importantly, where their children can grow up happy and loved, without fear of bombs or guns or soldiers.

“Oseh shalom bimromav. Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu. V’al kol Yisrael V’imru.”

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. 🇵🇸✊🏾

[jewish-culture-is]

Singing random Jewish prayers and songs on the subway, like the four questions, adon olam, aleinu, the before and after Torah prayers, the shema, and others. But sometimes I mess up the words especially if it’s too loud. The prayers are just comforting and sound nice.

.

[0-0baybay0-0]

I'm at a school camp designed to teach the students at my school more about Judaism.

After mealtimes, we will have Ruach, and we will pretty much create a mosh pit but with Jewish traditional songs and a mechitza (a barrier preventing boys and girls from intermingling) ((this acctually makes everyone dance more cuz they're more comfortable))

And just.

Screaming my head off, united with girls in my year who I ordinarily would never talk to, my head thrown back singing

"salaam, aleinu v'hakol ha'olam" (Peace and security for everyone)

Im safe here. There's no one else, just me and my school at a campsite.

No anti-semites, no neo-nazis, just me and the beautiful people in my year, united in wishing for peace

[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”

[moorishflower]

Hey I wanna be really clear about something because I do occasionally reblog stuff wrt Palestine and its current occupation, so if you don't have any interest in politics (because this IS politics, this whole situation is very much NOT about religion) feel free to skip over

But I want to make it absolutely clear that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same thing, and when I reblog things in support of Palestine I am not doing so because I think that Jews are evil. I'm studying Judaism. I'm trying to convert. I hope I'll be ready for that someday. So it is not Jews who've stolen land and killed locals and started a genocide. It is not even, to a certain extent, Israelis who've done this. The country of Israel, our modern understanding of it, was flawed from the beginning, built on colonized land that had been already occupied by the British Empire. It has since been taken over by a far-right extremist government who views the native tribes and people of Palestine as little more than animals, or worse than animals. And what's tragic is that this government is using Jews as their footsoldiers and their scapegoats and their pawns. Promising them a return to a homeland that has been gone for thousands of years. Promising peace and safety to a people who have been hurt and oppressed and murdered and driven out again and again. But you can't buy peace with blood. What Hamas did was horrific and is NOT to be celebrated. But what Israel is doing in response is worse.

Halacha tells us that we have the right to rodef, the right of the pursuer. The actual line is "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." In the Talmud, it's decided that "if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first." It's the right to self-defense. What Israel is claiming is that Hamas is SUCH a threat that the deaths of more than 30,000 people, most of which are civilians, most of which are women and children, is justified under Talmudic law.

Right now, the estimate for Israeli casualties (including those killed at the Sukkot gathering) is around 1,139.

The estimate for Palestinian casualties is at least 30,000. Quite possibly more, as some 10,000 are missing. Professor Yagil Levy of the Tel Aviv University estimates that about 61% of that 30,000 is women, children, and the elderly (he places all men over the age of 18 in the "combatant" category and thus are not considered civilians, which is problematic in and of itself).

So where is the line drawn? The Talmud doesn't tell us. But I don't think that the tragic deaths of 1,139 people justifies the wanton and senseless murder of 18,000 women, children, and elderly.

What Israel is doing is horrifying, and it isn't to secure a Jewish homeland, and it isn't in the name of G-d, and it isn't for the continued existence of Jews. It is, plain and simple, an attempt to consolidate power. Netanyahu was (and still is) an extremely disliked Prime Minister. He has put himself into bed with whoever he thinks is most powerful and most likely to keep him in power, which is unfortunately a gaggle of right-wing extremists who are no different, fundamentally, from any other extremist, and who are using Judaism and Jews as a vehicle towards their own enrichment.

I guess what I'm saying here is that in a way, I feel sorry for the Israeli Jews who were told that Israel was the home they had always been promised, but were never told about the strings attached to it. And I wanted to make it absolutely clear that I will not hold with anyone who says that Jews, specifically, are to blame for Gaza, or any other antisemitic statements, because it is not a religious contention.

Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu v'al kol yoshvei tevel. Palestine will be free and Jews will know peace again.

[neverwritewhatyouknow]

It’s Yom HaShoah, a day in which we remember the 6 million Jewish men, women, and children who were murdered during the Holocaust not even eighty years ago.

Every single one of those who were ruthlessly killed had a future. Had a family. Had friends. Had a name. Had a story.

For them, we remember. For them, we say and we mean “never again.”

The Holocaust didn’t start with guns, cattle cars, and gas chambers. It started with laws. With hate. With broken glass. With turning a blind eye.

To remember them, to mean “never again” we have to truly stop hate and antisemitism as it rises and reveals itself. It’s not enough to say that the Holocaust was a tragedy. It’s not enough to say that it should never happen again.

You, we, everyone has to make sure it never happens again. By actually standing up against injustice. Speaking out against hate. Realizing that antisemitism isn’t just something that happened when an SS officer pushed someone into a mass grave, but a very living and dangerous brand of hatred that occurs each and every day for Jewish people, men, women, and children.

I have been honored to meet with Holocaust survivors and hear their stories. I have grown up learning about my people. I have grown up strong in the face of antisemitism. I have known the weight of remembering the 6 million people murdered for no reason other than hate. There is no difference between any of them and me, I was just born about 60 years later. As a child I would sit in my closet and imagine what it was like in a concentration camp. I would imagine how everyone felt. What they must have heard, seen, said. It’s for them, and for me, and for us that I stand up against antisemitism when I encounter it. We have seen what happens when we let it go unchecked.

It never starts with guns drawn and barbed wire. It starts small. It grows. It grows. It grows. I refuse to let it grow when I have a voice. When every ounce of my blood is Jewish. When every cell of my body is Jewish. When every bit of my soul is Jewish. I refuse to forget. I refuse to let hate win. I refuse to let anything like the Holocaust happen again.

Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba b’alma di-v’ra chirutei, v’yamlich malchutei b’chayeichon uvyomeichon uvchayei d’chol beit yisrael, ba’agala uvizman kariv, v’im’ru: “amen.” Y’hei sh’mei raba m’varach l’alam ul’almei almaya. Yitbarach v’yishtabach, v’yitpa’ar v’yitromam v’yitnaseh, v’yithadar v’yit’aleh v’yit’halal sh’mei d’kud’sha, b’rich hu, l’eila min-kol-birchata v’shirata, tushb’chata v’nechemata da’amiran b’alma, v’im’ru: “amen.” Y’hei shlama raba min-sh’maya v’chayim aleinu v’al-kol-yisrael, v’im’ru: “amen.” Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol-yisrael, v’imru: “amen.”

[bisexualmoses]

Somebody wrote a Jewish! Bucky fic but the author wasn’t Jewish and it’s like . I guess I appreciate the effort and the idea but unless you actually understand and appreciate the ideas of tefillah, tzedakah, and teshuvah, you’re not actually going to do a good job or deep character analysis of a Jewish Bucky Barnes… also they got a bunch of stuff wrong about kashrut and said that the only prayer that he remembered was ALEINU and that makes no fucking sense it would OBVIOUSLY be the SHEMA and the majority of you agreed with me hehehehe… and there was more other annoying inaccuracies and Lowkey some weird mildly antisemitic shit of course (Steve doesn’t tell Bucky that he’s Jewish because Bucky doesn’t remember and steve thinks it might upset bucky?? and Steve cooks nonkosher food for bucky even tho he knows he kept Kosher before he was captured ) but the majority of it was like just mildly offensive , I would give it a you tried sticker

[pargolettasworld]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2tItgjI_cU

A lot of people would like to sing “Shehu noteh shamayim” during the Aleinu but are not fond of the rather bouncy Hasidic tune that everyone defaults to.  There are ladies at my synagogue who rather dismissively compare it to children’s nursery rhymes, for instance.  I feel like they might like this lovely, swaying modern version.  It would clash a bit with the Sulzer tune used for the first part of the Aleinu, of course.  But then, so does the Hasidic tune, so you wouldn’t really be losing anything there.  This one is clear, shining, brilliant -- all good things for a text about a deity who spread out the heavens and the earth, whose glory resides in the highest heavens.  This music reaches right up there.

[applesauce42069]

They don’t even know od yavo shalom aleinu v’al kulam

[hiddur-mitzvah]

This is a Jewish blog. Given recent (and ongoing) events, many Jewish influencers and media pages have been posting explicitly political stuff. I am a firm believer that art and religion, the topics of this page, are inherently political. However, this page will not be used to comment on current events. Over the past few days I have been constantly consuming media and politics and news and it has taken a great toll on my mental health. It is not good for the brain to constantly recieve negative and scary information. We must take breaks. I made this page to create a space where Jewish people can feel joy in their culture and traditions without fear of antisemitism or consuming content about antisemitism. That will not change. Fighting and responding to antisemitism and injustice is a large part of Jewish culture, but it is not all that we are. We are not defined soley by the bigotry we face. Our love -of each other, of our traditions, of the world- is a far more powerful and enduring force than hatred will ever be. I am not saying that we ignore antisemitism, but allowing it to consume our every moment is not healthy. We must take breaks. My goal is that this page can help facilitate that.

In the coming days and weeks, I will be doubly vigilant in ensuring that the content I post does not contain references to antisemitism, even those that I may have considered acceptable or uplifting in the past. For the time being, I will leave comments open as I hope they can be a space of solidarity and love. I will try my best to ensure that the comments on my posts are free from antisemitism or inflammatory language, though I will moderate them less strictly than I will my own content. If I feel the comments are being used to spread hate or I am unable to moderate them, they will be turned off.

Oseh shalom bimromav

Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu

Ve'al kol yisrael

Ve'imru Amen

[rosey-posy]

My Passover prayer 🙏

Freedom and liberation to all those suffering in the region right now.

Freedom to the 136 hostages who are currently being held by Hamas.

Freedom to the Palestinian people who are suffering under Israel's indiscriminate bombing and famine restrictions.

Freedom to all of the people who live under the fear of terrorism from Hamas, Hezbollah, and other groups.

Freedom to the Palestinian people so they can finally have an official state of their own.

"Oseh shalom bimromav. Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu. V'al kol Yisrael V'imru, Amen"

[rivkahelisheva]

advice for shacharit?

hello jumblr it’s me again with annoying questions. 

FOR: reform conversion, but i pray from an artscroll sefard pocket siddur and want to improve my Hebrew Skills. 

anyways does anyone have any advice for getting through shacharit when your hebrew sight reading level is that of a child snail? i’m at a point where i can quickly say the shema and most of v’ahavta, and then rely on memorizing transliteration for ashrei, shemonei esrei, and aleinu, but the pesukei d’zimra are completely new and overwhelming. g-d help me

[anonymousdandelion]

B’Chol Dor VaDor

So, today’s writing prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial was “you’re not alone.”

I could only only think of one thing, and almost opted not to share the result. But here it is. Be aware that this is heavier and... rawer than my usual subject matter (although, I hope, also ultimately hopeful), and it is written in the context of rising antisemitism in the US and globally. It is particularly written in the context of the “Day of Hate” which Neo-Nazi groups are threatening for tomorrow.

It is also written in the context of a long, long history of suffering, and the past and present of a rich community that has survived and continues to survive through and despite all those who try to stop us.

Esther went to sleep that Friday night expecting to have nightmares. The subject that had hung over her all day — that she’d seen in the news first thing in the morning after washing her hands, and that had dominated discussion at the dinner table that evening, looming dark and ugly behind the flickering glow of the candles, underpinning her indecision about what to do the following day — seemed all but tailored to that effect.

Her anticipation proved well-founded.

They stormed through the synagogue, in her dream, armed with spraypaint and swastikas and guns. Stormed at her, her friends, her family…

She lost sight of them in the chaos and somehow ended up at the public library. There, Esther fled to the familiar children’s area, sure she’d blend in there or all places, with people all around and the safety and security she’d always felt amongst the books.

But even there, they came at her from behind the bookshelves, monsters that, even in dreaming, were terrifyingly human and real. The other library patrons turned away, said nothing, did nothing, until they eventually faded away entirely. The library backdrop faded, too. And then it was just her and them, caught in a dark, amorphous room with no escape.

Dirty Jew, they said to her, and hurled other slurs she’d never even heard spoken aloud. They hurled worse things, too, and there was no one who cared, absolutely no one…

She woke, heart pounding.

Or thought she did, until she looked around her and saw, lining the walls of her own bedroom… people. Several people. Some faces she knew, though she had seen them only long ago, or only in peeling pictures in old albums. Others Esther had never seen, yet felt she knew anyway.

Family, her heart sang, as much as it had cried Danger not long before.

I’m scared, she told the gathered people, though she knew it was not they that frightened her. I’m scared.

I know, Estele, said a rough, caring voice that Esther had last heard in a hospice room five years before. And one of the women came forward; pinched her cheek in the way that had always made Esther squirm. I was scared, too, zisele, when they came for us in the old country. Bubbie gestured at the group, and in the logicless way of dream-knowledge, Esther knew they were generations upon generations of her ancestors. We were all scared.

B’chol dor vador, said another voice from someone in the ring, in rhythm reminiscent of a familiar tune. Omdim aleinu v’chaloteinu…

Moishe! someone scolded him, when he stopped. You have to finish the verse! The last line is the most important part!

It’s not the part that’s relevant right now, argued another person.

Nu, I was going to get to it in a minute! Moishe complained, but someone else called out at the same time, What are you talking about? Of course it’s relevant! It’s always relevant! It’s the whole point!

It—

And the assembly in Esther’s dream-bedroom burst into energetic bickering; a sort of chaos and conflict completely different from the sort that had tormented the nightmare.

This chaos felt like home.

Incredibly, and with immense relief at the feeling, she found herself laughing.

Well, said her Bubbie wryly, we were supposed to give you a pep talk. To remind you you’re not alone. That our people have been through this in the past, that we got through it every time and that we will again. But—

Esther hugged her, and dream or no dream, it felt like a hug.

I mean it, Bubbie said sternly, squeezing back. You aren’t alone. And that’s true in the living world, too. Our community. They may come for us, may catch some of us… but always we outlive them in the end. They won’t win…

…There was sunlight on their faces, bright and insistent, and Esther awoke.

She lay in bed a minute, reflecting on her night and the vague images of dreams already flowing quietly away from her waking memory.

Then she said modah ani, rose, got dressed, and went to shul with head held high, to join her community in facing whatever the day might hold.

Then she said modah ani, rose, got dressed, and went to shul with head held high, to join her community in facing whatever the day might hold.

Then she said modah ani, rose, got dressed, and went to shul with head held high, to join her community in facing whatever the day might hold.