#yemen pictures

[solarcandydrops]

Is there a link for this??

[ssunvulcan1981]

Houthi: Stop right there. Cartman, NATO, do you know what you're doing? You will survive if you live in this era. Give me your weapon. I'm sure you value your life. No-one will blame you if you betray your friends.

[radfemsiren]

There’s something so specific about female oppression that makes you acutely aware of being a small part of a bigger phenomenon.

I’m not an Asian woman, but there’s a profound disturbance I feel when I see an Asian sister become degraded for the crime of being woman. I feel a deep hatred for sex tourism and fetishization, for maids being treated like commodities and having their passports withheld from them. I feel my stomach wretch when I see a picture of Junko Furuta, when I heard those male Japanese politicians laugh at raising the age of consent in pornography. There’s something wrong happening to my sisters out there.

I’m not a black woman but I feel a deep ugly pit in my stomach when I see the interviews of Sudanese women escaping rape and starvation in the desert. When I saw that video of Cassie Ventura running from Diddy in the hallway, when I hear her screams and know his power and influence protected him for so many years. When I see the family portraits of Sonya Massey and her children, and I know there can be no future ones ever created. There’s something wrong happening to my sisters.

I’m not a woman who is disabled. I’m not a woman in a domestically abused relationship. I’m not a prostituted woman. I’m not a trafficked woman. I’m not locked away right now. Everything that happened to me is in my past… I have freedom and autonomy now… I can just move on and forget about the worldwide phenomenon of female pain. But I know I can’t. There’s a terrible gnawing.

Growing up Muslim we always were taught that the Muslim nation is called the Ummah. The Ummah must operate as one body. I was taught many times that if anyone in the Ummah at any time is in pain, the body is restless, and can’t sleep… even the smallest prick of a finger can keep you wide awake, aware of the pain. They always said it like that, holding up a finger. Just, the smallest, prick.

There’s a sickness happening in the worldwide body of women, and it keeps me awake at night. There’s anger and defensiveness I feel when a woman is the butt of a mean joke. There’s bitter resentment I feel when I see men get special treatment that I know a woman would be crucified for. I feel anger so often. When I see little girls being stabbed in the news. When I see girls starving in Palestine. When I see girls forced to wear hijab and stay home in Afghanistan. Sudan. Yemen. Iran. Egypt. Honduras. Femicide. Rape. Forced birth. Menstrual huts. FGM. So many ugly words, so many tainted countries.

Sometimes I worry that too much anger might poison me over time…but what can I do about my sisters? There isn’t a finger prick upsetting my body, there’s gaping wounds, pulsing and bleeding out. I cant sleep like that… Sometimes I hold onto my body when I’m alone, with that sickening knowledge what while it does everything it possibly can to keep me alive and safe, women all over are suffering for having the same exact body. Sometimes I would hate my body in the past. Knowing that certain things only happened to me for the crime of having a female body. But now I hold onto it, grateful it keeps me alive and breathing, and I try to ignore that gnawing at the back of my mind while I try to sleep.

[plaguedocboi]

Bottomless Pits

We post holes here, sir.

Sinkholes, pit caves, wells and cenotes all have one thing in common; sometimes they’re bottomless. Not truly “bottomless”, of course, but in appearance, reputation, or of incredible depth. We’ve seen a few of these “bottomless pits” in prior lists such as the Lost Sea in Tennessee or the Devil’s Hole in Nevada, but today we will focus on those strange places in the earth that seem to be endless.

1. Laguna Kaan Luum, Mexico

This one threw me for a loop because I was originally only seeing pictures like the one above, so I was like ‘oh, that’s cool, so it’s kinda like Dean’s Blue Hole, where it’s an ocean sinkhole right off the shore…’

No. It’s not that. Let’s zoom out a bit.

Yeah. This is a lake with one giant sinkhole in the middle! It’s about 2,000 feet across and reaches depths of 278 feet, with the surrounding shallows a very pleasant 4 feet deep! I’m mostly including it on the list because the full image hit me like a bus.

2. Sima Humboldt, Venezuela

Tepuis are large plateau mountains found across Venezuela, often with sheer sides and inaccessible tops that inspired explorers to imagine dinosaurs still surviving on these isolated mesas. Even on their own, tepuis are incredible, beautiful and mysterious. Add a sinkhole with an even more isolated forest at the bottom, and you have all the ingredients for some crazy shit to happen. Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel are two enormous sinkholes at the top of Cerro Sarisariñama. Humboldt is the largest at over a thousand feet across and nearly the same in depth, with a jungle flourishing at the bottom. The sinkhole forests are home to many endemic species of both plant and animals, but so far, no prehistoric monsters have been found in any of them.

3. Well of Barhout, Yemen

The “well of hell” is a massive sinkhole in the desert, measuring about 100 feet in diameter and plunging down over 300 feet. Understandably, there are many myths and legends about this place, including a story about an evil djinn which lives at the bottom and takes the head of anyone foolish enough to climb in. In fact, so pervasive are these legends that the sinkhole was only formally explored in 2021! Luckily they did not find any evil spirits, but they did find stalagmites which reached 30 feet tall, cave pearls, and waterfalls which provided refuge for frogs and snakes.

4. Myakka sinkhole, Florida

This murky abyss is filled with more than just water, it is also home to over a hundred alligators. Due to the poor visibility and very high concentration of large carnivores, it is very difficult to study this pit. Only a few people have ever glimpsed the bottom of this 134-foot deep sinkhole, but apparently we aren’t missing much because the water down there is stagnant and inhospitable to most life. Exactly why this area is so popular among alligators is still unknown, but it’s likely due to a combination of food availability and ideal temperatures.

5. The Pit cenote, Mexico

Like Cenote Angelita, The Pit is a layered cenote. The first 88 feet is freshwater, then there is a “fog” of hydrogen sulfide, below which lies over 300 feet of brackish water. The Pit is a spectacular-looking cenote, with an almost otherworldly quality, which makes it very popular among divers. So far, this pit has been explored to a depth of 390 feet, but unexplored passages extend further.

6. Thor’s well, Oregon

Like a drainpipe continuously swallowing an unbroken stream of ocean water, Thor’s well is often likened to a bottomless pit. However, it is actually only about 20 feet deep, and the drain effect is due to the fact that it connects back to the ocean, not swallowing the water but simply rerouting it. This does not mean that there is no danger, though. The rocks are slippery and sharp, and this area sees a higher than average number of ‘sneaker waves’; waves that look normal as they roll in but are actually much larger than they appear, potentially sweeping people out to sea as they retreat. The true danger here is the ocean, not the well.

7. Vouliagmeni Lake, Greece

This incredibly beautiful saltwater lake has been rumored to have healing properties for thousands of years, and today continues to draw in visitors for its medicinal minerals and “doctor fish”. But this famous lake hides a secret; a labyrinth of caves whose depths have never been fully explored, and whose connection to the ocean remains undiscovered. Passages stretch over a mile into the mountains, with an average depth of 260 feet. The largest of these caverns is nearly 500 feet wide and full of warm sea water. Although a spectacular diving spot, these unknown caverns are best not underestimated.

8. Santa Rosa blue hole, New Mexico

A gorgeous natural swimming hole, this cenote is roughly 80 feet wide and 80 feet deep (in most places) and is a popular destination for tourists. It was also used for diving certification tests, until an incident in 1976. There is one spot in this picturesque cenote that goes down much further than 80 feet; the entrance to a cave. In the dark, twisting passages, two young divers got lost and died, and the cave was later sealed with a metal grate to prevent other divers from attempting to enter. The cave was mostly forgotten about until 2013, when cave divers were given permission to attempt to map the area. The blue hole is at least 200 feet deep, but the bottom of the cave still has not been found.

9. Roaring River Spring, Missouri

This turquoise river bubbles up from a ten-foot wide pool of deep water hidden within a sheer-sided canyon. But despite its peaceful appearance, this spring discharges 20 million gallons of water a day, and the exact source is still unknown. In 1979, divers attempted to map the cave, but reached a point 225 feet down where the passage constricted and had a water flow like “the force of an open fire hydrant”, preventing them from going any further. In 2020, divers waited until the water flow was lowest in the summer and descended to a depth of 472 feet with no bottom in sight, making this the deepest spring in the US!

10. Your Mom.

I jest, of course. Here’s the real one:

Hranice Abyss, Czech Republic

A tiny greenish lake in the forest is the opening to the deepest freshwater cave in the world, deeper than the Empire State Building is high and still seemingly bottomless. It is so deep that scientists think it may have been formed by a totally different process than most freshwater caves; instead of water eroding away the ground from above, it may have been created by acidic groundwater coming up from below. And this water is extremely acidic, able to burn a diver’s skin if not covered properly. This, combined with fallen trees and other debris, poor visibility, and the sheer vertical drop of the cave, creates incredibly dangerous conditions for diving. Because of this, no diver or ROV has reached the bottom yet. But with a recent study using seismic sensors, scientists have estimated that the abyss may be over a kilometer deep, twice what was previously thought.

[sealuai]

🇵🇸 🍉 MASTERLIST OF DONATION / HELPFUL LINKS I'VE GATHERED FOR PALESTINE

if you have hard evidence and proof that one of these links are malicious/a scam please dm me and i'll edit it out daily click: https://arab.org/

esims for gaza: https://gazaesims.com/

care for gaza fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/careforgaza Donate to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights secure.everyaction.com/LsmZ1X1ZqEqrcXHPysM_Kw2

palestine main search tag go fund me: https://www.gofundme.com/s?q=Palestine

help demand a ceasefire: https://ceasefiretoday.com/

support families in palestine: https://irusa.org/middle-east/palestine/

provide gaza medical supplies: https://support.anera.org/a/palestine-emergency palestinian children relief fund: https://www.pcrf.net/

feminine hygiene kits for women in gaza: https://piousprojects.org/campaign/2712?fbclid=PAAaZfWGJlaygf4B007T2WdkCkuwRsB-51VarXBj4-wufsuXkpSZXb1jVWBQA_aem_Abn_mpJqicHw9wmCGQXtLGe7leLf4eSg1WKU6uoHPaxpD6Ls3JHKE-qM4VNHRMT_EP8 sudan humanitarian fund: https://crisisrelief.un.org/t/sudan

support gaza urgent response: https://www.map.org.uk/ tech for palestine: https://techforpalestine.org/

help diabetics in Palestine get insulin and evacuate: https://mutualaiddiabetes.com/diabetics-in-gaza/

help palestinian animals: https://t.co/yK1CkMfHv6 doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/palestine Providing medical and psychological assistance to people affected by the ongoing conflict.

healpalestine.org SHELTERS , MILK , FOOD MULTIPLE PALESTINIAN CAUSES: https://www.palestinercs.org/en upaconnect.org United Palestinian Appeal empowers Palestinians to improve their lives and communities through socially responsible and sustainable programs in health, education, and community and economic development. dci-palestine.org DEFENSE FOR CHILDREN, PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN forgottenwomen.org A website by woman to help woman, which is currently focused on the problems woman have in the genocide currently. LEBANON EMERGENCY https://muslimcharity.org.uk/lebanon/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAlcyuBhBnEiwAOGZ2Sx_SXBIUhy6JwljcMSd11Ke7bfW5zEgEYhWpn65iEAxp0lL7EMfujRoCpakQAvD_BwE BRANDS TO BOYCOTT: https://www.boycotzionism.com/

Palestine: http://paypal.com/paypalme/UsmanaliF

Congo: http://freecongo.org

Yemen: http://yemenfoundation.org/donate/

Sudan: https://paypal.com/donate/?hosted

GO FUND MES

[deirakizuna]

I was today's years old when i found out that the flower my aunt has been turning into tea the past 20+ years is also Hawaii's representative flower. How it got all the way to Venezuela is beyond me.

Links and story under Read More!

Deuce's birthday began like most of his days, with "a very annoying red chicken-like head waking me up" (his own words, not ours), and apparently said chicken followed him all the way from the campus to our studio with a radio on his shoulder playing a rather loud and cursed version of 'Happy Birthday'. He didn't stop the music even while we were taking his picture. Sorry Deuce, happy pride tho. You can get his look here:

Ola Hou Designs - Sarayah Tote ° Denim Jacket ° Mesh Blouse Wings Hawaii - Maui Strong Stickers Mahalo Shoots - Aloha Maui Tee Help Hawai'i: Maui Food Bank ° Aloha United Way ° Maui United Way

We would also like to show support to the following countries: Congo, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Sudan, West Papua, Yemen, Haiti, Armenia, Lebanon, Tigray and Uyghur.

If you know about any store from any of these countries or whose proceeds go to support them, please let us know so we can promote them!

Art by Mod. Deira Kizuna Also posted in Boxitty's Instragram Reblogs are greatly appreciated

[probablyasocialecologist]

Now, the United States appears happy to bypass the Palestinians in the discussion of how many of them should have to die. The State Department talks of dealing with a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza without mentioning who has caused it. In American papers of record, Palestinians almost always seem to die from mysterious bombs that theoretically could have come from anywhere. CNN will report on the spread of disease and the treating of innocent children with deep wounds, but the initiators of their suffering are downplayed. NPR will play audio diaries of doctors working in emergency rooms without adequate staffing, equipment, or medicine, but fail to mention how Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals brought about these horrors, in direct violation of international law no less. This type of talk comes so naturally that it is almost reflexive. Attributing blame, connecting dots, and reporting the full picture requires acknowledgement of the reality on the ground in Gaza. It would require going past easy-to-read IDF statements, jeopardizing Israeli contacts and imperiling press access to IDF-guided tours. It would require confronting the fact that a majority of Americans and Brits back a ceasefire in Gaza, and acknowledging that the actions undertaken by Israel would be unconscionable to anyone who has eyes and doesn’t have a heart like a cinder. Therefore, the tried and tested methods of denial return, diminishing returns be damned. To the American, war, when abetted by Americans, must always be draped in some sort of impenetrable fog. Bullets fly from unknown places, infections and starvation spread just because, and suffering is abstract and inevitable—up until an ally might be blamed. The only motives to be given prime time coverage are America’s: always moral, always undertaken to protect the international rules-based order.

[guerillas-of-history]

Saraya Al-Quds raises pictures of the master of the martyrs of the resistance, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Sayyed Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, on its vehicles during the process of handing over the zionist prisoners.

"Thank you to Yemen, Lebanon and Iran"...

Palestinian women raise signs of thanks while attending the handover of occupation prisoners in Khan Younis.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Resistance News Network:

The armed terrorists of the Syrian opposition "Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham" continue their media campaign to present their formerly ISIS- and Al-Qaeda-affiliated selves as reformed and "open to change," which the western media parrots without question.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Julani is now presented as giving up his head-slicing ways under a black flag in favor of a tailored olive military outfit, palatable to the west. Remarkably, Al-Julani, despite being among the world's most abominable terrorists, was freely given an interview in CNN today, where his "changed" views were platformed, glossing over his history as an ISIS leader in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Julani, in a message to Iraq a few days ago, manipulated language to serve the Western agenda, speaking about "Iran's wars against the region," referring to the Gaza genocide and "israel's" war on Lebanon, without naming the executor at all. This is a calculated rhetoric that aligns fully with the agenda of his Western and zionist backers which seek to fracture the resistance in the region.

In an interview with zionist media today, an FSA officer openly admitted that their only enemies are the Syrian state, Hezbollah, and Iran - not the settler-colonial and expansionist tumor in the region called "israel." Far from even pretending to condemn the occupation, he expressed willingness to be friendly with the genocidal entity, mirroring what was told to zionist analyst Mordechai Kadar, that opposition groups want increased support and weapons from "israel."

He added that they are "thankful to 'israel' for strikes against Hezbollah." This is no surprise, as opposition groups have repeatedly been documented expressing thanks to Netanyahu and celebrating assassinations of resistance figures, even through Al-Aqsa Flood. As quoted, the opposition's sole goal is overthrowing the Syrian state; they seek to normalize with "israel" and even requested "'israeli' and American aid for reconstruction," which would only make Syria more dependent (Note: the Syrian state owes $0 to the World Bank today).

The Syrian opposition has deceived the West, as well as some Arabs, that they are virtuous humanitarians fighting for the Syrian people. In reality, they are pawns in the destabilization the region, aiming to break the link of resistance, and serve "israel" with their actions. By Al-Julani's own admission, over 30% of their ranks consist of foreign mercenaries, far from the "grassroots" movement they aim to represent, while their operations are shaped and funded by Turkey and the West.

Despite the sanitized picture they try to sell the western media today, horrific stories of executions, robberies, siege have emerged from towns that have been taken over in the last week. Despite the attempt at covering up these stories, their true colors shine through by their actions, as well the occasional ISIS patches they forget to hide on their uniforms.

While the resistance in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen defends the region from Western hegemony and tyranny, the Syrian opposition has not lifted a finger. Their Western-trained drones, operated by Ukrainian instructors, have never targeted the zionist entity—they have only targeted Syrians. For months, they have schemed to destabilize the region and undermine the gains of the resistance. With the blessing of their masters and Western cover and support, they are working to sow chaos, diminish the resistance's momentum, and serve their foreign interests.

https://t.me/PalestineResist/71175?single

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Aloe fleurentiniorum

This Aloe species belongs to an Arabian group with toothless leaves, sometimes call the "inermis group". An unusual feature is the color of its leaves, which can turn brownish or blackish under some conditions (the plant pictured only shows a hint of this). Aloe fleurentiniorum occurs in northern Yemen and in neighboring southwestern Saudi Arabia. Aloes belong to the Asphodel Family.

-Brian

[sayruq]

There has been major developments in the region in the past few days that indicates regional war is imminent. Again the tweets and articles will be in chronological order.

American war ships are in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Russia responded to that by sending planes to the Black Sea and China by sending warships to Kuwait.

We got our usual back and forth on the ground operation in Gaza

The American media is not really reporting these recent attacks on their military bases. In fact, the military is downplaying the strength of the responses by Yemeni and Syrian groups to the Gaza genocide. This is either because they want to avoid regional war or because they want to be better prepared for regional war.

This statement below seems to indicate that Iran is coming to the conclusion that open warfare is the only thing that will deter America and Israel

As for Yemen, they've declared Israeli ships will be targeted if the attack on Gaza continues (you'll see later that this is no empty threat)

By the way, Israel bombed an Egyptian military site along the border and claimed it was an accident. The Egyptian people have been calling for their government to intervene militarily and I don't think this will ease the pressure.

On the 22nd, Israel sent a small team to infiltrate Gaza. They didn't get very far

They're also struggling against Hezbollah

This meeting by the Russian foreign minister is a big deal as you'll see later

America responds to the escalating tension by deploying 'defensive systems' all over West Asia. It risks stretching itself too thin as multiple countries are already involved in the Palestian resistance with countries like Egypt and Jordan facing internal pressure to do something about the Gazan genocide

Republican Mitch McConnell has recently called Iran, Russia and China 'the new axis of evil'. It seems this is the new angle that the West has chosen because Rishi Sunak has also been comparing Hamas to Russia. This can only lead to Russia getting close to Iran which would ultimately help Hamas.

The situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate as America evacuates its embassy and warns its citizens not to use the Baghdad International Airport due to attacks by Iraqi military groups.

Here we have an Israeli commander admitting that Israel is largely on the defensive against Hezbollah and their soldiers are both traumatised and disheartened. Remember, Hezbollah has yet to officially enter the war

Blinken said that the US 'will be prepared' if Iran escalates its attacks which gives weight to that idea that the US is only trying to deescalate because its not ready yet.

A few hours ago, American bases in Syria were targeted. It's becoming clear that a major goal in the plan to defeat Israel is removing America from the picture in the region

The White House then blames Iran for the attack

More military bases targeted in Iraq

Meanwhile IDF is trying to infiltrate Gaza again. Reminder that a ground operation means that Hezbollah will officially enter the war and begun using its vast numbers of missiles and rockets. They're also attacking the West Bank, the resistance fighters have ambushed them

Yemen follows through on the threats it made by attacking a US warship with drones

Ansarullah claims there was a direct hit but the US Navy says that all drones were intercepted (using days old pictures).

So what now? First, do not expect a ceasefire. Tbh the Palestinian resistance hasn't even called for ceasefire, just an exchange of hostages.

Second of all, America itself does not believe that Israel can win this war so let's all stop acting like Palestine has already lost

Thirdly, regional war is looking more and more like reality

[ssunvulcan1981]

WWIII

[duckiemimi]

South Africa is standing their ground right now. they’ve brought “israel” to the ICJ (click for the 3-hour playback of the first day of the public hearing or click for a summary), and now their lawyers want to start proceedings against the US government for being complicit in “israel’s” international crimes (click). while we’ve seen the ICJ’s track record (especially in the Bosnia v. Serbia case rulings—click for a more in depth thread), this is the first step.

this should be the first step to reviving faith in international law. this is where pacta sunt servanda comes into question. what are statutes and conventions for if continuously ignored? why is there room for impunity where there should be none? while “israeli” warplanes continue to target hospitals, and while the US and UK empires bomb Yemen’s capital because of their resistance, we wait and expect an interim measure to stop military operations. this is the first step.

today (or tomorrow in The Hague) is the second day of the ICJ public hearing. after yesterday, we know that archived evidence on the internet helps—do use the hashtag #EndIsraelsGenocide to increase support and visibility for South Africa’s case! (click).

and do tune into the hearing today (click to watch it live here). there is significance in a worldwide live broadcast—everyone shall bear witness to either the birth or the death of “justice.”

and if the ICJ fails us, then it’ll be the ICC’s turn. the ICC has set up a portal for any submission of evidence of “israeli” war crimes in Gaza. anyone can upload verified, factually correct videos and images. click here for the direct link to the portal, and click here for Karim Khan’s statement on it. if you have any saved pictures and videos, please do upload them.

[radfemsiren]

There's something so specific about female oppression that makes you acutely aware of being a small part of a bigger phenomenon.

I'm not an Asian woman, but there's a profound disturbance I feel when I see an Asian sister become degraded for the crime of being woman. I feel a deep hatred for sex tourism and fetishization, for maids being treated like commodities and having their passports withheld from them. I feel my stomach wretch when I see a picture of Junko Furuta, when I heard those male Japanese politicians laugh at raising the age of consent in pornography. There's something wrong happening to my sisters out there.

I'm not a black woman but I feel a deep ugly pit in my stomach when I see the interviews of Sudanese women escaping rape and starvation in the desert. When I saw that video of Cassie Ventura running from Diddy in the hallway, when I hear her screams and know his power and influence protected him for so many years. When I see the family portraits of Sonya Massey and her children, and I know there can be no future ones ever created. There's something wrong happening to my sisters.

I'm not a woman who is disabled. I'm not a woman in a domestically abused relationship. I'm not a prostituted woman. I'm not a trafficked woman. I'm not locked away right now. Everything that happened to me is in my past... I have freedom and autonomy now... I can just move on and forget about the worldwide phenomenon of female pain. But I know I can't. There's a terrible gnawing.

Growing up Muslim we always were taught that the Muslim nation is called the Ummah. The Ummah must operate as one body. I was taught many times that if anyone in the Ummah at any time is in pain, the body is restless, and can't sleep... even the smallest prick of a finger can keep you wide awake, aware of the pain. They always said it like that, holding up a finger. Just, the smallest, prick.

There's a sickness happening in the worldwide body of women, and it keeps me awake at night. There's anger and defensiveness I feel when a woman is the butt of a mean joke. There's bitter resentment I feel when I see men get special treatment that I know a woman would be crucified for. I feel anger so often. When I see little girls being stabbed in the news. When I see girls starving in Palestine. When I see girls forced to wear hijab and stay home in Afghanistan. Sudan. Yemen. Iran. Egypt. Honduras. Femicide. Rape. Forced birth. Menstrual huts. FGM. So many ugly words, so many tainted countries.

Sometimes I worry that too much anger might poison me over time...but what can I do about my sisters? There isn't a finger prick upsetting my body, there's gaping wounds, pulsing and bleeding out. I cant sleep like that... Sometimes I hold onto my body when I'm alone, with that sickening knowledge what while it does everything it possibly can to keep me alive and safe, women all over are suffering for having the same exact body. Sometimes I would hate my body in the past. Knowing that certain things only happened to me for the crime of having a female body. But now I hold onto it, grateful it keeps me alive and breathing, and I try to ignore that gnawing at the back of my mind while I try to sleep.

[meirmakesstuff]

My parents are in town and we went to see a friend of mine from college who is a rare books librarian and found a medieval xtian text bound in fragments of Talmud. With my parents we were able to identify the text and guess at some historical possibilities.

The Latin book is printed on paper, dated circa the 1480s, but the Hebrew text is handwritten on vellum and estimated at least 100 years earlier. By being used for scrap it may have escaped burning. 

The text is this: https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.68b.7

It's Talmud but formatted not how we learn that Talmud is formatted, because it's earlier than that convention.

My mother, whose Master's is on medieval Hebrew manuscripts, identified the writing as Ashkenazic. The printed book is from Ulm, so that makes sense, although she didn’t feel it would be unreasonable to find a Sephardic handwriting in that time and place. The only part I could read in the pictures my friend originally texted me was the mishnah, but in person my mother was able to read a lot more and we were able to follow the Talmud text as she was reading from the manuscript and I was reading on Sefaria.

I find the content of the fragment particularly touching, in this context. It's a description of the practices of Yom Kippur, but it's more than that:

In the Torah, the practices of Yom Kippur are laid out as they would be observed by a nomadic people with a centralized sacrificial system. In the Mishnah, they're recording the to-them-modern evolution of those practices as a people who settled in a certain location and built a large central temple in their biggest city to house the sacrificial system--but as they're writing it, the sacrificial system is coexisting with the system of verbal liturgical prayer, and they're encoding these practices in part to avoid losing them. That account would have been edited into cohesion in the 3rd century CE, at a time when they were facing the anxiety that their cultural practices might soon be lost.

The Talmud then takes the Mishnah and seeks to explain it, meaning that by the 5th-6th century they were again worried that comprehension of the Mishnah, where they recorded their interpretations of the earlier practices, might now be lost. In the Talmud they take the Mishnah line by line and discourse about it, and record the conversations they had including not only how to-them-modern people should be observing Yom Kippur, now in the full absence of any centralized system OR sacrificial worship at all, but also filling in the blanks of what the Mishnaic rabbis might have taken for granted about the worship they described, lest that information might soon be lost.

The medieval scribe who wrote the fragment we saw today might have been writing at a time when the most honored commentators on Torah and Talmud had living grandchildren. That scribe wrote out the text of the Talmud by hand, first the Mishnaic account of their soon-to-be-lost evolution of the lost Biblical practices, then the Talmudic description of their then-current practices and attempts to understand the lost Mishnaic practices, but already the commentaries of Rashi had been written, in 12th-century France, in which Rashi attempted to understand the Talmudic and Mishnaic and biblical descriptions, and filled in the blanks as he understood them, so that his readers would be able to envision the lost Talmudic practices. He wrote in Hebrew, because he was distributing his commentaries not just within France but around the Jewish world: there's evidence of Rashi's work being read in Yemen within the 12th century.

When the printing press was developed, the layout of a Talmud page that we take for granted today was encoded. It was developed so as to protect the texts on the page from water damage in order of priority: the Talmudic text in the center of the page, Rashi's commentaries next to the binding, his grandchildren's and later medieval commentators on the outside of the page, at greatest risk. This is in order of perceived sacredness: Rashi's commentary was by that point accepted as having a degree of importance that set it apart from other commentary

http://shirak.me/2020/04/27/An-introduction-to-Talmud-Coursera-Northwestern-University/ Here's an annotated page of Talmud identifying the parts of the page that's understood as standard to this day. Many publications of this also include more recent commentary of a variety of eras and nationalities.

And this past September, this book came out, after more than a decade in progress. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-annotated-mishnah-9780192846143?cc=us&lang=en&#

They only covered the Mishnah, not the entire Talmud, in that time, despite having three editors and several other translators and commentators involved. 

Looked at from where I stood this afternoon, touching that sliced-up fragment of vellum, and realizing that the function of this new translation is to make the same text--the same text--understandable to us, now, lest comprehension be lost, or looked at otherwise, because turning it and turning it, turning it over and over to look at more facets and turning it over to the next generation and the next, that's what we do, that's what we're for, that's what this living culture is. And there's a tremendous sense of holiness, then, to witness that fragment, cut up and bound into the flyleaves of a Christian text but still legible to someone who knows how to read it.

And yet. 

I'm generally comfortable reading texts in Hebrew writing on parchment but I struggled with the handwriting. My mother could read it, with difficulty, because she got a Master's in it; my friend asked her how long ago and she pointed at me and said "that long ago." I'm almost 40.

The knowledge ebbs and flows in and out of any of us.

It's no rarity to see older books cut up and reused to bind others in the 14th century, when the Xtian book of sermon ideas was printed. But for a Talmud text from that time to survive is rare indeed. And it's rare to me to have a friend reach out with questions just the weekend before my parents happen to be visiting and when we have the time to drive over and look at it in person and read from it out loud and translate it with the help of the same text, preserved, in an app on my phone.

[deirakizuna]

I kept thinking about that one "Port O' Rico" post while making this.

I'm sorry. Happy Birthday Sleepy boy. Links and story under Read More

Today's birthday boy was slightly difficult to work with, not because he was rude or anything, but mostly because he fell asleep at least 3 times before we managed to take his picture. We had to call Lilia and Sebek to help us keep him awake for long enough, but we ended up giving him some of Deira's strongest coffee she keeps in reserve and it worked wonders! We told him to keep a few bags of the thing as a gift. You can get his outfit here for a good nights rest:

El Nido Puerto Rico Featuring the following brands: Original Puertorro // Droogs // Pícalo Donate to the following charities: PRxPR ° Direct Relief: Puerto Rico ° Friends of Puerto Rico

More information about Puerto Rico We would also like to show support to the following countries: Congo, Palestine, Hawaii, Sudan, West Papua, Yemen, Haiti, Armenia, Lebanon, Tigray and Uyghur.

If you know about any store from any of these countries or whose proceeds go to support them, please let us know so we can promote them!

Also posted on Boxitty's instagram, Reblogs are much appreciated