Images From Home

I have intentionally not written any posts this past month as the Chaggim, holidays, here in Israel have geared up and my personal experience and spiritual journey have needed some attention. I found that by just being here and doin the do without describing, expressing, or articulating along the way has had its own merits. I do have quite a bit stored up in me however (it was, after all, my first Chaggim in Israel as an Oleh Chadash), so you can expect snip-its, references, and allegories from this season to appear in other places and in later posts. 

This post, however, will not contain much commentary or written opinion, rather, I just felt like sharing some of the images I have captured over the past few weeks. 

Here you can see some of the children's entertainment at the annual craft fair on Emek Refaim, a popular Street in the German Colony, close to where we live in Jerusalem. Children's activities in Israel range from ridiculous, to educational, to downright scary. This guy spans the spectrum if you ask me. . . 

  

Sure, every anglo always complains about how far behind the curve Israelis are when it comes to recycling, littering,  composting. . . And while I think most of these assumptions are actually unfounded, here you can see Israeli amutot (non profits) trying to organize volunteers to spread the good word and encourage composting, for example, here at the Street Fair.

I don’t really know what was up with this guy but I am pretty sure there was a baby elephant involved and perhaps some LSD

These guys were awesome. Pickin and stompin and banjo-in. Good fun

Yay.

One of the coolest things... really illustrates that necessity is the mother of invention. Weather proof, sturdy protection, convenience, rock on Yashiva Bucher, rock on!

Middle aged ladies partaking in some early morning Ti-Chi on the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University. Nothing unusual about it. . .

The boys are back in town! Our friends Josh and Kayla came to visit Israel from Boston and we have had the pleasure of hosting them for the past few weeks (the subject of many of our late night conversations will undoubtedly appear in more than one post this year). Around midnight we decided to take a hiatus from political, religious, philosophical, Zionist, Jewish, humanist conversation and debate, and introduce them to a new game my dad brought us from the States- Ticket to Ride (highly recommend). Josh looks worried in this photo because he thinks this means we are abandoning Catan. Don’t worry Josh, Ben and I learned all about division of loyalty this year... 

Not the time or place to get into this in detail but essentially, this is a piece of art located in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Upon seeing this, I commented to Josh that I had read somewhere that humans not only perceive rainbows with the lens in our eyes but because of a series of photoreceptors in our eye balls and chemical messages sent to our brain when our rods and cones focus on certain visible light, we also create the rainbow in the minds. I then said how wonderful it was for Hashem to give this to humans as his brit, his covenant to us. Something we both conceive and perceive of. 

We went to the Hasidim exhibit at the Israel Museum and were not disappointed. A very well done display of history, narrative, religion, and culture through videos, photographs, painting, all sorts of mixed media. Was just fabulous

Women’s wedding apparel in the Hasidic Community

Men's religious garments in the Hasidic Community

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and sweet new year! May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life and may many more of us come home this year. B'Shana Haba B'Yerushalayim!