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The Diameter of the Bomb
Page 97 mishkan T’Filah
The Diameter of the Bomb
The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters
and the diameter of its effective
range about 7 meters,
with four dead and 11 wounded.
And around these, in a larger
circle
of pain and time, two hospitals
are scattered
and one graveyard. But the
young woman
who was buried in the city she
came from,
at a distance of more than a
hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning
her death
at the distant shores of a country
far across the sea
includes the entire world in the
circle.
And I won’t even mention the
crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of
God and
beyond, making a circle with no
end and no God.
(Yehuda Amichai)
Friday Night structure
Haftarot for a Triennial Cycle Torah Reading
Haftorah 3 yr cycle (Avram Israel Reisner, 2014)
How long must a haftarah be?
Megillah 23a reports a baraita that requires 21 verses in the haftarah, parallel to the
minimum of seven aliyot of three verses in the Torah reading. That ruling is represented as the
halakhah by Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 284:1. But a careful reading of the Talmud text
suggests that the matter may be less clear.
The baraita is not reported by the Talmud as a matter of law. It is used by the Talmud,
there, to attempt to bring a proof about the number of aliyot that there are. But Rava sees it as a
”עולותיכם ספו“ ruling and challenges it on factual grounds, citing the haftarah
, the haftarah of
parashat Tsav, which he points out is less than 21 verses. Several other haftarot today are
likewise less than 21 verses (the haftarah of Ki Tetze, “רני עקרה,” Isaiah 54:1-10, 10 verses; the
haftarah of Vayak-hel “ויעש חירום,” I Kings 7:40-50, 11 verses, to name a few). The talmud’s
anonymous response to Rava’s challenge is: “That is different, because the issue comes to an end
Baraita, also spelled Baraitha (Hebrew: “Outside Teaching,” or “Exclusion”), plural Baraitot, Baraitoth, orBaraithoth, any of the ancient oral traditions of Jewish religious law that were not included in the Mishna (the first authoritative codification of such laws).
Tehillim–Psalms
The Book of Psalms is an ancient anthology of poetic prayers originally written in Hebrew.
It is the first book of the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, known as Ketuvim (Writings).
The English term title derives from the Greek psalmos, meaning “song accompanied by a stringed instrument.”
In Hebrew, the book is known as Tehillim (tehillah in the singular) or “songs of praise,”
a title that emerged as the preferred Jewish name for the collection during the first centuries of the Common Era (CE).
HATIKVA
Hebrew Lyrics
Transliteration
התקוה
Kol od balevav p’nimah
כל עוד בלבב פנימה
Nefesh Yehudi homiyah
נפש יהודי הומיה
Ulfa’atey mizrach kadimah
ולפאתי מזרח קדימה
Ayin l’tzion tzofiyah
עין לציון צופיה
Od lo avdah tikvatenu
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim
התקוה בת שנות אלפים
L’hiyot am chofshi b’artzenu
להיות עם חופשי בארצנו
Eretz Tzion v’Yerushalayim
ארץ ציון וירושלים
History
The title of the national anthem, HATIKVA, means “The Hope.” It was written by Naftali Herz Imber (1856-1909), who moved to Palestine in 1882 from Galicia. The melody was arranged by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia, from a musical theme in Smetana’s “Moldau” that is partly based on a Scandinavian folk song.
Hatikva expresses the hope of the Jewish people, that they would someday return to the land of their forefathers as prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish people were exiled from Israel in 70 C.E. by the Roman army led by Titus who destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. During the two thousand years of exile, the Jewish people said special daily prayers for return to Israel while facing the East in the direction of Jerusalem. They celebrated the holidays according to Hebrew seasons and calendar. Zion is synonymous with Israel and Jerusalem.
sukkot
—————————
The Sukkah’s spiritual energy invites the souls of Judaism’s seven great leaders to partake in the divine light on Earth.
What is the Garden of Eden? This is the place where worthy souls, having passed from this world, enjoy the light of the divine presence as they await entrance to the World to Come – i.e. the post-Messianic age (Talmud – Shabbat 152b; Derech Hashem 1:3:11).
The Zohar, the foremost book of Jewish mysticism, explains that the Sukkah generates such an intense concentration of spiritual energy, that the divine presence actually manifests itself there in a similar way to Eden. During Sukkot the souls of the seven great leaders of Israel – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and King David – actually leave Gan Eden to partake in the divine light of the earthly Sukkot (Zohar – Emor 103a).
Each day of Sukkot, all seven souls are present, but each takes his turn to lead the other six. Collectively these transcendent guests are known as Ushpizin, the Aramaic word meaning “guests.” To welcome these illustrious souls, many have the custom to recite a lengthy mystical invitation upon entering the Sukkah for the first time. Additionally, many invite the Ushpizin each time they partake of a meal in the Sukkah. Some Sephardic Jews even have the custom of setting aside an ornately-decorated chair covered with fine cloth and holy books.
Leonard Cohen’s Who By Fire
And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?
shofar
The Talmud tells us that the horns of all kosher animals are kosher for shofars, except for the horn of an ox,
which is technically not called a “shofar” but a “keren,” and antlers, which are not considered shofars
(shofar means “hollow” and antlers are solid).
Yet, of all the possibilities, the preferred source for the shofar is the ram, for the following two reasons:
1. It evokes the ram that was offered instead of Isaac, bringing to light the merit of Abraham who was ready to
sacrifice his only son for G‑d.
2. Its bent shape symbolizes the humility we feel as we stand before G‑d.
The primary shofar blowing consists of the following 30 blasts:
Tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim- tekiah
Tekiah-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-teruah-tekiah gedolah (extra long blast)
During the Musaf prayer, we have 7 more opportunities to blow the shofar, producing the following 10 blasts each time:
Tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah
Tekiah-shevarim-tekiah
Tekiah-teruah-tekiah
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https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4837/jewish/Shofar.htm
James Stevenson Memorial 1946 – August 2023
Quarantine
1944 – 2020
In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking—they were both walking—north.
She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.
In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.
Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:
Their death together in the winter of 1847.
Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.
“Quarantine” is a political poem written by Irish poet Eavan Boland about the Irish famine of the mid 19th century