Showing posts with label Picture Posts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Picture Posts. Show all posts
Sadness and joy,
drizzling sunbeams,
remember, remember,
and fill your soul with memories you never witnessed;
Remember, remember,
join yourself up again to the
massive Whole.
Grieve, shed tears,
make room for the darkness
of the families, children destroyed forever,
though they were never your children.
Remember the blood-stained uniforms,
the smell of explosions and darkness and death,
though it was not your nose
that smelled them.
And remember the joy,
fireworks and flags,
elation and trepidation,
fighting fiercely, joyfully for your lives -
though it was not you
who fought, whose heart rejoiced.
To be one of the Nation,
to be one with the Nation,
my mind must remember,
my soul must remember.
To be a soul holding hands
with those before and those after,
with those beside me and those far away,
I must remember.
We must remember.
Taste the joy,
the fear, the darkness,
the light, the death,
the throngs of jubilant rejoicers and
the full, silent cemeteries
in the moments of silence.
Remember the stories.
Remember today.
-----
* Pictures 1, 2, 6 & 7 are of the Gush Katif Human Chain, and are from this site. There are more wonderful pictures there; go and look!
* Picture 3 comes from this page.
* Picture 4 comes from this page.
* I'm not sure where I got Picture 5 from.
Part of The Yom Haatzmaut Project
1. May 15, 1967: Naomi Shemer's Yerushalayim Shel Zahav first sung at the Israeli Music Festival, and what came three weeks later...
2.
July 4, 1976: Operation Yonatan
…with every passing day you acquire a complete world. Now, this very moment, you’ve gained something. From every mistake you make you gain a little. Every single moment of your life is a whole epoch. Do you remember Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”? In one of the stanzas, he says: ‘If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the earth…’ Because each and every minute is made up of seconds and of even briefer fragments of time, and every tiny fragment ought not to be allowed to pass in vein.(Self-Portrait Of A Hero)
We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people—men, women and children—but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom.(Chaim Herzog)
3. February 11, 1986: Natan Sharansky arrives in Israel
4.
February 17, 1977: Team Captain, Tal Brody leads Maccabi Tel Aviv to an upset over the Red Army Team of Moscow sending his team to the European Cup Finals
אנחנו במפה! ואנחנו נשארים במפה - לא רק בספורט, בהכל
"We are on the map. We are staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything." (Tal Brody)
I can't even begin to say how bad I feel about not getting a parsha post out! I've just been so busy lately..we even had snow in Jerusalem!(see picture*)! Ok so this picture above is clearly not mine, if it were I would have had to dress up as a man and that would be highly sacrilegious, but I wish I COULD in fact take credit for it because it's beautiful, and has a lot to do with a side point I want to make in this post
So this morning while I was heading down to daven, I was thinking about what to write, and these words popped out at me during P'sukei D'zimra : "Hanoten sheleg k'tzamer, kfor kaefer yifazer. Mashlich karcho kfitim, lifnei karato mi ya'amod? - He who gives snow like fleece, He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls His ice like crumbs-before His cold, who can stand?"(Tehillim kuf mem zayin-Psalm 147)** I never really noticed this allusion to winter weather before, especially when talking about Yerushalayim, as in this perek of tehillim, one of the last of the 150. This perek "places its primary focus on Jerusalem, the center from which holiness, redemption and torah will emanate," "continuing the theme of redemption [of the psalms that precede it]"*** I found these verses in particular very interesting, and not just because I've been thinking about snow after these last few days! Generally, cold has negative connotations, and the words "hurls His ice" are almost frightening. The image it conjures (at least to me) is of anger, of ice being thrown, perhaps in punishment by a power of unimaginable magnitude. Of an unapproachable "cold" detached from us and so distant that, before it, one would be unable to stand.
And is that not the way some people view Hashem? Like a mere entity so far removed, it no longer has any effect or control on us, or care for us. As "the philosopher" in Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari stated, there is no way G-d could POSSIBLY care about each and every individual person- He merely created something, an effector of sorts that catalysed other actions, resulting in our existence with no individual intent whatsoever involved. This view, however, is completely contrary to Jewish belief. Without our emunah, our Judaism could not stand. As we learn in Sefer V'ten Bracha (which is actually what I had originally planned to write about, but seeing as I got a little sidetracked, I think I'll have to do it in a separate post after a little while so you don't all get overwhelmed with Ashira-ness), when Hashem creates anything, be it a vegetable or an animal, He knows exactly where it's going. He creates it with you, as an individual, in mind. For example, when he creates an apple, He has the specific intent of creating this apple for your benefit- it is like placing a stamp on it, and addressing it to you.
I tried to find any commentary I possibly could on this perek of tehillim, but there was not much out there I could use. However,according to Rashi, the words "like crumbs" is referring to the fact that Hashem is merciful and everything He does is proportionate-it is all in accordance to our burden. As he brings down from the Midrash Aggadah, Hashem would consider the lack of clothing on a poor man and therefore be lenient with him. As it says earlier in this perek, "moneh mispar lacochavim, lichulam shemot yikrah- He counts the number of the stars, to all of them He assigns names"** There are billions of stars-an innumerable and inconceivable amount, to us, yet Hashem counts each and every one and gives them a name. If Hashem can take the time to count and care for stars in His sky, how much more so would he care about each and every one of us,His children, individually? This however, does not take away from the frosty image created mid-perek.
Looking to the next verse, we find our answer: "Yishlach dvaro viyamsem, yashev ruchu yizlo mayim-He issues His command and it melts them, He blows His wind; the waters flow"** Despite the image we can create in our minds of Hashem 'freezing us out', we are thus reminded that it isn't so-with just His words Hashem melts the ice He hurls. We can never forget the compassion and love Hashem has for us- for each of us on an individual level. We need to remember how special and blessed we are to be so close to Hashem, to have Him on our side, looking out for us. It's easy to become jaded and to second guess whether or not Hashem is truly caring for us on the individual level, to get lost in a 'spiritual winter' and lose sight of the truth while our eyes are blinded by the snow. But it's imperative to keep in mind that we really ARE the lucky few, despite any bumps we may find in the road, as the perek finishes: "Lo asa chen l'chol goy, umishpatim bal yidaum,hallelukah! He did not not do so for any other nation, such judgments they know not . Halleluka!" **
For an English translation of Perek 147 in its entirety, click here: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/16368/jewish/Chapter-147.htm
* http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/kotel%20snow%20w%20daavening.jpg
**Translation from the Artscroll Siddur Ohel Sarah-Women's Siddur, Klein Edition
***The Artscroll Tehillim
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So this morning while I was heading down to daven, I was thinking about what to write, and these words popped out at me during P'sukei D'zimra : "Hanoten sheleg k'tzamer, kfor kaefer yifazer. Mashlich karcho kfitim, lifnei karato mi ya'amod? - He who gives snow like fleece, He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls His ice like crumbs-before His cold, who can stand?"(Tehillim kuf mem zayin-Psalm 147)** I never really noticed this allusion to winter weather before, especially when talking about Yerushalayim, as in this perek of tehillim, one of the last of the 150. This perek "places its primary focus on Jerusalem, the center from which holiness, redemption and torah will emanate," "continuing the theme of redemption [of the psalms that precede it]"*** I found these verses in particular very interesting, and not just because I've been thinking about snow after these last few days! Generally, cold has negative connotations, and the words "hurls His ice" are almost frightening. The image it conjures (at least to me) is of anger, of ice being thrown, perhaps in punishment by a power of unimaginable magnitude. Of an unapproachable "cold" detached from us and so distant that, before it, one would be unable to stand.
And is that not the way some people view Hashem? Like a mere entity so far removed, it no longer has any effect or control on us, or care for us. As "the philosopher" in Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari stated, there is no way G-d could POSSIBLY care about each and every individual person- He merely created something, an effector of sorts that catalysed other actions, resulting in our existence with no individual intent whatsoever involved. This view, however, is completely contrary to Jewish belief. Without our emunah, our Judaism could not stand. As we learn in Sefer V'ten Bracha (which is actually what I had originally planned to write about, but seeing as I got a little sidetracked, I think I'll have to do it in a separate post after a little while so you don't all get overwhelmed with Ashira-ness), when Hashem creates anything, be it a vegetable or an animal, He knows exactly where it's going. He creates it with you, as an individual, in mind. For example, when he creates an apple, He has the specific intent of creating this apple for your benefit- it is like placing a stamp on it, and addressing it to you.
I tried to find any commentary I possibly could on this perek of tehillim, but there was not much out there I could use. However,according to Rashi, the words "like crumbs" is referring to the fact that Hashem is merciful and everything He does is proportionate-it is all in accordance to our burden. As he brings down from the Midrash Aggadah, Hashem would consider the lack of clothing on a poor man and therefore be lenient with him. As it says earlier in this perek, "moneh mispar lacochavim, lichulam shemot yikrah- He counts the number of the stars, to all of them He assigns names"** There are billions of stars-an innumerable and inconceivable amount, to us, yet Hashem counts each and every one and gives them a name. If Hashem can take the time to count and care for stars in His sky, how much more so would he care about each and every one of us,His children, individually? This however, does not take away from the frosty image created mid-perek.
Looking to the next verse, we find our answer: "Yishlach dvaro viyamsem, yashev ruchu yizlo mayim-He issues His command and it melts them, He blows His wind; the waters flow"** Despite the image we can create in our minds of Hashem 'freezing us out', we are thus reminded that it isn't so-with just His words Hashem melts the ice He hurls. We can never forget the compassion and love Hashem has for us- for each of us on an individual level. We need to remember how special and blessed we are to be so close to Hashem, to have Him on our side, looking out for us. It's easy to become jaded and to second guess whether or not Hashem is truly caring for us on the individual level, to get lost in a 'spiritual winter' and lose sight of the truth while our eyes are blinded by the snow. But it's imperative to keep in mind that we really ARE the lucky few, despite any bumps we may find in the road, as the perek finishes: "Lo asa chen l'chol goy, umishpatim bal yidaum,hallelukah! He did not not do so for any other nation, such judgments they know not . Halleluka!" **
For an English translation of Perek 147 in its entirety, click here: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/16368/jewish/Chapter-147.htm
* http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/kotel%20snow%20w%20daavening.jpg
**Translation from the Artscroll Siddur Ohel Sarah-Women's Siddur, Klein Edition
***The Artscroll Tehillim
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