Tag Archives: Shabbat & holidays

(One Little Goat) Chad Gadya (El Lissitzy)

Posted on March 30, 2021 by zjb

The 1919 Chad Gadya of El Lissitzky is a violent masterpiece that reveals, uniquely and as if once and for all, the brutal visual core at the Jewish world of this dark Passover classic, sung to this day in Aramaic, … Continue reading →

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Bourgeois Passover (Domestic Judaism)

Posted on March 26, 2021 by zjb

Setting aside all that theo-political stuff, all the high-minded talk and ideas that lend themselves to the public performance and moral didacticism, the social form of the actual Passover seder is intimate; a small scale familial rite, familiar and inward-looking … Continue reading →

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The Ultimate “Hasmoneans & Hanukah” 2020 Twitter Thread

Posted on December 18, 2020 by zjb

  Reminding us again that the rabbis, who detested the Hasmoneans, were only one group of players in antique and late antique Judaism: the Hanukah memorialization of the Maccabean revolt is not simply a reactionary reflex of Jewish modernity and … Continue reading →

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(Jews Love Hanukah) Sensible Excess (Maimonides)

Posted on December 14, 2020 by zjb

Jews love Hanukah, but not because of the story. The story itself has 2 sides. The one relates to Jews and Syrian-Greeks (and between Jews and Jews) (or Judeans if you prefer). The other relates to God and the Hanukah … Continue reading →

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(Everyone Trusts) God Is Good To The Wicked (Machzor)

Posted on September 24, 2020 by zjb

The liturgical poem or piyyut, V’chol Ma’aminim follows in the High Holiday Machzor the Unetaneh Tokef, the liturgical paean to human uncertainty and exposure and to the sovereign power of God. What appears on the surface to be a simple, … Continue reading →

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(1948) Reconstructionist Machzor (Holocaust & Zionism)

Posted on September 21, 2020 by zjb

This 1948 Machzor is a neat little time capsule. Of particular interest is the names of authors and translators in the back of the text. Included below are the authors and translators to the Yom Kippur section (vol.2). Also in … Continue reading →

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A Painted Memory (Shana Tova u’Metuka)

Posted on September 18, 2020 by zjb

This year during Coronavirus, alone at home with family, an apple and honey and a Machzor, this painted memory by Mayer Kirshenblatt is even more dream-like than it was last year. The memory builds upon the passage of time and … Continue reading →

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(Things) Mishnah Shabbat is Beautiful

Posted on September 15, 2020 by zjb

    cedar bast [lekhesh], uncombed flax [ḥosen], raw silk [kalakh], willow bast [petilat ha’idan], desert weed [petilat hamidbar], nor green mosspitch [zefet], wax [sha’ava], castor oil [shemen kik], burnt oil [shemen sereifa], fat from a sheep’s tail [alya], tallow … Continue reading →

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(Coronavirus) Shofarot on Broadway (Sunday at 4:00)

Posted on September 14, 2020 by zjb

from Sarah Kayla Jacobs here. אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּֽנוּ לִשְׁמֹֽעַ קוֹל שׁוֹפָר on September 14, 2020 Covid-19 has upended the world. Most things that until March we took for granted are worse. I don’t have to go into a litany of … Continue reading →

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(Anthropology of Judaism) Lag Ba’Omer

Posted on May 12, 2020 by zjb

Touching upon the history and anthropology of Jewish religion, as well as concluding methodological reflections. With many thanks to Joshua Schwartz and Shari Rabin, respectively, for the kindness of sharing their expertise and these two scholarly references re: the pilgrimage … Continue reading →

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