Al Ha veDa על הא ודא

In response to popular demand (well, one comment from Talmida), I’ve uploaded larger, non-animated images of the front, inside and back of the invitations.

The graphics are all taken from “carpet pages” from 14th century illuminated Biblical manuscripts. The quotation on the inside is from the Babylonian Talmud, Hhullin 89a:

Rabbi Meir said, “Why is Tekhelet different from all other colours? Because Tekhelet is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like sapphire, and sapphire is like [God's] Glorious Throne.”

More will be heard of this theme in my דבר תורה at the Bar Mitzvah.

No reason why I shouldn’t blow my own trumpet occasionally.

Here is the invitation we designed for Aviad’s Bar Mitzvah, using motifs from illuminated manuscripts, and I think it came out very well:

Shamelessly stolen from a comment on Hirhurim by someone called Fotheringay-phipps:

They say a story about the head of the local apikorsim who was dying. And as he lay there on his deathbed, with his apikorus talmidim gathered around him, he told them “call the rov – I want to do t’shuva“. So they told him “how could you do this? All these years you’ve been teaching us k’fira, and now you want to do t’shuva?” And he responded “Aderaba! Ich vil vaisen az dos vos shtait in Gemera ‘risho’im afilu al pischan shel gihenim ainam chozrim‘ – dos is oich falsh!“

Today is my mother’s second Yahrtzeit, the anniversary of her death by the Hebrew calendar.

We invited several friends of ours and hers over for an azkara or memorial service, with prayers (I think this was the first time in my life that I have led a weekday evening service), light refreshments and Torah study. The texts that we learned are available in the original here. I’m feeing totally totally drained right now, but I hope tomorrow or soon I will post a translation and some of what I said for the occasion.

I’m very glad we did it. Everybody who knew her remembers her so fondly, and it was very warming to share reminiscences of her with people.