Preparing for the Passing Over of the Angel of Death

“Preparing for the Passing Over of the Angel of Death,” illustration by C. M. Burd for With the Children on Sundays: Through Eye‐Gate and Ear‐Gate into the City of Child‐Soul, by Sylvanus Stall, Philadelphia: Uplift Publishing Co., 1911, p. 229. (In the public domain.)

— https://www.archive.org/details/withchildrenonsu00stal/page/229
— https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14783117655

Purim and Anti‐Semitism

🖼 The legend central to the holiday of Purim depicts a situation wherein allegations of anti‐Semitism are taken seriously and not categorically dismissed.

The illustration: “Esther confond Aman,” illustration by Gustave Doré from La sainte Bible, 1866, reprinted as “Queen Esther Accuses Haman Before the King” in “Haman Is Hanged on the Gallows Made for Mordecai,” The Bible Panorama or The Holy Scriptures in Picture and Story, Arranged for the Instruction and Entertainment of Children, as Well as Older Persons; Illustrating the Principal Events of the Old and New Testaments, with Descriptions of Them in Easy Words, [by William A. Foster,] Philadelphia: Charles Foster Publishing Co., 1891, 205. (In the public domain.) (Internet Archive) (Flickr) (Also Wikimedia Commons)

🌳 A picture of an almond tree in the Land of Israel, in honor of the Jewish New Year of the Trees (ראש השנה לאילנות‎).

Uncredited illustration in Palestine: The Physical Geography and Natural History of the Holy Land …, by John Kitto, London: Charles Knight & Co., 1841, 212. (In the public domain.)

(Internet Archive) (Flickr)

Taken in by the Propaganda

The only thing that marred my otherwise wonderful extended New Year’s/Perihelion weekend was hearing in conversation that two different intelligent Jewish‐American atheist friends of mine have apparently fallen for the propaganda of fanatically religious Islamic extremists and their allies: One of them was accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” for issuing identification numbers, and the other was saying that radical Islam is no more a problem than extremism in any other religious group and that terrorism has nothing to do with Islamic doctrine but instead with economic disadvantages and a loss of “dignity” that make terrorists turn to terrorism in order to “shake things up.” This was saddening and disheartening but is also quite rare in my social circles.

Holiday convergence

Today is International Day of Non‐Violence, World Smile Day, and one of the days of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (סכות), the feast of booths or tabernacles. One of the symbols of Sukkot is willow (ערבה ʻaraba), the leaves of which are said to represent the human mouth. So use your human mouth today by giving someone a disarming smile and thereby making the world a better place. 👄☺

September 2015/Tishre 5776 equinox

♍ In the New York City area, the equinox will be Wednesday morning, the 23^rd, at 04:22 EDT, coinciding with Yom Kippur. 🌐 ☀

• “Sun at the Equinox,” uncredited illustration in A Short Course in Astronomy and the Use of the Globes, by Henry Kiddle, New York: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 1871, 31. (In the public domain.)

Bizarre Pansy Creature

⚘ The bizarre pansy creature wishes you a happy new year (לשנה טובה). 📅

Nineteenth or Twentieth Century Roʼsh hash‐Shana greeting card in the collection of the Yeshiva University Museum. (Photograph apparently by the Center for Jewish History. Per their Web site: “This material may be used for personal, research and educational purposes only.” Per the corresponding page on Flickr: “No known copyright restrictions.”)

🎗 Faigy Mayer committed suicide Monday by falling twenty stories to her death from a Fifth Avenue rooftop in NoMad. I had met her a handful of times at social events in the “Off the Derech” community and the “reason‐based community” over the past three years. In this photo, she was taking a selfie at a social gathering organized by a mutual friend visiting from Israel.

📷 Ami’s return to America, Oliver’s City Tavern, 190 West 4 Street, Greenwich Village, 13 September 2012. (Photograph by Elyaqim Mosheh Adam.)

📷 My marching with the LGBT cluster in the Celebrate Israel parade, Fifth Avenue and 59^th Street, Midtown Manhattan/Upper East Side, 31 May 2015. (Photograph by Harold Levine.) 🇮🇱

Tree over the ḥalal cart

My current cover photo/header photo on the social networking sites.

Tree over the ḥalal cart, 37^th Avenue and 74^th Street, Jackson Heights, 27 January 2013. (Photograph by Elyaqim Mosheh Adam.)

IMG_1675.jpg, taken with iPhone 4. See the rest of my photos in the album January 2013.

📷 Celebration of Sigd in Jerusalem.

📆 PikiWiki Israel 15508 Sigd Jerusalem, photograph by Yehudit Garinkol, 24 Nov. 2011, under a Creative Commons license.

Sunday at the Ethical Humanist Society of Queens, we were joined by Richard L. Koral from the American Ethical Union and the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester who also joined us for our monthly luncheon thereafter at Jax Inn.

Six Exotic Jews group members also gathered Sunday for an “Exoticon” in Upper Manhattan. We met at General Grant National Memorial where Ariel emphasized Grant’s racism by reading aloud General Order Nº. 11 and then spitting on the site. (See the video.) A British tourist inquired about it, and after explaining, a number of us eventually got onto the topic of libertarianism (and their implying that we were a group of libertarians annoyed me because we are not, but rather a Jewish cultural group). There was also a large group of adolescents there rehearsing a dance routine.

After briefly visiting Sakura Park, those of us who were hungry got food from a local supermarket and we sat, talked and ate on public benches. Then we went to Riverside Park which was really gorgeous and we located what we believe is the Freedom Tunnel. Then came rehydration and dessert at other local venues and more talking and sitting on benches. Afterwards, we rode the subway together to Times Square and then little by little separated from one another as our paths diverged.

While waiting with one of them in Jackson Heights for his bus, our topics turned unsurprisingly towards linguistics (Arabic ligatures, and why the letter jim is a moon letter even though it’s usually coronal).

Passover mythology

How does Eliyyahu (a.k.a Elijah/Elias) manage to get to absolutely every Passover seder? Why it must be with his chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire (rekeb ēsh wə‐sûsê ēsh רכב אש וסוסי אש)! The Greeks identified Elias with the sun god Helios due to a superficial similarity in their names and in their conveyances (although their names are etymologically unrelated, אליהו Ēliyyāhû being Afro‐Asiatic and Ήλιος Hēlios Indo‐European), and Eliyyahu is frequently portrayed in a fire chariot not unlike Helios’ sun chariot.

This is a detail of a fresco in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria, portraying Eliyyahu (Saint Elias) and his chariot of fire (from a larger picture on Wikimedia, in the public domain).

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[I]t is easily seen how, by a scarcely perceptible change of sound, the great god Helios could be transmuted into Elias. Helios drove round the world in his fiery chariot, drawn by horses. Elias went up to heaven in a similar conveyance. Helios produced rain and storm, and so did Elias by the fervor of his prayer on Mount Carmel. Elias brought down fire from heaven and so did the great sun‐god. Hence the parallel between the two was too tempting to be passed over.

—J. Theodore Bent, “Paganism in England,” The Gentleman’s Magazine 262, Jan. 1887, 36.

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the month of Nisan (and thus New Year’s Day) on two different calendars.

In many cultures, including many Near Eastern cultures, the year begins in springtime (March–April in the Northern Hemisphere) rather than wintertime (January–February).

Levantine, Mesopotamian and Anatolian peoples (specifically the Assyrian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish peoples) replaced the names of the Gregorian months with names from the Babylonian calendar, and so April is called Nisan (نيسان، ܒܢܝܣܢ) and Assyrians celebrate 1 Nisan (called Ḥad bi‐Nisan ܚܕ ܒܢܝܣܢ) as the first day of the year.

The Hebrew calendar (or at least the predominant one used by Jews from the Rabbinic tradition if not the Karaites and Samaritans with whose calendars I’m less familiar) also uses month names from the Babylonian calendar, and 1 Nisan (א׳ בניסן) is one of the four Jewish New Year’s Days (as the Jews have one in each of the four seasons). Although the autumnal New Year’s Day (Roʼsh hash‐Shana ראש השנה) has eclipsed the others, the springtime one was the principal one in antiquity and is still the principal one among the Karaites today.

So today is 1 Nisan on both calendars, which usually don’t coincide so precisely.

Earlier

• Jaiku, 1 Apr. 2011.

Shabuʻot Grapes

📷 The Shabuʻot (שבועות‎) holiday is also know as Yom hab‐Bikkurim (יום הבכורים), the Day of the First Fruits, which includes one of my favorites—grapes. 📅🍇

☞ Asaf Keisar, Shavuot2010-33, taken in Central District, Israel, 17 May 2010, under a Creative Commons license.

(Also available on Tumblr.)

יום הזכרון לשאה

📷 The twenty‐seventh day of the month of Nisan on the Jewish calendar is Yom haz‐Zikaron lash‐Shoʼa יום הזכרון לשאה, Holocaust Remembrance Day. 📆💭

☞ Matt Rutta, Yom Hashoah candle, 11 Apr. 2010. Wikimedia Commons, 15 Nov. 2010, under a Creative Commons license.

(Also available on Tumblr.)

Winter Clothing

📷 Winter clothing. #gaynyc #gayjew #MountainJew #gaybear #bear #gayatheist #gpoy #me #selfportrait #gayqafqaz #Fəs #tarbush #طربوش #טרבוש (at Filldor Court)

📆 My apartment, Jackson Heights, 23 January 2009. (Photograph by Elyaqim Mosheh Adam.)

More of my pictures taken that day can be viewed on Facebook.

(Also available on Tumblr.)

http://www.instagram.com/p/UM2bZstW4A/

Turhan Bey Was Half Jewish

📷 Was I aware before he died in September that Turhan Bey was half Jewish? (👳✡)

☞ Unknown photographer, photograph of Turhan Bey labeled J‐S27, pre‐1950, believed to be in the public domain. (See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turhan_Bey_1.jpg.)

(Also available on Tumblr.)

The Jews Are Deliberately Polluting the Sacred Christmas Holiday!

📷 Incontrovertible proof that the Jews are deliberately polluting the sacred Christmas holiday with their dirty Jew symbols! Fight the war on Christmas! (🎅✡)

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All five images are under Creative Commons licenses:

• Marco Repola (istolethetv), antisemitic santa, Santacon, New York City, 13 Dec. 2008.
• Phillip Merritt (intheburg), IMG_4001, Williamsburg, Va., 7 Dec. 2008.
• Chanel Beck (TheChanel), MistleJew, 14 Dec. 2006.
• Will Scovill (Bedtime Champ), Our Holiday Decor, 27 Sept. 2005.
• Marco Repola (istolethetv), Jewdolph the blue-nosed reindeer!, Santacon, New York City, 13 Dec. 2008.

(Also available on Tumblr.)

Xmas & Hanukkah Together Fireplace Decoration

📷 My current cover photo on the social networking Web sites: Lynn Friedman, Xmas & Hanukkah Together Fireplace Decoration, San Francisco, 29 Dec. 2011, under a Creative Commons license.

Also available on Tumblr.

Last modified 22 December 2012.