Kapparot for Vegetarians
Photo by
Yaffa Phillips
Posts Tagged ‘Jewish’
Photo by
Yaffa Phillips
Meditation for Friday Night Candle Blessing
We usher in the Sabbath and Festivals by kindling lights. Our aim is to unite the practical benefits of light with its spiritual component.
We who have lost our sense and our senses – our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves: we call a halt.
We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest. We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion.
We declare a Sabbath, a space of quiet: for simple being and letting be; for recovering the great, forgotten truths; for learning how to live again.
May the brightness of these candles banish all gloom, anxiety, and care from my heart and from the hearts of my loved ones.
May this Shabbat festival bring us peace and serenity, joy and rest. Keep aglow within us, O God, the spirit of gratitude for Your many blessings, so that we may know the sweet taste of contentment and the rich harvest of sharing.
Kindle in our home and temple a deeper love for one another, for our people, and for all Your children.
Amen
The quoted bit in the middle is from “Only One Earth,” a United Nations Environment Programme publication for “Environmental Sabbath/Earth Rest Day,” June 1990; UN Environment Programme, DC2-803 United Nations, New York, NY 10017.
The full text was given to me by a colleague on a Taglit-birthright israel program as a reading before lighting Friday night candles. I am looking at different texts as I create my own traditions for my home. Please comment with any additional texts, links or traditions you find or practice.
Links
Traditional Candle Lighting Blessing in Song with text
Shabbat Blessings on the Union for Reform Judaism Site (sound files)
Candle Lighting Blessing in Feminine and Masculine God/dess forms
How to Light Shabbat Candles Flash Presentation
Ladino Women’s Prayer for before candlelighting with translation
Yiddish Prayer in translation for before candllelighting
Traditional Yehi Ratzon prayer for after candlelighting FAQ on Shabbat blessings and rituals
Find out Candle Lighting Times and print out Jewish Calendars at HebCal
Find out candle lighting times in additional cities all over the world on the Chabad website
R.I.P. – Chris Schwarz – 1948-2007
I am sad to write that Chris Schwarz, the founder and director of the Galicia Jewish Museum passed away this week from prostate cancer.
I had the privilege to meet Chris Schwarz through my work. He was an extraordinary human being. If you are ever in Krakow, go to the Galicia Jewish Museum to see his amazing, life’s work.
From the Galicia Jewish Museum website, a description of the museum and their permanent exhibition. [The catalogue of the permanent exhibition Photographing Traces of Memory is beautifully produced in English and Polish and is highly recommended.] :
The Galicia Jewish Museum exists to celebrate the Jewish culture of Galicia and to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, presenting Jewish history from a new perspective.
The permanent exhibition, Traces of Memory, is a contemporary look at the Jewish past in Poland.
The exhibition features the work of photographer Chris Schwarz, with texts by Prof. Jonathan Webber (UNESCO Chair of Jewish and Interfaith Studies, University of Birmingham, UK). Over a period of twelve years, they traveled together town by town and village by village, gathering material that offers a completely new way of looking at the Jewish past that was destroyed in Poland. The exhibition pieces together a picture of the relics of Jewish life and culture in Polish Galicia that can still be seen today, interpreting these traces in a manner which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking.
The exhibition is divided into five sections, corresponding to the different ways in which the subject can be approached:
Section 1 is entitled Jewish Life in Ruins, with all the sadness of confronting the past.
Section 2, Jewish Culture as it Once Was , displays remaining signs of the original culture.
Section 3, Sites of Massacre and Destruction shows the horror of the Holocaust.
Section 4, How the Past is Being Remembered recognizes the efforts to preserve the traces of memory, and
Section 5, People Making Memory Today, shows people involved in recreating the memory of the Jewish past in Poland today.
A talented photographer, Chris came to Poland on an unrelated job, filming a documentary. He noted that the remains of Jewish life in Galicia were going undocumented. He was concerned that the existing iconography of the Holocaust and Jewish life [in Poland] were very limited. He then proceeded to make it his life’s work to rectify the situation.
In addition to producing and hosting high quality exhibitions and housing an excellent bookstore, the gallery has since become a center of community life, with concerts and classes, and a newsletter that chronicles local Jewish activities and culture.
I hope they continue to go from strength to strength in fitting tribute to Chris.
Chris Schwarz went about his chosen path in a thoughtful, humble way, with a sense of humor and irony, a clear purpose, and a wonderful, sensitive way with people. He was a special human being. He will be greatly missed.
Found an old website of his which describes work he has done.
Update: From the August Newsletter of the Galicia Jewish Museum:
Messages of condolences can be sent to
info@galiciajewishmuseum.org
from where they will be taken and placed in the official Book of Condolence at the Museum.
Yizkor Online
Today, is one of the days when Jewish people remember their dead loved ones and vow to give צדקה (just acts of giving) as a way to remember them.
More information about the prayer and its full text can be found here.
