#Kohen Gadol

[shitakimooshrooms]

hot take but Darth Vader’s fit kinda reminds me of the Kohen Gadol.

[secular-jew]

Parashat Tetzaveh (Ex.27:20-30:10) details the regal robe worn by Aaron, the first High Priest (Kohen Gadol).

The Hoshen Mishpat or Breastplate of Judgement was placed over his heart because he was found fit to minister to the needs of the nation.

Aaron humbly pursued peace and justice, fully understanding that the Will of God was all that mattered.

The garments of the High Priest evoked honor, nobility, beauty and the potential for bringing holiness to the physical realm.

The parsha also describes the altar of incense filling the sanctuary of the Tabernacle with clouds of qetoret (incense) a constant reminder of the clouds that surrounded Moses when he spoke with the Creator on Mt. Sinai.

Shabbat Shalom

[conscienciacoletiva]

O QUE É O COHEN GADOL (SUMO SACERDOTE) SEGUNDO A KABBALAH?

[jdsquared]

Nazir 47a

[jewish-culture-is]

Jewish culture is calling something you only have one of "the last ___ with the seal of the Kohen Gadol".

.

[eretzyisrael]

MRS. COHEN'S COOKIES 

This week’s double Torah portion Matot-Masei contains instructions for the Israelites after they enter the Promised Land. They are commanded to create six cities of refuge, where someone who accidentally kills another can be safe from vengeful relatives of the deceased. The killer must stay in the city of refuge until the death of the current Kohen Gadol (High Priest) serving in the Holy Temple. The Mishna (core of the Oral Law) adds a fascinating detail: “The Kohen Gadol’s mother would bring gifts of food and clothing to the accidental killers living in the refuge cities, so they would not pray that her son should die.”

This seems odd. Inadvertent killers praying to return home can be bought off with cookies? As Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky asks, “Were the Kohen Gadol’s mother’s cookies really worth exile in the refuge city?” Of course, there’s more to it than that. Rabbi Kamenetzky explains that the cities of refuge were not jails or detention centers where people just marked time until they could go home. They were places where people who had been reckless could improve their character under the tutelage of the Levites, who had no tribal land of their own but instead were tasked with teaching Torah to the other tribes. Just as the Levites’ elevated spiritual standing inspired the sinners, so too did the loving mother who traveled far from home to provide goodies to strangers who were likely praying for the demise of her son. This Jewish mother led by example, teaching the lesson that all of Israel is responsible for one another, and we cannot be reckless with the life of our fellow.

The Torah doesn’t punish for the sake of punishment. It rehabilitates the offender by teaching him to be more kind, compassionate, and most of all careful.

Image: "Fleeing to the City of Refuge (Num. 35:11-28)" by Charles Foster, 1884

[girlactionfigure]

SHABBAT & CHOL HAMOED PASSOVER 🐑🐑 SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS 🐏🐏 for those in ISRAEL 

via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime

(( Note Israel Realtime does not post updates on Shabbat or Holy-days (Israel time) UNLESS life threatening / saving. ))

Chief Rabbinute instructions with Risk Adjustments

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Passover - Parshat Acharei - Leviticus 16:1 - Following the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, G‑d warns against unauthorized entry “into the holy.” Only one person, the kohen gadol (“high priest”), may, but once a year, on Yom Kippur, enter the innermost chamber in the Sanctuary to offer the sacred ketoret (incense) to G‑d.

🔅Shabbat Times here -> https://www.myzmanim.com/search.aspx

⚠️RISK

.. the NORTH - including extended areas of Krayot, Haifa, Afula, Safed - MEDIUM-HIGH, rockets or suicide drones at any time.  Safety precautions REQUIRED.

.. NEAR-GAZA - including Ashkelon & Ashdod - MEDIUM-HIGH, rockets at any time. Safety precautions REQUIRED.

 - REST OF THE COUNTRY - LOW - we are at war, there may be unexpected attacks.  Have a plan if there are alerts.

➡️ MAMAD LIGHTS ON… leave the lights on, on Shabbat,  so if there is an alert you don’t have to turn them on.

➡️ TAKE A PHONE WITH YOU… when sheltering or leave one on in the shelter.  If you must call for help, have a way to do so quickly.

➡️ LEAVE ON AN ALERT METHOD… Leave on silent channel or stream on computer or phone, or alert app. 

➡️ SAFE TO GO TO SYNAGOGUE? - Follow instructions of Homefront Command and your City!

— HIGH Risk - only go to a synagogue that has, or preferably is in, a shelter.  Otherwise pray at home.

— MEDIUM Risk - best to only go to a synagogue that has or is near a shelter. Where is it?  Have a ‘when there is a siren’ plan in mind.

— LOW Risk - there will possibly be sirens, what’s your plan?  Have one or choose another synagogue.

➡️ PLAN YOUR SHELTER PATH TO/FROM SYNAGOGUE - If an alert goes off en route, where will you go to be protected if on the way?

➡️ IN SYNAGOGUE, WHERE IS THE SHELTER?  Does it have capacity? - If an alert goes off in synagogue, KNOW where you will go.  Walk over and check the path and capacity.

➡️ ARE YOU SLOW?  - In High Risk areas, stay home.  Medium and Low risk, have a plan if there is a siren.

➡️ CHILDREN?  Discuss with your children what to do in case there is a siren.  Leave young children at home in High risk areas.

➡️ CARRY YOUR WEAPON.

— If you have a gun license, it is a MITZVAH to carry your gun on Shabbat, even without an eruv. 

— Try to have AT LEAST one armed person in every synagogue.

— Have Pepper spray? Or a Knife (small size, approx. width of palm, as allowed by law)? Carry it - we all remain at risk of terror attacks. (Note pepper spray, knives etc will not be allowed to enter govt offices, hospitals, malls or any security controlled site, and your workplace may require you to register.)

➡️ IF SIRENS, SHELTER EVEN IF IN AMIDAH

— If sirens are heard in the middle of the Amidah, one must go to the shelter.  After, restart Amidah from the beginning (others rule to start from where you stopped). 

— Can’t get to shelter, LAY DOWN, all the way, hands on head (reduces risk by 80%).

— As per Homefront Command, wait AT LEAST 5 minutes (Homefront says 10) before exiting shelter or getting up.

➡️ HAVE A PHONE AVAILABLE

— Every synagogue needs a PHONE ON for immediate use on Shabbat.  And with a red alert app in case it is hard to hear sirens.

— You may carry and keep a cell phone on in your pocket.  Set to silent, and set red alert apps to “override silent mode”.

➡️ DO NOT HESITATE TO CALL POLICE !! - If anything suspicious, CALL POLICE immediately!  Dial 100

➡️ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FROM HOME FRONT COMMAND and your City must be strictly obeyed.  If instructed to shut yourself in, do not leave the house even for prayer.

It is a mitzvah to take actions to protect and save and preserve life on Shabbat, not a violation.  But ONLY actions which do so.

DUE TO THE SECURITY SITUATION, THE HOME FRONT COMMAND DETERMINED THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES AS OF THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024 AT 18:00, UNTIL SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2024 AT 18:00:

Partial Activity - Gaza Envelope (except for the towns of Nirim, Kerem Shalom, Nir Oz, Kisufim, Ein HaShlosha, Sufa, Holit, Nativ Ha’Asara, Nahal Oz and Kfar Azza)

Educational Activities - Educational activities are prohibited.

Gatherings and Services - Gatherings can be held with a limit of up to 100 people outdoors and up to 300 people indoors. The beaches are closed to the public.

Workplaces - Can operate indoors or in a place from which a standard protected space can be reached within the time available to reach shelter.

Partial Activity - Confrontation line

Educational Activities - Educational activities are prohibited.

Gatherings and Services - Gatherings can be held with up to 30 people outdoors and 300 people indoors. Beaches are closed to the public.

Workplaces - Can operate indoors or in a place from which a standard protected space can be reached within the time available to reach shelter.

Towns classified as green – Full Activity – The rest of the country

Educational Activities - Operating without restrictions.

Gatherings and Services - Operating without restrictions.  * Ashkelon, Netivot - Gatherings can be held with up to 15,000 people

Workplaces - Operating without restrictions.

[todaysjewishholiday]

1 Menachem Av 5784 (4-5 August 2024)

Chodesh tov! A new month is upon us. Today is Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av. The name Av does not appear in the Tanakh, where it is simply referred to as the fifth month. It is probable that like Tammuz the name is one of those borrowed during the Babylonian captivity which replaced the original Hebrew name of the month. But in Hebrew the name of Av is indistinguishable from the Hebrew word for father. Because of this and because of the month’s relationship to the cataclysmic destruction of the first and second Beis HaMikdash by imperial oppressors of the Jewish people, the word Menachem, which means consoling, is often appended before the name of the month to represent HaShem as a consoling parent caring for the Jewish people in the wake of these tragedies.

The Talmud says that from the beginning of Av we decrease our rejoicing, just as we increase our joy at the beginning of Adar. While the period of mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash begins on the 17th of Tammuz, Rosh Chodesh Av begins a deeper period of mourning known as the Nine Days. Celebrations and certain forms of enjoyment are avoided by many Jews during this period, including the consumption of fleishig meals and wine, which are used as a symbol for the korbanot and wine offerings of the Beit haMikdash. Kiddush Levanah, the blessing for the new moon, is also generally postponed until after Tisha B’Av.

As usual, Jewish mourning is superseded by a holiday, and as Shabbat is the greatest of the holidays, even the Shabbat of the Nine Days is a day of rejoicing, called Shabbat Chazon, ie the Shabbat of Vision. This name comes from the haftarah, the opening passage of Sefer Yesheyahu, which predicts the destruction of the Beit haMikdash and of Jerusalem but which also holds out hope for return, blessing, and forgiveness if the people turn back to HaShem sincerely. It is this vision of communal repentance and righteousness that motivates the joy of Shabbat Chazon. In years where Tisha B’Av itself is on Shabbat the fast is postponed until the tenth of Av because we do not fast on Shabbat.

The first of Av is also the yahrzeit of Aharon, brother of Moshe, the first Kohen Gadol for the liberated Israelites. It is the only yahrzeit specifically mentioned by date in the text of the Torah, in parashat Masei which was part of read in Shabbat services just two days ago.

Aharon’s passing takes place on the top of Mount Hur. He climbs the mountain with his brother Moshe and son and successor Eleazar. Aharon dies and is buried atop the mountain, and Eleazar is dressed in the robes of the Kohen Gadol and returns to the camp with Moshe, and the entire camp mourns for thirty days for the passing of their inaugural priest.

Aharon’s death is part of the transition from the elder generation of Israelites who were adults at the time of their liberation from slavery to a younger generation which has come of age during the years in the wilderness. It is the younger generation, without the leaders of the Exodus, which will enter and inhabit Canaan.

According to the Torah, Aharon had spent a significant portion of his life as a slave in Egypt, and then became spokesperson for his brother to negotiate both with the leaders of the enslaved Israelites and with Pharaoh and his court. It is only after the exodus from Egypt and the introduction of the covenant at Sinai that HaShem calls Aharon and his sons as kohanim for the Mishkan. But Aharon’s role in the text is consistently that of a go-between and mediator, first between his brother and others to help navigate Moshe’s concerns about his speech impediments, and then between the Israelite people and HaShem. Aharon often remains silent in times of conflict or seeks to soothe tempers even when doing so involves dubious decisions, like crafting the golden calf. He is well suited to the role of Kohen Gadol but needs some practice to be able to choose what HaShem wants instead of following the path of least resistance.

[blueiscoool]

Looted Rare Coin From Last Hasmonean king Seized in Israel

IAA says coins minted under Antigonus Mattathias II rarest from period; dozens of other ancient coins from Roman to Muslim periods recovered in search of East Jerusalem home.

Police recovered dozens of ancient coins that were allegedly illegally excavated — among them a rare coin from the time of the last Hasmonean king of Judea over 2,000 years ago — during a search in East Jerusalem overnight, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.

The currency was recovered from the suspect’s home in the Silwan neighborhood and includes bronze coins ranging from the Roman period until the Muslim period. The IAA said in a statement that coins from the reign of Antigonus Mattathias II (40 BCE – 37 BCE) are the rarest finds among those minted from the Hasmonean period.

Police questioned a man in his 30s, suspected of robbing the artifacts — likely by searching for them with a metal detector around Jerusalem — illegal possession of artifacts, and attempting to sell the items.

IAA Director Eli Escusido said that finding the coins at their original site would have been more useful to their study.

“The removal of the coin from its archaeological site harms the ability to understand our historical puzzle,” he said.

Gabriela Bichovsky, a coin expert at the IAA, said a cornucopia is displayed on the coin, with a Hebrew inscription reading, “Mattia Kohen Gadol,” a reference to the Hasmonean king as a member of the Jewish priestly class. The opposite side of the coin was minted with a Greek inscription surrounded by a wreath, she said.

“Mattathias minted bronze coins in three denominations: large, medium, and small. The coin that was recovered is of the medium denomination and is rarer than the large, on which a pair of cornucopias appear instead of one,” Bichovsky added.

She further explained that the methods used were unique to Mattathias.

Before being stamped with their designs, “the tokens were first cast in a double limestone mold, creating a thickening coin that looks as if two were stuck together,” she stated.

“It’s very difficult to find currency from Antigonos where you can see the models in their entirety on the faces of the coin. Among the currencies of the Hasmonean period, the coins of Antigonus Mattathias II are the rarest.”

[psychologeek]

I have these thoughts, about how fucked up it is that people use "genocide" and "holocaust" BECAUSE it's jews and a Jewish state they talk about.

How, even if it was genocide-

(it's not)

- out of 15 shades of genocide in the last century, you make sure to compare to something that happened to us.

That is still happening, because this is what being Jewish is-

"that in every generation", we say every year, "they are standing for us to parish us."

"שבכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו".

And the "them" isn't spesified (it's not like it's one. And they keep changing. Whoever has the power to.)

And it is present, continues, because it is ALWAYS and it's a warning and a promise and a reminder. It's happening. Now, tomorrow - it's coming.

Always.

I think about over two thousands bloody years.

I think about the way the holocaust shaped us -

The way The Destruction shaped us -

Two thousand years of blood and exiles and -

From the burning of The House to the burning homes in the ghettos.

I think about the way HaKhurban, The Destruction, is one word. A Name.

(there's one, big event)

I think the way HaShoa, the Disaster, is one word. A name.

I think about the destruction of the foundation, of Dat and Bnei Israel and the way it had to be shifted, as a way of life that is so inherently related to land, that it took about hundreds of years to make the transition from a Home, Beit HaMikdash, meaning "house of the hollying" to smaller houses of worship, Batey Knesset, meaning "houses of gathering".

I think about turning from a nation to smaller communities, Kehilot.

I think about destruction and ashes and death.

I think about shattered glass and people burning with holly places, and I don't know if it's 80 or 2000 years ago.

I think about destruction

I think about glass, melting in the heat. Turning to new shapes.

I think about waves, going back and forth.

I think about the doors of Nikanor, and a hidden basket on the Nile, and overcrowded ships.

I think about communities burning, living behind one from town, two from family. An ember saved from the Pyre.

I think about the destruction of communities.

I think about the re-forging of a nation.

(it isn't pretty. It isn't gentle. It is broken and painful and destructive and heat)

I think about Rabi Akiva looking at the destroyed Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holliest chamber in the Holliest place, where even the Kohen Gadol can only enter once a year.

I think about foxes running around, in the violated, broken sanctuary.

(I think about bones, dry and old, rising from their graves and forming a structure. I think about the pain of recreating neurons and muscles and skin)

I think about Rabi Akiva, and remember -

(He laughed)

[softness-and-shattering]

So uh, take a Hannukahark Nonagesimus

Image description:

A pen and marker art piece of the Locked Tomb character Harrowhark Nonagesimus. She is a small woman in fancy attire of black, grey, and muted yellowish-gold. Her long dress has many lace panels decorated with images of dreidels, skulls, and other bones. Along the bottom of her skirt dangles alternating skulls and dreidels, reminiscent of the Kohen Gadol's clothing. Her face is entirely covered with black and white skull facepaint, and she wears a headscarf, gloves and boots such that her skin is entirely covered. On her torso she wears a bone corset shaped like a hanukiyah, with lace skulls in place of flames. The effect is both gloomy and festive. She is not smiling. End description.

[goy-bullshit-translator]

Hot take: The tannaim were right to shift the focus of Hanukkah away from the Hasmonaim: they were brutal militarists who usurped the throne from the Davidic line, eroded the separation between the royals and the kohanim by appointing one of their own as kohen gadol, persecuted the P'rushim, and literally invited Rome in to take over.

alright sure, we can do ideological and historical discourse too. why not. i didn't need clean notes.

[lightdancer1]

After Athaliah another woman would not rule a Jewish state until Golda Meir, bar perhaps one figure of Amazigh Jewish history:

Interestingly while Jezebel's name very much *did* include the name of Baal, Athaliah's name incorporated that of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. In spite of this, or perhaps precisely because of it, and because her narrative exists to justify her murder by a coup orchestrated by the Kohen Gadol/High Priest, she is presented as a classical Baal-worshiping Omride. Given her name incorporated the name of God one might balk more than a bit at this, and it is probably revealing that her noted as ruling for six years omits the details....because she was in all probability competent. And as Wu Zetian can note succeeding in ruling while woman in a deeply misogynistic society is a way to get your corpse put on trial for the offense of excessive competence.