thekosheraisle - Tumblr blog

[thekosheraisle]

[thekosheraisle]

christians: what could possibly be in that evil book…. what horrible spells does it hold within its pages… what black magic does it propagate….

the talmud: so if you send your kid off to Torah school but he has a really hard time with it, send him back home and go to school yourself instead so that once you’ve learned Torah you can go and teach your entire family. in fact, once some rabbi went out to go to Torah school and do just this, and on his way he came through this town and he asked if he could stay in the synagogue for the night. and of course the rabbi said yes but weird enough no one was in the streets and something was kind of off about the whole place. so our hero went into the synagogue only to find a seven headed demon just hanging out in the library!! our hero is terrified and prays super hard and because of this the demon is vanquished. he goes back to the rabbi and is like “dude wtf” and the rabbi was like “listen i know this is unorthodox but you’re well known for how good at praying you are and this demon has been terrorizing us for well over a month and we were desperate. we knew you wouldn’t die” and the guy was like “i didn’t know that!” who do you think is in the right? hm. tough question. anyway. what were we talking about again? oh right. what if you make your sukkah doorway 1/7 of a cubit too short. would that be fucked up or what

[thekosheraisle]

Golem

[thekosheraisle]

נהפוך הוא

[thekosheraisle]

Ive gotten to a point where if im not 'jewish enough' id like to convert. Hell I feel lost Id gladly leap at the chance to convert or have a guide! (as im still converting from a lack of knowledge at least). Symbols like wearing the magen david and kippot ive struggled to grasp Is this right? Because maybe im not officially allowed to for x, y, z. And because I never got to grow up culturally or even knowing the rest of my family outside of my mom and siblings. I remember when I was younger asking: (Why does brother get told he has a 'jew nose', where does our curly hair come from in our family, who is the rest of our family?) But just learning by myself, reconnecting, discovering so much; I wanted to ask your opinion. Do I have any right to wear such things? When will it be right for someone like me.

any advice is greatly appreciated 🙇🏻

- V

There's no actual rules about who can wear a magen david or kippot, so you're within your right. It's completely OK, especially if you are genuinely Jewish, there's no issue with it whatsoever. Even if you aren't very observant or involved, if wearing a magen david is your only connection to Judaism then that's a perfectly fine way to show your connection and that it's meaningful to you.

It sounds like the awkwardness you're feeling around it comes from the feeling that it's superficially showing your connection to a community that you don't truly feel connected to, and you want to be more connected. In a way it's actually great that you're feeling that, and that you're reconnecting. I think you'll feel even better if you get more involved with the Jewish community, learn more about the culture and religion, and participate more however you can.

[thekosheraisle]

Hi,

I'm in the middle of my conversion to Judaism. I have a sponsoring rabbi, I take a Judaism 201 class, I'm learning Hebrew, I'm transitioning to eating entirely kosher, and all that jazz. My rabbi (she's so wonderful!) even helped me pick a Hebrew name. I don't know everything yet, and that's fine. I will never stop learning even after I die. But I have a question. Since I started the process AFTER the b'mitzvah age, do I still become b'mitzvah? Do I have to go up and do an aliyah, or do I automatically become b'mitzvah once the conversion ceremony is complete? I'm obviously not doing the party part of it, but do I still do the religious parts? I've looked at sources for it, but they don't seem to explain how getting b'mitzvahed would work if you converted. Feel free to answer at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

A confused Jew-in-progress

Regarding halakhic obligations that apply to people above BM age, yes, it all applies. Once you are older than the age of 12 or 13, and you're Jewish, you become a bar/bat mitzvah and the halakha applies to you, even if you do nothing at all to acknowledge it.

Some people who grow up non-religious or who convert choose to have a ceremonial bnei mitzvah with a torah reading and small event with friends and family, but this would happen just for personal reasons and isn't required.

Hope this helps and if you have any more detailed questions about the halakha your rabbi can probably help you out!

[thekosheraisle]

Sorry to bother you, can I ask what the square on the antisemitism bingo card that says “Biblically accurate angels” means? I mean, I know what the internet has decided angels look like, but I’m not familiar with why that’s wrong. Maybe this is a stupid question, sorry.

Okay, so basically, fandoms especially love talking about "Biblically Accurate Angels" and compare angels to Eldrich Horrors and the like when they draw them with thousands of eyes, or wings, etc etc. But the thing is....these depictions come from the Tanakh. There are specific "looks" for specific angels described in the Tanakh, and then later in esoteric and mystic writings such as the Kabbalah.

But Tumblr and meanstream sites and media took this and essentially turned these very holy and very specific appearences and made fun of them and made them into essentially Christian cryptids.

But Christianity has nothing to do with how Seraphim, or Cherubim, or Chayot, or any class of angels look. The Tanakh came first, and any Christian idea of angels is a bastardization of Jewish ideas combined with Roman and Norse pagan mythologies. So when you talk about Christian angels and then mix in Jewish texts into them, you're misappropriating and making fun of our culture and beliefs.

Angels having many eyes, or many heads, or animal heads, or many wings, etc etc has nothing to do with Chrisitianity. Christian depictions of angels are very humanoid and whitewashed. Jewish angels are not your Christian cryptids.

The Tanakh is not the Bible. The Bible is a misappropriation of the Tanakh, an intentional mistranslation of our sacred texts to make them all about Jesus.

Making fun of Jewish mythologies and beliefs isn't cool, and fandom-izing our sacred texts is antisemitic.

[thekosheraisle]

For the most recent anon message asking about antisemitism: just FYI I’m working on writing a long, hopefully pretty helpful response

[thekosheraisle]

As always, remember that September-October is “Holiday season” for Jewish people in the same way that November-December is Xtian “holiday season”.  If you’re responsible for scheduling events during this time of year, it’s a good idea to do a Google search and figure out when the holidays are, to avoid scheduling on them.  Hebcal is the reference I typically use for looking up dates to holidays, it’s a good, simple website that displays the dates and times of every Jewish holiday, and you can use it to find holiday dates even years in advance.  

gentiles have no idea which Jewish holidays are particularly significant relative to other Jewish holidays 

[thekosheraisle]

Moroccan Copper Menorah

[thekosheraisle]

If you saw this image that people were making fun of for conflating Christmas and Hanukkah, check out this new version made by JewWhoHasItAll.  

Imagine if everyone assumed Christmas was about what Hanukkah is about.

[thekosheraisle]

💙🔨🕎🕯מי ימלל גבורות ישראל 💙🔨🕎🕯

Happy end of Hanukkah, here is my hanukkah drawing 

[thekosheraisle]

The irony is that secular Christmas was supposed to be a solution for a multicultural America where there’s no state religion or required observance. But a watered-down version of Jesus’s so-called birthday... has just managed to make the assumption of Christianity even more of a given. Non-Christians who opt out of stockings and presents aren’t considered bad at religion; they’re considered bad at American-ness.... Each tinkly "It’s the Most Wonderful Tiiiiiime of the Yearrrrrr" is just one more tiny reminder that I’m not part of the majority: I’m an exception to the given social rule.

[thekosheraisle]

[thekosheraisle]

Late 19th Century Polish Brass Menorah

[thekosheraisle]

חג חנוכה שמח

a freilichen chanukah

hanukka alegre

هانوكا سعيد

 حَنوکا مبارک

frohes chanukka

joyeux hanouka

buon chanukkà

bon hanukkà

feliz janucá

vrolijk chanoeka

mutlu hanuka

с счастливой Хануки

срећна Ханука  

Χαρούμενο Χανουκά

修殿節 快樂

हनुका मुबारक हो

happy hanukkah

however you say or spell it, tumblr, may yours be filled with joy and light

[thekosheraisle]

Untitled Gelt Game