Skip to main content

Chanukah draws to an end and

some not exactly miracles but definitely nice things.


I decided to outline all of the text for my future son-in-law's tallit. This was not a miracle at all but a fair amount of time doing careful work.
I am at this writing nearly done, with less than one verse left to go.

Also in the delightful but not miraculous category was lighting Chanukah candles all week, several nights virtually with our youngest via Skype and two nights with my older sister who spent a couple of days with us.

 Today on my way to do some errands this Christmas tree stand a block from my house was playing not Christmas music, but klezmer. I circled back to be sure that my ears were not deceiving me.
 I stopped off at the local thrift to see if there was anything interesting to look at.

I found this.
A small wall chanukiya designed by Ludwig Wolpert. It was missing its little glass oil holders. It cost a few pennies more than a wrap at a local deli. Both finding it there in the thrift, and the price seemed like something of a small miracle.

This chanukiya matches the one that was owned by my parents that is proudly hanging in my entry hall.
The setting sun made the buildings in the neighborhood look beautiful as Chanukah truly came to an end.


The other (very) minor miracle is that I remembered to post this excellent photo of a Chanukah assembly from Halifax, 1956.
I just love those kids dressed like candles.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 21, 2017 at 6:57 AM

    Wow ! the find at the thrift shop really was wonderful. To find a wall chanukiya just like the ones your parents had. Will you be able to find more glass globes? Or will you do something else?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah JacobsDecember 21, 2017 at 10:58 AM

      The wonder of the chanukiya is not that it matched my parents' but rather that I found a masterpiece of 20th century Judaica in the thrift. Ludwig Wolpert, the designer revolutionized Jewish ritual art by modernizing the form and by making the text used during the ritual the major design element of his pieces. Wolpert is a major influence on my work and how I think about ritual art. I was lucky to grow up with many of his works in my home. My parents were friends of his and adored him as a person and as an artist. He knew Jewish text and ritual and used that knowledge to create deeply powerful work.

      Delete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

  וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים   You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for  giving life to all.  I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of  Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or  the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...
2 comments
Read more

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee.  If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it.    My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid.  I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed.   A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee  and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
3 comments
Read more

Food friday - your grandmother's food processor

My grandmother bought my mother this wooden bowl and a chopping knife, known in Yiddish as a hock-messer, soon after my parents got married. Yes, she also got them a dairy set as well. these wooden bowls and chopping knives were a big part of food prep when I was growing up. meatloaf and meat balls were mixed in this bowl. Chopped liver was made in this bowl as well. Sundays we often made chicken salad for lunch made out of chicken left over from Shabbat chopped with vegetables and mayo. That too, was made in this bowl. When I was in college my parents got their first food processor and the chopping bowls were not used as much. Several years ago, my father asked if i would like the bowls and the hock-messers. I was happy to have them. I like the sheer physicality of chopping up a big bowl of stuff into teeny pieces. While the wooden bowls have stood up well to the years of use, the hock-messers had not. The bladed which were bolted into their handles, wobbled. The blades wouldn't ...
9 comments
Read more