Moving on to the Grey Part of Fall

Well, we have just passed the glorious days of fall that make your heart beat faster because the changing trees are so wonderful.

The grim, grey and cold days lie ahead of us.

While many trees are now bare, some still have some foliage.

It has been such a warm fall though, that while the leaves are falling, and the mums are dying,

the begonias are still blooming.

Yesterday I stopped by the thrift store. I saw this top in a familiar print.

I bought this fabric in 2007 (while my mother-in-law was dying) and made myself a dress out of it. After a particularly stressful hospital visit I went to the store I call Kabbala Man in the garment district and purchased an insane amount of fabric for 1.99 per yard. I managed my stress during that time by making dresses, lots of them. I was especially fond of the dress I had made out of this dotted fabric.

I have been doing work and not just admiring nature and visiting the thrift store.

I made a new fog stencil for Nini's tallit.

I'm not quite there, but I am getting closer.

I also had the opportunity to revisit a piece I did a long time ago.

I refreshed the lettering on the tallit bag that I had made my friend Ken.

I painted the text of Psalm 121

שִׁ֗יר לַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת אֶשָּׂ֣א עֵ֭ינַי אֶל־הֶהָרִ֑ים מֵ֝אַ֗יִן יָבֹ֥א עֶזְרִֽי׃

A song for ascents.

I turn my eyes to the mountains;

from where will my help come?

עֶ֭זְרִי מֵעִ֣ם יְהֹוָ֑ה עֹ֝שֵׂ֗ה שָׁמַ֥יִם וָאָֽרֶץ׃

My help comes from the LORD,

maker of heaven and earth.

אַל־יִתֵּ֣ן לַמּ֣וֹט רַגְלֶ֑ךָ אַל־יָ֝נ֗וּם שֹׁמְרֶֽךָ׃

He will not let your foot give way;

your guardian will not slumber;

הִנֵּ֣ה לֹֽא־יָ֭נוּם וְלֹ֣א יִישָׁ֑ן שׁ֝וֹמֵ֗ר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

See, the guardian of Israel

neither slumbers nor sleeps!

יְהֹוָ֥ה שֹׁמְרֶ֑ךָ יְהֹוָ֥ה צִ֝לְּךָ֗ עַל־יַ֥ד יְמִינֶֽךָ׃

The LORD is your guardian,

the LORD is your protection

at your right hand.

יוֹמָ֗ם הַשֶּׁ֥מֶשׁ לֹֽא־יַכֶּ֗כָּה וְיָרֵ֥חַ בַּלָּֽיְלָה׃

By day the sun will not strike you,

nor the moon by night.

יְֽהֹוָ֗ה יִשְׁמׇרְךָ֥ מִכׇּל־רָ֑ע יִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר אֶת־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃

The LORD will guard you from all harm;

He will guard your life.

יְֽהֹוָ֗ה יִשְׁמׇר־צֵאתְךָ֥ וּבוֹאֶ֑ךָ מֵ֝עַתָּ֗ה וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃ {פ}

The LORD will guard your going and coming

now and forever.

On vintage millinery ribbon. This is one of the Psalms that is chanted responsively during times of trouble. Often when you hear it chanted in synagogue congregants will respond at their own pace. You will hear different words all at the same moment. A cantor friend who converted to Judaism once said to me, "Jews think that they are singing in unison in synagogue, but they just aren't."

In traditional synagogues people will start praying during services from the beginning even if they walk in an hour late. There is a natural buzz and hum in traditional Jewish services. Some people are saying the same words at the same time, and some not. This bag captures some of that feeling. I Loved making this bag and loved refreshing it.

Barukh Dayan HaEmet - Blessed be the True Judge

In 1986, when I first began working for my synagogue, one of the volunteers was a teeny little Austrian woman. Ida was so little and cute, you could swear you could just put her in your pocket and carry her around. Ida also babysat for a little girl in our community. When I saw the two of them running around together and laughing as if they were both four, I knew that when I had kids, Ida would babysit for my kids. In order to be sure that Ida would take care of my oldest, I told her I was pregnant at the same time I told my mother. Soon after my oldest was born, Ida was ready. She was silly, but she was also Austrian. She had her rules. She would care for a child only until they could walk. She felt that she was too old to chase children. She would work only twelve hours a week. The baby had to be fed, dressed and ready to go out when she showed up. Ida's rules made sense. It taught me, and my oldest, the value of having a schedule. Ida and ...

Two funerals and a birthday

I know that it has been a while since I posted. We went to Boston last weekend to celebrate the bar mitzvah of a family friend. I may post about the weekend in a different post. Two disparate topics in one post is all I can manage today. Yesterday was a busy day and filled with big emotions. We began the day at the funeral of a young man who was a Hebrew School classmate of my older son's. I had such fond, fond memories of the sweet, funny, kind and exceptionally bright young man who also had terrible struggles. I kept remembering the young man both as a delightful child full of promise and the suffering that he and his family have been through for the past many years. I sat with two women whose children attended preschool with the young man. We three held one another in our sorrow. Yesterday was also my husband's birthday. My husband is not someone who wants things. When we were at Bingo---the kosher version of Costco I spotted a large package of ste...

It All Feels Like Yesterday

Today, an oponion piece in the Wall Street Journal had the headline These Days, It All Feels Like Yesterday. It seemed a perfect way to sum up how we live our lives these days. I have been far more willing during this Covid time to do the sort of slow going work that I tend to avoid like the plague during normal times. I have been working away on Max's tallit. I had decided to get the lettering on the atara in a new to me way. Actually, to be completely honest, this is a method I have read about since I was a kid. You draw the design on a bit of what is called "waste fabric". Then you embroider the design and then you pull away the waste fabric thread by thread. The embroidered design remains, but all of your guidelines are gone, as if by magic. I had more or less finished embroidering the letters. (There were little bits of letters I hadn't quite finished but knew that I could add after the purple fabric was pulled away.) I began by picking out all of my red basting ...

sarah in nyc

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