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Siblings

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We debate which one looks like her, which one like me... She thinks like my wife (they are both mathematicians), he thinks more more like me (unpredictable, sometimes even funny). But in fact they look like each other:

L8000844 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

L8000831 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

Tel Aviv at the "Northern Shouk" on a pleasant Saturday.

scott

(Leica M10 with APO SC 50)


Yesterday, it seems they were jumping on the sofas! Time flies but these are the treasures your family has cultivated! Mazaltov Tov

Asher
 
And here's a nephew coming right along. My brother-in-law married a girl from a fairly religious family. The older of their two boys had his bar mitzvah last week, in a "reformic" synagogue, by Israeli standards (no separation between men and women). The two grandmothers were somewhat uncertain about their participation in the ceremony, but the surviving grandfather was all ready to go. And the ultraorthodox side of our family has some excellent musicians. So I shot everything, prayers, readings, speeches, songs, musc and dancing handheld with my still camera switched to "movie mode." Son Tom (previous post) and I edited it down to 20 minutes. Not very professional, but I hope you will enjoy it. Here's a link to a 4K version that can stream, which should work for a few months:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_DOXbFeLaWiQUpnUWVTcjdiTnM

(done with Olympus E-M1-mkII Love that stabilization)
((since everything is in Hebrew, feel free to fast forward through the two speeches.))

scott
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The film is beautiful and shows family love can, at times, bridge the narrowness of religious partisanship. This is an amazing occurrence as in many cases, an orthodox relative would have so much angst and suffering to enter a liberal sanctuary and witness a woman officiating in any way in the service!

Presumably, this was held Monday or Thursday as the men wore tefillin and these are only worn during the weekdays. Also since the Torah scrolls are only taken out of the Ark for reading on Monday or Thursday, the barmitzva should have taken place on one of those days. If it was actually on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, wearing tefillin would be forbidden and doing so would, no doubt, precipitate a walk out by astonished orthodox congregants!

Asher
 
It took place on Thursday, with about six of the (male) relatives in tefillin and prayer shawls. You can see them when the Torah scroll is taken around the congregation. This congregation is located in Mevasseret, a suburb of Jerusalem, for which the NY area equivalent would be, maybe, Larchmont. I don't know how far along in the spectrum of orthodoxy the tradition of throwing candy goes, but it was anticipated eagerly here. How did you like Nadav, the 10 year-old's reading?

scott
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It took place on Thursday, with about six of the (male) relatives in tefillin and prayer shawls. You can see them when the Torah scroll is taken around the congregation. This congregation is located in Mevasseret, a suburb of Jerusalem, for which the NY area equivalent would be, maybe, Larchmont. I don't know how far along in the spectrum of orthodoxy the tradition of throwing candy goes, but it was anticipated eagerly here. How did you like Nadav, the 10 year-old's reading?

scott

Nadav was a super kid up there with beautiful presence! I couldn't understand the words enough to know what he said, but I guessed he spoke about his brother, Ariel! It would be interesting to read. I could translate the text, albeit slowly or my grandsons could do it for me!

Thought of subtitles in English, perhaps?

Asher
 
more on Ariel's bar mitzvah

P6080578 1 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

In the movie, I think Nadav was reading from a text, rather than making a little speech. I've finally collected my still pictures from that day, for family circulation. You can see the some of the range of Israeli society today, from Ashkenazi to Mizrachi, secular to orthodox in the album at
https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/2CVe3Y

As you might have suspected, some of our extended family could not bring themselves to participate in such a non-orthodox place. Yet the ultra-orthodox part (my sister-in-law's family with its eleven kids and numberous grandkids) was represented by Nomi (the keyboardist) and Gabriel, her (second) husband the violinist, and her determined little daughter in the white dress, who didn't miss anything.

scott
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So wonderful, Kirk!

The symbols of Judaism, unchanged for thousands of years.

P6080578 1 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr


The box-like black leather "tefillin" on his head containing parchment scrolls with ancient verses, handwritten on parchment by a scribe, with instruction that there is one indivisible God, that we should not be led astray by what momentarily grabs our attention and heart and we should pass down the tradition though the generations!

The language is beautiful in itself. The coming of age and bar mitzvah is such a joyous time in a young lad's growing up and finding his own character, identity and place in society.

"Lion of God", Ariel, is a very honorable name. My eldest carries it too!

Asher
 
Another life stage

Our older kid is moving some more of her stuff to an apartment she has rented with some friends close to the Army base where they are all working.
Many of her peers are confident that after the army they can join a high tech startup and get rich, and only then return to study (with no need for loans).
But we hope to see Luli return sooner than that as she has already done a good fraction of university undergraduate study.

XPR24287 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

scott
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Fine delicious Israeli food! The emphasis is on super-fresh and wholesome!

I am so thrilled to see how well you have raised them!

In another ten years you will be working your way to full financial independence! Today, parents have to be there to buffer the bumps and stress of the competitive paths so many bright kids are on. Trust me, they will come home from time to time and consume the entire refrigerator and you will be happy they still have the keys

Asher
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
....and we would love to see what your Leica points to in the streets and hillsides around you once more!

Asher
 
The second bar mitzvah in my brother-in-law's family -- Nadav's turn to shine. A Corona-virus ceremony in a reform congregation, which is unusual for Israel. One set of grandparents attended, in masks (and tefillin for him), the other grandmother was present on Zoom, and chatted with everyone afterwards. No dancing or processions of all, but a nice lunch afterwards at their home outdoors, with big fans keeping the air moving around us. Masks, I am sorry to report, were carried but not always worn. I used the same camera as in the previous entry -- the companie's gone bust, but the camera and lens are still outstanding at what they do.

Here's the Zoom setup stage of the occasion:
P7020030 1 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

and the younger and braver grandparents:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jhspqe] P7020031 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr[/URL]

An album of stills from the occasion.
 
And the video. This time I did a really rough edit, but kept stuff in which the images were bad (still can't understand when autofocus works and when it does not in video) because of the singing around me that was picked up on the audio track. When Nadav finishes his main reading, a candy fight breaks out. That's standard practice here in Israel. Does it span the globe? Anyway you are all invited to browse.

Here's a link to the video (3 GB, but it will stream).
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Beautiful bar mitzvah! First ever I have seen with masks!

Fabulous to her from you and the update!

Asher
 
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