With the dissemination and availability of 2 Maccabees (preserved in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian cannons), more Jews are learning that the eight day festival of lights originated as a renewal of the eight day festival of Sukkot. That essential Fall pilgrimage and fertility festival (which included the joyous water-drawing festival, Simchat Bet haShoeva) was . . . → Continue reading: Ḥanukkah: Sukkot Sheni and the Brumalia
|
||
|
Although the significance of Ḥanukah is masked by both its commercialization (in competition with Christmas) and its status as a “minor” or post-biblical Jewish holiday, there are important reasons to believe that it is ancient, poorly understood, and quite deep. Before he passed away this past year, Rabbi Zelig Scharfstein of blessed memory, taught me . . . → Continue reading: The Longest Darkest Night of the Year Here’s a question to add to the list of mysteries left unresearched by my master’s thesis on the origin and transformation of Bond Hill: how was the housing cooperative and building association impacted by the financial crash and panic of 1873 and the resulting depression? There were hints of decline but I could only speculate . . . → Continue reading: Bond Hill and the Panic of 1873 
I am an urban planner by profession and degree, but while I’m looking for work I am also a technology consultant, copy editor, bicycle messenger, ipod manager, technical writer, blog reader, proofreader, and coffee sipper. Perhaps you don’t have a significant other or know-it-all child or lucky friend to ask you for your computer help . . . → Continue reading: At your service 
Kitteh Yoga: Exhale arch, Inhale stretch Last night was my second night in two weeks of yoga with K. Clair and friends at her West Philly loft. I’m even starting to remember some poses for practicing during the rest of the week. But the hardest part, for me anyways, seems to be associating . . . → Continue reading: Kitteh Yoga 
Images from the Get Out the Vote drive, election night in Philadelphia 2008 . . . → Continue reading: November 4th 
Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing has an important post analyzing the dragging death murder of Brandon McClelland, 24, last month in Paris, Texas, an area of our country haunted by a legacy of lynchings going back over a hundred years. Please read it. In light of the McCain campaign’s stinking “idiot wind” gusting over . . . → Continue reading: The Idiot Wind’s Gusts are Now a Gale So far there is no indication that the recent near fatal beating of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly in Little Rock, Arkansas, might be politically motivated other than the fact that Pressly is a member of the media and appeared briefly in Oliver Stone’s just opened critical biopic ‘W.’ But given that the daily vitriol heaped . . . → Continue reading: What’s the frequency, Kenneth!? (redux) “Is that a kippah on that anti-Obama effigy?” I couldn’t help but wonder while reading this article and watching this story that local Cincinnati station WKRC (Channel 12) aired yesterday about Fairfield, Ohio’s Mike Lunsford as reported on by Shawn Ley. (For those from out of town, Fairfield is a northern exurb of Cincinnati . . . → Continue reading: Translating the Hate of an Antisemitic Anti-Obama Effigy |
||
| Copyright © 2001-2025 Aharon Varady (Some Rights Reserved) Original content on Aharon's Omphalos is shared with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Sharing is an act of love. Prove your love through correct attribution. |