Ruskin on tsnius

...or something.

 Not Torah, just interesting.

“...I said of that great and pure society of the dead, that it would allow 'no vain or vulgar person to enter there.' What do you think I meant by a 'vulgar' person? What do you yourselves mean by 'vulgarity'? You will find it a fruitful subject of thought; but, briefly, the essence of all vulgarity lies in want of sensation. Simple and innocent vulgarity is merely an untrained and undeveloped bluntness of body and mind; but in true inbred vulgarity, there is a deathful callousness, which, in extremity, becomes capable of every sort of bestial habit and crime, without fear, without pleasure, without horror, and without pity. It is in the blunt hand and the dead heart, in the diseased habit, in the hardened conscience, that men become vulgar; they are for ever vulgar, precisely in proportion as they are incapable of sympathy, ---of quick understanding, ---of all that, in deep insistence on the common, but most accurate term, may be called the “tact” or “touch-faculty” of body and soul; that tact which the Mimosa has in trees, which the pure woman has above all creatures; ---fineness and fulness of sensation beyond reason...”

Sesame and Lilies, para. 28.

A Day in the Woods

Ramona Falls, OR.

Rim Shots

Crater Lake, OR.

Wilderness skills in Portland -- come one, come all; we're starting a course

There's an organization in Portland called Trackers PDX that teaches all sorts of wilderness skills - among them tracking, building shelters, archery, blacksmithing, spinning wool. (Those of us who lump certain of these skills together under a mental heading of Lord of the Rings ranger skills will be pleased to know that the site references ranger all over the place.)

They have agreed to offer a course on a weekday or Sunday (or several, depending on interest). There's a discount for groups of six or more; we have at least four people already (really great people) and we're looking for more.

Please drop a line at jewsintherain at gmail.com indicating what sort of things you'd like to learn and when you're available. Their prices are reasonable: friendly to a student budget. (It's not worth listing them here because they vary depending on course content.)

Thanks!

Mt. Doom, Straight Ahead

I think it's called Black Butte, actually.

Enchante

Amerika

In the weeks before we began traveling, I began to see certain details through American eyes.

You see that hareidi man, in a black suit, white shirt, and black fedora, walking down the street with an open book, alternately singing aloud from it in Hebrew and mumbling in Aramaic? That apparition is my husband. He is trying to finish reading the weekly Torah portion, with commentary and Aramaic translation, before we get to our friends' house for the Shabbos meal. And this does not usually strike me as that unusual... until I am about to travel to America, when I remember: people don't read aloud while walking down the street in America, do they?

Since landing, I have remembered that in America, I have to ask people how are you. It is not because I expect an answer - they seldom provide one - it is to make them feel loved.
In Israel, this show of affection is unnecessary: you know I love you, and I show it by not taking your time to ask how are you, when you probably have better things to do than answer; instead, we exchange blessings  (-"Good morning!" -"Good morning to the entire world!") - and attend to the matter at hand.

There is an improv artist who makes it her practice to walk around New York City distributing roses to strangers.
My friend and I tried to figure out why we both feel intuitively that this idea, which is lovely for New York, would not fly in Jerusalem.
I think it is because in Jerusalem, you can't just drop a rose into someone's life and skip away. In New York your connection with passing strangers is superficial enough that a rose is a lovely surprise. In Jerusalem a rose is cute, but it pales in comparison with the rest of your relationship, whether or not you have ever met before.

Springtime for Cynics

When I was a terribly cynical middle-schooler, the choir director taught us a song in four-part harmony, which I could never sing like I meant it:
Now is the month of Maying, when merry lads are playing, fa la la la la la la la la - no, they're not, they're either in math class or doing its homework -
...a-dancing on the grass - what grass? we live in a city, where open spaces are rationed and landscaped,
fa la la la la la la la la. The Spring clad all in gladness/doth laugh at winter's sadness - Spring? Winter? I haven't noticed a change in seasons. I think I need to get out more,
and to the bagpipe's sound/ the nymphs tread out the ground - What era was this composed in, that people had time to frolic in unspoilt meadows, and the peace of mind to do so wholeheartedly?
fa la la la la, fa la la la la la la, la la la la la. Where is that legendary Spring?


And every Pesach, I get my answer.


The air warms up, the earth bursts into bloom, and where are the Jewish people?
Indoors or in the courtyard, scrubbing all the winter's crumbs out of the house, until G-d drags us by the ear out of Egypt, and says, "This month is for you!"
This month is for you the origin of all the months: you are a Spring nation, a people repeatedly revived from the dead.
Go and tell everyone, go demonstrate to all the despairing middle-schoolers (of any age or stage in life), that just as the earth is led each year out of winter, just as the Jewish nation was led out of the slavery of its body, mind, heart and soul in Egypt, so too humanity as a whole, and every individual, are given the Spring.
This month is not the exclusive provenance of things that bloom, creep, or fly; no matter how oppressive your circumstances, this Spring is for you!


Those with better things to read than this blog will recognize that this post is not original material - thank you Rav Hirsch.
And Rabbi Estuary, we'll see if I ever forgive the rav for making me try to paraphrase that :P

WHAM!

A few months ago, when the weather was warm and breezy, we woke up one morning to find that the air felt so cold we expected snow. And so it was winter. And so it remained for months.
I noticed late last week that the almond trees on our block are blooming.
The next day, WHAM! the sun is out, the air is warm, plants everywhere are putting forth flowers.

Many things in Jerusalem are subtle but weather is not one of them.

Film: time-lapse photography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHkq1edcbk4

Time-lapse photography of hummingbirds, bees, flowers, a strawberry.

Wild Edibles Foraging Tour in Jerusalem

A lady I know is organizing a tour of Gan Sacher (in Jerusalem) to point out which wild plants are edible.
She picks only weeds and wild plants, not anything that's been planted deliberately.
The link to the event is here.

Tree Steam?

Here is a question for the naturalists.
A few nights ago, we had a heavy rain. The next morning, as I was walking through the park, I saw the trunk of a pine tree, struck by a shaft of direct sunlight, giving off steam.
Huh?
I went over to investigate. It was warm, perhaps from the sunlight, not hot; there was no fire.

Have I passed by thousands of pine trees giving off steam and just never noticed?

Muskrats

Somehow I always expect the weather, in every region, to follow the pattern set by the storied weather of New England. I expect the trees to drop leaves that look like this: http://www.filthwizardry.com/2009/11/leaf-rubbing-and-paint-mural.html

I was taken aback the other day to realize that I have never seen a muskrat.

public domain

There just are not as many muskrats running around our house as there were around Thoreau's Concord. Or else I never went out to look for them.
I wonder what else I have been content until now to observe secondhand.

Autumn in Jerusalem - at least at this writing - does not come in red and orange. The winter rains are bringing forth new grass from between the fallen leaves, and what I call the Improbables - because I never saw another flower that color - are still tumbling all over the walls, and putting forth buds. It feels like snow weather, but looks like Spring. I feel offensive wearing a coat.

I suppose the flora in this neighborhood takes after the people, who stay up late: just as it is safe for people to walk around at 2:00am, it is safe for the grass and flowers to put out shoots and blossoms at the end of November. There is no time to sleep, there is no time of day or year when stepping out is solitary - there is just too much for everyone to do. On with life!