tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:10:12 +0000לֹא נִיתְּנָה הַתּוֹרָה לִדְרוֹשׁ אֶלָּא לְמִי שֶׁשּׁוֹאֵל "מָן הוּא?"<br>וּהַמָּן כְּזֶרַע God הוּאhttp://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Simon)Blogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-5913414474673981062Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:55:00 +00002008-12-11T12:12:16.882+02:00I've been playing with Wordle. It turns out that it supports consonantal Hebrew quite well, but vocalized Hebrew seems to confuse its idea of where words begin and end. Here are wordles made from the complete texts of the Song of Songs and Habakkuk: And here's one made from this blog: If you use a screen-capture or other image representation of the Wordles on this page, you must http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2008/12/bible-wordles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-7829338071797733060Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:12:00 +00002007-10-21T23:32:01.911+02:00Zohar class began again today, and this year we are studying texts from the Zohar on creation. We learned a passage from Bereshit Rabba 1:10: רבי יונה בשם רבי לוי אמר: למה נברא העולם בב'? אלא מה ב' סתום מכל צדדיו ופתוח מלפניו — כך אין לך רשות לומר מה למטה, מה למעלה, מה לפנים, ומה לאחור; אלא מיום שנברא העולם ולהבא. Rabbi Yona said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Why was the world created with the http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2007/10/begin-at-beginning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-117114549118743816Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:49:00 +00002007-02-16T10:44:21.576+02:00Here's something else from my Midrash writing group. To make sense of it, I should say something about the way we work. The general theme of the year is the prophet Habakkuk. Each week we study together either some part of the biblical book or some other text connected to it, and then we use what we learned as a starting point for our own writing. On this occasion we learned this Midrash from http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2007/02/all-alefs-are-hard.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-116474753176653291Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:55:00 +00002006-11-28T23:00:07.436+02:00Here's something I did today in my midrashic writing group: http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/leonardo-meets-habakkuk.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115429181882932359Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:22:00 +00002006-07-30T23:40:17.040+03:00בס"דו' מנחם אב תשס"ו I'll update this soon with English translation שִׂמְחָה לָאִישׁ בְּמַעֲנֵה פִיו וְדָבָר בְּעִתּוֹ מַה טּוֹב (משלי ט"ו כ"ג) שמחה לאיש במענה פיו — זה משה שנקרא איש האלהים כמו שנאמר (שמות י"ט י"ט) מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר וְהָאֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶנּוּ בְקוֹל ודבר בעתו מה טוב – זה משה כמו שנאמר (דברים א' א') אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל דבר אחר שמחה לאיש במענה http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/07/midrash-on-parashat-devarim.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115272113049225104Wed, 12 Jul 2006 16:09:00 +00002006-07-12T19:18:50.506+03:00Translating literature is generally an exercise in frustration. Again and again one has to make painful compromises and lose everything that makes the original text so beautiful. But once in a while, one gets the chance to do something cool. I was translating a passage by Amalia Kahana-Carmon for a friend today. For copyright reasons I'd better not quote the whole thing, but it included the http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/07/take-care-of-sense.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115255583920078833Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:19:00 +00002006-07-10T23:38:35.213+03:00בס"דט"ו תמוז תשס"ו Because this blog morphed recently from something slightly different, I never made one of those "mission statement" posts setting out what I was aiming to do. You might say that I also morphed during the last year, and especially the last month. A course I was taking included a number of creative writing exercises, and after believing all my life that I had no skill in writing http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/07/whats-going-on-here.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115221776150671357Thu, 06 Jul 2006 20:17:00 +00002006-07-07T00:17:34.600+03:00בס"די"א תמוז תשס"ו Scroll down for English translation. לעילוי נשמת מורי ורבי הרב ד"ר לואי ג'ייקובז (Louis Jacobs) זצ"ל שנקרא לישיבה של מעלה בשבת ה' בתמוז תשס"ו This Midrash is dedicated to the memory of my rabbi and teacher Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, who was summoned to the heavenly academy last Shabbat, 5 Tammuz 5766 (1 July 2006) בזכותם של אתונו של בלעם ואילו של אברהם אבינו צווה הקב"ה לנח לעשותhttp://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/07/midrash-on-parashat-balak.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115178913752656097Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:51:00 +00002006-07-02T23:22:18.420+03:00This is a return to my favourite subject, and also a return to a more textual style of Midrash which is not particularly easy to render into English. Scroll down for an English paraphrase וַיְדַבֵּר הָעָם בֵּאלֹהִים וּבְמֹשֶׁה לָמָה הֶעֱלִיתֻנוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם לָמוּת בַּמִּדְבָּר כִּי אֵין לֶחֶם וְאֵין מַיִם וְנַפְשֵׁנוּ קָצָה בַּלֶּחֶם הַקְּלֹקֵל (במדבר כ"א ה') אל תקרי קלקל אלא קל קל: יש http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/07/midrash-on-parashat-hhukkat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-115100611476804407Thu, 22 Jun 2006 19:49:00 +00002006-06-23T00:05:22.466+03:00Scroll down for English translation. דבר אל בני ישראל וקח מאתם מטה מטה לבית אב מאת כל נשיאהם לבית אבותם שנים עשר מטות וכתיב בתריה והיה האיש אשר אבחר בו מטהו יפרח אמר משה לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, רבונו של עולם, אתמול אמרת לי הקרב אליך את אהרן אחיך וקידשתי אותו ואת בניו לכַהן לך, והיום אתה אומר לי האיש אשר אבחר בו מטהו יפרח ואתה אומר לי והשכתי מעלי את תלנות בני ישראל אשר הם מלינים עליכם?! הרי הם http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/06/midrash-on-parashat-korahh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-113671544035642790Sun, 08 Jan 2006 08:53:00 +00002006-01-08T13:39:09.756+02:00Talmida mentions that she had problems finding an online text for the אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה prayer, and also that the text seems to vary. I confess that I hadn't been aware of this variation. I pray in many different synagogues and had thought I was quite well up in the differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic liturgy, but I obviously need more education about the earlier parts of the service http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2006/01/bless-my-soul.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18538700.post-113131424249766298Sun, 06 Nov 2005 21:05:00 +00002005-11-10T01:18:13.263+02:00בס"ד ה' מרחשון תשס"ו This post is in preparation. It will be updated In parallel to impressions from my Zohar course, I want to use this blog to study some Psalms, starting from the beginning. Psalm 1 אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָׁב כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה http://eatingmanna.blogspot.com/2005/11/psalm-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Simon)0