Elul A Spiritual Month that Precedes the Jewish High Holidays

From Judaism.About.com

Elul, the last month of the Hebrew year, is the month preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Hashanah, the Jewish New Year's Day, is "Judgment Day." On Rosh Hashanah, God judges how we behaved.

Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement. On Yom Kippur, we repent for our sins, and God determines our reward or punishment.

Accordingly, Elul is a time of introspection, repentance, reconciliation, and heightened spirituality as Jews prepare to be judged and sentenced by God.

Introspection

In preparation for Judgment Day, we think critically about how we have behaved during the year and how we can improve our behavior in the upcoming year.

Elul is a time for personal growth. During Elul, we should ask ourselves if we made the most of our life and reached our potential this past year and how we can improve ourselves in the upcoming year.

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When He Said

With no Jewish holidays coming up immediately, we bring you profiles of some well known and some not so well known Jews. Enjoy.

Philippe Halsman defied gravitas.

By Owen Edwards for Smithsonian Magazine

The freezing of motion has a long and fascinating history in photography, whether of sports, fashion or war. But rarely has stop-action been used in the unlikely, whimsical and often mischievous ways that Philippe Halsman employed it.

Halsman, born 100 years ago last May, in Latvia, arrived in the United States via Paris in 1940; he became one of America's premier portraitists in a time when magazines were as important as movies among visual media.

Halsman's pictures of politicians, celebrities, scientists and other luminaries appeared on the cover of Life magazine a record 101 times, and he made hundreds of other covers and photo essays for such magazines as Look, Paris Match and Stern. Because of his vision and vigor, our collective visual memory includes iconic images of Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill and other newsmakers of the 20th century.
And because of Halsman’s sense of play, we have the jump pictures—portraits of the well known, well launched.

This odd idiom was born in 1952, Halsman said, after an arduous session photographing the Ford automobile family to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary. As he relaxed with a drink offered by Mrs. Edsel Ford, the photographer was shocked to hear himself asking one of the grandest of Grosse Pointe's grande dames if she would jump for his camera. "With my high heels?" she asked. But she gave it a try, unshod—after which her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Henry Ford II, wanted to jump too.

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Fabulous, Formidable Lauren Bacall

With no Jewish holidays coming up immediately, we bring you profiles of some well known and some not so well known Jews. Enjoy.

The captivating queen of Old Hollywood was a Jewish girl from Brooklyn

By Rachel Shukert for Tablet Magazine

Okay, when I wrote yesterday how I feel like all I ever write anymore is obituaries, I was kidding. Apparently, someone didn’t get the joke, because less than an hour after those very words were published, it was announced that the legendary actress Lauren Bacall passed away at the (blessedly) ripe old age of 89. I was devastated, naturally, and immediately called my friend Michael.

“Oh my God,” I shrieked, before he had even said as much as hello. “Do you remember that time we went to Joel Grey’s book party and Lauren Bacall was there and that publicist came up to us and was like, look, whatever you do, do not attempt to speak to, or touch, Miss Bacall.”

“Of course,” he said, “and I really hope you still have that picture on your phone that you took from all the way across the room.” He sighed sadly. “All the fabulous old ladies are gone now.”

Lauren Bacall was not always old, but from the moment she sauntered across the nation’s screen in To Have and Have Not, playing opposite Humphrey Bogart, her future husband and the man with whom she would be forever identified, she was fabulous. All of 19 years old and what my grandfather always called, “a mean 19,” she appeared to us fully formed, a gloriously youthful creature who was already entirely herself.

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Comedian Irwin Corey Celebrates Star-Studded Centennial

With no Jewish holidays coming up immediately, we bring you profiles of some well known and some not so well known Jews. Enjoy.

By Jon Kalish for The Jewish Daily Forward

I suppose that if a man lives to be 100, he has the right to recite a limerick about farting at his birthday party, even if it’s inside a synagogue. Which is exactly what happened Tuesday night when Irwin Corey was greeted by scores of well-wishers at the Actor’s Temple in Manhattan. That is, after all, the shul where Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman and two of the Three Stooges davened.

Because the Forward has a long, proud commitment to verse, we present the limerick here in its entirety:

There was a young girl from Sparta
Who was a magnificent farter
She could fart anything
From God Save the King
To Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

The Professor, as he has come to be known during a decades-long showbiz career, wore his signature black tails, string tie and high-top black basketball sneakers. Fans and friends, many of them north of 90 themselves, snapped photos with their cell phones as he struggled to unwrap gifts. At first he wore a baseball cap bearing such slogans as “9/11 was a psy-op” and “Uncle Sam is a big bully.” But replaced it when given a black baseball cap with the word “however” embroidered on it. “However” has been a catchword in Corey’s act, which was summed up as “double talk and nonsensical observations” in a proclamation issued by Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer.

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What happened on the Ninth of Av?

Tisha B'av begins at sundown tonight, August 4, 2014

A Historical Overview

From Chabad.org

The 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av, commemorates a list of catastrophes so severe it's clearly a day specially cursed by G‑d.

Picture this: The year is 1313 BCE. The Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. But first they dispatch a reconnaissance mission to assist in formulating a prudent battle strategy. The spies return on the eighth day of Av and report that the land is unconquerable. That night, the 9th of Av, the people cry. They insist that they'd rather go back to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites. G‑d is highly displeased by this public demonstration of distrust in His power, and consequently that generation of Israelites never enters the Holy Land. Only their children have that privilege, after wandering in the desert for another 38 years.

The First Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Av (423 BCE). Five centuries later (in 69 CE), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, ready to torch it, the Jews were shocked to realize that their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first.

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Learn more about Tisha B'Av with Jvillage's Spring and Summer Holiday Kit

Going to the Cemetery on Tisha B'Av

With Tisha B'Av coming up next week, read about one of the minhagim/customs observed. From Revach L'Neshama

The Rema (OC 559:10) says that there is a Minhag to go straight after davening to the Bais HaKvaros on Tisha B'Av. The Mogen Avrohom brings from the Arizal that one should never go to a Bais Kvaros unless it is for a Levaya. The reason is because there are bad spirits in the cemetery. The Mishna Brura says that based on this Mogen Avrohom, on Tisha B'Av one should go near the cemetery to fulfill the minhag but not into the cemetery in accordance with the Arizal.

The Nimukei Orach Chaim says that the Mogen Avrohom only concerns himself with the Arizal by Hilchos Tisha B'Av since Tisha B'Av is a time when bad spirits have the upper hand. The Taamei Minhagim says that Tisha B'Av is a particular danger because we do not learn Torah and therefore are more vulnerable. In fact many are noheg not to go at all.

The Piskei Tshuvos brings that the Chazon Ish would go to the cemetery on Tisha B'Av. Some years he would go in between the graves and other years he would stay by the entrance without going in. The Steipler Gaon on the other hand would never go in, and in his later years would not even go to the Bais HaKvaros at all, not on Tisha B'Av nor any other time of year.

Read more about Tisha B'Av on Jvillage's Holiday Spotlight Kit.
 

The Three Weeks Learning to Love What Is!

By Rabbi Label Lam

Moshiach is born on Tisha B’Av (Talmud)

Any generation in which the Temple was not built in (with) its days is considered as if it was destroyed in (with) its days. (Talmud)

There is no light like the light that emanates from darkness. (Zohar)

The 9th of Av is one of those days in which we allow ourselves to wallow in the misery of a brutal history and indulge in thoughts of the extended exile and our many sufferings. Admittedly, it seems ultra heavy and it is an ominous reality to meet face to face. What benefit do we have from this exercise? Why follow the black and hurtful lines of history when there are so many brighter and rosier points to visit?

I hope the situation never comes your way. It happened to me once and although I was woefully unprepared things happily turned out alright. What do you say to someone who is seriously contemplating ending it all?

Here’s a scenario I heard about from a very clever individual: Imagine that you are sitting in a reception area in a fancy office on the 77th floor of the Empire State Building. Suddenly the elevator opens and a gentleman with a disheveled appearance walks over to the window which he throws wide open. He backs up like he’s readying himself to take a running leap and before he does so you are able to halt him temporarily.

You ask him, “Why are you about to do such a crazy and foolish thing?” He shows you a piece of paper with a list of 49 items that he begins to recite aloud; 1) Lost my job 2) Wife left me 3) Broke 4) Hungry 5) Dog died 6) Chronic incurable diseases 7) Homeless etc. That’s just the beginning of the list and any single item would be enough to drive the average man over the top. He’s got the worst situation you ever heard of or imagined. You’re ready to agree with his morbid conclusion. What can you say to him?

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