Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Jewish Holidays

Succot 2019: Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah

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Ariel Chaim Avrech Torah Dedicaton, Los Angeles, 8/22/19
Photos by: Steve Cohn Photography www.stevecohnphotography.com (310) 277-2054 © 2019

…On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Sukkot, seven days for the L-RD… on the eighth day, there shall be a holy convocation for you. -Leviticus 23:34

Tonight begins the last days of the Succot holiday, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. We will be offline until Wednesday. We wish all our friends and relatives a joyous and inspirational holiday.

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Succot 2019

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A Yemenite Jew named Yehia holding a lulav and etrog—the four species— in a succah, Jerusalem, 1939.
A Yemenite Jew named Yehia holding a lulav and etrog—the four species—in a Sukkah, Jerusalem, 1939.

As Jews all over the world make last minute preparations for the holiday of Sukkot, which begins this evening, here are a few wonderfully evocative pictures of Jews celebrating this joyous holiday in Israel — and a rare photo of Jews in Samarkand.

You will dwell in booths for seven days; all natives of Israel shall dwell in booths.

—Leviticus 23:42

On the first day, you will take for yourselves a fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, twigs of a braided tree and brook willows, and you will rejoice before the L-RD your G-d for seven days.

—Leviticus 23:40

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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James Stewart, early 1940′s
“The great thing about the movies is you’re giving people little, tiny pieces of time that they never forget.”

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions, Doris Day RIP

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“It was the only ambition I ever had — not to be a dancer or Hollywood movie star, but to be a housewife in a good marriage.”
—Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, 1922-2019)

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The Poway Attack and President Trump as Jew

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Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein at the Chabad of Poway synagogue near San Diego on April 28, 2019. (Photo: Denis Poroy/AP)

Though the surgery on my arm was a month ago, it’s still weak and typing for too long causes it to ache, so I have to keep this brief.

A few scattered thoughts about the Poway atrocity.

The congregants displayed amazing courage under fire. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, the Chabad leader of the shul, lost two fingers to gunfire as he herded the children to safety. Bleeding and in pain, he continued to put the safety of the children first.

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