Seraphic Secret

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

Tisha B'Av

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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At the beginning of her career Myrna Loy´s turned-up nose was rather troublesome. She had a little bone on the side of her nose, which cast a shadow in certain lights. This drove the cameramen crazy “because they never knew when it would appear. They’d see the rushes, groan, ‘There’s that thing again,’ and have to retake the scene. It looked like a tiny smudge on my nose. I mean you could hardly see it, but that’s how far the mania for perfection went.” So she was often called in for retakes and since those are rather expensive she was once called in by the makeup department who announced that they maybe would fix her nose. “I was horrified. I used to be known as ‘The Nose’ for goodness’ sake—thousands of women went to plastic surgeons to have it duplicated. I said, ‘Never! Nobody’s touching this nose!’ and got out of there fast.” And she was right. She had the most famous and sought-after nose of the 1930s and women would regularly go to plastic surgeons to get a nose like Myrna Loy.

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T’sha B’Av During Operation Protective Edge

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Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under the Command of Titus AD September 71. Yeshiva University Museum, New York.
Destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions under the command of Titus, 70 C.E.

Five misfortunes befell our fathers … on the ninth of Av. …On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. — Mishnah Ta’anit 4:6

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Napoleon, the Jews, and Tisha B’Av

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A painting that depicts Napoleon as emancipator of the Jewish people.
A painting from 1806 depicts Napoleon as emancipator of the Jewish people.

Five misfortunes befell our fathers … on the ninth of Av. …On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. — Mishnah Ta’anit 4:6

Today is Tisha B’Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av, a day of mourning to commemorate the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on the ninth of Av. The first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E.

The story is told of Napoleon, who, walking through the streets of Paris, passed by a synagogue. He heard the sound of people praying and weeping inside. Turning to one of his  aides, a Jewish officer, the emperor asked, “What is going on in there?”

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Tisha B’Av, 2012

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A poor Jew praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av, 1920.

Today we observe Tisha B’Av, a solemn day of mourning and fasting in which we commemorate the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on the ninth of Av. The first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E.

Today is actually the tenth of Av, but because of Shabbat—a day of joy—the fasting and mourning of Tisha B’Av were deferred until today.

On this day it is appropriate to watch my movie, The Devil’s Arithmetic, for whose screenplay I won the Emmy Award.

Here’s Part One:

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