Seraphic Secret

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

Torah Judaism

Succot 2018

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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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Sukkot, The Past is Never Past

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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, here are a few wonderful pictures of Jews celebrating this joyous holiday in Israel (and Samarkand), a reminder that Torah Judaism is eternal. All photos are from The Library of Congress.

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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First, Progressives Ban Circumcision…

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Yours truly, was sandek at the brit milah of our first grandson, Ariel Chaim, a few weeks ago. According to Jewish law any nation that outlaws Jewish circumcision is de facto, at war with Torah Judaism.
Yours truly (seated) was sandek at the brit milah of our first grandson, Ariel Chaim, a few weeks ago. According to Jewish law, any nation that outlaws Jewish circumcision is, de facto, at war with Torah Judaism, and must be resisted.

Study Jewish history and you will immediately recognize three narratives used by Jew-haters to delegitimize Judaism—all in the name of tolerance and humanity.

The commandment of circumcision—brit milah—is found in Genesis 17:10-14 and Leviticus 12:3.

And since Abraham, brit milah—Judaism’s sign of the eternal covenant between G-d and the Jewish people—has been under sustained attack.

The Greeks, the Romans, and the Nazis all banned circumcision.

Kashrut  (dietary laws) is another fundamental of Judaism. Thus, inevitably, ritual slaughter is attacked as cruel and barbaric.

Of course, those who oppose ritual slaughter and circumcision in the name of progress and humanity are almost always a bunch of genocide-yearning Jew-haters.

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