Lag Ba'Omer Parade - Crown Heights Edition

Recently I’ve been reading “The Jew in the Lotus” (amongst other books). It’s about a Jewish envoy to Tibet to visit and discuss religion and the challenges of keeping it alive with the Dalai Lama. It’s a fascinating read into the reasons why so many Jews gravitate to Buddhism for spiritual enlightenment. That’s a blog post all of its own. One day. I just wanted to focus on one point I read there that resounded very much with me and with our visions for this school that we are starting.

In Judaism there is a concept of purity and impurity. Impurity is generally anything connected with death, as death is the antithesis of G-d who is the source and the epitome of life. So if one comes into contact with a dead person (or even enters a cemetery), he is “impure”. Which is fine, for the most part. Unless one wants to go into the Holy Temple or bring a sacrifice, etc. 

Except for the Kohein, the priest. They are not allowed to become impure, even when not serving. And they must go to pretty intense lengths to stay far away from that. 

Well, as Rodger Kamentz says (the author of this book), Zalman Schachter shared something he heard from Shlomo Carlebach. The holy master, Rabbi Mordechai Joseph, also known as the Ishbitzer Rebbe, explained it as follows:

“When one sees a corpse you can’t help but be angry at G-d. “Why did he have to make it this way? That that’s the door you have to go through? It’s terrible!” Now the Kohen is supposed to be the gentle teacher of people, so if he is angry with G-d, he’ll have a real hard time talking about G-d because what will show will be anger."

Now Shlomo's explanation: "Ever since the holocaust we are all like priests who have become contaminated by death. It’s hard for people who are looking for a loving, living G-d to find him among angry voices. They go to people who at this point don’t have any anger about G-d.”

If we want to teach about a loving G-d, then love the living G-d, and live the loving G-d. 

///

Recently I was in New York for my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah. It was on Lag Ba’omer, the Jewish holiday commemorating the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a sage mostly known for hiding in a cave for 13 years and writing the most important book on Kabbalah (which is the basis for Chassidus).

Every year in Crown Heights, as per the Rebbe's initiative, they have a children’s parade (though when it falls on Sunday they have the “real one”) to strengthen the excitement about the Torah and Mitzvos (commandments).

I once went as a child. I tried out for the marching band and was utterly rejected. Still hurts. Maybe next time... 

Levi + Perel. In which I photograph my camper's wedding.

I was 16 and quite excited. Y2K had passed without a glitch, I had an extra 22 shekels on my calling card, my first year away from home was wonderful, I had returned alive from making a Pesach seder in some forsaken corner of Southern Ukraine, I was moving up the Montreal summer camp's farm system, and I had just received a phone call on the yeshiva's payphone (that wasn't from my parents. That's a big deal).

A few years back (from then) I experienced my first summer at an overnight camp. It was the camp to go to, Camp Gan Israel Montreal (which was actually located some 2 hours from the city). Being that I was going to be moving to New York with my mom, I was stuck in the "Oholei Torah" bunk (the New York bunk). Basically the wild-crazy kid bunk. And I was anything but. It was definitely an eye opener. 

Anyways, 2 years later I moved up into the "Masmidim" section, where we spent half the day learning, half the day playing. Good times.

Now, 1 year later, at 16 I was going to be one of the youngest on the staff, to be joining the waiter crew. We were to serve food, clean up food, have fun, learn some, and make obscene amounts of money from tips. 

And then I got the phone call. It was from the head counselor, Zalmy Heber. Now this sounds ridiculous, but at that stage of life, everyone waited to find out who the head counselors were going to be at Montreal. It was a golden ticket into the match-making world (that's not the reason we cared, it just shows us how they were considered the cream of the crop).

Conversation went something like this: "Hi is this Zalmy?"

"yup! who in the world is this? you don't sound like my father or brother?"

"It's Zalmy Heber, the head counselor at Montreal."

Heavy breathing, sweaty palms.

"ummmmmmmm..."

"Well, we've had someone back out from being a counselor and we were wondering if you wanted to take his place."

Heavy breathing. sweaty palms.

"Well, are you interested?"

"Yes!! yes yes yes. Ummmm what do I have to do?"

I forget the rest. I ended up having a wonderful summer counseling the youngest bunk. (It's odd how they do that, pair up the youngest staff with the youngest campers... not cool.) I did miss hanging out with my waiter friends, and I was no where near cool enough to hang out with all the older staff, but I did meet some great people with whom I'm still close with, and made way less than my waiter friends.

The point of all this is (what? you ask. there is a point?!) last year I had the pleasure of photographing one of my camper's wedding, and a month or two ago I shot my second one :) and that Zalmy Heber dude was there too.

Enjoy!

///

Thank you SO much to my second shooter Kristin Marie for kicking some serious rear end. 

And this wedding did not end. Seriously, I think I left the ballroom at 2:30 am. People just wouldn't. Stop, Dancing. Which was more than fine with me :)

Gan Izzy. Silver Edition.

I’ve been reading a lot (relative to not reading a lot). Mostly books on education and child rearing, a bit of Roald Dahl, some Calvin & Hobbes, “The Boys of Summer” an amazing book about baseball (but more about life) by Roger Kahn (who seems to be a master of the run-on-sentence, a trait which I respect immensely), and the “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” (though I’m unsure about the “the” before that one).

I started that last one because it was free (woohoo Guttenberg.org!), and am still reading it because it’s awesome. And unlike the Lego theme song, I don’t think everything is awesome, but awesome things are.

I just finished Chapter IX “Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection”

Now normally such a title, and probably the ensuing text, would elicit major eye-rolling and much sanctimony.

Not this one. He writes at the end about how he tried curbing his Pride, and, in his words, “I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it… for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

I imagine his recipe for dialogue should be a prerequisite for all social crusaders.

“I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.”

I may as well just copy and paste the whole book, so here goes… just kidding! sheesh!

But this one paragraph really spoke to me. He was talking about his once-upon-desire to start a Society called “The Society of the Free and Easy: free, as being, by the general practice and habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and particularly by the practice of industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his creditors.”

And he ends of with (emphasis added): “and I was not discourag’d by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.”

I’m gonna paint that on my wall. Make it my desktop. And if I still had a screensaver I would put it there as well.

We can all do great things, if we just put our minds to it.

///

Last year I had the privilege of documenting the local Gan Israel Day Camp, where both I and my wife we campers and later on counselors (it's part of the largest Jewish network of Summer Camps started by the Lubavitcher Rebbe). It’s a wonderful camp , on a huge campus. We look at these organizations and programs and think “that’s amazing! I could never start something like that.” But we are just selling ourselves short… 

for “one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes”…

May we all work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind.
 

Unplug that Childhood, yo! January edition

In which we played in the leaves, all got sick (with the flu! yuck!), got haircuts, bought a 3/4 guitar and started guitar lessons (online and free of course), bought binoculars (actually Zevi did), went tar-pitting and discovered that it was actually a saber-toothed cat not tiger (I'm still ticked about that, I mean tiger sounds much scarier than cat), went hiking in a legally grey zone, put together a large lego house held together with mud, went birdwatching, and got Zevi's eye's examined, wrote run on sentences, and were too lazy to write something deep and meaningful! Woohoo!

Check out the rest of the unpluggers! childhoodunplugged.com
childhood unplugged instagram here
and my instagram here

Write here...

in which Yossi and Chana Saraleh hang out under the chuppah

When all is said and done here is what you have to remember. Yossi (the groom) flew in from Australia. AUSTRALIA. Where it is now summer. And he flew to New York. NEW YORK. Just to marry Chana Sara’leh. Now that is true love.

I had the privilege of photographing her brother’s wedding (you could check that out here if you feel so inclined), and it’s truly an honor to work with this wonderful family again. Clients that “get it” and understand why I shoot the way I do, and AGREE! That is a blessing :)

So sit back, grab some kombucha and kimchi, and enjoy this beautiful day (not like, today, I don’t know where you live (actually I do, but I don’t want to scare you) or on which day you are viewing this (see above), but like this wedding day).

///

I wrote that all last week, before this whole thing with Paris went down, and now it feels a bit trite. 

Weddings are real, deep, and meaningful. I mean they happen all the time, and as part of the wedding-industrial-machine, I can fall into the cynical camp.

We tend to view things on the global scale as “big”, and “world-changing”, and we often direct our attention as such. But truthfully the world changes slowly as people work on themselves, their family, and their community.

One of the odder happenings by Jewish weddings is the custom of breaking the glass. At the end of the Chuppah the groom with a quick (sometimes practiced :) ) leg movement, smashes a glass (hopefully wrapped), after which everyone says “Mazel Tov!”, the band often starts playing and the solemness of the ceremony is quickly overrun by the joy of the family and friends. 

The custom is there to remind us that no joy is ever complete while our Holy Temple is still unbuilt and we are still in exile.

So why is that the cue for everyone to go all ballistic with joy?

Well here’s the deal. The Talmud tells us that G-d allowed for the the destruction of the Temple due to “baseless hatred”. The petty rumor mills, the class distinctions, the arguing, the bickering. Which all might start out as small and innocent, but it’s like an avalanche, gaining speed and intensity as it rolls past the generations.  

Marriage is the opposite of that. It’s one person promising the other that even though life isn’t perfect, that there will be little things that annoy us, bickerings that can degenerate into arguments, doghouses and worse. But we won’t let that happen. It’s a promise to focus on the good in each other, and, even when it doesn’t make sense, to love each other. In a word baseless love. 

And that’s the beginning of the redemption.

Mazel Tov! Cue the band…

///

Makeup by Sary Farkash
Hair by Salon Leah
Florals by Mimulo 

Special thanks to the awesome Aga Matuszewska from Storytellers and Co. for shooting this with me.