Wednesday on the Mitzvah Tank

I happen to walk by the intersection of 57th street and Fifth avenue at 2pm this afternoon. The Chabad Mitzvah Tank, which is a bus converted into a small synagogue, was, as usual, parked there and one of the resident rabbis was outside trying to find a few people to complete a minyan (a quorum of 10 men necessary to conduct a legitimate service). I joined the group for the afternoon mincha prayer service. Hanging out in the tank, it's always interesting to see Jewish people, that have not been very observant, brought in and see them experience putting on tifillin, and participating in the 15 minute afternoon service.

Challah/Pizza Baking Day

It was a baking day at the Chabad House in town. Challah braiding in the morning and pizza in the afternoon. The guys had a bit of trouble with the braiding concept. Everyone had a blast making a mess and some yummy pizza with milchig (dairy) toppings.

Shabbat Candles

Just before Shabbat (the day of rest) begins the women of the home light candles to usher in the peaceful and blessed ambiance of the day to the home. It's a beautiful ritual that I've been trying to capture for quite a while. I'm getting closer to the feeling, but I haven't quite gotten in yet.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Lessons

The Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a marking of the coming-of-age of a child, for boys at 13 and for girls at 12, that marks the development of a child into an adult. The children put in months of effort to learn the ins and outs of the proscribed mitzvahs and the importance of learning them so as to deepen the meaning of what it means to be Jewish.

Boys learn how to wrap Tefillin, and upon fulfillment of the ritual of Bar Mitzvah, which usually involves reading a portion of the Torah (maftir) and a portion of one of the book of Prophets (haftorah) the young man is counted as part of a minyan (one of the ten men needed to perform certain rites and rituals of daily observance).

It's a tough age to get kids to sit in their seats to learn from the rabbi, and it requires incredible patience on the part of the rabbi to teach kids whose hormones are just beginning to rage.

A New Torah - part 2

Here's a few more shots from the ceremony of writing the final lines into the Torah scroll. Natural light was streaming in from a picture window on the right. That, combined with the light of the lamp and my bounce flash made for a very dynamic scene.

A New Torah

I happened to stop by the Chai Center cheder this morning to deliver some photos. When I said hello to the rabbi, he invited me to a Torah celebration at his brother's synagogue. His congregation was writing the last few lines of a newTorah and bringing it to the synagogue to place in the holy ark.This is a celebration of the most important and most deeply loved book in Judaism. The wisdom written in these scrolls is the source of all other rabbinic commentary found in the Mishna, Gemara, Maimonides' Mishna Torah, Rabbi Zalman's Tanya, and many other texts. The completion and installation of a Torah is and event of great joy and celebration.

I've  had opportunity to photograph the completion of the last words of the Torah and posted about it in the past (unfortunately the photos were deleted from my Google account). But I've not had the chance to photograph marching with the Torah under a chuppah through the streets. There was a truck playing music preceding us and many neighbors came outside to watch the procession of members of the congregation dancing and marching in the street.

The Lesson

In public school and liberal arts college I hated being a student. In spite of, or perhaps because of, everyone's expectations of me I was a mediocre student. The only courses in which I excelled were music. No surprise there. After I returned to NYC from Nashville I set my mind to studying at a music conservatory. I sailed through the courses for both my artist diploma and master of music degrees. I still don't like formalized education, but really enjoy one-on-one learning. 

At the Chabad center where I've been well received and allowed to pursue my photo project I attend a small class on Tanya - the treatise that lays out the basis of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, and Tanakh - the study of the Hebrew Bible. Everything is fertile territory for my photography.