Your Favorite Things About Israel

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To measure and track pain, Israeli duo develops ‘objective’ monitor

 

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Shevat 17
Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chaim Palagi (1788-1868), a prolific author who wrote 72 books on all topics of Jewish life. The Turkish government accorded Rabbi Palagi the honor due to royalty. When asked to what he attributed his long life, he enumerated 10 acts that bring longevity -- including attending to one's parents, despite their mental infirmity.

 

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Newly-Born Baby Rhinoceros Takes First Steps at Israeli Zoo

 

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Girls killed by Jordanian soldier remembered at tree-planting ceremony

 

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Half Israeli.

Their dad played for Maccabi football.

 

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The word of Hashem came to me: What do you see, Yirmiyahu?
I replied: I see a branch of an almond tree.
Jeremiah 1:11 (The Israel Bible™)

Hear the verse in Hebrew

vai-HEE d’-var a-do-NAI ay-LAI lay-MOR mah a-TAH ro-EH yir-m’-YA-hu va-o-MAR ma-KAYL sha-KAYD a-NEE ro-EH

I see a Branch of an Almond Tree
In his first vision, Yirmiyahu is shown an almond branch, makel shaked () in Hebrew. Hashem explains that the branch symbolizes His watching over His word to perform it. The Hebrew word he chooses for ‘watch,’ shoked (), also means ‘to hasten.’ Yirmiyahu deliberately chose this word since it is similar to the word for ‘almond,’ shaked (שָׁקֵד). Commentators give two explanations for this wordplay. First, just as the almond tree blossoms quickly, so too Hashem will hasten to punish Israel. Furthermore, the almond tree is the first to blossom in Eretz Yisrael. When all else is dead, the almond trees awaken the countryside from its winter slumber. So too, although the people are spiritually dead, God’s word, like the almond blossoms, will awaken the nation.

 

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Pork is really cheap there

 

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Pork is really cheap there

Yes it is . And Christians love to eat their pork. And they breed them, feed them, slaughter them, get it all to themselves and the Christian tourists who come to visit Israel.

How great Israel is, where pigs are allowed to be bred for those who want to eat it.

Am Israel Chai

 

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Driving rain uncovers 2 rare horse statues, 2,000-years-old, in north of Israel

 

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Israel surges to take fifth place in new Bloomberg Innovation Index

 

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Hagit Yaso - Ya Mama

 

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Yehudah Katz V'hamagal - My Heart and Flesh

 

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There are many moments of intense beauty on Maureen Nehedar’s superb release from 2016, Gole Gandom, her first album of songs in Farsi. Perhaps none is more starkly stirring than her solo rendition of the Persian folk song “Juni Juni.” In this traditional song of the Māzandrān province, a region of central-north Iran along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, the lyrics express a lover’s anguish as he pines for his soulmate: “Juni Juni! / I’m lovesick and languish for you / I sent flowers for you, bouquet after bouquet / Since your mother tied a cradle for you / God tied my heart to you.”

The song was initially popularized by Delkash, born Esmat Bagherpour Baboli (1925-2004), one of the towering Iranian divas of stage and screen. Delkash’s original recording is a powerful and compact classic of Persian music, as tar and kamancheh dance around her robust, authoritative vocal, with deliberate percussion offering strong rhythmic grounding. In contrast, Maureen Nehedar’s interpretation is a study in the power of simplicity. Featuring only her crystalline, expressive voice and the simple, hypnotic drone of the setar, Nehedar magnifies the deep emotions of love and longing inherent in the melody and poetry. In this radically intimate performance of deep emotional gravitas, Nehedar sings “Juni Juni” directly to the listener, communicating straight to the heart. It is an awe-inspiring performance that gets directly to the essence of Nehedar’s artistry.


Nehedar was only 2 years old when she left her hometown of Isfahan, in central Iran, to immigrate with her family to Israel in 1979 in the early years of the Islamic Revolution. In a recent interview with Tablet magazine, she described Farsi as her mother tongue, but said that she once had limitations in terms of vocabulary, in a way that she does not with Hebrew. Growing up in Israel, she remained deeply connected to her Persian Jewish roots and Iranian heritage through the transportive power of music, which entranced her as a child:

Iranian Revolution: How Maureen Nehedar Guards Persion Music With Her Life

 

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The stories behind Israel's national parks