Do You Have A Favorite Bug? Or Bugs You Think Are Particularly Cool? I Think All Bugs Are Pretty Neat,

Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) on a rhino, sound asleep.

In South Africa by Zaheer Ali: Zali_Photo

chag purim sameach! wishing a wonderful purim to everyone :D feel free to comment and/or reblog talking abt your fun purim celebrations! and/or share some fun facts :0

Before you say “religion”...

Take a moment and ask yourself a few questions:

- Do you mean just 1 religion? 

- Do you know enough about the all worlds religions to make a potentially harmful generalization about all of them?

- Are you making assumptions about other religions based off of your experience with one religion?

- Are you making assumptions about other religions and cultures based on your limited experience with a single person or group of people from said religion or culture?

- Are you taking out your valid frustrating, anger, hurt, and pain with one religious group on people who have nothing to do with it by making a generalization?

If you don’t actually mean the every single one of the vast, diverse, multi-faceted religions in the world, don’t make a blanket statement and list the one(s) you mean specifically. This also goes for using ‘grouping’ labels that do not apply, like Abrahamic, etc. 

tbh this has been my experience trying to observe shabbat more traditionally so far lmao. we tear so many things!! (toilet paper & packaging are the biggest ones...)

regardless, has been quite fulfilling thus far :D

<33

Beloved is man for he was created in the image of God. Still greater was God’s love in that He gave to man the knowledge of his having been so created. - Pirke Avot 3:18

im not crying you are crying!

The golem is too small - but the children who make him, who hand him to their baby siblings to hold who have shaped him with small hands - they make a friend. From the very first children of exile, little ones yearning for their home - they wished for a friend - these small babies - toddlers with halting steps and little tiny children. And so he is shaped to them - to be held.

From all soils but home, he is reshaped - small hands and prayers and hopes - little wishes along with them - from Shiraz to London to Aksum to those that remain in Yerushaláyim - children add buttons, beads, colours and love - the warmth of small hands no matter what happens.

The Golem wishes he was large, that he could protect them - but he can be with them, all the children who are lost to an endless ancient hate - a hand to hold at the end, perhaps a shield from pain.

He lives in a bright place - filled with paints, with colour and toys and he will protect it always and always - though he is very small, he can protect this place now, this little haven and the little ones who pass through the doors.

Inspired by this post

Image description: Three versions of the same picture: a digital painting of a cluster of yellow dandelions on a dark earthy background. Handwritten in white above and below the flowers is the same text in Yiddish in the alef-beys, in romanisation, and then in English. The text reads: "מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן", "Mir veln zey iberlebn", and "We will outlive them". /end description

A four page comic about something that happened to me in Saudi Arabia last November. Be gay, run from security, don't get caught.

Goyim who think that you can tell whether someone is Sephardi/Ashkenazi/Mizrachi/other based on skin tone shut the fuck up about jewish culture and community dynamics challenge

Alright, Chanukah starts tonight, which means it's time for me to finally make a post about different kinds of menorahs.

This right here? This is the Temple Menorah:

There's some debate over whether the branches were straight or curved, but here's a few things we do know:

It had seven branches of equal length.

It was made of one solid piece of gold

It was at least five feet tall.

It used pure olive oil.

The Temple Menorah is what people mean when they talk about The Menorah. It's what you'll see on historical or commemorative artifacts such as the Arch of Titus in Rome or Israeli currency:

During the time when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the High Priest lit all seven flames on this Menorah every day (using the aforementioned pure olive oil):

No one lights this on Chanukah.

This is a Chanukah menorah:

There are countless variations, but here are the important things:

It has eight branches of equal length, plus a ninth "helper" branch, known as the shamash, which is set apart from the rest of the branches and used to light the others.

It can be made of any material.

It is usually used with wax candles or oil, but, if necessary, one can use anything that burns.

In Hebrew, this kind of menorah is called a chanukiah.

Some Chanukah menorahs, like the one shown above, have the shamash in the middle. Others have it on the side:

Regardless, this kind of menorah is the one that has been lit by Jews on Chanukah for thousands of years. It's the menorah you'll seen in photographs of Jewish households, including this famous picture taken in Germany in 1931:

(The message written on the back of the photo reads: "Death to Judah"/ So the flag says/ "Judah will live forever"/ So the light answers)

On Chanukah, whoever is lighting the menorah will first light the shamash, then the number of candles corresponding to whichever night of Chanukah it is. The first night, only the rightmost candle is lit, the second night the two rightmost, etc. (The newest candle is always lit first):

Again, a valid Chanukah menorah has eight branches of equal length, along with a shamash. There is no such thing as a Chanukah menorah with six branches of equal length and a longer seventh branch, and no valid Chanukah menorah has eight branches of completely different lengths.

If you see either of the above designs (or anything similar) on Chanukah-themed decor, it tells you the creator has absolutely no idea what they're doing and couldn't be bothered to do more than two seconds of research to make sure their product was accurate. Anyone who knows anything about the holiday will laugh at these. (They may buy them anyway, especially if that's all that's available-- my new Chanukah sweater has an invalid menorah pattern, but it's adorable, so I'm still going to wear it. But I am also laughing about it and invite you all to do the same.)

Anyway, have a happy Chanukah, everyone!