Friday, August 28, 2015

The fabulous Tel Aviv Art Museum right here in Israel and Every Jewish Home is Holy



Steer Clear Of Past Problems

Avoid asking irrelevant questions about the past that will be annoying to others.

 If someone keeps complaining to you about the past, ask him, "What can presently be done about it? If nothing, isn't it better to focus on other things?"

 If the other person persists on talking about the past, weigh the situation. At times you might be doing someone an act of kindness by listening to him.

 In other circumstances you are better off ignoring statements about the past and thus teaching the other person it is not worthwhile to discuss with you something which is over and done with.

Each situation is different forcing you to think. G-d blessed me with a handicapped daughter that repeats herself hundreds of times to help her mind focus. By using the right technique at the right time,  do my best to focus her on what is good instead of focusing on what it bad.

Shabbat Shalom

Love Yehuda Lave

For those that don't want to go to temple mount in person for whatever reason, here is a tourist video that shows off the mount and western wall
 
Today's news from Washington

As the vote on Iran in Congress nears, President Obama appears to be under a lot of pressure to have the accord approved, in order to secure his legacy.

After a vacation at Martha's Vineyard, President Barack Obama returns to Washington to face off with the opponents of his nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Obama reportedly described those who oppose the Iran deal as "the crazies." It appears that Senator Ted Cruz and now Donald Trump have thrown their weight to opposing the deal, so therefore according to Obama they must also be crazy. Or anyone who is concerned for the Jewish People. Hmm, I think that includes G-d!!!

 
Susya with Regavim Organization
https://youtu.be/Sn-MBPuxhSQ


Tel Aviv Art Museum


 

Tel Aviv Art museum 081215
https://youtu.be/IRCjYN5reCs



  • Culture
In his own BACKYARD

Culture

By JESSICA VRAZILEK \

08/12/2015 22:28

In his own BACKYARD


Prominent Israeli sculptor Uri Katzenstein's latest solo exhibition is now on view at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

WORKS ON display from Uri Katzenstein's latest exhibit 'BACKYARD' at Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

WORKS ON display from Uri Katzenstein's latest exhibit 'BACKYARD' at Tel Aviv Museum of Art.. (photo credit:REVITAL TOPIOL)

BACKYARD is one of this year's flagship exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The exhibition of works by Israel's enigmatic multidisciplinary artist Uri Katzenstein has been well received by visitors and critics alike, and will be on show through September 15, 2015. BACKYARD presents a comprehensive view of Katzenstein's thought-provoking and highly emotive body of work, as he transforms the exhibition spaces into unique visual landscapes that waver between the future and the past.

Katzenstein was selected to exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art as the winner of the 2014 Dan Sandel and Sandel Family Foundation Sculpture Award, and the Museum enthusiastically chose to enlarge the exhibition to better display the complex and evocative dimensions of Katzenstein's work.

"Katzenstein is one of those groundbreaking artists who undermine the standard experience of observing artworks and blur the boundaries between different artistic mediums," says Suzanne Landau, museum director and chief curator. "His oeuvre exposes viewers to innovative and exciting experimental art, surrounding them and transforming them into an inseparable part of the work."

The exhibition title alludes to things that remain behind the scenes or invisible to the naked eye. As opposed to the order that dominates a front yard, a backyard is a place where thoughts, experiments, and failures accumulate. The title also inspires a dialogue between the medium of architecture and with previous works by Katzenstein.

"Katzenstein's oeuvre contains humor and touching, strikingly beautiful scenes. His works, which combine the worlds of fantasy, technology, contemporary aesthetics and social interpretation, undermine basic assumptions concerning our modes of functioning and our way of understanding the world that surrounds us," says exhibition curator Varda Steinlauf.

Katzenstein (b. 1951, Tel Aviv) is internationally recognized for his innovative and interdisciplinary approach to sculpture, performance, music, machines and film.

Throughout the decades, Katzenstein has exhibited in prestigious venues around the world, among them the State Russian Museum in St.

Petersburg, the Venice Biennale and the Biennale in Buenos Aires, where he was awarded first prize.

In his exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Katzenstein's works are presented in three main gallery spaces.

Each of the spaces lends a separate thematic tone, while harmoniously integrating through collective motifs. Throughout the exhibition, various aspects of Katzenstein's multi-disciplinary work are examined through a range of mediums – video, sculpture, sound and robotics and language, all of which express a metaphorical, imaginary world that echoes danger and menace, whose central axis is the human body and hybrid objects.

"Most of my works are based on hybrid creatures, which always mediate between different approaches. I am interested, for instance, in exploring how music can become something more visual," says Katzenstein.

This can be seen in his performances.

BACKYARD showcases the range of Katzenstein's art-making process. Katzenstein's prize-winning sculptures, painted bronze figures, inhabit the gallery spaces, thus creating an artificial world of androgynous hybrid characters from his imagination. The exhibition vacillates between sculpture and video, and films like Family of Brothers (1999) and Hope Machines (2006- 2007) give the viewer a sense of Katzenstein's intention as he invites music and objects to, in his words, "dance with one another."

The exhibition and catalogue is presented in three languages: Hebrew, English and a creation Katzenstein calls "Backyard font," which graphically represents English in an alternative way. The artist, who himself speaks Hebrew, English and German fluently, and has a good understanding of French, sees this exhibition as his note of intent for his new "language of the future."

Katzenstein is anything but predictable, and the artist's refusal to be generic coupled with his limitless imagination launches his work to a transcendent, futuristic status that must be experienced to be truly comprehended.



Ki Tetzei(Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) Shabbat 8/28/15

Another Brick in the Wall

by Rabbi Ari Kahn

Over the past few chapters we have noted a gradual shift in the topics Moshe addresses as he imparts his final lessons to the Jewish People. From an extensive polemic against idolatry, the focus shifts to the building of the Temple, and then moves on to other national institutions such as the establishment and mandate of courts, the monarchy and prophets. To a large extent, this week's parashah narrows the lens, moving to commandments of a more interpersonal or individual nature. Though Moshe touches upon many commandments, one particular topic is mentioned numerous times: marriage.1 Although much of the discussion revolves around what might be called "unconventional relationships" – the wife taken as a captive of war, polygamy and preference of one wife above the other, and more – there is one brief mention of love, marriage and happiness.

When a man takes a new bride, he shall not enter military service or be assigned to any associated duty. He must remain free for his family for one year, and rejoice with his bride. (Dvarim 24:5)

The Sefer HaHinuch, an early (anonymous) book of Mitzvot, notes that the concept of marriage is a stark, polar opposite to sexual promiscuity (that is mentioned earlier in this parashah Dvarim 23:18). The selection of one special person, as described poetically by Adam2 in the Garden of Eden, is the ideal:

A man shall therefore leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Bereishit 2:24)

One man, one woman; this a relationship of exclusivity.

In a sense, the nature of marriage mirrors the relationship outlined earlier in Dvarim regarding the Beit Hamikdash. We are told to serve God in one chosen, special place:

Do away with all the places where the nations whom you are driving out worship their gods, [whether they are] on the high mountains, on the hills, or under any luxuriant tree…You may not worship the Almighty God in such a manner. This you may do only on the site that the Almighty God will choose from among all your tribes, as a place established in His name. It is there that you shall go to seek His presence. (Devarim 12:2-5)

While the idolaters worshiped under every tree and upon every hill and high place, the Jews were commanded to worship God exclusively in one centralized place - a place later identified as Jerusalem. We might say that the difference between the Jewish approach to worship and the idolatrous approach is the difference between a "one night stand" and a marriage, between promiscuity and the union of two people joined in holiness. Idolatry, particularly regarding the element of immediate gratification, is spiritual promiscuity.

When a bride and groom rejoice in one another, their happiness stems in no small part from the joy of exclusivity, from the knowledge that their chosen partner is the only person with whom they will share the holiness of marriage and sexual intimacy. This is happiness born of holiness. In this context, the Talmud teaches us that not only is it incumbent upon the husband to bring joy and happiness to his spouse, but all those who attend the wedding are commanded to bring happiness to the new couple. In fact, the Talmud (Talmud Bavli Brachot 6b) goes so far as to say that whoever successfully brings joy to the bride and groom, is considered to have rebuilt "one of the ruins of Jerusalem."

As we know, the ruin of Jerusalem is the Temple itself, a building dedicated to the exclusive relationship between God and His People. When the people "cheated" on God, as was the case during the First Temple era, or simply took their relationship with Him for granted, as was the case during the Second Temple era, the Temple was destroyed. On the personal scale, marriage, with its essential component of exclusivity, serves as a metaphor for the relationship between man and God; in essence, it is a microcosm of that relationship. When a husband and wife find joy in this holiness of marriage, they build not only their own interpersonal relationship, but also the community as a whole, as well as the relationship between man and God. They become partners in the rebuilding of the Temple.

Every Jewish home is holy. In a sense, every Jewish home is a microcosm of the Holy Temple. Therefore, every happy Jewish home serves as a step to the complete rebuilding of Jerusalem.

For a more in-depth analysis see:
http://arikahn.blogspot.co.il/2015/08/essays-and-audio-on-parashat-ki-tetze.html

NOTES

1. This essay is dedicated to the marriage of our son Yosef Dov, to Shoval Cohen.

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