#bracha

[towerrecords]

My dear friend Ari Yovel wrote this incredible bracha for me for pre-surgery and I wanted to share it with you all. Here is the English translation in screenreadable text:

‘Blessed are you, Adonai our G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, who created my body with wisdom and placed a pure soul within me. The Transforming One to those who transform, you grace human beings with knowledge and teach understanding to every soul. In the name of the commandments of self-creation and the preservation of life: may it be your will, Adonai, our G-d and G-d of our ancestors, that by their merit I undergo a full and swift healing from Heaven, a healing of body and spirit. As is written in the songs of your servant David, "my heart rejoices, my whole being exults, and my body rests secure." Blessed are you, Adonai, who carries out the act of creation.’

Thank you so much and thank you to all who have supported me in this gender affirming process. 💕

#jewish #trans jew #non-binary jew #bracha #brachot #gender affirming surgery #trans #non-binary #hysterectomy #surgery #personal #blessing #blessings

[thepomegranatewitch]

omer counter 5783

Posting 6 Apr 2023 / 15 Nisan 5783: tonight starts the omer! You can check out HebCal's handy checker for what day of the omer it is at this link.

Image description: a digital collage with full colour botanical illustrations. A flowering branch of pomegranate has a sheaf of wheat in the middle. A spiral of moon phases in black starting from center top and ending with a gibbous moon at the straw for the sheaf of wheat.

For some people, this is something they were never taught about and you'll be surprised to hear about it. For others, it's a quotidian count without much more. For others (like me), it's a chance to do a little study each evening and take stock of your actions between Pesach and Shavuot. (Same goes for Shavuot - maybe it's a day you look forward to for study or for cheesecake, maybe it's something you never heard about. I like it because it brings together multiple of my loves: cream-based desserts, reading, flowers, and staying up all night.)

Image descriptions. Two photographs. Left is a single particularly tall stalk of blooming wild radish in a field of blooming white radish. The horizon shows some trees and the top third of the photo is a clear blue sky. Right is a bee about to collect nectar from a branch of flowering white ornamental pear. Her legs are visibly packed with golden pollen. The background is bokeh branches with few leaves on a sunny day.

The kabbalists introduced the practice of considering seven of the sefirot on the tree of life over the seven week period between Pesach and Shavuot as we metaphorically journey from the Narrow Place to Revelation. Each week has a sefira and each day has a sefira, so you end up considering each of them within each other: what does lovingkindness within discipline look like? What is sovereignty and humility within splendor? What is splendor within sovereignty?

Image description. Two images almost the same. Both depict a white kabbalistic tree of life collaged on a photo of the sea and mountains on the horizon at sunset with a subtle trans pride palette. The left has only Hebrew and the right has English transliteration under the Hebrew.

I have counted for a couple years now in chevruta and learn something new about myself, my friends, and our texts each year. If you've never tried counting before but are game to take a look, if you've tried before but this year you're going to complete it, or you've done this before and are looking to consider your practice from another angle, I have a tool for you!

I wrote an omer counter off my notes. We will never achieve full understanding, and each year will change and our understanding with us.

Image description: the cover of the omer counter with previously described pomegranate spiral moon and wheat image at center. Top reads counting the omer in English and Hebrew with the year 5783. Bottom right has artist signature in Korean and English transliteration of Hebrew.

There's a big at-a-glance spread of the count:

Image description: a double spread, split into two images, in black and white of a calendar with Gregorian and Hebrew dates, day of the count, sefirot, moon phases, and Jewish holidays.

There are quick breakdowns that invite you to consider your own systems and give background for

why and how to count

the tree of life

sefirot etymology and translations

what Shavuot is

Each week has a double spread with plenty of space for your own notes, the sefira of the week, translations of the sefira, the blessing for counting the omer in Hebrew and English, and the day of the count in Hebrew and English. These are my own using my consistent queer and poetic grounding to get the cultural and not just literal meaning across, using multiple names and genders for the Divine.

Image description: a double spread showing the week focusing on the sefira tiferet, in all black and white, as described in the above paragraph.

If this piques your interest, or you'd just like to support a mixed race queer Jew, please consider visiting my ko-fi, where you can get a PDF for as low as $5, or my redbubble, where you can purchase stickers, notebooks, and cards with the images.

#omer #shavuot #shavuos #jewish #judaism #jewish witch #jewish witchcraft #jewitch #mixedrace #digital art #brachot #bracha #jewish magic #jewish art #omer counter #counting the omer #stickers #tekhine #support an artist #earth based judaism #earth-based judaism #queer jews #jewblr #jewish stuff #pomegranates #jumblr

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

Blessing for Questioning Gender or Sexuality

“A person does not understand statements of Torah unless [one] stumbles on them.”

-Gittin 43a

I feel my struggle without end, without an answer. I feel, at times, that I am alone. Though, I know that is NOT. true. I may not see an end, but I hope to reach it. Or, perhaps, the end I see is simply the road I walk down. I do not know how this will end, but until, or if, it ends, I know that I am, and will always be, my full and whole self.

ברוך אתה הויה ͏רוח הולעם מי שואלת חשב

English Transliteration:

B’ruche ateh Havayah, ruach ha’olam, mi shoelat khoshev

English Translation:

G’d of infinite Oneness, blessed are You, who challenges thought.

#jewish #jumblr #jewish tumblr #queer Judaism #lgbtq judaism #brachot #bracha #blessing #my identity challenges thought #questioning #gender questioning #jewish-lgbtq #jewish lgbtq #jewish lgbtq+

[mental-mona]

Asher Yatzar

I've posted about this before, but can't find it in my old posts to reblog, so redoing the post. Jews have a blessing that we say after going to the bathroom called "Asher Yatzar," and it goes as follows:

"ברוך אתה ה' אלוקנו מלך העולם אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים. גלוי וידוע לפני כסא כבודך שאם יפתח אחד מהם או יסתם אחד מהם אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד לפניך אפילו שעה אחת. ברוך אתה ה' רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות."

"Blessed are You A-donai, our G-d, King of the world, who fashioned man with wisdom and created in him many cavities and hollows. It is well known before Your throne that if one of them were to be opened or one of them were to be closed, it would be impossible to exist and to stand before You for even one moment. Blessed are You A-donai, Healer of all flesh and wondrous of deeds."

I'm in the middle of a massive IC flare along with an IBS flare. I am seriously appreciating this blessing right now. You don't think of the importance of excretory organs until they act up, nor do you think of your other "cavities and hollows" until something goes wrong - an asthma attack or stroke, say. Just...if you're a chronically ill Jew, maybe take a few minutes to learn this blessing and appreciate your internal organs, regardless of whether or not they work right. If you're a chronically ill goy, take a second to appreciate that Jews even have the concept of this blessing, and thank G-d for your body in your own way. (I'm too brain-fogged to decide if a goy saying the actual blessing would be cultural appropriation; let one of the other wise minds of Jumblr clear that up or ask me to clarify when I'm not on the verge of a migraine.)

#asher yatzar #jumblr #blessings #judaism #brachot #ברכות #ברכה #bracha #אשר יצר #appreciate your body #take a moment #jewish prayers #jewish blessings

[convertinprogress]

Happy last night of Hanukkah y'all!!

Hope all of you have had a great Hanukah; I'm biased, but it is one of the best holidays B)

#hanukkah #chag sameach #it's my like #second? third hanukkah as a jew? somewhere in there #I'm still shaky on the second bracha but i'm still happy to be here

[robindaydream]

We have a custom at my temple where towards the end of the service, a rabbi will bring the mic down into the congregation and ask people to share stories of simcha (joy) from the week. It's never obligatory or anything (though if we have a b'nei mitzvah that week sometimes the family is gently encouraged hehe), and it can range from going on a trip or seeing a friend to getting married or transition milestones.

Everyone participates from time to time, but there are definitely a few regulars when we do this, people who have something to say just about every week. I'm trying to work at being one of them.

#last shabbat of 5783... #my simcha this week was having a date with my best friend and attending her legal name change #which got a lot of 'awwww's from the congregation #all this kind of goes along with trying to work on saying my brachas #trying to appreciate the good things in my life #been saying a lot of brachas about my loved ones lately #also trying to like go out and do things and make myself happy more #there's only so much happiness you can get from sitting at home and re-rewatching youtube videos

[hitku]

by Bracha Lavee

#art #painting #bracha lavee

[eesirachs]

That each of us has been an object-cause-of-desire of the Other is a part of our own phantasy. Thus if the artist sets you up for an ambush, it is as if s/he is saying “you don’t see me from where I look at you,” at the same time as s/he is offering an image that brings you closer to the ache at your own blind spot. The oeuvre (work) is an ouverture (opening) onto a gaze that incarnates in your feeling a place dignifying your self as an objet a for your lost others, or conversely dignifying their psychic site as constituting lost others for you. It is an opening onto a gaze as absence, an absence that feels to you like the mysterious, evasive point of view you desire, from which someone else was once looking at you without you being aware of it, or longing for you with passion and desire. Is there out there in the world such a place where desire meets reality without fading you out of the picture or expelling the gaze? If there is such a place—an echo of a primordial world—art is what brings us as close to it as it is possible to come, although not in the image it presents, but rather in the absence the artwork brings almost within your grasp.

Bracha Ettinger, "Wit(h)nessing Trauma and the Matrixial Gaze"

#BRACHA the woman you are #bracha ettinger

[sleepyangorarabbit]

Behold!

I finally, FINALLY, got all my main Inquisition OCs created and posed for a picture.

After scouring through mods I'm pretty satisfied with how this turned out! A couple of them still have some tweeking and I might hunt down some more clothing mods but all in all, it feels good to finally get to this point. It's not perfect, the poses don't account for the height mod I used but I think I got them together well enough that it doesn't matter much.

Special shout out to @simmireen for this pose. There aren't many for larger groups without kids/toddlers/babies and this one worked out perfectly. You can find this pose mod here.

Everyone is labeled under the cut:

Row 1: Zarina Brio Row 2: Isla Cadash, Mackenzie Trevelyan, and Iliyana E'Lalee Row 3: Mariella Trevelyan, Riona Cadash, Bracha Cadash, and Kyrrha Lavellan Row 4: Jadzia Feyhon, Eira Adaar, Maxiana Trevelyan, Zara Brio, and Blake Ondri.

#happy to have a posed picture of them together #now to start adding minor OCs #there's..... a lot of those too lol #but I'm excited! #my ocs #sims 4 #sims 4 poses #dragon age ocs #maxiana trevelyan #mariella trevelyan #mackenzie trevelyan #kyrrha lavellan #riona cadash #bracha cadash #isla cadash #zara brio #zarina brio #blake ondri #eira adaar #jadzia feyhon #iliyana e'lalee

[kafkaguy]

daily affirmations i will not resort to verbal violence over a tumblr poll. i am a normal and well adjusted person

#where is that bracha

[antronaut]

Poulenc: Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in D Minor, FP 61 - 1. Allegro ma non troppo

#Poulenc #Francis Poulenc #Orchestre de la Suisse Romande #Bracha Eden #Alexander Tamir #Sergiu Comissiona #listeningroom

[beaniegender]

If you were wondering what God means to this one jew on the internet. Well i just said a bracha for my silly little coffee drink bc it was unexpectedly joyful to brew it and stir it with a spoon and bring it to my sunny bedroom to drink and I think that's Hashem saying hello to me

Then AFTER saying the borei p'ri ha'adamah bracha I started googling which blessing you're SUPPOSED to say for coffee because i don't actually have any idea, and I found conflicting information online because of course I did, and I actually got sidetracked into the question of whether it's okay to take your coffee with sugar and cream (answer: yes, because it helps Jews get up and daven in the morning which is a mitzvah so the extra indulgence is permitted lmaoooo), at which point I have to imagine Hashem was laughing at me and at Their people in general and I'm laughing too and I'm having a good time having my coffee with God. Even if I STILL don't know how to bless my mocha properly.

#what you have to understand is that even if g-d isnt real i still love them very much #judaism #ok to reblog #ALSO ok to weigh in on WHICH BRACHA I SHOULD HAVE USED #just me

[sweetdreamspootypie]

#It looks so much better actually in the window #Building up day by day #Thank you to the person who shared the RabbisForCeasefire reading to add to the bracha #hanukah #Jewish holidays #My posts #My life #In the bedroom tonight because I have covid and didn't want to stay out of bed long enough for it to burn down at the dining table #It's beautiful #Engaging fully with chanukah has already made my wairua and that of my home so much more grounded #What's that tag people have been using? #chanukkahproject #It's not a very special hannukiah #I just bought it from the temple shop last week #But it's mine #And it feels right #But I see why people start collections #Would need a bigger one if you wanted it to last through a dinner party #I'm happy #Obviously it's. Very complex melancholy happy #But it's a privilege to be able to engage with the grief as my own #I don't have any photos of 2nd night because I was busy catching Covid at temple that night lol

[septembergold]

The Four Elements by Bracha Lavee

#art #beauty #colourful #bracha lavee

[slutabed]

sometimes I wonder if the reason I’m scared to try dating again is not bc I can never find someone I’m interested in enough to last beyond 3 dates but because in 2021 I finally found a therapist who pointed out my adhd and helped me get diagnosed and medicated and started working through my eating disorders and trauma and then left to become a case worker instead and that betrayal and abandonment has permanently scarred me forever

#bracha bestie I miss u more than u will ever know #u were literally my favorite person from 2021-2022 #and now u have ruined my sense of trust and the ability to open up to others and be vulnerable #forever #jk I love u pls take me back if ur out there