Thursday, March 16, 2006

New Clip Art

beers with honey, insects clip art, funny cartoon clipart, funny cartoon clip art, natural treatment images, funny animals clipart
These are the cute beers from my recently finished work. A customer will use them for some natural medicines. He allowed me to place the vector images into my clipart store as well. So I can share them with you just now.

Purim In Karmiel.

Cool photos of cute kids. 14 of March 2006. Karmiel, Israel.

purim festival, dressed up kids, masquerade, purim fancy ball,purim procession, Israel
purim festival, dressed up kids, children in purim costumes, masquerade, purim fancy ball,purim procession, Israel
purim festival, dressed up kids, children in purim costumes, masquerade, purim fancy ball,purim procession, Israel
purim festival, dressed up kids, children in purim costumes, masquerade, purim fancy ball,purim procession, Israel

Monday, March 13, 2006

Purim in Zfat

Yoni flied to Taiwan first. Shin-i and me went to see Purim to the old city of Zfat -place of orthodox Jews and artists. Though Purim begins on March 14, children began to dress up already on Sunday. After that they have a break from school, so celebrations in schools and kindergartens just began.




Saturday, March 11, 2006

Celebrating Purim Today.

Everyone in Israel loves merry Purim festival, but I am at a loss to explain why tears welled up on my eyes together with a happy smile, when I am looking on dressed up children, going to their schools and kindergartens. May be this really symbolizes for me free Jewish people in their own free state.

Jewish child dressed up at Purim festival This what is said about how to celebrate Purim:
“Read the Megilla, eat, drink, sing, drink, discuss or playact Purim story, drink, read Megilla again, drink, give money to the poor, drink, eat, drink, give Mishloach Manot, drink, eat, drink, sing, drink, sleep, wake up with Excedrin Headache”.

Now just few details.
The Book of Esther is read on Purim night, and again the next day.
It's a tradition when reading the Book of Esther to drown out the name of Haman, the story's villain, with a loud noise. This cacophony is often accomplished with groggers, the special Purim noisemakers.
Because the main theme of Purim is that things didn't turn out, as they seemed they would, it became to the custom to dress up and mask one's own identity. We dress up in costumes and arrange carnival procession to let our defenses down and open up to the deeper reality of our world and ourselves.

There is a custom to perform the Purim story on a stage – such a show has special name “Purimshpiel”. Because of this o many children are dressed up as little Mordechais, Ethers and Achashveroshs.

Purim is known as a time of delicious smells emanating from the kitchen from the baking of the delicious sweets and goodies. The filled triangles to your right are Hamantashen or Haman's hats, the most popular sweet made at Purim.

One of the most peculiar laws of Purim is the obligation to drink wine, and even become intoxicated.
Excessive drinking is frowned upon by Jewish law, yet here it appears that the law specifically advocates drinking!
Purim is a day of taking pleasure but it's also a day of giving pleasure and doing good. We perform mitzvah by donating food or money to at least two poor and we practice Mishloah Manot or the "sending of gifts" by bringing a basket of fruit or plate of sweet treats to friends and relatives. On Purim, it is also a special mitzvah to give gifts of money to the poor. The Jewish people are one unit -- we can't possibly enjoy the holiday if poor people don't have enough.
There is truly no other holiday like Purim!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Eat, Drink and Be Merry - We Almost Died.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry - We Almost Died. This can be a slogan of the Jewish festival Purim, which we celebrate on March 14 this year.

purim clipartReally, its story and history is devoted to happy rescue of Jewish folk In Persia many centuries ago. Though it’s a merry holiday, it has a deep meaning as usually. We celebrate our deliverance from the threat of annihilation. Anyone who is familiar with Jewish history can see the Purim pattern repeated over and over again. Purim, therefore, is the prototype for Jewish survival during exile.
Twice in history, we were brutally exiled from our Land and we returned twice: once after the Babylonian Exile and once in contemporary times with the establishment of the State of Israel and the incredible ingathering of Jews from all over the world to our Land.
HISTORY OF PURIM
The history of events that served as a source of Purim is described in a special book, named Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther). The quickie version is as follows:
The events commemorated by Purim took place in the ancient Persian Empire, in the fifth century BCE, under the reign of King Achashverosh.
Mordechai, one of the religious leaders of that generation, refused to prostrate himself before Haman, the vizier to the King. Haman immediately set out "to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Achashverosh". In order to effect his vicious racist plan, Haman decided to enlist the aid of the unsuspecting King Achashverosh.
Since Haman was a very superstitious person, he had lots cast to determine on which day he should carry out his design. The word for lots is "Purim", and from it we get the name for the holiday. The chosen date was the thirteenth of Adar.
The king, who trusted Haman, agreed to his plan to murder the Jews. For Haman had told him that the Jews were "scattered abroad in all the provinces," and that "their laws are different from those of every people". Letters, written by Haman and signed by the king, were sent out throughout all the provinces, commanding all persons "to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the Jews.
The heroine of the Purim story is Esther, a devout Jewish woman who was forcibly taken as a wife for King Achashverosh. Queen Esther was able to intercede and save the Jewish community from genocide and annihilation.
Haman was hanged on the gallows which he himself had prepared for Mordechai and Mordechai became prime minister.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Hsin-i In Israel

I would like you to make a trip about Israel together with wiyh my son and his girlfriend from Taiwan.

Tel aviv

Tel-Aviv. The seashore.


Jerusalem - "Golden Cuppola".

Jerusalem, muslim's holy place
Yoni's sister Yael entertained her guests in Jerusalem, where she lives and studies in the Art Academy.

Jerusalem - christian holy places

After Jerusalem they continued to the Dead Sea - the lowest place in the world.
Old Acre, Israel

Akko - the old crusader’s city.




Gamla - a very interesting and beautifule site, both natural reserve and historic place.



Israel at the highlight of spring blossoming.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

My Taiwan Family

My son Yoni came for a visit from Taiwan with his Taiwan girlfriend Xshin-i. He works there as a technician of some Israel hi-tech company. He has a contract for a year and comes home for his vacations every 3 months. This is his last vacation before finishing.
She is a musician, graduated from the higher music school in Taipei. Now she is considering the opportunity to complete her education in Jerusalem. She is very nice cheery girl. My son is also a good handsome fellow, so they form a great couple! I must say that if in US international couples are usual thing – in our small rather closed Israel this is not so often affair. But my family is open-minded of course. We only wish that our children would be happy.
Yoni brought many pictures of his visit to Xsin-i’s family and also beautiful gifts from our new Taiwan “relatives”.

My son on a scooter in Taiwan.

Our international couple: the Israeli from Russia and his Taiwan girlfriend, speaking English with each other.

Xshin-i’s family and Yoni at their home in a small town in the middle of Taiwan.

Three generations of women in the kitchen.

The name Xshin-i means “happy heart”.
Let’s pray that hearts of our children will be always happy.

If something is impossible this is my son at piano! But the photo is great!