Saturday, March 31, 2007

Bedtime is sneaking up on me

This is a busy week for me. Passover starts Monday night. Since I organize the event and cook about half the food--I am especially fond of my matzoh ball soup--I have to get moving. Tonight I have been working on a few last minute additions to our Haggadah, the prayer book we read on the holiday. Starting a number of years ago, I scavenged excerpts from a number of published texts and added a few writings and drawings from the children who attend to liven up the ceremony both for the little kids and for the adults at the table with short attention spans and minimal religious training. Every year, I try to improve on the year before. This year I have a scanner and printer at my office which are helpful but the technology is slow.
I was going to go home in a few minutes but judging from the water overflowing my gutters, I should wait for an ark to arrive. I'm glad I'm not driving or outside at this moment.

This morning while waiting to pick up my son from his dance class, I roamed through the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. This is a very fine, small museum. Fortunately, they allow photography, so I practiced using my new macro lens. Here is one of the less well-focused shots but it fits the Judaic theme. Actually seeing a bit of the Dead Sea scrolls is pretty cool.

Dead Sea Scroll Fragment

I guess given that the story of Passover is about the exodus from Egypt a couple of Egyptian photos would fit the theme too. Here is a "Face from a Mummy Shroud".

Face from a Mummy Shroud

5 comments:

Andree said...

How fortunate you are to be able to get so close to a fragment of the Scrolls. It must be quite a feeling. A direct connection to our ancestors. I wish you a peaceful week.

Unknown said...

Wow, pretty dang cool! You took me on a trip down memory lane. I did a study abroad in Jerusalem where we had a memorable Passover dinner and some pretty cool encounters with the Dead Sea Scrolls...

angela said...

You sound so busy I'm amazed you found time to post!
Thanks for a glimpse into your world I know nothing more than the facts about Passover. It sounds a lot of work for the organiser.
Last time I was in London I went to see the mummies in the British Museum...very impressive indeed.
Angela

Snail said...

A piece of the Dead Sea scrolls --- how fantastic!

Attila the Mom said...

Oh how---serendipitous! I just finished reading a novel that centered around the Oriental Institute, and here you have pictures!

Too cool!