Taken by Shai Gluskin July 7, 2008 in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, PA.
About ten years ago we planted a linden tree (its trunk is shown up close in the photo) to replace a dead maple. Actually, two trees replaced the dead maple. The maple grew right on the property line. Our neighbors Curt Senie (since deceased) and Penny Venet shared the cost of removing the maple. We decided we'd take the opportunity to increase the number of trees on our block by replacing it with two, one on our property and one on his.

The first tree we planted died in the first year. This linden was our second try and has been a great success. The trunk is now about 10 inches in diameter. I like the "etchings" on the bark. I like how the shadow created by the tree and how it accentuates the six p.m. summer light/shadow.

There's that story in Talmud about planting a carob tree that will only bear fruit in 70 years, long after the planter is gone. What is the motivation for the planter? Someone now deceased had planted trees for him. He's returning the favor.

Planting this linden required less patience, though certainly some. And just like parenting, there are gratifications at every step in the development. My ten-year old son already hangs off its branches. Our Dog Boaz urinates on it. I lean on it and take photos of it.

But even without these interactions, or especially without these interactions, this linden is growing, leafing, dropping its leaves, budding -- and generally taking its place in the neighborhood, all on its own.

I'm sure Curt would be pleased to know of the success of this linden and the maple that he planted.

Here is the latest set of images I've added to my Flickr account. This is my first test of the Drupal (Drupal is the software I use to run this site) Flickr integration module. If you click on one of the image, it will take you to a set of photos I've created on the Flickr site itself.

I took these picture in a small part of our next door neighbor's Pam's garden.

The new banner of this site now uses a portion of one of those pics.

Here in this set is a combined effort of: nature, a gardener, and a photographer.

Praying Mantis on Stucco: Taken on July 2, 2008 by Shai Gluskin

It's always nice to get back to my blog. I now have an almost complete set of Omer teachings. I've done it in three years, '04, '06, and '08, each doing roughly a third of the days. Now I need to organize them here so that they'll be easy to access.

Photography is always an easy way back for me to create and share. The image you see is about one inch long from top to bottom. Though we often see large praying mantis on our porch in summer, this was a little guy/gal. I have no clue whether it is a praying mantis youth or just a small praying mantis.

I love doing close-up photography. I feel like it opens up new perspectives and wakes me up to see more. This image I used the macro setting on my Canon 2S IS camera. I couldn't get it in focus in the Super macro mode. I've also cropped it tightly as well. You are seeing the image in its full size now/post cropping.

I really like the way the stucco came out. When I say, "I like the way the stucco came out" I mean it two ways: the stucco was re-done about 5 years ago; I like how it came out from the from the hands of the skilled craftsman. I also mean I like the way it came out in the image.

I also had fun with this post title, "Praying Mantis on Stucco." I meant it as a simple description of the content of the photo. But it sounds so much like a title for a piece of art at a museum. Life is art. But I'm glad this praying mantis isn't in a museum.

A nice blog called "Mostly Macro" has a great entry on praying mantis.

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem: Taken in December, 2006 by Shai Gluskin

Tonight begins the 17th Day of the Omer (May 6-7, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Tiferet in Tiferet be healed on this day.

The God of the Hebrew Bible is associated with Tiferet. That God, as reported in the Torah, is concerned with ritual purity. Coming close to the holiest of places requires purity. Animals that are brought forward for sacrifice must be without blemish.

This week's Torah portion, emor deals with the rules established to maintain the purity of the priest class. In a world where purity/closeness to God preclude certain physical states, such as a menstruating women or a man having had a seminal emission, death represents the antithesis of God. Priests are instructed to keep at a distance from death, only being allowed to tend to the death of a close family member or to a corpse that has been abandoned.

Closeness to God brings its own danger. The holy of holies, a spot where God's world and the human world touch, was accessible only to the high priest and only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement which comes just once a year.

In December, 2006, I visited the Temple Mount, the area near where the holy of holies was supposed to have been. Indeed the Dome of the Rock Shrine resides on that very spot. That spot is also where the binding of Isaac is supposed to have taken place and where Mohammed is supposed to have risen to heaven.

I remember going inside the Dome of the Rock in 1974 and putting my hand through a curtain and then touching the bedrock which contained the footprint that Mohammed left on his way out of this world.

In 2006 I had mixed feelings about going up to the Temple Mount at all, and absolutely didn't want to go inside the Dome of the Rock. It turns out that current Temple Mount policy allows only Muslims are allowed inside the Dome of the Rock.

Though I don't believe that holiness is created only within the physical and proximal realms, I also don't dismiss these kinds of holiness as I did in the past. It was after traveling to Mt. Sinai in 1977 and to the southwestern deserts of the USA in 1979 that I began to feel a connection to holy places that are rooted in geographic places.

For me, these kinds of holy places invite a heightened awareness of what is greater than us. That awareness can lead to humility. I think humility is the ultimate purpose of physical holiness. [That's just one of many reasons why I am completely opposed to ideas of establishing a third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. Even if it didn't cause massive violence, which it likely would, it would still be a great act of chutzpah and NOT humility, making it counter to a religious endeavor.]

On this day of Tiferet in Tiferet, I pray that I have the will, strength, and ability to approach holiness with reverence and humility.

Tulip and Other Beautiful Things: Taken by me from my house on May 4, 2008.

Tonight begins the 16th Day of the Omer (May 5 - 6, 2008)

May that part of me that is broken in Gevurah in Tiferet be healed on this day.

It's all good. Projects at work, new business, kids at school, kids at play, life in synagogue, family, life with spouse, holidays, volunteer efforts, work in the guarding, planning vacation, learning new things, blogging...

It's all good.

Gevurah in Tiferet is the "But." Gevurah in Tiferet says "You can't do it all. The sense of overwhelm that ensues from all that good ends up taking away from good."

Focus is the antidote to overwhelm. On this one I'm preaching to myself big time.

On this night of Gevurah in Tiferet, may I find the strength to focus and to let go of what I can't do.

Greene Street Garden

Today is the 15th Day of the Omer (May 4-5, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Chesed in Tiferet be healed on this day.

PamOur next door neighbor Pam is an awesome gardener. She's also head landscaper for Citizen's Bank Park (not the groundskeeper who works on the turf -- she makes the park itself beautiful with flowers, shrubs and trees).

I don't think she gardens for altruistic reasons, but her work improves the spirits of the neighborhood.

We often think of destructive internal desires that lead people towards various transgressions. But what about the driving internal forces that lead people toward making life better? I think that Pam's gardening is likely an example of that.

I hope also that this omer journal is an example of that.

On this day of Chesed in Tiferet I hope to unloosen my desires that make the world a better place.

Tonight begins the 14th Day of the Omer (May 3 - May 4, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Malkhut in Gevurah be healed on this day.

I'm going to recycle what I wrote two years ago for this one:

In the Kabbalistic system Malkhut, literally, "sovereignty" or "kingshipness" is also called, Shekhina. Shekhina, the Divine Presence, comes from a root which means to dwell. It is the emanation of God that is closest to the human experience. It mediates the Divine overflow (shefa) so that God's presence can be experienced by human beings in a flawed world without the world being destroyed by the purity of God's power.