Charoset container

B’nai B’rith, Holidays and Festivals
Charoset Container Silver Germany, 19th century Gift of Joseph B. and Olyn Horwitz B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum Collection Charoset is one of the foods that is placed on a special plate during the Passover seder (a ritual service and ceremonial dinner) that symbolizes the brick and mortar the Jewish people used during their [...]

Kapparot

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Kapparot Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal Kapparot, which literally means “atonements,” is the custom in which a person’s sins are symbolically transferred to a fowl. The ceremony is performed on the day before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) while some [...]

Wedding

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Wedding Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal The origins of the chuppah—the fabric canopy under which a Jewish wedding takes place—are rather ambiguous. The chuppah is often understood as symbolizing the Jewish home the new married couple will create together. The [...]

Havdalah

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Havdalah Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal Havdalah, Hebrew for “separation,” is the ceremony performed at the conclusion of Shabbat and festivals marking the passage from the sacred to the everyday. Blessings are recited over a cup of wine, a lit [...]

Blessing the Shabbat Lights

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Blessing the Shabbat Lights Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal The two candles lit on Shabbat eve symbolize the biblical commandments, zakhor v’shamor, “remember” and “observe” the Shabbat (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12). It is customary to light two single-wick white candles, [...]

Blessing the New Moon

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Blessing the New Moon Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal Rosh Hodesh (head of the month) is a minor holiday that marks the beginning of every Hebrew month. The Torah instructs that on Rosh Hodesh the people are commanded to be [...]

Tishah B’Av

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Tishah B'Av Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal The fast day of Tishah B’Av (the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av) commemorates the destruction of the  two  Temples  in  Jerusalem. It has also come to memorialize other tragedies for [...]

Shavuot

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Shavuot Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal The Festival of Shavuot falls on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. The festival’s name, Shavuot, which means “weeks,” denotes that the festival occurs exactly seven weeks after Passover (Exodus 34:22). [...]

Lag Ba’Omer

Holidays and Festivals, Works by Mark Podwal
Lag Ba'Omer Mark Podwal (b. 1945) Digitial archival pigment print on paper 7 7/16 x 7 9/16" USA, 2020 © Mark Podwal Beginning on the second night of Passover, Jews observe the ritual of Sefirat HaOmer (Counting the Omer), based on the Torah’s commandment to mark the time between the barley and wheat harvests (Deuteronomy [...]