Disagreements Re:My Last two 52Frames Shots

This week, as Sunday, which is the deadline, was the last of 2017, the 53rd Sunday of the year, a very unusual occurrence, 52Frame's challenge was "Endings."

For me it was clear that I'd have to photograph our local Shiloh Cemetery. I managed to get down there just as the sun was beginning to set. I had the end of the day and the end of lives all in one package. 

I've been using my smartphone, the Samsung J7 as a camera. It really is better than the cheap camera I bought a few years ago. First I photographed it in black and white, but it looked too stark and cold. Then I tried the sepia, which gave it the warmth and character I had envisioned. The cloudy winter sky added the perfect dose of sadness.

When I consulted with member of a "subgroup" from 52Frames, I was told that the sepia was too yellow. I toned it down and added the vignette, hoping it wouldn't be too kitschy. I, davka, like the look it produced, a bit more sorrow, looking into a tunnel of sad memories, which really is the case. This is a community cemetery and I really did know almost everyone buried in it. There are so many stories...

"Cemetery Sunset"
Sad as I knew most of the people buried here. Their ends came much too soon. 

So far, there have been a nice amount of comments. Most people like the basic photo including the light sepia, while there's a split in opinion about the vignette effect.  What do you think? And why?

The previous week's photo, Black and White Minimalism, also had people either liking or hating one of the elements.

"Window Up High"

I took it in my daughter's house on a wintery day. Even though it was less than two weeks ago, I can't remember if I had photographed it in Black and White or removed the color in "post-production." Besides a bit of cropping and sharpening, there wasn't much to do. I liked the simplicity and asymmetric look of it, with the focus on the light in the perfect spot.

Comments have been almost evenly split about that lamp. Some people love it, and others find it distracting. I couldn't have removed it, though I could have turned it off. I think it adds a good visual focus of white on all the grey and black. What do you think? And why?

Another Night Funeral

The Jewish custom is to bury the dead as soon as possible, so the nishama soul can return as quickly as possible to Gd and not have to wait. Here in Shiloh we have adopted the Jerusalem custom on nighttime funerals, including after Shabbat.

The little girl, who had fought cancer for about a year, died just before Shabbat. We were notified right after Shabbat, and she was buried last night. At least a couple of hundred people of all ages attended to accompany her body to its grave. We grieve for the loss of life and the pain of the parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family and many friends.

המקום ינחם

HaMakom Yinachem

May Gd Comfort The Mourners...

TU B'Shevat Festivities Cancelled in Shiloh

Last night, instead of getting together to celebrate TU B'Shvat and 38 years of renewed Jewish life in the Holy City of Shiloh over wine and fruit and nuts and cakes, we mourned. And we gathered together in the large sports hall and then slowly marched under the cold, weeping sky at a funeral.

A young man, born and raised in Shiloh had been killed in a terrible road accident, only minutes from home. His family, friends and the soldiers he had led all gathered together to bring him to his resting place, until the Moshiach arrives and tichiyat hamettim, resurrection of the dead. May it be soon in our time...

Shiloh Cemetery, photo taken a few months ago for 52Frames, Theme: Future, titled "We Will All Die"

המקום ינחם

HAMAKOM YINACHEM

MAY GD COMFORT THE MOURNERS

Time Doesn't Heal

Yesterday was Israel's Memorial Day for Soldiers and Victims of  Arab Terror.  Whatever scabs or scar tissue had been covering the emotional wounds from the loss of friends and family was ripped away.  My neighbors and I, although comforted by seeing the young grandchildren, nieces and nephews of those good Jews who were killed, agreed that we felt more pain than ever.

Time doesn't heal.

Time just gives us the chance to try to live better, be inspired by those who are no longer with us, who died so young...

We live in the shadows of the loss.

Just like we can't erase a shadow, we can't ignore the memories and longings that follow us even at the most unexpected times. 

Most of those we commemorated at our Shiloh Memorial Ceremony in the local cemetery were just teenagers when they were murdered.  Other were a young mother and an infant.  They all had such potential, such dreams.  And in a matter of seconds, their lives were over, and everything changed irreparably for their parents, spouse, grandparents, siblings, friends and family.

Memorial ceremony at Mt. Herzl
for a friend.

Yes, of course, we all go on.  Nobody stays static in time.  Widows and widowers marry again; more children may be born, but that doesn't make up for the missing person.  Life adapts to a new normal.  Thank G-d for giving us the strength and drive to keep going.  We are supposed to continue and not wallow in pain and misery.

Jewish History is full of destruction, defeat and disasters.  And there is also the rebuilding.

We're supposed to take those memories and the pain and make something better and stronger.  That's why the Jewish People continues to exist, even now, two thousand years after the destruction of our Second Holy Temple.  The ancient civilizations we fought with and even those that defeated us are gone, but we Jews still live and thrive and have established a modern  State of Israel.

For the Jewish People, "not healing" is not the end of the world.  We take our pain and build something better, with G-d's help.  And as we celebrate Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, we bring those memories with us to celebrate together.

Paying Tribute to a Chalutz, Pioneer

Shiloh has seen many enormous funerals in the past, and they all had something in common. The person being buried was murdered by Arab terrorists, and people came, because it had been headlined in the news.

Yesterday, again, we had mobs and mobs of people and a long line of buses. But this time we weren't burying a victim of Arab terror, we were burying a young chalutz, pioneer, Yossi Shuker.

I had planned on posting the pictures with my report of the funeral, but photobucket wasn't cooperating. Read this for more about Yossi. Actually I sent it to work as a Reading Comprehension exercise with questions as one of the lesson plans for my students, since I took the day off in order to attend the funeral. My boss was very understanding when I requested to be allowed to attend the funeral. It's one of those things in Israel that funerals are considered great mitzvot, commandments from G-d, and even on a workday, you'll see relatively large numbers of people attending.

There are a lot of pictures, and I'll just post them without commentary. They begin with the cars and buses accompanying the body from his home in Givat Achiyah, northeast of Shiloh, a community he and his wife Ronit founded. And the last picture is just after the funeral, a group of men saying the mincha, afternoon prayer, while the last people are leaving the cemetery.

If you have any questions, just "comment."

Another Friday Funeral--The Last Dance

Yes, again we buried an old woman in the Shiloh Cemetery on a Friday morning.

Sixteen years ago, when the aliyah from Russia was reaching numbers beyond our wildest dreams, Shiloh invited olim to visit. We really didn't think of it as "recruitment" to bring more permanent residents, since hardly any of the olim, immigrants, were religiously observant, and Shiloh is a religious community.

I was on the Vaadat Klita, Absorption Committee, at the time, and we were surprised when a three generation clan contacted us that they wanted to move here. Their Shabbat as guests was a taste of Gan Eden, and they knew that Shiloh was the place for them. We were surprised to say the least, but after careful discussion and consultations, it was decided that we would accept any of the Russian Jewish olim who wanted to come, as long as they understood what type of community Shiloh is. The minimum from them was public observance of Shabbat.

The three generations of this clan enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to live as Torah-observant Jews. There were the elderly grandparents, Gretta, their daughter, and her daughter plus husband.

Within a few years, they all bought homes, and a fourth generation was born to the young couple. A number of other Soviet immigrants moved to Shiloh, many bought homes are live here happily.

"Savta Lyda" had been a pediatrician for forty years in the USSR, and she loved children. She also loved to dance, which she did at all of the festive occasions she attended. Neighbors who hosted Savat Lyda and Sabba Leib on Shabbat tell of how, even if she had been brought in a wheel chair, she would get out of it to sing and dance.

It was very hard to see that once dancing woman being buried, davka on the Eve of Purim. She danced her last.

Baruch Dayan Ha'emet

HaMakom Y'Nachem...

May G-d Comfort the Mourners...

better view

Friday, when I was hanging out the wash, a friend walked by and stopped:

Come, walk with me. The weather is glorious!

I decided quickly.

Just another couple of things to hang, and I'll join you.

So I did. The girl I tutor on Fridays had called to ask to start later, so I had the time. I took my camera along. I got a better shot of the valley, looking very late winter. And at the end of my walk I visited a neighbor and photographed the Shiloh Cemetery.

Now I'm in a rush. Instead of going to bed on time, I'm welcoming my married daughter and family, since their heater spewed kerosene and the place stinks.

Good that they live nearby.

Shavua Tov