Paul Goldfinger . Bunche Beach. Ft. Myers, Fla. Spring, 2018. Click to enlarge. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
At the Passover seder, the ceremonial and traditional meal, “Solomon’s Song of Songs” (from the Bible) is read. Much of it is about romantic love, but it also has something to say about Spring.
This is from Meyer Levin’s Israel Haggadah for Passover. A Haggadah is a guide book which is read at seders. There are many versions of Haggadahs, and one could search Blogfinger’s archives by typing in “Passover” into the search box at the upper right. One was written by an Ocean Grover.
As those attending a seder know, everyone gets a chance to read. The father says, “Like all people, our people in ancient, pastoral times celebrated the liberation of the earth itself from wintry darkness, and rejoiced in the yearly rebirth of nature. This is beautifully described in Solomon’s Song of Songs read by the mother:”
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
And the vines in blossom give forth their fragrance.
And here is a Passover poem for 2023 by our friend Igor Timkovsky, immigrant, American patriot, and lover of Ocean Grove. He and his family will return this summer.
I met a young man in the Miami Airport. He was waiting for the same Newark connection that we sought. He is an Orthodox Jew who was reading from a large book of the Talmud. We talked, and he is a full time student of a rabbinical college in Lakewood. His college has 6500 students, all men, is the largest Yeshiva in America and is called BMG. (Beth Medrash Govoha.) It is an elite school and it is competitive to get in. Everyone studies the Jewish guidebook “The Talmud” from morning till night. Only a minority become pulpit rabbis. Some stay for graduate degrees. The rest go on to other careers including law and medicine.
Typical huge class in Lakewood college BMG. Web information. There can be 1000 men in one study class.
He married one year ago, and his wife is “in real estate.” Now he is returning home for Passover. The Hebrew name for this holiday is Pesach, and that is also my Hebrew name. All my uncles called me “Pesach” when I was a kid. I asked this student why he thought my Mom would have chosen this name for me. He said that it is because Passover is a holiday that represents wonderful events for the Jewish people.
GRAHAM BICKLEY with THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA From South Pacific
NAT KING COLE (requested by Kevin Chambers) The song is by Ray Noble from 1941, and there was a movie of the same name that featured this song. Re-posted—A girl in her summer clothes.
The turning of the leaves. It happens each year, but some years are more spectacular than others. In the autumn, caravans of cars head north through New York State and into New England and they stay in B&B’s all the way up to Canada. But the timing has to be perfect to catch that wave of color as it transitions from north to south—and it is so transient.
Riding north along the Taconic, we saw a moment where the light and the colors came together in a magical way with a backdrop of hills and valleys. It was late morning , but there was no place to pull over. We turned around a gradual bend in the rode, and it was all gone.
The village of Millbrook is a picture perfect small town in Duchess County. There is an old-fashioned downtown with an old fashioned diner and happy little shops. One of them sold only goods from Italy that included hand painted ceramics.
It seems that Italian immigrants were brought to Millbrook straight from Ellis Island, perhaps 100 years ago or so, because they were masons and could build the stone houses and mansions found all over the Hudson Valley, owned by families named Roosevelt, Vanderbilt, Mills, and many others.
Italians still live in those parts, and tourist signs in Millbrook are done in English and Italian, and the town has a sister village between Rome and Naples called Fundi. That was the region that those masons came from.
A wealthy family donated Tribute Park which is at the foot of the main street in town. The photographs below and above are taken in that park. It all seemed so natural: the autumn colors, the little town, the farmers’ market, and even a jazz musician/singer performing standards in his own unique style accompanied only by a standup bass.
Tribute Park in Millbrook, dedicated to veterans. Paul Goldfinger photo. Oct. 2014
When we were up in the Hudson River Valley in Millbrook, NY, we met a jazz bass player who was entertaining at the farmers’ market. He performed a song, “That’s All, ” with great feeling. It was evident that he loved this composition.
He said that he first heard it played at a jazz event, but it was done as an instrumental. He was taken with the melody and he learned the chords.
Later he discovered that it had words. (see the bottom of the link below in the Blogfinger “Turning of the Leaves” post. )
“That’s All” is also a favorite of mine. It is poignant and beautifully expressed. It is powerful in its simplicity. Listen to the words. You can understand every one as enunciated by Beverly Kenney below.
“That’s All” was written in 1952 by Alan Brandt and Bob Hayes. It is a jazz standard and has been featured in several movies including The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler.