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Gilad BenDavid

@giladbd1

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17th century enthusiast and art history phd candidate @thegraduatecenter; collector of silly little books

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Some recent summer additions to my small book collection:

1-3. Flowers from the Holy Land, Jerusalem, c. late nineteenth or early twentieth century. A small pilgrim souvenir album from Ottoman Palestine, bound in olive wood and containing pressed dried flowers from Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Tiberias, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and other sites. Captions in Hebrew, German, English, French, and Russian. (Thank you @alexakarolinski for this amazing gift).
4. Tylko bez cudów: humor żydowski [Only Without Miracles: Jewish Humor], Warsaw, Agencja Omnipress, 1989. Miniature fourth, expanded edition of a collection of Jewish jokes and anecdotes, selected and edited by Rajmund Florans, with graphic design and illustrations by Szymon Kobyliński. 144 pages, about 10 × 8 cm.
5. Prosto z Wąchocka [Straight from Wąchock], Kielce, 1988. A collection of Wąchock jokes, a genre of Polish absurdist jokes centered on the small town of Wąchock. illustrations by Krzysztof Jackowski. by @giladbd1

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“So perhaps the work now is not to insist our tradition has always been progressive, not to smooth its edges, but to sit with the friction — to let the violence, exceptionalism, isolationism, and restorationist longing remain visible, and then decide, deliberately, what we will refuse to carry forward.”

Every year on Tisha B’Av, Judaism’s day of ritual mourning, Jews read Eikha, the Book of Lamentations, which recalls the destruction of Jerusalem. Many have turned to its verses to mourn the genocide in Gaza, reaching for a shared grammar of grief. But, as @giladbd1 writes, Eikha is not a universal lament, but instead is a text of return, restoration, and sovereignty.

In “Suffering the Text,” BenDavid asks what happens when we resist the temptation to make the text affirm our politics. What if the ethical task is not to smooth the rough edges of scripture but instead to preserve its difficulty? To read against comfort rather than in pursuit of it?

Read BenDavid’s essay, in English and German, on our website now. by @giladbd1

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a year ago

Jüdische Ceremonien, 1724. A book by Paul Christian Kirchner, a convert to Christianity, intended for a Christian audience. Plates by J.G. Puschner. by @giladbd1

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2 years ago

Bloody day @byzantineandchristianmuseum 🩸 taken in Βυζαντινό & Χριστιανικό Μουσείο (Byzantine & Christian Museum) by @giladbd1

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2 years ago

The execution of Haman's ten sons
, 17th century, Iran by @giladbd1

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2 years ago

Prince Dara Shikoh as a Sufi ascetic, circa 1640-55. by @giladbd1

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3 years ago

Detached album leaf; top of the page: Head of a youth, inscription on the left by Riza Abbasi; bottom of the page: Old man drawn up cloth over his head. Isfahan, 1630s. by @giladbd1

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3 years ago

Amr-e Omayya approaches the King of the East, who is bound and gagged on his bed, from the Book of the East (Khāvarānnāma) by Ibn Ḥusām. by @giladbd1

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3 years ago

New obsessions at @gallicabnf : Adam Adored by Angels from two manuscripts of Majalis al-'ushshaq. In one copy, Adam's genitalia and visage were burned. 1580, Shiraz(?) by @giladbd1

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3 years ago

by @giladbd1

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Hairy fingers, old books by @giladbd1

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