Passover – Matzah plate

Hamsa ben porat Josef wall hanging designed by the israeli artist Shraga Landesman

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall (Genesis 49:22, King James Version)
This is the blessing Jacob gives to Joseph before his death. We find this verse written on amulets from the first century, and with good reason. In Talmudic times, Talmudic sages taught that Joseph and his descendants were protected against the Evil Eye; that is, the Evil Eye has no power over them. The Talmud compares Joseph’s descendants to fish in the sea—the water covers them, so the Evil Eye can’t control them. So it is for Joseph’s descendants, too: the Evil Eye can’t control them.

Birds wall hanging designed by the israeli artist Shraga Landesman.
‘Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times’; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. (Jeremiah 8, v7, King James Translation)
Each year in mid-February, the Common Swifts arrive in our area to nest. One of the nesting sites the swifts have chosen is the Western Wall. Swifts don’t nest in trees; they nest in cracks and crevices in buildings and walls. I find it moving to know that the migration pattern of these birds was observed thousands of years ago, and that when Jeremiah used this metaphor as he tried to return the People of Israel to their path, he might even have been looking at the Western Wall.