Aesthetic!

“Growing up we learn about the plagues but this brought about a more vivid understanding,” Rivka Goldin, who served as the canvas for the painted plagues told Jewcy. “It takes viewers on a journey through the 10 plagues.”

This project is actually a collaborative effort of three siblings— Chaya Pekar (a professional face painter) came up with the concepts for each plague and applied the makeup on Rivka, and their brother Zusha Goldin (a professional photographer) took the pics.

And so, we present them to you, in glorious creepiness. Which is your favorite? Ours may be diseased animals, a phrase we never thought we’d get to use.

1. Blood

2. Frogs

3. Lice

4. Wild beasts

5. Diseased animals

6. Boils

7. Hail

8. Locusts

9. Darkness

10. Death of the firstborn

The post The Ten Plagues Makeup Project appeared first on Jewcy.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that Egyptian columnist Ahmad Al-Gamal has called on his government to sue Israel for damages resulting from the 10 plagues. Yep, those 10 plagues—the ones allegedly wrought by God, in the Bible, thousands of years ago.

Gamal’s cri de coeur was published in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Yawm Al-Sabi on March 11; translated excerpts were recently released by MEMRI. Satire or serious, it’s an entertaining read. Here’s a highlight:

We want compensation for the [Ten] Plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh as the Torah calls him, committed. For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the Children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people. [But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.

Additionally, he proposes suing Turkey for invading Egypt during the Ottoman period, France for the 1956 Suez Crisis, and Britain for 72 years of occupation.

One pressing question: if Gamal truly believes in the historical veracity of the Torah, can we presume he also believes that the land of Israel, “from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines,” belongs to the Jews? Someone put this man in touch with Bibi Netanyahu, stat!

Read the rest here.

(Image: ‘The Seventh Plague‘ by John Martin.)

The post Egyptian Columnist Wants To Sue Israel For The Ten Plagues appeared first on Jewcy.

Feel like something’s missing from your Passover routine? Is your seder not hands on enough? Fill your paschal void with these new Ten Plagues Nail Decals, which feature—you guessed it—mini fingernail-ready depictions of each of the plagues.

They’re the latest from Rabbi Yael Buechler, of Midrash Manicure fame. Tablet profiled Buechler in 2009 (the Times wrote about her in 2011), exploring the roots of the rabbi’s unusual outlet:

Nearly every week for 10 years, she has painted iconic scenes (the great flood), powerful phrases (u’vcharta b’chaim—“choose life”), and holiday symbols (dreidels, sukkahs) on her nails. She invests small choices with great creativity and thought. When she paints the first Passover plague, rivers filled with blood, should a small fish be swimming around as a reminder that the river is a source of life? She associates her nail-painting with midrash, a type of commentary that fills in narrative and logical gaps in the Torah. Midrashic stories, often imaginative, are tools for thought. “This is not written midrash,” Buechler says, “but this is artistic midrash.”

We asked our friend Elissa Goldstein to model Buechler’s Passover wares, which are easily applied and will last through at least the first seder. Glitter nail polish sold separately:

Get your own set here.

(Photos by Tracy Levy)

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The post Ten Plagues Nail Decals to Take Your Seder to the Next Level appeared first on Jewcy.