This evening, Jews (and others) throughout the world celebrate the beginning of the two day Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana). The year marks the beginning of the year according to the Jewish calendar.
It is customary to bless one another with several blessings, such as:
Shana tova u-metuka (= a good and sweet year)
Ktiva ve-hatima tova (= may you be written and signed well [in the book of life])
There are many traditional foods that are eaten on the Jewish Near Year, including fish, and when eating fish, one traditional says:
She-nehiyeh le-rosh ve-lo le-zanav (= that we should be a “head” and not a “tail”).
And just for this, here is a fish from Tell es-Safi/Gath!
This is a stone pendant, most probably of Egyptian origin (or influence) from the Late Bronze Age but found in the Iron Age IIA, with an engraved Telapia fish (sometimes known as “St. Peter’s Fish”) holding a lotus flower in its mouth (a well-known egyptian iconographic motif; on the other side there is a depiction of a scorpion).
I wish all Safiites, and all others, a happy and healthy year, and may all their best wishes and hopes (and finds…) come true!
Aren
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Aren;
Very interesting and revealing post. I suppose some could turn a lotus flower into a man to make a statement, thereby boosting the claim that, “Yep! This is Jonah for sure!” As I am sure you have seen, time and again, that all is not as it seems. Good report!
If Dr. Maeir had rotated this drawing 90 degrees back in 2010, just think of all the attention he would’ve gotten back in 2010 from brilliant ASOR scholars arguing that it’s a Nephesh monument/marker.