Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Each of us Is all of us. I signed up for Chabad's Daily Dose emails a while ago and love reading them. These wonderful pearls of wisdom always make me think about life, humanity, religion, faith, God, the world, myself... They make me think about what truly matters in this life and in this world, about the difference between what is actually and truly important and what is only important because we (or the world) make it so. Your Daily Dose of Jewish Wisdom: A team, a society, a world is healthy when each member says, "If I don't add in my two bits, the whole system will fail." Not just any two bits, but the two bits that belong to you alone. No one is here just because everyone else is here. No system can function from the top-down alone. Because each of us—and everything that was created—has a spark of the Divine. So that each of us is all of us. A photo posted by Chabad.org (@chabadorg) on Mar 7, 2016 at 10:53am PST

Upon deciding to post a photo to Twitter yesterday, the idea of adding an interesting and inspirational quote wasn't far behind. After all, I like quotes! I considered several quotes, most of them too long for Twitter. Yet I have a blog as well as a Twitter account, which means I can just post some of the quotes I would have liked to add, right here. The photo is a cropped and slightly edited version of a photo I shared for last week's two-part Photo Challenge - part one: Birds and part two: Ducks . The colours in this version feel a little more alive than in the previous / original version. As it was a warm and sunny day when I took the photo, the sunnier look of this version feels fitting. Small wings, big ripples “We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.” “He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all” After considering the two quotes above...

Today, the news is full of violence, death and destruction. At a Shiite mosque in Kuwait, at a factory in France , a coastal resort in Tunisia. In Israel, in Kobani in Kurdistan. People are dead or dying, people are wounded, people are crying, people are hurting. And why? Because some believe that they are more right than others? Because some believe that their truths are more valid than others? Because some believe their interpretation of religion or God's laws are more correct than another's? Because some believe that it is up to them to terrorise, kill and destroy? At least 27 28 are dead and 36 wounded in Tunisia . In Kobani in Kurdistan , 150 or more dead and many wounded. In Kuwait , last death toll I read mentioned 5 24 dead and 15 wounded. In Israel too, people have been attacked, people die. Not by the dozens usually, so the news doesn't speak about it. Or perhaps the news simply doesn't care as much about innocent Israelis as about innocent British or F...

This made me laugh. And nod. A lot. And exclaim "Oh God, that's amazing" in a high-pitched voice. Not sure why that last bit was important but hey, I felt like tellin' the world... A photo posted by Kristin Chenoweth (@kchenoweth) on Apr 15, 2015 at 10:25pm PDT

Jerusalem is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most fascinating cities on the planet and has, for a long time, been very near the top of my list of Cities To Visit. Thousands of years of history, religion, culture, devotion, prayer, longing and joy make Jerusalem a complex and inspirational location. How can one resist the beauty of this amazing city?! Jerusalem's Archeological Park – excavations site at the foot of the Temple Mount, revealing thousands of years of the... Posted by ‎ Noam Chen - Photographer | נועם חן - צלם ‎ on Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Here are some inspirational quotes by the very wise Albert Einstein. “ If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. ” ― Albert Einstein “ I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. ” ― Albert Einstein “ Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ” ― Albert Einstein “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” ― Albert Einstein Source: Albert Einstein Quotes , Goodreads

While I applaud this initiative, it saddens me that it is necessary. Hating others simply because of who they are, what they believe or who their family is, makes absolutely no sense to me. I oppose discrimination and senseless hatred, no matter what. We are all human, all equal, all one big family, all inhabitants of planet earth. We may look different, think different things, speak different languages, read different holy books and believe different truths, however we are all human and whether we like it or not, we are all stuck on this planet together. The Facebook page for the event has mostly Norwegian posts however I've read several English-language posts from those who applaud the idea and wish they could join in themselves. Personally, I believe that this is a good idea, it reminds me of the " I'll Ride With You " campaign in Australia after the Sydney Siege. Hatred is not the answer, intolerance is not the solution. Oslo Muslims to form 'peace ring...

Lariekoek en apekool, zo heet het vrijdag de dertiende nummer van Kinderen voor Kinderen, van cd nummer dertien. Ik vond het vroeger een fantastisch nummer en zodra ik zag dat het vandaag vrijdag de dertiende is, had ik het deuntje te pakken. "Iedereen is bang voor nummer dertien. Bang voor zwarte katten en ladders op straat..." Ik ben niet iemand die bang is om zwarte katten te zien of onder ladders door te lopen, al zal ik eerst zorgen dat er geen glazenwasser met volle emmer water bovenaan de ladder staat... Ik gooi geen zout over mijn schouder, vind het niet nodig om 'af te kloppen' en ben zeker niet bijgelovig. Mijn oom en tante grapten vroeger wel eens dat als er een UFO op straat zou landen, ik de eerste zou zijn om de aliens tegemoet te rennen. Ze hadden gelijk. Ik ben nu zeker wat voorzichtiger maar niet minder gek op verhalen over buitenaardse wezens, monsters, weerwolven, vampieren, geesten, spoken, elven, kabouters enzovoorts. Nadat ik dit liedje leerd...

There was a terrorist attack on the office of satirical paper Charlie Hebdo last Wednesday which killed twelve people, the murder of an unarmed policewoman last Thursday and the hostage-taking at a kosher deli resulting in four deaths on Friday. It's been a week of being glued to the television and laptop, a week of checking websites and social media feeds for information, answers and others' opinions about what is going on in our world. Predictably, there are those who loudly scream that Islam is evil or that all Muslims are evil. Please, give me a break. Extremism is what's dangerous, and thinking that your way being superior to another's way allows you to kill them when you disagree about something as insignificant as a satirical drawing. I had never heard of Charlie Hebdo before Wednesday, had never seen a single one of their cartoons. Even though I live in western Europe, even though I started learning French in primary school, even though I've been to Fran...

To those who celebrate Christmas today or tomorrow - Happy Holidays! There, that's done. Now that I've respected your holidays... Please also respect that they are NOT my holidays. STOP trying to wish me a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. STOP assuming that being white / European and being Christian are the same thing. I was born with my skin, hair and eyes, I never consciously chose them, they are simply me; part of who I am and always have been. I was not born with a certain religion, I am free to choose my religion. I am free to believe what I want to believe and sorry folks, that does not include believing in sons of gods just because those around me seem to. I am not a Christian. I do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God or part God or the son of God or the promised Messiah or anything other than a 100% human and 100% Jewish Israeli male striving to free his people from Roman oppression and bring them closer to God. I am not a Buddhist; I do not celeb...

I may not be a Christian, however that won't stop me from sharing this Dry Bones Christmas wish for the Christians of the Middle East. May the world hear your cries, indeed. To all those who celebrate Christmas (wherever you are) - Happy Holidays. May you celebrate surrounded by those you love and cherish while remembering those less fortunate than you, both in your prayers and in your dreams for a better world. a Christmas Wish - the Dry Bones Blog

I may not be Jewish, however that won't stop me from sharing this beautiful photo! To all those who celebrate Hanukkah - Happy Holidays and may every candle you light remind you that miracles are possible! Post by ‎ Noam Chen - Photographer | נועם חן - צלם ‎.

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I've put this book down countless times since I started reading it, intending to start again from the beginning and take notes. It's almost like I'm afraid that without doing some serious prep work first, I might miss something or not quite understand the historical context of a situation. Yet the book keeps drawing me back in: Looking at it turns into reading a few sentences turns into reading another chapter. The writing style makes the book easy to read, there are plenty of in-text references to ensure I don't need (to take) notes and learning more about the revolutionary Jesus that Aslan describes keeps me coming back for more. "Zealot" bring the Holy Land of Jesus' time almost close enough to touch, which makes it an entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking book. UPDATE: Having read through the Notes section and finished the book, I am even more amazed at t...

Book of Psalms: With an Interlinear Translation by Menachem Davis My rating: 5 of 5 stars I very much enjoyed reading the Psalms and working on my (very basic) Hebrew at the same time. While reading left-to-right English from right to left can be confusing, I have to admit that the directional arrows helped me adjust easily, just as the introduction promised. The interlinear translation makes the Hebrew easy to connect with while ensuring that the English-language sentences make sense to the eye and the mind. View all my reviews

I am looking forward to reading Reza Aslan's newest book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth , a book exploring the life and teachings of the historical Jesus. Although I am not a Christian and do not believe that Jesus is or was the son of God, I am interested in world religions, Biblical history and Israel, which makes Jesus a very interesting person to learn about. If time travel existed (and my time machine had a Tardis-like translation circuit...) I would love to head to the Galilee or (how awesome would that be: ) to the Jerusalem of Jesus' time to experience for myself what life was like back then and to find out in what kind of a world he lived. I would love to be just a face in the crowd, one of the many who congregated to hear Jesus speak or see for myself if what people were saying about him was true. How amazing would it be to actually meet the man behind the legend, to see the expression on his face as he talks, explains and teaches, to listen to word...

Following on from the last post, I did some Google research. Normally, I´d research before writing - something left over from my days as a university student no doubt, however today, I wanted to write first and research later. Something about not spoiling the sense of wonder I felt when first reading the article with lots of statistics! Check out this post from the website of the Smithsonian on Gobekli Tepe for some more information. And yes - it´s an awesome website too, and one I´ll hopefully be visiting lots more in the future!

To say that I love the beauty of the world we live in would be an understatement. To say I adore it would be taking it too far. To say I am continually awed and amazed by our world, by the beauty of creation, that might be just right. "God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone,  but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars."   ~ Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther I am awed daily by the majesty and splendour of God's creation. I am moved to give thanks for what I see and hear and smell and feel. I am grateful that I am alive to experience the beauty all around me. And I am very happy to share some of that gratitude through this blog post. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...  God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."  ~ Genesis 1:1, 31 "It is We Who have built the universe with (Our creative) power,  and, verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it."  ~ Adh-Dhariyat (...

Watched the movie Evan Almighty  on TV the other day. Loved the movie's message about ARK - how Acts of Random Kindness make the world a better place. What an amazing message. So simple yet so true! Also loved the underlying message to trust in God, love your family, do what is right instead of what is profitable or will make you "successful", and most of all, to believe in yourself and to not let anyone tell you you're crazy or wrong when you know you're doing the right thing. It's a family movie, a God-accepting movie, a funny movie and a slightly sarcastic movie all in one, and I have to say I just love that combination. Dogma was a similar movie - one not afraid to challenge conventional Western ideas about God and religion in order to tell a story that is deep, meaningful and religious in nature and yet still appealing to the average viewer. I'm not always a big fan of pro-Christian movies as I often find that them to be 'preaching' ...

Watched the news earlier and saw the report on the bombings in the Moscow subway. Or well, bombings - suicide missions actually. Thirty-eight people killed and many wounded because two women felt the need to make a point. And what was the point about? It seems about the exact same thing so many bombings and attacks around the world have been about: terrorists trying to what, prove a point, scare the world, get support for their cause? The one thing I just really don't get here is WHY people, human beings just like you and I, feel the need to kill other human beings, innocent ones at that, to help further their cause. From what I've read on newspaper websites so far no-one has claimed responsibility for this latest attack yet, however apparently Russian authorities believe there is evidence that these attacks were commited by people from the North Caucasus region. According to CNN.com, "Our preliminary assessment is that this act of terror was committed by a terroris...

Seven Blessings by Ruchama King Feuerman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting read, and a respectful glimpse into a fascinating world. I enjoyed this book, found it easy to get through, enjoyed the variety of the stories, and feel that it will help me gain a better insight into the world of the Orthodox in Me'a Shearim. View all my reviews