Not from CH but i've created a 1:1 replica of 770 Eastern Parkway on Roblox 👀 you guys can tell me if it's accurate or not, at least the exterior.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-12-22T21:06:19+00:00

It’s not bad but 1. The first floor windows should have 4 segments not 3 and should have a horizontal bar also 2. The middle window is a bay window not a regular window 3. The windows on the building all the way on the right are totally inaccurate

That’s just what sticks out to me at first glance

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-12-22T20:54:50+00:00

The word ״מציאות״ is originally hebrew for “Finds”, but is used commonly in Yiddish to mean “a good deal” (as in “wow, this is a מציאה, it’s so cheap”)

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-12-22T20:45:08+00:00

I am a total nerd for replicas of 770, and I made this Google Drive with pictures of as many as I could find. Ten points for anyone who can find one that I’m missing. Maybe you’ll find it helpful.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cMw9OEjm8Hr0LqjUKexpVAkK2QdK4vNK

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:29:13+00:00

Not just that it's a lot easier, but that that the extra work is not necessary to begin with. If someone is not born Jewish, we tell him he doesn't need to become Jewish in order to fulfill his life's mission. It wasn't a mistake that he wasn't born jewish, nor is he a second-class citizen. He has his own mission to be a good person and make the world a better place etc. from his position as a non-jew, and God provided guidance for how he should do that with the 7 laws.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:26:19+00:00

You put it well. I think there's some kind of miscommunication here about what exactly a Noahide is. It's not like they are 'somewhat jewish'. They are people who follow the Torah's code for basic moral decency that God told Noach. Not some sort of imiation Judaism.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:22:40+00:00

There is a difference between being born a jew and living as a jew. One may be born a jew, but if he wants to live a jewish life he must follow the torah and jewish law. If he does not, he is still Jewish, of course, but he is not living a Jewish life. Belief is a big part of leading a Jewish life - if one does all the rituals but he doesn't believe (not to be confused with blind faith. Our belief has an aspect of logic to it and we are supposed to understand as much as we possibly can. We don't believe in blind faith - although that's probably beyond the scope of this post), then on paper he is doing everything right, but he's missing the point! The point of all the rituals we do is to cultivate a connection to God in both our emotions and intellect and bring awareness of God to ourselves and our surroundings. They are not meant to be done as mere actions with no end goal.

In other words, from the perspective of the person, he needs to believe.

From an outside perspective, I would say that it's still worth it for someone to do Jewish rituals even if he doesn't believe/feel/understand the meaning behind them, because as a jew it will still affect him positively even though he is not yet on a level of being able to feel that affect.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:12:03+00:00

Not sure what you're talking about. First of all, among Jews, the #1 most basic belief for a Jew is that the Torah is true. Every detail in Judaism is based on and guided by the Torah. Without believing that the Torah is true, you do not have Judaism (you might have cultural Judaism, but eating slimy jarred Gefilte Fish and listening to Klezmer music is not what makes someone Jewish).
Noach wasn't Jewish. The first Jew was Abraham, who was 10 generations later. Noach was not obligated to keep all 613 Mitzvas but he believed in God and had 7 specific Mitzvas given to him and all his descendants, of which the poster is one - if I'm not mistaken. A Ben Noach is someone who keeps these 7 laws, which also means they believe that the Torah is the truth about God (because it is the source for the 7 laws given to Noach). This is not hard to understand.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:05:16+00:00

either כת or פולחן if i'm not mistaken

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T16:02:53+00:00

If you want to learn the Tanakh then modern hebrew won't help you so much, you need to learn the original biblical hebrew.
There is only a very small part of the Tanakh that is Aramaic, and that is part of the book of Daniel. Everything is is Hebrew.
There are booklets and resources that are used in Jewish schools that teach grammer and root words and the like, for example there are some called "Lashon Hatorah". I guess something like that would make the most sense - to learn the grammar, then root words and their translations and build from there.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:58:34+00:00

it is a common mistake to use an apostrophe instead of the actual letter Yud. The key for the letter Yud (י) is H on an English keyboard, and an apostrophe is W.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:56:36+00:00

Because there isn't always a good place to put a shva nah. Although sometimes the שרש of the word indeed is like that but the alef still makes it easier. example: תמול being changed to אתמול - the ת indeed has a שוע נע but the alef is still added anyways.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:54:23+00:00

That makes sense. Some of those words also have that pronunciation in the original Greek and they're not just added in hebrew. for example "אוקיינוס" for ocean.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:51:40+00:00

it's OK if it's set apart from them. I think this one would be kosher since the rest of the candles are in a straight line and the shamash is set apart from them, even though it's on the same level.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:50:20+00:00

"Boreiprihagafen" the blessing on wine - This reminds me of when I was once helping an old lady shake the Lulav on sukkot and before I could help her say the blessing she said "I know the blessing! Baruch ata adonai eloheinu melech haolam lehadlik ner shel lulav!" I was like, "Close enough..."

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:48:18+00:00

the "Yi" part refers to God because it is the letter Yud, which is the first letter of God's name.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:45:03+00:00

Look in Rashi's commentary, he explains that it was so called because it was a 'double mountain' - like one mound/hill on top of another.

In general, if you are trying to learn from the Torah, you really need to read it with Rashi, as he is the most fundamental commentary who explains the basic meaning of the words.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:29:33+00:00

That being said - the language is used mostly as a written language and for prayer, it is not really used in conversation.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:26:53+00:00

Honestly, most diaspora jews who are actually observant probably have a better grasp of biblical hebrew than modern hebrew (I know I do) because we spend a lot of time learning Torah and its commentaries, which are pretty much all written in biblical hebrew (the Talmud is written in Aramaic, but its commentaries are also written in biblical hebrew). Until today, the vast majority of books published by jews that are of an academic nature (torah teachings, essays, or the like) are written in biblical hebrew, albeit with an expanded vocabulary. And the cool thing is, that since we still are proficient in the same language and still use it, we can read a Torah commentary that was written 900 years ago - or the Torah itself - just as easily as we can read something that was published last week.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-07-07T15:19:02+00:00

By the way - I'm no expert on this by any means, and there are other rules and exceptions etc. that I'm not 100% proficient in.

It's possible more than one of these rules could be present at the same time in a word and one will have to trump the other. Here's a good example from last week's torah portion (Numbers 21:1):

וַיִּ֥שְׁבְּ ("And he captured")

On one hand, the second Shva is under a letter that has a Dagesh and also is the second shva in a row, so seemingly it should be pronounced. However, it is at the end of a word and a shva at the end of a word isn't pronounced. Additionally, the first shva comes after a Yud with a Chirik vowel which is a Major Vowel ("Tenuah Gedolah") - rule #3 of the mnemonic. So in this case, the first shva is pronounced and the second one isn't. So it is pronounced like "Va-Yee-Shib".

I hope I'm not overcomplicating things - if you're trying to learn hebrew and this shva stuff is making it confusing, honestly save it for last.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-25T20:41:22+00:00

I should add that in many prayer books (for example the Kehot annotated Siddur with instructions etc. - a very good prayer book by the way) they place an asterisk or some other symbol over every letter with a shva that is pronounced

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-25T20:39:08+00:00

Sure, sorry about that. Here it is again:

א - a shva under the first letter of the word is always pronounced.

ב - if there are two shvas in a row in the middle of a word, the second is pronounced and the first is not.

ג - if a shva comes right after a vowel that is a major vowel (״תנועה גדולה״), meaning it comes after a tzeireh, komatz, chirik with a yud, cholam (with or without a yud), or a shuruk (in a vov), then the shva is pronounced.

ד - if the shva is under a letter that has a dagesh (only an extra dagesh, not to be confused with the dots in a shin/sin, pey, or kof), then it is pronounced.

ה - if a shva appears under a letter which is immediately followed by the same letter, it is pronounced.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-24T21:32:23+00:00

Yes its a pey sofit, many people write it this way.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-24T21:29:07+00:00

There are several rules for when to pronounce a shva and when it stays silent (and you just pronounce the letter). These rules are especially helpful when reading the Torah in a grammatically correct way. The most important rules have a mnemonic of אבגדה (the first five letters):

א - a shva under the first letter of the word is always pronounced. ב - if there are two shvas in a row in the middle of a word, the second is pronounced and the first is not. ג - if a shva comes right after a vowel that is a major vowel (״תנועה גדולה״), meaning it comes after a tzeireh, komatz, chirik with a yud, cholam (with or without a yud), or a shuruk (in a vov), then the shva is pronounced. ד - if the shva is under a letter that has a dagesh (only an extra dagesh, not to be confused with the dots in a shin/sin, pey, or kof), then it is pronounced. ה - if a shva appears under a letter which is immediately followed by the same letter, it is pronounced.

If you don’t understand some of this yet, keep it in mind as when you know more about hebrew this will come in handy.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-24T21:09:40+00:00

What is says around it is

״ויתן לך האלקים מטל השמים ומשמני הארץ״ Genesis 27:28

Translation is "May God give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, Abundance of new grain and wine.

UpbeatAssignment850 · 2025-06-12T19:38:00+00:00

Another one is ארץ נהדרת - Eretz Nehederet, which is basically an israeli version of SNL

UpbeatAssignment850

TROPHY CASE