Recent content by EliK

We look forward to seeing President Biden tomorrow.

Thank G-d, we are in one of the less dangerous areas, near the capital - but we've still some attacks. Moral is high. The hardest part is that I've been out of work since it started - haven't even set food in my office in a couple of weeks (since there was a national holiday here and we had the...

I just saw this post in a weekly update. It was great to see all the outdoors picture. I miss that stuff. Spent most of the last two weeks here in Israel watching my kids (they don't have school), and hanging out in a bomb shelter.

Thanks for the replies. Any ideas what they are doing here? Playing? Fighting? Mating?

I just saw these in a local store, but the guy there didn't know what they're called.

I was in a fish store today - just to look around - and I saw a few fish which I did not recognize. None of the workers were available to ask. What are these? Also - what are these, and what are they doing? At first I though they were dead - but all were moving - alive, if not...

Yes, I do write Mezuzot (the plural of Mezuzah). Writing a Mezuza is much quicker than writing a full Torah scroll (it's about 1/485th of the text), but it's actually much more difficult than writing a complete scroll, since the letters are far smaller, among other reasons.

I use traditionally prepared black iron-gall ink (made from a mixture of gallnut tannins and ferrous oxide and thickened with gum arabic, and occasionally mixed with "lamp-black" (oil soot) to deepen the color). I write using a turkey-feather quill on specially prepared calf-skin parchment.

I tutor college students and substitute in a Rabbinical College in Jerusalem. I also work as a calligrapher, and as a Sofer Stam (scribe), writing Torah Scrolls and preparing other religious articles for synagogues and the like.

Here, I've never paid more than $1.25 for a guppy and $5 for a 3" Chinese algae eater

Here in Jerusalem, neon tetras are 8-10 NIS, about $2.40-3.00. Before Covid, Zebras were sometimes as little as 4 NIS ($1.25) each for a 1" fish, but two weeks ago I saw a slightly larger one for 25 NIS ($7.50). I've never bought an otto, but I think I've seen them for 14 NIS ($4.20).