The sun on Yom Kippur

This is my strange contribution to SkyWatch Friday.

Hundreds of other bloggers' skies can be viewed by clicking here.

The radiant circle at the top signifies the sunrise which in turn recalls the firstborn status of Reuben.

And this is the sunlight shining through Marc Chagall's stained glass windows as seen inside the synagogue at Hadassah Hospital.

The windows look so different--black--from the outside. Classical Hebrew of course had no word for this type of art, so we adopted the French word ויטראז vitrage.
  The square, simple synagogue is beneath the arched windows, behind the decorated lower walls.
Yesterday I walked up to Hadassah for the Yom Kippur prayer services. It was beautiful--the setting and the chanting and the sound of the shofar.
Late afternoon the sun sank low and suddenly the windows lost their color and light, making the intensity of the Neilah (literally, "locking") service even more powerful.
 The image is of the heavenly Gates of Repentance closing as the Day of Atonement ends.

Chagall  made one window for each of the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob.
 The Twelve Tribes of Israel: Reuben, Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Judah, Joseph, Zebulon, Simeon, Levi, Naphtali, Issachar.

If you'd like to learn the Biblical source of Chagall's symbolism, Hadassah has a page on each of the windows starting here.

The late great Chagall made fascinating remarks about the sources of his inspiration at the dedication of the windows in 1962. This highly recommended reading is here.

Below is my favorite, Issachar, because of the donkey. Jacob's blessing in Genesis 49:
"Issachar is a strong-boned ass, crouching among the sheepfolds.
When he saw how good was safety, and how pleasant was the country,
he bent his shoulder to the burden and became a labourer."

This vitrage was damaged by shelling from Jordan's Arab Legion during the 1967 Six Day War. The white spot on the donkey is actually the repair of a shrapnel or bullet hole.
 I seem to remember from a guided tour that Mayor Teddy Kollek z"l was full of sorrow when this happened and telephoned the artist.
 Chagall said, "Don't worry. You just win the war and I will fix the glass."
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