JMM Monthly Zine: Kislev 5784
This is the fifth edition of a monthly zine by the Jewish Museum of Maryland. In each issue of the zine, we publish content about the holidays, rituals, and ideas related to a month in the Jewish calendar.
This month’s zine focuses on Kislev, which goes from November 14 – December 12, 2023.
You can pick up physical copies of the monthly zine in the Lombard and Lloyd Library or download a PDF version here, and a printable booklet version here. Lombard and Lloyd Library is located in the grassy corner of the JMM’s campus at the intersection of Lombard and Lloyd Streets.
Kislev is a month that is often associated with dreaming, because nine of the ten dreams mentioned in the Torah are read in Kislev.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Kislev invites darkness. As winter approaches, the days get shorter, and the nights grow longer.
The darkness is an invitation to spend more time resting, imagining, and sharing dreams.
Jewish tradition has a rich history with dream interpretation.
In the Talmud, Rav Ḥisda said: A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read.
As long as it is not interpreted it cannot be fulfilled; the interpretation of a dream creates its meaning (BT Berakhot 55a).
In honor of dreams, this edition of the zine features a dreamy collaboration. On the theme of dreams, check out the music video that JMM Young Adult Campus Connector Emily Kobert made of the song, “Mikvah Dream” by MEGAFAUNA, aka Morgan Spaner, a former JMM Young Adult Campus Connector.
The song is about a dream that Spaner had about the mikvah in the Lloyd Street Synagogue. Later, Spaner and other local musicians shot musical performances in the mikvah site for an event titled Immersive Sound: Music from the Mikvah. All of these musical performances can be viewed here.