Fiddler on the Roof, Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival 2006

Watch this award winning performance of a Fiddler on the Roof medley by the 4-person Ozalis Harmonica Ensemble, at the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Taiwan, in 2006.

Yes, it's as strange as it sounds. But even more--just great--than you can imagine.

I'd embed the clip if I knew how, but since I don't I just have to beseech you to click on the link. Please.

More kaf ha-kela

From an article called The Real You in (oh how I'm embarrassed to confess this) the Kabbalah 101 section of Aish.com. Oh god. Next I'm going to be dating A-Rod. (I mean soul-mating, sorry.) No, I won't wear the red string bracelet, Ms. Ciccone, you can't make me!

Whew. Got that out of my system. Anyway:

The disembodied soul spends much of its time learning how to focus. It is now seeing without physical eyes, using some process which we do not even have the vocabulary to describe. The Kabbalists call this frightening process Kaf HaKela -- like being thrown with a sling from one end of the world to another. It is alluded to in the verse, "The soul of my master shall be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord your God, and the souls of your enemies shall He sling out, as from the hollow of a sling" (1-Samuel 25:29). The soul perceives things flashing into focus from all over, and is in a state of total confusion and disorientation.

One of the few things that the soul has little difficulty focusing on is its own body. It is a familiar pattern and some tie seems to remain. To some extent, it is a refuge from its disorientation.