Where Tefillin are made

How are Teffilin made? 

After finishing a fun shoot with a few cousins of mine at the park, I stopped by my uncles Yossi's house.

My uncle Yossi is a Scribe, in his basement he has a whole bunch of interesting tools and equipment for making Tefillin or writing a Sefer Torah. 

Its an interesting procedure from when the skin comes off the cow and is brought in, to when it leaves as a "Ready to wear" pair of Tefillin for a new Bar Mitzva boy or its a fully written Sefer Tora. 

In the photos below you can see my cousin Mendel in its first steps of preperation as he stretchs out the skins to dry and scraping off any shmutz thats on it.

Maybe one day I should make a full video of the entire process which is quiet an interesting one.

Bris Milah -Photographed in New Jersey

After rushing back after the Pesach holiday I was asked by my cousin to join his sons bris and take a few photographs.

After all the details in how I would get to New Jersey it was decide that I would ride with a car service with my cousins, in a 15 passenger van.  One word: Never again.

I promise you will understand if you do it once, stuck in traffic in a hot isolated, claustrophobic vehicle with alot of children and kids video tapes. ughhhhhh

The bris was fine, I had a issue with the sunlight coming into the window and the fact that they decided to do the ceremony right near the window. So you can see the warm light on everyones faces as I tried to flash fill the rest of the images.

Event photography isnt my strong point, I think i did more then a good job but I cant say that I love it besides for all the candid shots that I can get. Which is fun (And posing people in real life "stories")

I also wanted to thank all of you who are up to date with my blog, I dont know all of you but I do see the number of visiters and return visiters. It meants alot to me!

All the best to each and everyone of you!
-L