Ask about Judaism
Re: Ask about Judaism
For those who don't know yiddish - shiker vi a goy means 'as drunk as a non-Jew', and is an idiom from Polish Jewry, where heavy drinking among the 'gentiles' was extremely common. It was rare in the Jewish community for someone to be falling down drunk on a regular basis - social pressure plus - likely - lack of sufficient cash.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
That was a long time ago though!zeek wrote:For the record, Agricola taught me that bit of yiddish the last time she posted about Purim.agricola wrote:For those who don't know yiddish - shiker vi a goy means 'as drunk as a non-Jew', and is an idiom from Polish Jewry, where heavy drinking among the 'gentiles' was extremely common. It was rare in the Jewish community for someone to be falling down drunk on a regular basis - social pressure plus - likely - lack of sufficient cash.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
This year, Easter and Passover are a month or more apart - I ran into a friend yesterday and had to explain why, and it is complicated. (isn't it always?) Basically, this year is a leap year for the Jewish calendar, which is lunar with corrections for the solar year (you guys do know, I hope, that lunar months are about 28 days long and the lunar 'year' is 11 days shorter than the solar year? And that it is the SUN that determines our SEASONS?). If you use a lunar month all the time - which by the way, Islam does - then your 'dates' will fall 11 days back compared to the solar (the regularly used calendar we all know) year, and your holidays will migrate back through the seasons annually (this is why Ramadan comes any time of year - on the solar calendar).
Jewish holidays - the major ones - are also SEASONAL holidays, to we have leap year corrections periodically to keep the holidays in the right seasons. Most of the time, that's done by adding a 30 day month about every third year (7 times in a 19 year cycle, actually). Like I said, it is a bit complicated.
The extra month is added right before the month of Passover (so we are in that extra month right now), and therefore this year, Passover doesn't arrive until nearly the end of April, and (looking ahead) Chanukah will be right at the very end of the (common) year.
So - with three weeks or so to go before Passover, we are beginning to try to use up all our chametz and 'kitniyot' - food items we positively avoid during Passover. Chametz is the famous 'leavened grain' we have to discard or destroy before Passover starts. Kitniyot are foods that just look like chametz, or can be substituted for it, and we don't have to actually get rid of any of those (beans, peas, rice, corn...) but just avoid using them during the holiday.
Having chametz is far more dire. We aren't even supposed to own any, even located somewhere else. Typically, we collect any remaining chametzdik items (like, sadly, the beer and whiskey) into a box or a closet, and we literally - really literally - sell it all to a non-Jew. It is a complicated but legal transaction, where the non-Jew puts down a deposit and takes ownership, but the contract specified a larger payment after Passover is done with, which results (when the nice non-Jewish person defaults on the payment) in ownership reverting to the original owner (me). One goes through a rabbi to negotiate the sale, which the rabbi will do as a mass single deal involving every congregational member in one operation. I just sign something appointing the rabbi as my agent, and specifying what I am selling and where it is located.
A technicality, I admit. It came out of situations where surrounding non-Jews, knowing the Jews had to dispose of all chametz before the holiday, would take advantage of merchants who had large inventories of items which had to be disposed of, and they would wait until the last minute and buy everything far below cost (which would drive the merchants out of business sometimes, or at least cause major losses). So 'associations' formed, appointing a single agent to sell everything - on paper at least, but a real legal sale - to a buyer with a little more integrity and sympathy (one hopes).
I have heard stories of such buyers actually walking into a person's home and walking off with the items, but that's rare. It's legal, though.
I am going to ask my daughter how they do this in Israel, where Jews are the majority! It is likely a different scenario.
At our house, we just have normal amounts (since we aren't in the business of selling bread or wheat or anything - imagine if I were a farmer and raised wheat! I'd have tons of seeds around...) so mostly what we do is try to eat most of it up before Passover starts and avoid stocking up. This is a prime time for a really thorough spring cleaning, and it is very typical of Jewish households to be doing truly MAJOR amounts of house cleaning and clearing out - not just the kitchen pantry but the whole house. Chametz is a physical thing but also a kind of metaphorical 'puffing up' of the self and soul. You want to get rid of all that puffery in your self as much as you do the spoilage-prone pantry items. Somehow the work of making your actual house all nice and 'perfectly clean' has an effect on your personal attitude at the same time.
Jewish holidays - the major ones - are also SEASONAL holidays, to we have leap year corrections periodically to keep the holidays in the right seasons. Most of the time, that's done by adding a 30 day month about every third year (7 times in a 19 year cycle, actually). Like I said, it is a bit complicated.
The extra month is added right before the month of Passover (so we are in that extra month right now), and therefore this year, Passover doesn't arrive until nearly the end of April, and (looking ahead) Chanukah will be right at the very end of the (common) year.
So - with three weeks or so to go before Passover, we are beginning to try to use up all our chametz and 'kitniyot' - food items we positively avoid during Passover. Chametz is the famous 'leavened grain' we have to discard or destroy before Passover starts. Kitniyot are foods that just look like chametz, or can be substituted for it, and we don't have to actually get rid of any of those (beans, peas, rice, corn...) but just avoid using them during the holiday.
Having chametz is far more dire. We aren't even supposed to own any, even located somewhere else. Typically, we collect any remaining chametzdik items (like, sadly, the beer and whiskey) into a box or a closet, and we literally - really literally - sell it all to a non-Jew. It is a complicated but legal transaction, where the non-Jew puts down a deposit and takes ownership, but the contract specified a larger payment after Passover is done with, which results (when the nice non-Jewish person defaults on the payment) in ownership reverting to the original owner (me). One goes through a rabbi to negotiate the sale, which the rabbi will do as a mass single deal involving every congregational member in one operation. I just sign something appointing the rabbi as my agent, and specifying what I am selling and where it is located.
A technicality, I admit. It came out of situations where surrounding non-Jews, knowing the Jews had to dispose of all chametz before the holiday, would take advantage of merchants who had large inventories of items which had to be disposed of, and they would wait until the last minute and buy everything far below cost (which would drive the merchants out of business sometimes, or at least cause major losses). So 'associations' formed, appointing a single agent to sell everything - on paper at least, but a real legal sale - to a buyer with a little more integrity and sympathy (one hopes).
I have heard stories of such buyers actually walking into a person's home and walking off with the items, but that's rare. It's legal, though.
I am going to ask my daughter how they do this in Israel, where Jews are the majority! It is likely a different scenario.
At our house, we just have normal amounts (since we aren't in the business of selling bread or wheat or anything - imagine if I were a farmer and raised wheat! I'd have tons of seeds around...) so mostly what we do is try to eat most of it up before Passover starts and avoid stocking up. This is a prime time for a really thorough spring cleaning, and it is very typical of Jewish households to be doing truly MAJOR amounts of house cleaning and clearing out - not just the kitchen pantry but the whole house. Chametz is a physical thing but also a kind of metaphorical 'puffing up' of the self and soul. You want to get rid of all that puffery in your self as much as you do the spoilage-prone pantry items. Somehow the work of making your actual house all nice and 'perfectly clean' has an effect on your personal attitude at the same time.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
h**p://www.huffingtonpost.ca/diane-bederman/fi ... 37519.htmlWill Durant, author of The Story of Philosophy wrote about memory.
"In ourselves, memory is the vehicle of duration, the handmaiden of time; and through it so much of our past is actively retained that rich alternatives present themselves for every situation. As life grows richer in its scope, its heritage and its memories, the field of choice widens..."
The difficulty all cultures face when dealing with either unexpected or unwanted change is the need to define the ties that bind them to the past and the bonds that need to be broken to gain access to a fruitful future for their children.
THAT, in a capsule, is the Passover seder: the vehicle of duration, the handmaiden of time....
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
Now Passover is ending (technically, the 'Festival of Unleavened Bread' is ending - 'Passover' specifically is just the first day - not a lot of people know that (or care) including most Jews). In Israel, it is already over. In Israel, the holiday is seven days, but outside Israel it is 7, although the Reform movement in the US has moved also to 7 days. Outside Israel, most holidays that are one day are celebrated for two (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are exceptions - RH is always two days, and YK is always one). This is due to the early period through medieval (and into modern) times when reliable time keeping wasn't a thing. Outside Israel, Jewish communities couldn't be CERTAIN when, say, the moon was full in JERUSALEM, which is the actual time keeper spot for keeping the calendar (and time) on track, so they would observe holidays an extra day just to be sure they 'hit' the exact right time.
That's really no longer an issue (especially now, when you can call your cousin in Jerusalem on your cell phone, and just ASK) but like most things, old practices become traditional practices, and the traditions hang on a long time after the need for them has passed.
So we are in a weird spot, because we 'ought' to observe 8 days since that is the common practice in the US (mostly), BUT my husband is Israeli, so he is fine with 7 days...but again BUT, household practices are supposed to be according to the woman of the house (me) except I don't actually HAVE a personal familial tradition of 8 days...talk about silly conundrums.
Of course, a family would like to fit in with their community of fellow believers, though - so actually we compromise, and sort of tail off somewhere between 7 and 8 days - so today is our 'half day' so while I won't necessarily run out and stock up on bread and such, I won't turn any down if offered, either!
I think most liberal movements within Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Renewal and possibly Reconstructionist) will eventually move to a 7 day Passover holiday observance, though. The orthodox? Not so much. Or not this decade!
There's a strong argument always brought up about unifying the entire world Jewish community, after all. Although I think both the liberal streams and the orthodox are starting to consider the other to be a lost cause, in some respects. Regretfully, maybe.
That's really no longer an issue (especially now, when you can call your cousin in Jerusalem on your cell phone, and just ASK) but like most things, old practices become traditional practices, and the traditions hang on a long time after the need for them has passed.
So we are in a weird spot, because we 'ought' to observe 8 days since that is the common practice in the US (mostly), BUT my husband is Israeli, so he is fine with 7 days...but again BUT, household practices are supposed to be according to the woman of the house (me) except I don't actually HAVE a personal familial tradition of 8 days...talk about silly conundrums.
Of course, a family would like to fit in with their community of fellow believers, though - so actually we compromise, and sort of tail off somewhere between 7 and 8 days - so today is our 'half day' so while I won't necessarily run out and stock up on bread and such, I won't turn any down if offered, either!
I think most liberal movements within Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Renewal and possibly Reconstructionist) will eventually move to a 7 day Passover holiday observance, though. The orthodox? Not so much. Or not this decade!
There's a strong argument always brought up about unifying the entire world Jewish community, after all. Although I think both the liberal streams and the orthodox are starting to consider the other to be a lost cause, in some respects. Regretfully, maybe.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
Ever wonder about that 'Jewish beanie' (as a former supervisor once called them)?
The Pew survey is pretty serious and covers the varieties of political parties in Israel evident from the chosen headwear (only typical, not required wearing). But what about here in the US?
Lighthearted, but real:
(for the record, OUR sets of kippot for each of our daughter's bat mitzvahs (b'not mitzvah, really) were not pale pink (they were, respectively: white, pale blue, and a nice deep green (for the youngest, who wanted a lot of frogs).
h**p://www.jta.org/2016/04/21/arts-entertainme ... ign=buffer
The Pew survey is pretty serious and covers the varieties of political parties in Israel evident from the chosen headwear (only typical, not required wearing). But what about here in the US?
Lighthearted, but real:
(for the record, OUR sets of kippot for each of our daughter's bat mitzvahs (b'not mitzvah, really) were not pale pink (they were, respectively: white, pale blue, and a nice deep green (for the youngest, who wanted a lot of frogs).
h**p://www.jta.org/2016/04/21/arts-entertainme ... ign=buffer
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Ask about Judaism
Is there a heaven and hell in Judaism?
Re: Ask about Judaism
Hi flawed -
There is a heaven concept, but no hell. Judaism focuses strongly on the here and now - THIS world is the world of 'action'. In the world-to-come, we don't 'do' but only exist. I can talk about 'end of time' ideas, but none of them, in Judaism, is doctrinal. Some Jews believe and some don't (and think we live this life, die and that's it - we 'survive' only in the memories of our loved ones) and that doesn't matter to any of the major movements within Judaism.
The orthodox and ultra-orthodox are perhaps more likely to believe in, teach, and talk about 'the world to come', and it shows up in the liturgy and in commentaries and so forth - but it is not a major topic for most people today.
The default position for Judaism is that there is no original sin, no 'sin nature', and nothing to be saved FROM. That pretty much takes care of all the reasons we would have to make 'the world to come' something to be concerned about.
That said - naturally enough, what 'heaven' actually IS, is not very well defined. Basically, it is 'God's thing' and God is both just and merciful, and God is also trustworthy, so why not just trust that God will take care of things?
Resurrection of the dead - an idea which began within Second Temple Judaism among the Pharisaic movement - is a key hallmark of 'afterlife' belief. If you read the Hebrew Bible's earlier parts, there seems to be no real idea of any sort of afterlife. This is an idea that really shows up and gets developed after the exile in Babylon. A key difference between the Jewish idea of the soul, resurrection and the afterlife and the Greek/Roman view of the same topics, is that for Judaism, the soul is not something really separate from our bodies, and the soul is NOT 'immortal' in and of itself. We are not a body 'with' a soul, we are a single entity - an embodied soul, if you will - and at death, the soul part returns to God (and does not retain its separate identity. God's gift to us is this little piece of 'divinity' - a spark of God, so to speak.
Resurrection is when our bodies (physical bodies) are returned to life by being 're-insouled' buy God, who (as the liturgy puts it) 'remembers us to life'. We are only resurrected because God 'remembers' us.
So basically, we have this hallmark idea that 'the righteous of all nations have a place in the world-to-come' (Sanhedrin 105B I think (memory)) and this means that every person on earth will be remembered by God at the end of time, and will be returned to life by God. It doesn't matter what religion they are or if they have any beliefs at all, as long as a person is 'righteous' (which means a generally good and honest person), that is all it takes.
So truly evil - I mean TRULY evil, not just average bad people - simply don't get 'remembered' and don't get an afterlife. No hell.
There is a concept of a sort of 'purgatory' period, not lasting over a year at most, where people are resurrected but don't go directly to heaven, but have to sit around and think about their lives and where they went wrong - so basically, a really super great person goes directly to heaven and does not pass 'Go', while us normal not quite exactly perfect folks have a waiting period first - and THEN we go.
But like I said, none if this is strictly 'doctrine' in the sense that everybody is supposed to believe it. It's there, we have the ideas, we have the concepts - but belief in the world-to-come is not a major topic for Jews. How to act towards others is a major topic. When and how to follow God's commandments is a major topic. Whether 'modesty' means full body coverage or just normal dress is a raging major topic. Heaven and the afterlife are not a major topic.
There is a heaven concept, but no hell. Judaism focuses strongly on the here and now - THIS world is the world of 'action'. In the world-to-come, we don't 'do' but only exist. I can talk about 'end of time' ideas, but none of them, in Judaism, is doctrinal. Some Jews believe and some don't (and think we live this life, die and that's it - we 'survive' only in the memories of our loved ones) and that doesn't matter to any of the major movements within Judaism.
The orthodox and ultra-orthodox are perhaps more likely to believe in, teach, and talk about 'the world to come', and it shows up in the liturgy and in commentaries and so forth - but it is not a major topic for most people today.
The default position for Judaism is that there is no original sin, no 'sin nature', and nothing to be saved FROM. That pretty much takes care of all the reasons we would have to make 'the world to come' something to be concerned about.
That said - naturally enough, what 'heaven' actually IS, is not very well defined. Basically, it is 'God's thing' and God is both just and merciful, and God is also trustworthy, so why not just trust that God will take care of things?
Resurrection of the dead - an idea which began within Second Temple Judaism among the Pharisaic movement - is a key hallmark of 'afterlife' belief. If you read the Hebrew Bible's earlier parts, there seems to be no real idea of any sort of afterlife. This is an idea that really shows up and gets developed after the exile in Babylon. A key difference between the Jewish idea of the soul, resurrection and the afterlife and the Greek/Roman view of the same topics, is that for Judaism, the soul is not something really separate from our bodies, and the soul is NOT 'immortal' in and of itself. We are not a body 'with' a soul, we are a single entity - an embodied soul, if you will - and at death, the soul part returns to God (and does not retain its separate identity. God's gift to us is this little piece of 'divinity' - a spark of God, so to speak.
Resurrection is when our bodies (physical bodies) are returned to life by being 're-insouled' buy God, who (as the liturgy puts it) 'remembers us to life'. We are only resurrected because God 'remembers' us.
So basically, we have this hallmark idea that 'the righteous of all nations have a place in the world-to-come' (Sanhedrin 105B I think (memory)) and this means that every person on earth will be remembered by God at the end of time, and will be returned to life by God. It doesn't matter what religion they are or if they have any beliefs at all, as long as a person is 'righteous' (which means a generally good and honest person), that is all it takes.
So truly evil - I mean TRULY evil, not just average bad people - simply don't get 'remembered' and don't get an afterlife. No hell.
There is a concept of a sort of 'purgatory' period, not lasting over a year at most, where people are resurrected but don't go directly to heaven, but have to sit around and think about their lives and where they went wrong - so basically, a really super great person goes directly to heaven and does not pass 'Go', while us normal not quite exactly perfect folks have a waiting period first - and THEN we go.
But like I said, none if this is strictly 'doctrine' in the sense that everybody is supposed to believe it. It's there, we have the ideas, we have the concepts - but belief in the world-to-come is not a major topic for Jews. How to act towards others is a major topic. When and how to follow God's commandments is a major topic. Whether 'modesty' means full body coverage or just normal dress is a raging major topic. Heaven and the afterlife are not a major topic.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.