HEY JEWS

None of that really answers the question "So what am I supposed to do with all this as a Jew living in 2020?"

Which I think is what Josh is getting at

Yeah, that's the bigger picture I was talking about. The "why" of the Torah is always "because God," but I've always found interpretation outside of strict dogma more rewarding, personally.

I think the confusion partly comes from a sort of pre-modern, pre-literate unity of physical, material, cultural and spiritual life. That's why it feels like such a mish-mash of different things at times -- there was no compartmentalization of "this book tells you how to be good to your fellow man" "this book tells you how to prepare a sacrifice" "this book tells you how to dress" "this book tells you how to celebrate a holiday" etc. And I think that's also why the laws can sometimes be confusing to modern people. But that's all still a historic sort of reading that, again, doesn't speak to what to do with all of it in 2020.

None of that really answers the question "So what am I supposed to do with all this as a Jew living in 2020?"

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, June 23, 2020 3:32 PM (one hour ago)

one of the catchphrases of the reconstructionist movement is "tradition has a voice but not a veto" and one of the things that means for me is that as Moderns there's no getting around the fact that our values come from more than one place

We've got the Deuteronomy we have and not the one we might want but as Jews who continue to study Torah and much else besides to this very day we have other resources than shrugging or rejection to take us out of the fundamentalist mindset Christian hegemony steers us into when we read it. Like, my understanding of the rabbinic treatment of the death penalty in the Torah was to patiently render it void through argument. One doesn't know if the Torah's death penalties were ever applied in any polity anywhere. One might suspect the rabbis of having started with their desired conclusion (make it impossible to render a death penalty) and finding the arguments to get them there. One might suspect similar things of (e.g.) the Conservative movement's rulings on homosexual behavior. It's not so much that we pick and choose our scriptures but that to us, they don't actually work like that, they work in a different way I can't adequately explain to myself.

But like rabbinic cunning also isn't the only way to make sense of Torah. We know people wrote, redacted, and compiled the Tanakh, Jews like us, and wrote down their own practices and values and stories and lo, the received text. We make sense of it that way, sometimes. Some words in the Torah scarcely make sense to scholars, readings are disputed. And then in the liturgy we chant "v'ahavta et adonai elohecha", we try to love god with all our hearts, because after all god told us to, commands it, and maybe we make sense of some Torah that way. Most Torah, most of us don't know, we can't make sense of it because the time to study is short. The sweetest thing of all for Tevye was the idea of being rich enough to study, and he didn't even have Sefaria.

Maybe one might say, adopting an academic register, making sense of Torah is productive of Judaism.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/29/in-search-of-king-davids-lost-empire

In search of David. Was he real and what did he do. Archeologists and more quoted

We've been planning a bat mitzvah for September, which is going to happen in some way shape or form with the same or more or fewer restrictions than are in place right now. Currently the guidance is max 50 people, masked, socially distanced, though I doubt we'll come close to 50. We had a virtual meeting with the rabbi today about all the moving parts. Anyway, apparently rather than souvenir yarmulkes people are starting to print up souvenir face masks!

And the younger daughter's bat mitzvah is now in the books! It was an interesting experience. About 25 guests, grouped by family and spread out in the community hall, everyone masked, other guests "attending" via Zoom on screen. Obviously it was not ideal, but we talked a bit after about how the imposed intimacy sort of gave the experience new meaning/significance. No party, no distractions (other than technology). Just people gathered together, orderly, doing the best the can with what they have to work with. Felt very ... fitting, in some ways, though it was also sad to see all these people who couldn't be there. Like our Aussie family that woke at 2am Sydney time to share the experience with us, or old friends stuck in their respective spaces. Both very weird but very fortunate to have the two grandparents in town, our first guests in months and the first we've seen of them in almost a year, it feels like. But there was no way they were going to stay home.

And my daughter did beautifully, of course.

mazel tov

Rosh Hashanah online I guess

Yeah, they're broadcasting out services on Vimeo, so that we can all stream it on our TVs.

mazel tov Josh!

https://youtu.be/PrS3H0Li7yo

Johnny Mathis doing Kol Nidre

was watching our livestream. I had been reading up on the nebulous origins of kol nidre, about how it may have become traditional as an act of defiance in the face of forced conversation. Watching our temple (as I imagine many congregations are doing) work so hard to pull the service together against all odds might have been a less dire challenge but in its own way an act of inspiring tenacity in keeping with the roots of kol nidre.

Yom Kippur is such a beautiful holiday. I almost wish I'd have committed a transgression in the last year so I could make amends and ask someone forgiveness just to get in the spirit of things.

The local Rabbi I liked moved to Brooklyn and we were able to watch him doing a service from NY via zoom

last couple hours of the fast are always the hardest, but I'm gonna make it

Tried with the online services but it's kind of depressing. We also just moved and were never even members of our prior neighborhood synagogue so I don't really have a congregation I feel a connection to right now, but being in person among strangers is still way better than watching on a screen. Next year I really hope to do the whole day at synagogue.

http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/xmas.html

Minor but funny gaffe:

When Abrams lost by just shy of 55,000 votes, she told Vogue: “I sat shiva for 10 days. Then I started plotting.”

https://external-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQApKBEDdV1spkdR&w=500&h=261&url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.vogue.com%2Fphotos%2F5d41b1a2b9a8370008fb2566%2F16%3A9%2Fw_1280%2Cc_limit%2Fvogue-september-battle-royale-01.jpg&cfs=1&sx=0&sy=17&sw=1280&sh=668&ext=jpg&_nc_cb=1&_nc_hash=AQCB3HpSjPGhw0-w

My wife asked me to get the materials from the mailboxes. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Oh," she said, "I agreed to help the block make luminaries."

"Wait, luminaries?" I said. "Like, for Christmas!?"

"No," she said. "For the winter solstice."

And I said, get the fuck out of here. That's like people claiming there is no religious component to Christmas trees (true!) so they have nothing to do with Christmas (false!). Anyway, I tried to find any indication of people in America lighting luminaries for the solstice, or anything other than Christmas, and nada. As my daughter said, "even the word 'luminaries' sounds Christian," and my wife came close to shooting wine out her nose.

I don’t even know what that is but it sounds goyish for sure

Same

Is that like putting candles in paper bags?

Sounds like an American Catholic thing, primarily Hispanic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminaria

Candles in paper bags is pretty universal, just saying

It's convoluted. By the same token snickerdoodles might be considered Christian, because they get made for Christmas.

If candles in paper bags were pretty universal I would have seen them over the past few decades any time other than just Christmastime. Now flaming brown bags with poop left on the front porch? That's universal.

We eat snickerdoodles all the time, so dunno. But egg not? More controversial.

I had a gingerbread cookie my kids teacher made and it was good but I was thinking about how it tastes about equally foreign to me as Indian sweets.

lol egg not. "Egg nog? More like egg *not*!"

Tonight we googled to see if there were other kinds of nog, and the answer is apparently ... not.

flaming dogshit in paper bags is pretty universal

I recall seeing streets with luminaries growing up in SE Pennsylvania, just as I have throughout my couple of decades here, so it's definitely more than a southwest thing, or a Latino thing. The catch is that neighborhoods often agree to it together, so that the whole street is lined, which means if you say no then you're the stinker. And yeah, they are pretty (which makes rejecting them even more obnoxious), and yeah, there have been lots of different reasons to put candles in bags on the sidewalk/street to light the way, historically/traditionally (with the southwest being one place that has a few reasons). But the notion that they're there to celebrate the winter solstice and not to light the way to for baby Jesus ... come on. It's always Christians that think their traditions are totally secular and have nothing to do with Christmas. Per one site:

Luminarias are used in many communities across the United States and in other countries. Each community has their own emphasis on why they carry out the tradition. Not all are for Christmas either. Some are to light the way to church. Some light the way for the Christ child. Some light the way for Pa Pa Noel, or Santa Claus.

So yeah, it's not always about Christmas, sometimes it's just about church, or Jesus, or Santa. You know, lots of reasons.

Anyway, it's extra odd that the neighbors (who are all great, don't get me wrong) are apparently dong this tonight ... which is neither the winter solstice (Monday) nor Christmas (Thursday).

It's always Christians that think their traditions are totally secular and have nothing to do with Christmas.

I said it's convoluted because Christmas is massively loaded down with traditions which occupy the gray area between secular and sacred, mainly because it long ago got mashed up with solstice-related festivities and a general desire to party down when it's dark, cold, and you're stuck inside.

There are hardcore carols like 'O, Holy Night' or 'Come, All Ye Faithful' that hard sell Christian beliefs. But you could also consider Jingle Bells to be 'Christian', because it is strongly attached to the Christmas holiday by tradition, in spite of the fact that it doesn't mention God, Jesus, prayer, church or the Christmas holiday at all, though it does mention some woman named Fanny Bride. Christian, or not? I'd rate it as slightly less religious than the dreidel song.

Ironically, Jingle Bells is one of the few now Christmas songs *not* written for Christmas! In fact, some theorize it may have officially been one of the rare Thanksgiving songs ... before The Man got a hold of it and converted it to a Christmas song.

Regardless, I pretty much consider anything done exclusively around the Christmas holiday for the Christmas holiday to be innately Christian, relatively innocuous or not.

Yeah “secular Christmas” is still a manifestation of Christian hegemony.

But Christian hegemony happens all year around.

Yes, it does.

Hey Jews! I am making latkes tonight.

Happy 10th night of Chanukah.

It is a miracle, there is still oil for frying latkes on the 10th day

I happened to put a tree for Pagan Winter Solstice. Planning on cooking some matzoh ball soup too

My wife is Jewish and I’m a devout atheist with a fondness for Christmas stuff. We did the xmas thing together and when we had kids we started doing Hanukkah as wife started to get back into the faith. Now we’re stuck doing both holidays with my birthday, my wife’s and my dad’s birthdays all n December. It is TOO MUCH and I regret not getting off the Christmas train when I had the chance. UGH.

Just a note that it is not "Miss Fanny Bride" in Jingle Bells, but "Miss Fanny Bright." Which makes it a little more naughty seeming.

The luminaries looked lovely last night, btw. I didn't realize it wasn't just our block but I guess 150+ blocks around here that banded together to do it. It was nice strolling around, looking at the solstice lights, listening to the solstice carols, checking out all the solstice decorations, lit-up solstice trees in the windows ...

My solstice latkes were delicious

We cleaned the wax off and put away our solstice menorahs last night.

it is not "Miss Fanny Bride" in Jingle Bells, but "Miss Fanny Bright."

this version rhymes "bright" with "side", which is just a shitty rhyme. which prompts the question, what was wrong with those people?

Drunk.