3 Best Things Being a Gentile in a Jewish Home at Passover
Tomorrow is a very special Sabbath, Shabbat Pesach. I spent almost two whole days this week wrestling over which songs to play in service. I probably overdid it, yes. As a result, however, this is my excuse for a Friday post this week. The three best things about being a Gentile living in a Jewish […]
It’s Not Sunday’s a-Comin’
Today is the first day of the omer. Actually, it began last night. Beginning with the second day of Passover, Jews begin counting the days. For 7 weeks they count, 49 days. This is called “Counting the Omer,” laid out in Leviticus 23:15-17. The omer was a measure of grain, an offering of thanksgiving for the […]
The Last Passover
“I have earnestly desired to eat this Pesach meal with you before I suffer.†Tonight begins the first night of Passover, of Pesach, the Jewish holiday of remembrance and living-out the Israelite escape from Egypt. It is a holiday of questions, of upheaval, of chaos, of suffering and deliverance. And for Christians, also the beginning […]
The Very First Wife Swap
(This is part 3 in my series on 1 Corinthians 5. Click here to read from the beginning.) Most of us probably imagine the first swingers as 1960’s hippies in a free-love commune. But in fact, it started earlier than that, in World War II. Christopher Ryan explains: It seems that the original modern American swingers were […]
Whatever the All-Merciful Does Is for Good
The Talmud tells this story (in Berachot 60b): Rabbi Akiva was once going along the road and he came to a certain town and looked for lodgings. But everywhere he went, he was refused. He sighed and said, “Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good.” So because he couldn’t find a place to stay in […]
A Little Truth Would Go a Long Way
(This is part 2 in my series on 1 Corinthians 5. Click here to read from the beginning.) One marvels at the repetition of intentionally tragic stories, like Evergreene’s: After her Christian marriage ended in divorce, and after she slogged through the concomitant depression, she decided she’d be happier living a bisexual, polyamorous lifestyle. She hid her […]
Removing the Leaven from Passover
The Passover stuff is already out at the grocery store. At the other end of the store, an even greater selection of pastel-colored candy and related items. But Pesach is still several weeks away, and first I have another bat mitzvah to think of. My Beloved will finally herself be called to the Torah in […]
Should We Merry Merry Be?
Oh, once there was a wicked, wicked man And Haman was his name sir, He would have murdered all the Jews, Though they were not to blame sir Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be And nosh some hamantashen. I posted a link to […]
A Wicked, Wicked Man (video)
At our synagogue, we have yet to do a pirate-themed Purim spiel, inspired by Edward Kritzler’s history of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. (And that is a true fact.)
The Curious Story of Tamar
Matthew begins his gospel by breaking the rules. It’s not so much that he includes a boring genealogy that breaks the rules—although from a storytelling perspective, starting with a boring genealogy certainly breaks the storytelling rules. To the ancient Jews, genealogies were very important, and they pop up throughout the Bible. Rather, it’s the way […]