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Nisan and Chametz

March 26, 2012 by Ketzirah

Let’s talk chametz.

Chametz (חמץ) is one of two reasons we don’t eat bread during Passover.  There’s a couple of reasons for eating unleavened bread given in the Torah, but beyond eating Matzah there is also this thing called chametz  If it were just bread there wouldn’t be all these other prohibitions on food during Passover.

I’m not going to go all technical about the laws of Pesach or chametz — there’s plenty of other sites you can find that on. Personally, what I love is how Passover practices so closely align the spiritual and the physical.  So let’s do a little more thinking about the symbolism of chametz and why it’s so important.

The simplest definition of chametz is food made from five different grains that has been allow to ferment.  Generally these grains are defined as wheat, barley, oat, spelt or rye. I have found a couple of articles that point out that spelt, rye and oats didn’t grow in biblical Israel — so they really can’t be what the Torah intended.  But we are a people who build and build on tradition, so these grains may have been substituted for Middle Eastern grains during the Diaspora.  But I digress….

What I find interesting here is the correlation between chametz and the “hamotzei” prayer over bread. Two food types have special blessings, wine and bread. With wine we say, “the fruit of the vine,” but there are lots of foods that grow on vines that we don’t use that prayer for: only grape wine and sometimes juice.  The other special food is leavened bread.

What do these two things have in common?  Divine Intervention.

Both foods are created through a partnership between G!d(dess) and humanity that goes way beyond basic cooking. If you’ve ever tried to bake bread or make wine, you totally know this to be true.  There is magick — Divine Essence made manifest — in the act of fermentation.  Why Jews picked these two types of fermentation to acknowledge — who knows?

Even the letters that make up the word chametz are a clue: חמץ.  The letter Chet (ח) is the first letter of the word Chaya — life!  The form of the letter chet, according to Inner.org,  means: “The union of God’s immanence, transcendence, and the Jewish People.”  So let’s look at the second letter, the Mem (מ). Here we have the letter that begins “mayim” — water.  Inner.org puts it very poetically by saying, it “symbolizes the fountain of the Divine Wisdom.”  Lastly we have the Tsadi Sofit (ץ).  Inner.org mostly deals with the Tzadik in its regular, not final form — I found this to be quite revelant, “the consciousness of Atzilut uniting with the source of wisdom and descending to teach Creation.”  Chametz is a substance that transforms and creates new life (ח) through contact to water (מ) and connects G!d(dess) and humanity.

This brings me to chametz and why we don’t eat it during Passover.  During Passover we fast.  Not like the fast of Yom Kippur or other fasting holidays.  We fast, we refrain from creating or ingesting food that can only be created through this incredible partnership.  We remove all traces of the Divine catalyst from our homes so we are sure it is not infected from the twelve plagues as we relive them each year.  We break the final chains from slavery by insisting on self-reliance for a week and eating only foods that can be crafted without this Divine catalyst.

So this Passover, look at that Matzah differently.  Look at the rules around clearing out the chametz differently.  When Pesach ends and you take the first bite of delicious bread — or first sip of beer — think about it.  Say the blessing.  Know that this is evidence of G!d(dess) working in our world.

————

Ketzirah is a Kohenet, Celebrant, and Artist.  She works with individuals and groups to explore, discover, and create meaningful rituals and ritual artwork to mark moments in life.

 

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Judaism & Belief, Passover Tagged With: bread, chametz, chometz, convert to judaism, darshan yeshiva, embodied judaism, food, ketzirah, kohenet, leaven, nisan, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Pesach, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Making Anything Kosher

October 28, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

Based on an article written by Patrick Aleph for MyJewishLearning.org

The main reason people do not take on a kosher lifestyle is the idea that it’s too hard or complicated. Because kashrut requires limitation, it can feel really daunting. But keeping kosher is really easy if you know how to substitute non-kosher food for kosher food!

Here are a few easy ways to make anything kosher:

Make It Vegetarian

Keeping kosher is easy when you do not eat meat, since part of kashrut is not mixing meat and milk together. A few of our favorite meat substitutes are:

  • Gourmet Veggie Hamburgers (try Boca Burgers and Morningstar Farms)
  • Meatless Pasta and Seven Layer Nachos with vegan “beef” crumbles
  • Veggie Hot Dogs and Sausages for outdoor grilling
  • Meatless Pizza with vegan pepperoni, sausage or chicken
  • Meatless Meatloaf (believe it or not!) with kalebone faux meat
  • Deli Sandwiches using faux ham and turkey (try Yves brand)
  • Even Thanksgiving can be vegetarian with Tofurky

You can also skip fake meat all together by substituting roasted vegetables in any meat recipe.

Un-Milk Your Meal

If vegetarian food isn’t your thing, just take out the dairy. There’s lots of easy ways to do this including:

  • Using margarine or oil instead of butter
  • Replacing dairy milk with soy, almond or rice milk (use the Silken brand)
  • Soy cheese (we recommend Daiya brand) pizza, pasta and more!
  • Tofutti (tofu) sour cream
  • Mac and Cheese using Nutritional Yeast

I Can’t Believe It’s Kosher!

Kosher bacon, shellfish and pork…there is a revolution in kosher substitutes for your favorite inedible foods.

  • Kosher bacon including turkey, duck, beef and vegetarian
  • Kosher lamb and turkey sausage instead of pork
  • Shrimp and scallops made from tempeh
  • Substitute pork or ham with smoked turkey or try faux ham made from tofu
  • Faux ham, pepperoni and sausage (vegetarian)
  • Kosher Crab in vegetarian and fish (goes great in kosher sushi)

Filed Under: Rants Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, food, how to make kosher food, how to make something kosher, kosher, kosher recipes, kosher version, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, shrimp, vegetarian

Can Jews Eat Halal Meat?

June 11, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier


httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTiPmKdIOGU

Here are the arguments…Tell Us Why or Why Not!


Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Podcasts & Videos, Rants, Your Questions Answered Tagged With: food, halal, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, kosher, muslim, Punk, Religion, Torah

Visit PunkTorah at Nibble and NoshFest

May 25, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

Come taste what’s been improving for over five thousand years…

PunkTorah invites you to Nibble and NoshFest at Temple Kol Emeth in Marietta, GA, Sunday, May 30th and Monday May 31st.

Local restaurants will be serving amazing tapas style snacks ranging from $1.00 – $3.00 including your favorite Middle Eastern and Jewish deli treats. And we’re thrilled to hear that HeBrew Beer will have some liquid courage on-tap.

There’s also going to be a ton of great vendors selling Jewish themed gifts and art, some awesome music including local celebs Shabbat Rocks and an open-mic for anyone who wants to show off their talent.

The great thing about this event (other than the awesome PunkTorah booth) is the spirit. This isn’t just a “Jewish” event…it’s a community event. As our friend Lesley Litt (the fundraising VP for Temple Kol Emeth told us), “This event will put Judaism out there [into the community]. We sent out letters to all the churches in Cobb county with a letter from our rabbi saying ‘Hello, we want you to be our guest…and to experience our culture.'”

For more info check out www.noshfest.com

Located in the Temple Kol Emeth parking lot at the corner of Old Canton and Sewell Mill Rd. Marietta, GA 30062

Filed Under: Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, festival, food, newkosher, noshfest, online conversion, outreach, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, reform, temple kol emeth

Shavuos Thoughts

May 19, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

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By Heshy Fried

One of my status updates on facebook yesterday was that I was wondering what to write about for Shavuos. One of the people responded that I should write about how wonderful it was to come to shul to see everyone learning and that I should write something good about Jews once in a while. I do write good things but in all honesty, I am a cynic and a humorist who likes to poke fun at things. These are usually negative things because let’s face it – there is nothing inspiring or interesting about walking into a room full of people yapping about how late they are going to stay up and how their wives make the best cheesecake in town.

Milchigs:

I am especially excited for Shavuos this year because of milchigs. Last year I went to some real frummies for Shavuos and if you’re a real frummy you don’t have milchigs. Sure there are many frum folks that rock the milk meals on Shavuos but, based on my vast experience, you can pretty much spot a meat eating Shavuos type in a second. I think the whole reasoning behind eating meat on Shavuos is because it’s just a minhag based on that chick who brought that dude cheese and we don’t want to give the ladies too much credit. What many frummies like to do is to eat cheesecake for Kiddush and than have a meat meal and that really blows.

I love milchigs and being that closest real milchig restaurant is 350 miles away. I miss it dearly. Last year it wasn’t such a big deal: I spent it on my friends farm and we had lamb, beef and chicken but I was living in New York at the time and milchigs were close by. Nowadays the only time I get to eat milchigs is when I show up at some folks house where they happen to be more progressive and willing to eat milchigs on Shabbos. In the frum community this rarely happens.

Receiving the Torah:

I wonder if many Jews secretly wish the Torah was never received. It seems to have caused a lot of trouble and practically everyone complains about this and that — so do we love the Torah or not? Maybe it’s a love/hate relationship, like water challah or prepackaged underwear: it has its good points and bad points but in the end we have grown to love it.

Are you ready to receive it? I’m ready for some flower covered bimahs, I’ll tell you that much! Unless flowers have become too untznius to be put on the bimah.

Ruth:

Why feminist Jews love Ruth so much? I don’t even think we read it in yeshiva but go to your average modern orthodox shul or event and they are ranting and raving about Ruth. I understand why the converts like it — it’s like their national symbol, the mother of moshiach was Ruth – does that mean Ruth was Chabad?

So why do the feminists love Ruth? Does it have to do with bribing the old guy to marry her by lying down next to him? That doesn’t sound to feminist to me. Does it just have to do with the fact that since it’s a minhag, orthodox folks don’t really care if women get together and have megillah readings? I even know of some right wing modern orthodox shuls that allow the ladies to do a megillah reading of Ruth. It’s a shame they just don’t tell them the truth about the minhag and it not being a chiyuv and all.

All night learning:

Originally I was going to hit up Berkeley for Shavuos. I had heard that the entire community gets together for an all night learning session at the JCC. That sounded a little extreme to me. Berkeley has a bunch of Chabad guys, a modern shul, some weird renewal space age stuff and a smattering of all your generic hippie conservative and reform stuff. I think it only works because the folks who run Chabad of Berkeley are ex-hippies. Still, that sounds like some major achdus to me and I wanted to be a part of it.

Of course, I then admitted to myself that what I really needed on Shavuos was some good yeshivish style learning. I needed some right wing mussarniks rebuking me and I needed some good wine to go with my cheese, so I decided to go to San Jose instead. I have visited all of the Jewish communities in the Bay Area, other than random Chabad houses and I am still drawn back to San Jose for the people, the rabbi and the food. It is also the friendliest community in the area and has the most characters of any shul.

I used to love Shavuos in yeshiva because the rabbis would never wake you up for minyan the next day. The only thing that sucked was the meal. No one ever knows what time to have a meal on the first day of Shavuos. I also used to love the all night learning because instead of hanging out in yeshiva we would go to the modern orthodox shul to look at girls and eat donuts from the donut shop that the yeshiva said was treife. The modern shul also had cool shiurim and classes. I don’t remember ever learning much on Shavuos and I think most folks tend to use the time to catch up with friends and mainly just socialize.

Cheesecake:

One of the best things about living in the Bay Area is that a lot of stuff has to be homemade. I assume the cheesecake will not be that store bought crustless, New York style cheesecake that everyone favors. I am super pumped — since it’s strawberry season I may get my fantasy cheesecake too.

I also hope people have good cheese in general. California has definitely rubbed off on me in that way. I have grown to love good cheese and good wine, kind of weird for someone as redneck as myself.

Have a wonderful shavuos or shavuot, I will see you on the other side.

Filed Under: Shabbat & Holidays Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, festival, food, frumsatire, holiday, Holidays, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Religion, ten commandments, Torah

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