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Passover: Where Do You Stop? (EdibleTorah)

April 12, 2011 by Patrick Beaulier

The other day I posted over at EdibleTorah about a Passover law found in Talmud – which essentially said that you can’t hope to control EVERYTHING. The specifics were that, if a weasel carried a piece of bread into your home, it wasn’t a violation of Passover kashrut. Likewise, if your dog dragged some chametz into a room where you had already cleaned, it wasn’t your responsibility.

Dogs will be dogs, weasels will be weasels.

The key point (for this conversation) was the final phrase: “There is [then] no end to the matter”

I am told that this phase, used to limit potential excesses in observant behavior, appears often in Talmud.

I find that deeply comforting.

BUT… this phrase is never used in the context of every-day (versus special Passover) kashrut. Never.

Now maybe it’s just where I am right now – struggling with whether I need a pareve (in addition to milk and meat) set of silverware. “Enough!” my mind shouts out. “Will we also need milk, meat and pareve toothpicks? Napkins? Seat cushions? Is there no end to the matter??”

I haven’t found out yet whether the lack of this phrase is

  • indicative that there is, in fact, no end to the matter. People need to go to whatever extent they can to feel that they are “in bounds” with regard to kashrut
  • a mere oversight and not significant of anything. In this case, the Talmudic intent is still that one should exercise reasonable restraint in pursuing this mitzvah.

I sincerely hope it’s the latter. Not just because I am currently feel tired and bedraggled and frazzled by the onslaught of hekshur and hagalah, of separating and then recombining my kitchen items, of kashering for everyday only to kasher for Pesach. No, that is a piece but not just because of that.

I hope reason has a place in this process because, especially at this time of year, I am painfully aware that my own Yetzer HaRa (often translated as “inclination to do evil” but more accurately as “inclination to unrestrained passions”) goads me to nit-pick every observance, to question the validity of the way I have performed it. Between my Yetzer and I, there is no “good enough” or even “good enough for this year”. My Yetzer HaRa gleefully  acknowledges “no end to the matter”, and I don’t want to be left standing without the protection of Rabbinic reason to keep myself in check.

This article comes from EdibleTorah @ NewKosher. Originally posted here.

Filed Under: Rants Tagged With: chametz, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, edibletorah, halachka, online conversion, Passover, Passover: Where Do You Stop? (EdibleTorah), patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Pesach, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Meet the Jewbie: Your Average Jewish Girl Who Has Never Practiced Judaism

September 20, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

I always hate writing things for the first time, because my introductions usually end up sounding like a instant replay of those occasional glimpses of Alcoholic Anonymous meetings I see on the fake cop shows I watch obsessively:

“Hi, my name is Kristin the Jewbie, and I have an addiction to blogging.”

You can all now repeat back to me, “Hi, Jewbie,” while curiously scratching your heads as to why I came here and how the heck did I earn myself a moniker so silly as “The Jewbie”.I’d like to say it’s all a funny story, (cue the dim lights and the spotlight swinging around to settle on me, while 50’s style music plays softly in the background) but let’s be honest here, it’s really not a funny story.

Let me start at what I’d like to consider a good place to start, which isn’t necessarily the beginning, but it’s an explanation of why I’m here, and why you should read my blog (and trust me, you should).

So to begin things, I’m sure you’re wondering why I call myself the Jewbie, and if you’re not wondering, then you should be (you might be starting to notice by now that I’m a little demanding. Trust me, it’s my mother’s and my boyfriend’s biggest complaint about me, except they use the sweeter, more endearing term “brat”). When I started my blog Jewbie,I wanted it to be completely anonymous, and so I needed a good moniker for myself so that I wouldn’t have to go by “anonymous”. I chose Jewbie because, in a way, I’m new to Judaism.

I was born a Jew, because my mom’s family is Jewish (we have many Cohen’s, -berg’s, and -witz’s) but my mom converted to Christianity when she was younger, and is therefor not observant of Judaism (but we all know the old saying, that you can be baptized by every priest in the whole entire world, but once a Jew, always a Jew) so I didn’t grow up in a Jewish home. I took it upon myself, though, to start learning more about her family’s faith, and lo and behold! It fit me perfectly. So when I found that it was the religion for me, I decided to start attending shul, reading all the books I could get my hands on, and (very soon) taking classes on Judaism. So, I’m a newbie to Judaism in a sense, thus “Jewbie”. Now that you now how I coined that nickname, let’s get on to bigger and better things, such as who I and what this blog will be about.

I’m a 17-year-young aspiring novelist with a knack for saying and doing the most inappropriate things at the most inopportune times without meaning to (my friends expressed that I need to clarify this statement, so: such as laughing when I’m being yelled at, which happens often, surprisingly). I’m also trying to define who I am and who I want to be, the biggest problem being my “Jewish Journey”, as I like to call it, and what it means to be a “good Jewish girl”. I’m hoping to share my experience with “traveling the Jewish road less taken”, and my journeys in my now Jewed-up life (yes, I do have an uncanny ability to make everything revert back to my Jewish-ness). This is going to be about my travels in the Jewish world, ranging from the B’nai Mitzvah class I’m hoping to attend this year, down to my thoughts on Halachic laws such as Tznius (and how I’m having a terribly hard time following them).

I hope you enjoy reading these blogs as much as I enjoy writing them, and, until I catch you next time:

With more lovin’ then you’ll ever know what to do with,

Kristin the Jewbie

Filed Under: Rants Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, halachka, jewish college student, jewish youth, kristin the jewbie, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, teen, tznius

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