PunkTorah

Independent Jewish Spirituality Online

What Is Shavuot?

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqrr-n_s2ug

Shavuot celebrates the revelation of Sinai and the giving of the Torah. It started as a harvest festival and has now morphed, as many holidays do, into something more cerebral and…of course…filled with glorious food.
This holiday is marked by a tribute to dairy. Why? Well, we’re not exactly sure. There’s mystical reasons, and historical reasons, but mainly it’s because the cultures of the time were producing cheese during this season, and so came the tradition of eating dairy on the holiday.
But Shavuot is more than just food. It’s a time when Jews engage in intense Torah debate all night long. Imagine tons of people, sitting around binge eating on cheesecake, drinking, reading and arguing. It’s rad.
The Book of Ruth is a big part of Shavuot as well. We read Ruth because Ruth’s coming to Israel took place around the time of Shavuot, and her conversion to Judaism is a great analogy for the Jewish people accepting the Torah. acceptance into the Jewish faith was analogous of the acceptance of the Jewish people of God’s Torah. It also helps that the Book of Ruth ends with the genealogy of David, and there’s a midrash (myth) that says that David died on Shavuot.
I hope you have an awesome Shavuot. I know I will!

Culturally Overlooked

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I think religion is interesting because for some people it’s terribly personal and for others, it is absolutely not. Living in a predominantly Christian society has been interesting. I, like many of you, was stuck in an elementary school class doing something that was not part of my Jewish culture. In the 4th grade, I had to write a letter to Santa Claus. Interestingly enough, he never showed up to my house to deliver the million dollars as per my request. To make matters worse, the Easter Bunny rejected my 100lb of chocolate request. In jest, as an adult I claim these two Pagan features of the Christian religion are anti-Semitic and do not want to share their goodies with Jewish kids. However, in my humor, there is some rage. In high school, I had to fight with my choir director. He repeatedly tried to make me sing about Christ and even threatened to fail me. I was appalled. I felt like there was this constant battle between church and state in my public education. And of course, it got so bad my parents had to follow up the issue with a Jewish stereotype and call a lawyer. I, now as an educator, do not allow any holiday parties. I do allow healthy discussion, but in no way do I allow judgment or ridicule.

I think the classroom has led to many misconceptions about what is appropriate in the realm of religious tolerance. In school, Hitler jokes and Holocaust jokes are not permitted, but it’s okay to dye Easter eggs. Clearly I see a difference, but the concept between hateful speech and ignorance is still a blurred line. What message are we sending? What does the Jewish kid do?

As we get older, we experience this naïve perspective, when a college roommate or an acquaintance makes a poor decision to express how okay one of these taboos is in a Jewish kid’s public school experience. We get Christmas and Easter cards and have holidays off because the government gives us those days, but we have to take off Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. I’ll work Christmas and Easter! What do I care?

Ultimately, with all this kvetching, I know I want better for my children (if I ever have any), or at least yours. I think we as a culture need to express that not everyone values the same holidays. It’s true we have many things that are flawed about our society, cultural awareness being one of them. I have not figured out how to solve the problem yet, but I am sure I can identify the scenario as it unfolded.

So for Jewish kid that sat upon Santa’s lap, but he never came…. For any Jewish kid who learned Christmas songs… For every Jewish kid who had to take a test in college on a Jewish holiday… For every kid who’s school took picture day on Yom Kippur….Remember, we can make a movement for cultural awareness, but we cannot be silent. One small stand at a time might make it easier for someone else.

Keep kickin’ it old shul and be true to the streets!

Yentapunker

Apparently Punk and Chabad Don't Mix In England

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By Patrick Aleph

Viking has tattoos and plans on getting more, including the Ten Commandments ripping from his flesh on his back. A former carnival side show performer, he has plenty of piercings, wears a studded leather jacket and a Dead Kennedys tee shirt reading, “Nazi Punks F*** Off”.

And in every way possible, he is a good Orthodox Jew.

His father was a rabbi: the chief rabbi of Birmingham, England. Every Friday, Viking has an open door Shabbat dinner in his home. His family is Orthodox, and Viking would like to stay that way.

But not if his local Chabad house has anything to do with it.

Last Purim, Viking tried to attend a Megillah reading at Chabad. He was denied entry, as he uses a wheelchair and there was no ramp. In reality, a guest of the house was bothered by Viking’s outward appearance, and he was not allowed in for someone else’s prejudice. He could have gone in and prayed, but his manner of dress disturbed someone. At that moment, Viking was denied his Judaism.

After this was reported, an uproar swarmed the internet, but ultimately it did not do any good. According to Viking, the Chabad representatives came to his home to apologize, but did not invite him to come back. This was damage control and nothing more.

Viking is used to controversy. He lives in an Orthodox community, and has had people “not [cross] the road to be away from [him]”. Ultimately, Viking says, this is related to the “physical trappings of Judaism”. He asked rhetorically, why its OK for someone in his Orthodox community to be addicted to porn, but not have tattoos and piercings? “It’s a sin against G-d, not against man”, Viking replies about his tattoos, “so why should I have to pay for that on Earth?”

Viking related his desire to pray in community with the Hanukkah celebration. “We light the menorah. Each candle is individual, but it brings one light together. So it’s like the individual people in the Jewish nation. We are all supposed to glow together. G-d gave each of us the commandment we are supposed to pray; who gave someone the permission to choose who can pray? The orthodox are trying to keep people from their own shuls [and] for every one that comes back, ten go away. That [makes the] light dim.”

According to Viking, there is a problem with the “superficial” aspects of Judaism: “who can look more religious than whom.”

But there is a time and a place for everyone in the Jewish world, including people like Viking. About the Holocaust, Viking states it’s the “wild boys” like those in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising who keep the Jewish people alive. Viking speculated dreamily about how someone in Warsaw proclaimed, on “get a bunch of the wildest boys you can and let them take care of it.” He snapped to reality and said, “we [the wild Jews] are the people who save the Jewish people when the trouble comes.”

But then he gave me a sort of Talmudic Koan: “When push comes to shove, if you push us too far, will we come back?”

I hope so. But according to Viking, it will take nothing less than “a miracle”.

To join Viking in his struggle to open Orthodoxy in England, friend him on Facebook.

D'var Torah For Easter

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Is he really going to justify Jews celebrating the death of Jesus?

I know that’s what you’re thinking. Let’s see what this kid is going to do to justify dyeing eggs and making Easter baskets. And we’ll hope the chocolate is at least kosher.

No, I’m not going to tell you to celebrate Easter. But I am going to tell you that many Jewish families have, and will.

My first experience  with this was six years ago from a girl I was trying to get with. Her family was from Poland and she talked lovingly about her Jewish background. She also told me that every year she colored Easter eggs.

How, I asked, could she do that and remain authentically Jewish?

She told me that her mother didn’t think anything of it: what is so religious about dyeing eggs?

Recently, another friend of mine and I talked about Easter eggs. “What’s dyeing an egg? We can do that anytime we want!” And I agree. Why can’t I dye an egg?

If you look at Easter, as we celebrate it culturally, it really isn’t very Jesus-y. It’s more about spring time, renewal, and of course, copious amounts of chocolate.

I think there is something in the collective unconscious that makes a lot of holidays fuse together. Passover seder plates have eggs: so does Easter. Purim involves giving away baskets of gifts. Again, that’s Easter. And who can forget the chocolate gelt from Hanukkah.

What I would recommend is that we look at the fun parts of Easter and find ways to make them Jewish. Why can’t the egg on the seder plate be a chocolate egg? How about we hide the broken piece of matzah (afikomen) in one of those plastic eggs they sell at the grocery store?

This isn’t idolatry or mixing faith traditions. It’s doing what Jews have always done: taking the best of what’s around us, and translating it to our own tradition.

PUNKTORAH
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Richmond, VA 23221-0414

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