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Your PunkTorah Guide To Passover

March 31, 2015 by Patrick Beaulier

matzah

 

Passover is almost here, and that means house cleaning, grocery shopping, and of course, binge eating chametz!

Here at PunkTorah, we have a few resources to make the transition from everyday life to Passover 5774 even easier.

Have A Good Laugh

Jews love a good joke, and a good story. Mother Morpher has a terrific article on the joys of Passover shopping online.

Watch Some “Edu-Tainment”

This Passover roundup of videos from the PunkTorah archive will give you insights into the holiday, it’s meaning and observance. There’s also a lot of “vintage PunkTorah” in this video series for all the n00bs.

Get the Kids Involved!

Passover is a great holiday for kids, even if it does wreck the hearts of a few picky eaters. PunkTorah can help your seder be magical and kid friendly, and our kids haggadah is always a crowd pleaser.

Cook, Of Course

Our funky vegan cookbook has some really terrific Passover recipes, including a baked eggplant that’s plague-worthy on its own

Give Tzedakah, In Honor of the Lego Star Wars Passover

We get caught up in the spirit of seders, family and friends, and it’s easy to forget that the Jewish holidays command us to give. This terrific photo series of Aiden’s Lego Starwars Diorama calls us to a deeper sense of what these holidays are really about.

Chag Sameach! Happy Passover!

Filed Under: Passover Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, haggadah kids, heggadah, online conversion, Passover, passover kids, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Pesach, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, vegan passover, vegetarian passover

Passover – A Celebration of Life and Freedom

March 29, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

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As Jews, we suspend Torah reading for the eight days of Passover to reflect on our freedom and the story of Exodus.  Modern Jews, of course, have never been slaves nor do we have any real understanding of how horrific it would be.  We also know that our people’s narrative of Exodus is something that may or may not have happened.  Nonetheless,  Passover (Pesach) is a wonderful celebration for all Jews and others who cherish life and freedom.

Passover and the traditional seder can be as detailed as you want.  There are sites on the web that will tell you how every tiny part of the seder should be done – including extensive preparations even before the holiday.  Modern Jews will nod in respect to tradition, but make the seder into something more meaningful in today’s world.  The world has changed and so too must the seder.  Rather than celebrating only Jewish freedom, we celebrate the freedom of all human beings and pray for the end, once and for all, of human bondage around the world.  We also have incorporated celebrating equality of respect for all, including many of those who have been marginalized by society, and even some in our Jewish tribe.

As Jews, we value life and freedom.  Judaism is not ascetic – we are told to enjoy life to the fullest.  We are also instructed that the destruction of a single human life is equivalent to the loss of a universe.  Life is to be defended because it is so valuable.  The real power of Passover, however, is the celebration of freedom.  Exodus is not only about freedom from the tyranny of the Egyptian government (or any government), but freedom of thought and religion as well.  As Jews, we celebrate our freedom from slavery, but also work and pray for the freedom of all people around the world who are not able to enjoy the freedoms of thought and religion.  To express ourselves and to think freely is to be truly human and Jewish.

May you and your family have a wonderful Passover!

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Passover Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, jewish freedom, mitzraim, online conversion, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

God Demands Jewish Innovation: Second Passover

May 14, 2014 by Patrick Beaulier

innovation

As if Passover Number One wasn’t bad enough, on 14 Iyar we are given the opportunity to do Passover all over again with Pesach Sheini, the Second Passover.

According to Numbers 9:1-14 (Parshah Behaalotecha), there were certain people back in the old days that couldn’t participate in the official Passover sacrifice. They included people who had been made impure by being around dead people as well as people who were not in Jerusalem at the time. They wanted to celebrate Passover, and petitioned Moses for some kind of loophole that would let them participate. So Moses calls God, and God offers up the Second Passover option. And there you have it: Jewish innovation.

People often think of religion as being a series of strict rules, used to enforce an elite’s view of you, the individual, as a screw up sinner who needs to be put back in line. We look at people in black hats and see judgmental authoritarians trying to force upon us a Bronze Age code that simply does not work in the iPhone era. We see religious people looking to passages in the Levitical code about stoning people to death as a sign that God, surely, is a wrathful, vengeful God and if you eat bacon, drive a car on Shabbat or anything else, surely you are asking-for-it-come-hell-or-high-water.

This, of course, is the harsh view. The other view we give religious people is a liberal you-poor-secularist-you-don’t-know-any-better view. We see outreach programs as a condescending attempt to make us feel dumb about our apparent lack of Jewish understanding. We believe that we aren’t sinners really, just Jews that haven’t been properly educated in Torah. If we only knew that our wrists are sexually provocative and that the rib eye at Trader Joe’s isn’t kosher enough, we would see the err of our ways and stick our noses in the Chumash.

These stereotypes; however, are just ridiculous characterizations. I have been in less observant communities which are far more judgmental than these two pictures I have painted, and I have been in more traditional communities that could care less what you do with your stomach, or any other part of your body for that matter.

What I see in this Torah portion, and with the Second Passover, is that while God is often judgmental, only God is the judge of humanity. And it appears as though God’s vision of the world is one where everyone has the opportunity to participate in spiritual fulfillment. Judaism at its best is a Judaism that recognizes this holy mission statement, and I think more often than not, we pretty much stick to this.

Second Passover is not an isolated incident of Jewish innovation. There are many times in the Torah that God and a human being debate righteousness and God sides with humanity. Torah is said to be “lo ba-shamayim hi” or “not in Heaven” (Deut. 30:12). The divide between the spiritual world and the world of the mundane is constantly ripping apart in the Biblical narrative, and through the celebration of holidays, human beings are able to enter into that same sphere of interaction between this world and the domain of the Highest. Why a Second Passver? Because God wants us to have every opportunity possible to dwell in this space of divine interaction.

God has consistently allowed the Jewish people to find ways to make Torah Consciousness possible in every generation: whether it’s through the Talmud, Jewish art, independent minyanim and chavrutah, sages and philosophers, literature and religious movements. God is not stuck in the mud, waiting for a righteous peoplehood to pull “Him” out. Rather, God takes part in our growing and sojourning, standing in front of us as we make our way through the experience of being a human family. Since I believe God shares intimately with the Jewish destiny, I become more and more certain that it is God’s will that we innovate in whatever ways we need to keep the fire of the burning bush alive for countless generations to come.

So if you missed Passover, have a matzah and remember that you’re taking part in something that is greater than yourself, and yet, has you personally in mind.

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Passover, Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: 14 iyar, 2nd passover, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, jewish innovation, jewish innovator, jewish technology, online conversion, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, pesach sheini, pesach sheni, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, second passover

Parsha Bo: This is the Meaning of Life (Ex. 10:1 – 13:16)

December 29, 2013 by Jeremiah

Ahhh Parsha Bo, finally the plagues burdening the Egyptians come to an end and Hashem gives us Jews the holiday Passover. No matter how hard I might try I will never know where to begin to make sense of the final plague which subsequently leaves the first born male in every Egyptian household without life, and yet Bo is an integral portion in trying to understand Hashem and just how we are created in His image.

Judaism is monotheistic period. This means everything, or lack thereof, emanates from one source, Hashem. Whether it is righteousness, wickedness, or something in between the root, the seed, the source is the same and never wavering. We as human beings are created in Hashem’s image and this does not mean He looks like us externally but that we encapsulate pure dualism just like Him. Every act, belief, and feeling we have is only present because its opposite is not acted upon. Sure we exist but we emanate good and evil based on our will just like our creator.

Passover is the perfect lesson to explain the compulsions of good versus evil we all have seeded inside of us. In fact this week’s portion is the blossomed fruit matured from the seed sprouting out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Hebrews marking their door posts is a conscious choice to do good when faced with doing evil. This choice to mark themselves apart saves their sons and leads directly towards breaking the yoke of bondage. The Egyptians refusal to do the right thing results in the evil inclination running rampant in their hearts and minds leading to death, sorrow, anger, and the lust for vengeance. Such a heavy portion.

Bo is the perfect moral lesson to carry as a reminder while navigating all of life’s temptations. Sometimes we are the ancient Hebrew yearning to cast off the burden of evil inclinations and sometimes we are the ancient Egyptian willfully afflicting those around us. Bo is more than just the first Passover it is the morality of where we as human beings created in the divine image of Hashem exist. Actions have consequences and only you the individual can choose which path to take.

Jeremiah@punktorah.org Twitter: @CirclePitBimah

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: Circle Pit The Bimah, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, exodus, jeremiah satterfield, online conversion, Parsha Bo, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Passover Video Rodeo!

March 27, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

In the spirit of Levi Strauss, the second most famous Jewish cowboy next to Kinky Friedman, we’ve rounded up our favorite Passover videos and wrangled them into a video rodeo! Check it out…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=029__uuKYBI&feature=player_embedded

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMM9iiskhw4&feature=player_embedded

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPK8StycUjw

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHTvqY3DCQY

Filed Under: Jewish Media Reviews, Passover, Podcasts & Videos, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Shabbat & Holidays Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, g-dcast.com, indie yeshiva, indieyeshiva, jean meltzer, online conversion, Passover, Passover Video Rodeo!, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Pesach, punktorah, punktorah videos, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

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