PunkTorah

Independent Jewish Spirituality Online

Passover: Where Do You Stop? (EdibleTorah)

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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.

Peel A Pom Passover Haggadah

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OneShul community leader Ketzirah is offering her Peeling a Pomegranate Passover Haggadah to the PunkTorah community for only $5. For every 18 haggadot that she sells, PunkTorah will receive $18.00. Awesome!
Here’s some more info on the Haggadah…
The 5th Anniversary edition of the Peeling a Pomegranate Passover Haggadah is an experiential haggadah that engages your sense of wonder. While there are many traditional elements, there are unique aspects intended to create a unique experience. This year, I’m also donating $18 to a Jewish charity, PunkTorah.org, for every 18 haggadot sold. 

There are very few images in this haggadah, because the book is not what I wanted people to focus on, but rather the words and the experience. It is concise with many opportunities to add your own flourishes and customization, if you wish.

If you are an Eco-Jew, Buddah-Jew, Renewal, Jewitch, or any of the dozens of other small enclaves of progressive Jewish thought — I hope this Haggadah will be one that you will treasure for years.

The haggadah is available for only $5 as a PDF, in printer-ready 8 1/2 X 11 full-page format. The PDF of the haggadah will be *emailed* to you.

Meant for the DIY person who wants create their own beautiful booklets, but just needs the text. You can print out as many as you like and add your own flourishes and cover art. I appreciate your supporting the work I do by purchasing your own copy for personal use.

Download the haggadah here and support the PunkTorah community!

A Punk Exodus

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“Now every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock-n-roll
grabs the mike to tell us, he’ll die before he’s sold…”
– Death or Glory, The Clash

By Eric Odier-Fink
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We’re taught that each of us should feel as if we were personally taken out of Egypt, and that we should each examine our own lives to find and be freed of our own, current pharaohs. Our own personal liberation from Mitzrayim, the ‘narrow places’. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 70’s and 80’s, most places felt narrow. This was not a unique experience, not for the time nor the place. Without the suffering confines of youth, little progress would be made. Dissatisfaction is what breeds innovation. But I happened to have my childhood and adolescence run side by side (forgive the reference) with that of punk rock.

The promise of the new era of the 60’s was already waning by its end- the promised land of Cana’an had run dry. The hippies were already giving up and/or giving in (this is over simplification, but stands for a short piece), and true redemption was being forfeited for either the decadence of the disco, the surrender of the mediocrity of soft rock, or conservatism of Southern rock. Some got lost in fantasy, others in despair. Some just got drunk and screwed anything they could. I don’t blame them. Entirely. They had been presented with the hope of the social movements, only to find that sustaining those movements against overwhelming odds and Pyhrric victories was simply too hard for most.

We, the true believers in something better- and better for *all*- were a bit lost. Iggy, the first of our brothers to have visions of what could be was cast out. Just too radical a message, him, the Stooges, and the MC5. Maybe, had they been heeded, the famine might have ended. But down to Egypt we went.

Even as a young boy, living in NY in the 70’s made me believe the world was falling apart. And while I wax nostalgic for it now, at the time things really were bleak. And then the bush caught fire: a couple of Jews from Queens and a couple of their friends, calling themselves the Ramones, started screaming. They were as eloquent as a their mentally handicapped mascot, but they transmitted one important message: this way out. And to complete the narrative, someone or something had to play Moses: a wanderer, educated yet adrift, named John Mellor, heard this message and answered the call.

Joe Strummer put the rage of post-60’s frustration to use. He saw what that fire could mean. Papa Joe, throughout his career, actually imagined a better world. And while he toyed with fashion and cool, it was part of a package- the trappings are the medium to get people to the message. Towards the end of his life, middle age, hopefully, for the rest of us, Joe had a bonfire fetish. Just sit around the fire and talk and sing. Spread the message around the flames: The world can be better.

So this may push the Exodus metaphor a bit far, but the point is made: the world can be better, and it is what Torah teaches us.

Counting the Omer and You…

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Michael מִיכָאֵל

In the Torah, G-d commands us to count the days starting from the second day of Pesach until Shavu’ot. Counting these days is known as “Counting the Omer”. An “omer” was a unit of measurement of barley that was presented as a sacrifice at the temple up until the day of Shavu’ot (the Giving of the Torah). This is a traditional time of partial mourning commemorating a plague during the time of Rabbi Akiba, and weddings, parties, and dinners that include dancing are postponed. We also refrain from cutting our hair. On the 33rd day of the Omer, we celebrate a temporary break in the plague, known as Lag b’Omer, and the restrictions are suspended briefly.

Traditionally we “count” the Omer at night using a special blessing:

“Baruch atah A-donai E-loheinu Melekh Ha-olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al S’firat Ha-omer.”
(“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to count the Omer.”)
You then state the day of the Omer:
“Today is (the number of days) days, which is (number of weeks) weeks and (number of days) days of the Omer.”

The sacrifices made on Passover were of barley. The sacrifice made on Shavu’ot was of loaves of wheat. What is the significance of this? The Kabbalists tell us that the barley, a food normally consumed by animals, reflects our animal natures. Wheat symbolizes humanity, because it takes a person to make bread. The change to the sacrifice of  wheat demonstrates our interior growth from animal to person, from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom to participate in the redemption of the world.

So, what does this all mean to us now? Well, it can mean many things. Counting the Omer can be used as a tool of self reflection. We can take this time to recognize the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt, from the gift of our freedom. The Sages tell us that G-d freed us from slavery in order to give us the Torah on Shavu’ot, so this should be a time of preparation. Counting the Omer gives us the time to learn from the gift of freedom G-d has given us and incorporate it into our lives, to grow one day at a time, taking a spiritual accounting, to make sure that we are heading in the right direction, to look at what we are doing that is right or wrong and to try to make ourselves ready to receive the honor of the Torah.

Counting the days is another way of directing our mindfulness to the passage of time. Be aware of the days as they pass, count them, give them meaning. We have been freed from slavery, rejecting the confusion and idolatry (philosophically, literally, and spiritually) of our own Egypt’s and are being made ready to re-focus our lives.

Most of all, use this time! Don’t let it go! Instead of some celebration of a sacrifice in a temple that happened thousands of years ago, we can turn it into something meaningful to us today. Not a static set of days, but a process. There is no payoff without preparation.

I Love Pesach

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(Originally Posted On FrumSatire)

By Heshy Fried

I absolutely love long Jewish holidays like Pesach. I know that many folks can’t wait for it to be over, whenever someone says that on shabbos I want to smack them, you can’t talk about such holiness like shabbos and say that you want it over with already – why are you keeping shabbos if you hate it and don’t believe in it’s healing properties? But Pesach heartache is understandable, people just can’t go that long without pizza, can they? I surely can (I haven’t had milchigs in 2 months, I miss it dearly), yes it’s a royal pain to eat overpriced chocolate bars for energy on long distant hikes and bike rides, but I deal and I love Pesach in all of its 8 days of glory. I also work for a company that gave me off for all of Pesach, I could understand the pain that people have when they have to use up all of their vacation days for Jewish holidays, although they might want to have the thought that they wouldn’t have that job unless God wanted them to and therefore God knew they would have to give up their vacation days willingly to please him.

I used to hate the seder, I think it could be better, probably because most people don’t really do the seder right, they tell technical divrei torah which have nothing to do with telling the story of leaving Egypt and then they sing traditional songs while the people who can read super fast go about it on their own. I guess I wish sedarim were a bit more interactive and actually did make children ask question – because I have seen that maybe twice, it seems that children only ask questions because in yeshiva they tell you that children are supposed to ask questions.

Think about it, the story of the Jews leaving Egypt is probably the most kick-ass story in biblical Judaism, Chanukah, Shavuos and Purim don’t come close to Pesach, they don’t have as much action going down. I like to think that the story of the Jews leaving Egypt starts with the story of Yosef and his brothers, which could be made into a movie, simply amazing the drama of that story. Then the pharaoh getting all hard on the Jews, flip flopping his political views kind of like Obama on Israel and then we build the pyramids which are super cool, although using babies as stones isn’t cool. The plagues, holy crap people, I can’t believe that during the seder, the attention of the plagues is lost on a little dabbing of wine and proclaiming the plagues – we should talk about this stuff, it’s super cool and everyone out of yeshiva doesn’t talk about it for 2 months leading up to Pesach.

What I really want to know is what other plagues were there? I always hear about these midrashim that say there were a slew of plagues besides for the ten biggies. Did everyone’s clothing burn up in the middle of the marketplace forcing everyone to walk back home naked? Did the camels start eating people? Maybe they ran out of parking spots and everyone had to circle their camels for days just to find one.

“Let My People Go” is probably the most bad-ass line in the whole torah, it’s not even made up, it’s right there in the scripture, not some Charleton Heston line. Did you ever think about the fact that pretty much everyone was black in Egypt, wasn’t Moshe Rabeinu black, that means everyone was way cooler than we can even imagine.

The splitting of the sea, that alone is enough to excite any scientist into explaining the prevailing winds and how they must have blown hard enough to split the sea. I do love how non-believing scientists have tried to explain how splitting of the sea were possible in a book they view as mythological, do their endowments and grants fund mythological explorations? I remember sitting in ninth grade learning about how any Jew could reach into the water and pull out whatever they wanted, I was sitting in class daydreaming about walking on the sea bed, chugging a mountain dew that I had just pulled out of the wall of water and thinking about which Ben and Jerrys flavor I wanted to pull out next, as I was day dreaming I was wondering if the ground was muddy and if the Jews were all wearing Tevas or Birkenstock sandals.

I also look forward to Peach because to me it’s like having a bunch of shabbosim in a row. I know a lot of people don’t like the whole shabbos chol hamoid thing because they want to be able to hit p as many Boro Park carnivals, Lipa Schmeltzer shows and kosher circuses as possible. I wonder if the “things to do on pesach sections” in those free community advertisement books they have in heimishe establishments are cut down this year, although they usually include the same things every year. I can sum it up for you, you can go to the Liberty Science Center, Ellis Island, The Tenement Museum, The Museum of Natural History and Uncle Moishes Carnival on 13th avenue and 44th street.

Pesach has a shorter less physically intensive davening than succos, although I still love succos and it’s my favorite holiday for obvious reasons (outdoors nut and honey on challah lover here) I still like Pesach for its length, one of the reasons I dislike shavuos and Rosh Hashanah are their lack of length, the first day is always warm up and by the time you’re in spiritual high mode everyone’s making havdalah, I know that both Shavuos and Rosh Hashanah have the days leading up to them that are supposed to put us in that frame of mind – but I need a little more starting time. Of course Pesach has starting time because of shabbos hagadol (where I was this shabbos doesn’t even have shul on shabbos afternoon) and cleaning my car and apartment for chometz got me in the Pesach frame of mind hey isn’t that a Billy Joel song?

I am not one for spending holidays with family, mostly because my family lives in a place I find kills my spiritual state and makes me hate being religious, except before my dad got remarried and I would take him with me to my friends houses. Actually one of the things I dread about marriage is falling in love with a girl from a place that I don’t care for. The last two years I did Pesach with one of my best buds in Denver, he would set up all the meals so that we could get the best food and company at the same time – I am the same way with meal settings, there is a lot of detail that goes into spending shabbos or a holiday somewhere, it’s never simple. This year I am staying in Northern California and looking forward to my first two days in San Francisco, and the last two days in the Sierra Nevada near Tahoe where I plan to try out my hand at gold panning.

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