I was a little surprised when Liza asked me to guest-blog for her; we are very different when it comes to our common Judaism.  As she's said, she follows a more Orthodox observance.  And me?  Well, let's just say that I am too agnostic for that.

Which is not to say that the observance isn't important to me.  I've talked about Shabbat, and the beautiful feeling of peace that comes with it, but that is not the only thing that I find to be personally meaningful in my religion.

I've had this conversation with Christian friends before; they've asked me how I express my sprituality.  The simple answer is that I, personally, don't go in much for spirituality.  That's not what I do religion for.  The more complex answer is that Judaism in general is more concerned with here-and-now practicality than with intangible spirituality.

That is less scary than it sounds.  Much of Judaism is an ethical system, and a system of commandments.  That basic precept is, if you follow the commandments, you'll be doing God's will, and all will be well with you.  Your body, mind, and soul will all be taken care of in the process.

It actually does work.  One of the commandments for a practicing Jew is to hear the words of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) every week (we read a portion in synagogue every Shabbat).  About once a month, I try to learn a segment of a weekly portion, to read publicly at synagogue.  I find that the routine of studying, and learning to read and chant few paragraphs of Hebrew, helps to keep my mind sharp, and that the public reading is a way of saying to the community, "This is important to us."  And with a sharp mind, and a sated soul, the work week is a breeze.  Body, mind, and soul are all taken care of.

And that's the answer I find hard to articulate in short sentences: In Judaism, actions are louder than words.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means we'll be getting ready for Shabbat.  These preparations are our weekly ritual, and over the years, I've found that they make Shabbat that much more meaningful.

So what gets done in my house, to bring in the Sabbath?

To start with, we clean.  The weekday clutter has no place on Shabbat, and my wife makes sure that it all gets put away.  Sometimes, our daughters help.  There is nothing quite like cleaning house with a one year old.

Thursday nights, I do the grocery shopping.  We try to get all done in advance, because Shabbat isn't a day for going to the store.  We'll decide what to eat, and with the grocery run out of the way, my wife can spend Friday cooking up fantastic meals for Shabbat lunch and dinner.  It's a good thing she has Friday's off.

This week, there's a lot more than usual to do.  We were visiting friends until a couple of days ago, and we're only half unpacked.  So while she's cooking, I'm cleaning and making last minute grocery runs.  We were out yeast, and she wanted to back challot for dinner.

And then, as the smell of warm bread in filling the apartment, we're done with the setup.  We've still go time to shower, and bathe the kids, and then all the busy-ness is over, and we light the candles.  It's time to sit back, rest, make Shabbat and enjoy the day.  It's a good day; truly a reward for a week of work.

So I'm a cousin of Liza's, and she asked me to write a bit for her blog.  If I were writing this 50 years ago, I'd probably come up with something like Herman Wouk's This is My God.  But this isn't 50 years ago, it's today, 2007, you'll get a freeform stream of consiousness thing....

Like Liza,  I'm Jewish, and I've lived my life in the States, where most people aren't Jewish, and I've spent considerable time in rural areas, where most people just don't know anything about Jews, or Judaism.  Borrowing my cousin's blog is part of my attempt to remedy that.

I also want to write a good blog; something to counter the anti-semitic crap that's so easy to find online.  The Internet is a powerful tool, but it can be hard to filter out the bad, and keep the good.  Sometimes, it is hard to know the difference.  I hope to help remedy that, too, in my own small way.

So what will I be doing?  Simply put, I'll be answering questions which I have heard over the years, and trying to give my view of the world through a Jewish lens.  I can't gaurantee that everything I say will be 100% "kosher," but it will all come from my own Jewish perspective.  I grew up mostly secular, in a Conservative household, so my perspective and Liza's are quite different.  Vive la difference!

Comments are welcome here, as I'll always be looking for new questions to answer.

See y'all soon!

Back in college, I used to hang out with the Christian Zionists a lot.  There weren't too many Jews where I went to school, and it got tiresome, really, going to left-wing political rallies and hearing Israel and Jews vilified constantly.  The Evangelicals might be off the deep end on social policies, but there were some clear-thinking folks when it came to international issues.

I did get one question, though, all the time.  They kept asking me why I couldn't believe in Jesus, if the Jews for Jesus did.  So I'll answer that one here, one last time:

The Jews for Jesus are not Jews.  They have accepted the divinity of Jesus, and that makes them Christians.  There is no way that a person can accept Jesus as the son of God, and remain Jewish.  They may observe some Jewish customs, but they have abandoned two of the core precepts of Judaism: First, that the Messiah is yet to come, and second, that people cannot be divine.

These are some of the most basic of Jewish beliefs; to abandon them and "accept Jesus" simply is not a Jewish act.  Like oil and water, some things really don't mix.

Which is not to say that Jews and Evangelicals can't be friends; we have a lot in common.  We share a common reverence for Biblical text, and a powerful belief in the modern miracle that is the State of Israel.  Where there is common ground, there can be mutual respect.

I will climb off of my soapbox now, and get back to regular, non-ranting blogging.

Compared to Passover, Shavuot is a breeze.  First of all, it's a one-day holiday.  Second, there aren't any special restrictions.  All the holidays have their specific prayers and readings from the Torah and, like on Shabbat, no one drives or works on Shavuot (or on Passover and Succot).  Shavuot is the Holiday of the Torah - it is the day on which the Torah was given to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai (on their way to Israel from Egypt). Literally, it means "weeks" and the name is due to the fact that the 7 weeks between Passover and Shavuot were the time that that the Jews used to ready themselves for the Torah.   It is a happy, joyous holiday with no negative historic connotations.  Traditionally, we eat dairy foods on Shavuot, because up to the point that the Torah was given the Jews didn't know the laws of meat and dairy and, to play it safe, kept to dairy foods only.

Succot and Chanuka are the longest Jewish holidays - they are both 8 days long.  Succot is the holiday in which Jews eat in little huts usually behind or adjacent to their houses.  In Jewish neighborhoods, no house is without a Succah during this holiday.  It can be a bit inconvenient (depending on the kind of house you have and the lay of the land) but since Succot usually falls out in early autumn the weather is usually perfect for eating outdoors (though I can remember a Succot in Boston where we ate with the snow swirling around us).  The huts are decorated especially for the holiday and there's something beautiful and spiritually uplifting about eating in the Succah (a throwback to when the Jews lived in these types of makeshift huts after they left Egypt and walked through the desert for 40 years). 

All the preparation for Passover usually yields a super-clean house and so there's no mistaking the atmosphere for any other holiday.  Most Orthodox Jews have separate sets of dishes, pots, and cutlery for Passover and because all kitchenware - even all year 'round - comes in a dairy and meat version, that means that there are boxes and boxes of kitchen supplies to be unearthed and put in closets, cabinets and drawers.  It also means that the regular kitchenware has to be put somewhere else and closed up so only the Passover stuff is reachable.  What it means is a lot of carrying and lifting and covering and taping and, for a few days, the whole family is in on the act.  Kids are usually off from school on the days leading to Passover, but every kid knows that they have to be home to help, even if it's just to check pockets for stray crumbs.

The good news is that the holiday lasts for 7 days so there's plenty of time to recover and enjoy the special Passover feeling.  Because flour isn't used on Passover, mass quantities of eggs are used instead; I always order a dozen dozen before the holiday begins (yes, 144 eggs) and more often than not I have to buy more.  It's kind of an expensive holiday - you're basically stocking your pantry, fridge and freezer from scratch - but despite the work and the expense it's one of my faves.  Nothing beats the ambiance of a house on Passover - it's truly special.  After it's all over and the last piece of matza has been ingested, the process has to be reversed.  All the Passover dishes, pots, etc. have to be packed up again and put away, and the regular stuff has to be put back in place.  A lot of work?  Yes.  Worth it?  Absolutely.

There's more to Passover than cleaning.  Once all the prep work is done, there is time to think about the holiday's significance and meaning.

Putting cleaning aside, the whole idea behind Passover goes back to the Bible and the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt.  When God decided that it was time for the Jews to be freed (after they were slaves for a few hundred years), they had to leave in a big hurry.  They had time to bake bread but they didn't have time to wait for it to rise and so they took the bread out of the ovens while it was still flat.  Voila - the birth of  "matza."  Matza is unleavened bread and it is the mainstay of the Passover diet.  Not only may leavened bread not be eaten, but it is considered a good deed to actually eat matza.  Don't knock it till you try it - it's awesome with butter or cream cheese.

 
The name Passover has to do with the way the Jews were able to leave.  God had sent the Egyptians 9 plagues in order to get them to let the Jews go but nothing worked.  They were pretty nasty plagues, too (blood, frogs, lice, etc.), but Pharaoh was hanging tough.  As the piece de resistance, God decided to kill all the first-born sons in Egypt but he spared the first-born Jewish sons by "passing over" their houses.  This 10^th plague was the straw that broke the Pharaoh's back and the Jews were let out and began their long 40-year journey to the Promised Land.  The story of the Exodus is read every year on Passover on the first night out of a book called the "Haggadah" at a feast called the "seder."   It's an emotional and exciting story and throughout the ages Jews are meant to feel that they themselves have been freed from slavery.  After the work that was done to prepare for the holiday, most women feel it down to their bones.  It's an old joke.

The prep work for Passover can make a grown man cry.  Sometimes, the whole point of the holiday can get lost in the shuffle (and the sweeping and scrubbing, etc.).

As I've mentioned, the three major Jewish holidays are Passover, Shavuot and Succot.  These three are grouped together because, in the oldden days, they are the holidays on which Jews walked to Jerusalem in order to give sacrifices at the Temple (known in Hebrew as the Beit HaMikdash).  Unfortunately, no Temple-no sacrifices, and since the destruction of the second Temple, the whole sacrifice-giving thing came to a halt.  Nonetheless on these 3 holidays we still say certain prayers to remember the types of holiday sacrifices that were once given and we certainly pray for the rebuilding of the Temple so that the tradition can be resumed.

Since Passover ended just a few weeks ago, it's the easiest one to talk about - it's certainly still fresh in my mind.  Passover is the holiday that requires the most preparation and Orthodox women tend to go a little nuts getting ready.  The Big Rule on Passover is that we have to get rid of all bread and products that have flour (cakes, cookies, breakfast cereals, crackers, etc.).  Even products that have no flour have to have a special "Kosher for Passover" stamp since there are other forbidden by-products that have to be avoided, as well.  Major spring cleaning is done before Pesach to ensure that no "chametz," the food that's forbidden on Passover, is hanging around the house.  Usually, in the weeks before Passover, families scurry to finish up the last of their "chametz," so it won't have to be thrown out before the holiday.  I have a long history of over-shooting my target so that by a week before Passover begins there's usually nothing to eat in my house, which drives my children crazy.  I have to admit, it's a little annoying. More on Passover soon.

Shabbat is often the only chance one gets to stop and relax all week.  Without Shabbat we'd drown in work and commitments.

If I had to pick one thing that symbolizes Judaism to me more than anything else, it's Shabbat - the Sabbath.  Shabbat (observed on from sundown on Friday to a few minutes after the stars come out on Saturday night - 25 hours in all) is a day of rest in the most absolute way.  As an adult, I don't know how people live without Shabbat and why every faith hasn't embraced the concept.  We are all on a very fast track during the week, with an endless cycle of work, home, obligations, etc.; always on the go.  Work can be all consuming; it can take over and obfuscate the more important things in life.  It can come between you and your family, you and your well being, you and inner peace.  Work is a necessary "evil," but Shabbat teaches us that it can't take control, that there are things more important than making money.  Shabbat is an enforced, guaranteed rest from everything work related.  There are 39 activities that are prohibited on Shabbat, which in turn relate to hundreds of others.  We are not allowed to drive, cook, use electricity, carry, handle money, or do almost anything that is usually done on the other 6 days of the week.  We are allowed to read, pray, spend time with our family, sleep, learn Torah, relax, unwind, recharge our batteries, ostensibly in a spiritual way but, as a result, physically, as well.  Shabbat gives us the strength to carry on; many of us live from Shabbat to Shabbat, looking forward to the next day of rest as soon as one ends.  It is a brilliant concept that, when accepted as the gift it is, can imbue your life with a rhythm and pace that makes it all so much better.  I wouldn't give it up for anything.

My family and I kept them all - Shabbat, all the holidays and all the fast days, big and small.

So what's it like to grow up Orthodox? Well, most of the time, Orthodox Jews living in America, live with "their kind," in enclaves of Orthodoxy, mostly in the big cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, etc.).  Growing up in Brooklyn, all my friends were Orthodox, most of the people walking and talking around me were Orthodox, so I never thought about it as strange or unusual.  You also have to remember that religious boys wear a kippah (a yarmulke) on their heads all the time, highlighting their religion to everyone who sees them; religious girls look pretty much like everyone else.  My family wasn't ultra-Orthodox - I didn't wear long sleeves all year round or long skirts; I even wore pants.  But we observed Shabbat, and we went to synagogue more than once or twice a year (almost every week, actually), we celebrated all the Jewish holidays, even the "minor" ones, we fasted on the fast days (not just on Yom Kippur) and we strictly upheld all the laws of "kashrut," the stringent dietary laws from the Bible.  It wasn't a big deal but it was the real thing and Judaism permeated all parts of my life as it still does now.  Judaism is about more than just believing in God; it's an entire way of life.  It's not a culture; it's not just about giving money to Israel or eating matza on Passover or talking Hebrew.  Judaism is a commitment; it's a complete and total lifestyle.  I've never known any other life' it's just who I am.