Cool things that I'm learning

From Liturgy class, where we deconstructed everyone's High Holy Days' services:

- The Kol Nidre prayer, which is a prayer releasing people from obligations, isn't really a prayer at all, but a legal contract. This is why it's sung three times in some congregations, so it will have more weight. (In class I compared this to saying "Beetlejuice" and "There's no place like home" three times, and the professor said that yes, there was truth to that, that superstition and "magic" were very closely related.)

From Talmud class, where we're discussing the contents of Tractate (chapter) Moed:

- The Hebrew term for Jewish holidays is moed. It comes from the mem/ayin/dalet root, which means "time." But it also comes from ayin/dalet, which means "witness." When we celebrate a Jewish holiday, we bear witness to divine intervention in the world. That's why all holidays are reenactments (e.g. Passover reenacting the exodus, Sukkot the harvest, etc) because we are marking moments of transcendence in time, moments when there was more than just human activity.

- Someone asked why the Talmud lacked clarity. Why does it have so many layers if it is, in essence, a legal contract? The answer : Yes, the Talmud is a social contract that is 1500 years old. The U.S. Constitution is also a social contract, from barely 250 years ago. It was written in English by people who were not totally dissimilar from us. Now, are we aware of any litigation surrounding the U.S. Constitution? (The prof is sharp!)

- During a tangential comment, I found out why so many Jews are allergic to nuts - apparently the nut allergy has been traced back to Eastern Europe, which is why it's only American Jews who are so susceptible (cuz that's where we all came from). Sephardic (Spain/North Africa) Jewry, including most Israelis, don't have the allergy.

From Homiletics class:

- "Never underestimate the intelligence of the congregation. Never overestimate their knowledge." Basically, there are no taboo academic topics. Whether or not it connects depends on how you say it.

- You can preach with or against a text. I.e., "Abraham's great, do what he did" versus "Abraham sucks, don't do what he did." We talked about the pros and cons of preaching against; on one hand, it makes the Biblical heroes human. On the other hand, it invites people to go outside of Judaism to find their wisdom.

From Hellenism class, where we study what the Greeks and Romans thought about Jews:

- The Jewish exodus from Egypt is actually quite well known to the Greeks, especially the historians Hecataeus and Strabo who traveled the world (and whom I'd never heard of before this class, so don't feel badly if you haven't either!). According to them and other "pagan" sources we've been reading, the Jews were thought to be Egyptian in origin and expelled because a plague was going around, and people were afraid they were the source. Because others shunned them they kept to themselves, and later on, that became habit. Only one source says that they weren't expelled, but that the "legislator Moses" brought them out of Egypt because he disliked the Egyptian religion and its customs. Who knew?!

- An HUC doctoral candidate sat in on our class today. He's an assistant pastor at a Baptist church, and he brought the senior pastor with him. Next to them there was another rabbinical student, then myself. Then an evangelical Christian PhD student. And next to him was another PhD student, an ordained pastor who happens to be taking a few years off from his ministry to go back to school. At one point we all got into a great discussion on how Hellenized Jews (assimilated Greek Jews) were different from Greek pagans. It led into explanations of how they might have visualized God, which then segued into how Christianity and Judaism visualize God today in light of the Greek influence. Intellectual bliss.

From non-school things:

- It was 56 degrees today. Jonathan loved it. I hated it. This weekend is all about buying Xander winter clothes.

- At the hotel on erev Yom Kippur, Xander would not go to sleep. It was midnight, and we had been rocking him on and off since 8, it was miserable. Finally Jonathan called my mom... and Bubby sang him to sleep on speaker phone from 2000 miles away! The funny part is that I fell asleep before Xander did. :)

- My computer died a tragic death last week, and was resurrected. Jonathan is the computer god: he managed to get all my documents off the hard drive before it crashed, then he bought a new hard drive and put it all back together.

- Simcha looped the handles of a paper bag around his neck then ran through the house, terrified. Best we can figure out, he thought the paper bag was chasing him.


Time for bed. Goodnight!