drwex | Entries tagged with religion

Hi. I still exist and it's Passover week. Usually I post something pre-Passover. It's still my favorite holiday but I really wasn't feeling it this year. I kept thinking I'd post updates and then realizing they'd mostly be depressing so I didn't. 2020 sucked. And as we say about all Jewish holidays - they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat.

Last Passover we were hoping to be out of lockdown and able to socialize for this year's Seder. Not so much. We did have Pygment's (fully vaccinated) girlfriend as guest.

This year's Seder started with me reading a passage from the Haggadah intro that talked about the kittel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittel) a thing I'd never heard of. That prompted Pygment to go get my white lab coat (*) and me to remark: "I see we're having the silly Seder this year."

Other choice bits:
- I need someone to decolonize my Haggadah.

- Technicalities. But of course. It's Judaism so it's technicalities.

- So it starts with a kaiju frog.

- This is no such thing as immaculate liberation.

- The perfect set-up for intergenerational trauma.

- If you are without sin, you're supposed to go to Heaven. I'm so doomed.

- Rabbis made this shit up, and we admit rabbis made this shit up.

- An excuse to hang out with people I enjoy and have arguments. Yeah that's pretty much every Jewish holiday.

- Order of operations: attempt the thing, die, come back and get my corpse, try again with more planning.

We did have a pretty serious discussion about the Plagues this year, caused by Thing 2 asserting that they didn't understand why the Egyptians couldn't change their minds in the face of plagues. That Americans have just demonstrated in ample detail how resistant people can be to changing their minds in the face of an actual ongoing year-long plague was a little too on-point to ignore.

(*) What? You don't have mad scientist coats for everyone in your household? Not my fault, sorry.

Current Mood: tired

As noted, I actually went to synagogue this year. Many years I've not religiously observed the holiday at all. Pygment and Thing 2 found a synagogue they liked and go to hear Torah and shofar. This year I went along and it was nice (except for the ongoing allergy attacks; we are the household of sneezes and watery eyes).

The rabbi's sermon was interesting; she took on the idea of "random kindness" and urged people to make kindness less random and more a regular part of everyday life. Worthwhile to think about. It's interesting to see a connection drawn between "walking in G-d's path" and enacting values in our everyday lives.

Listening to her I thought about how the notions of kindness and civility have been weaponized against marginalized people and had this thought-stream. It's not "civility" per se that's the problem. It's that the complaint of lack of civility is used by those in power to demand performance from those with less power. I am reminded that slave owners demanded that their slaves be civil and yet felt no need to behave with compassion toward these other humans. If we stop demanding things of others, and instead focus on our own actions, then civility can return to a more reasonable place. If I behave in a civil manner, speak civilly toward others, then that is its own value. The idea of "random kindness" is that it's given without expectation of return. We are kind, compassionate, or civil as we enact our values. These are not things we demand of others.

I know I could stand to be more compassionate, more civil. I'm... working on it.

As always at this time of year, I ask that if I have harmed or offended you please tell me about it and if I may apologize or make amends I wish to know that as well.

May you have a good, sweet year, and also a just and inspiring year.

Current Mood: thankful

Last night we went to a vigil in Arlington in response to a couple of the recent hate crimes. News here: https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/05/joint-terrorism-task-force-investigating-suspicious-fires-set-at-jewish-institutions-in-arlington-needham.html

I hate that I have to write "a couple of the..." because there isn't just one. There were two local, and at the time this was happening, a similar attempted firebombing happened in the Chicago area. The targets there were friends-of-friends; the people targeted in Arlington were people we know. People who taught the kids for their b'nei mitzvot. I have ALL the feels and no idea what to do about any of it.

No persons were harmed and property damage was much less than it might have been. Still, a hate crime not just directed at my marginal group but at people I specifically know is a qualitative step change in the atmosphere.

Last night's vigil/rally of support was well-attended. We essentially filled Arlington Town Hall (moved indoors by last-minute rain). Lots of officials turned out in support (*) and the acting Chief of Police spoke. Everyone thanked the police, who have apparently been diligent in pursuit of the attackers so far. As noted, this is also a qualitative difference. Nobody in Arlington is claiming that the bombers are "fine people", and you can't underrate having public support from government and law enforcement.

"Love Lives Here" as a slogan to complement "Hate Has No Home Here" is an invention and artistry from a friend of ours. I don't think she has a DW or site I can link to; she's helped with art and production work on several Arisias. The slogan is available on postcards and signs, in English and Hebrew. She got at least general acknowledgement from the podium, along with several of the hand-crafted signs students had made. One of those signs said "Please don't bomb my rabbi" which hit me RIGHT in the feels.

After the vigil we got to go out with her and much of her family, which was a nice social for the adults even if the teens were largely anti-social.

I've been trying to find good coherent words about this since last week when I heard about the attack. I don't have any. At the vigil the Rabbi said that his response to "what can I do" was "do a mitzvah". (**) I appreciate that sentiment and I can't help thinking that the greatest mitzvah would be to defeat the Hater in Chief so we don't have four more years of this kind of filth feeling it's OK to show themselves in the daylight.

Hair Furor didn't create these monsters, and yet he is still their great champion. I don't imagine that this is a "cut the head off the snake and the body will die" moment, but I can't think of anything more nationally effective right now.

(*) There was also an unscheduled appearance by a consular official from Israel, whose verbal hypocrisy caused me to grind my teeth rather a lot. Talking about how Israel stands against hate is not very convincing when you represent a government that is actively harming refugees and Jews of color, while perpetuating a discriminatory national system, and an occupation with no end in sight. I consider myself a Zionist, and see hate crimes like these and worse worldwide as a reason for Israel to exist and to be supported. But I hate that a movement I grew up associating with egalitarian socialism has been taken over by fascistic religious fundamentalists and perverted to their ends.

(**) Literally, following a commandment. More generally, doing a good deed. It's a very Jewish form of "pay it forward" because we believe that putting out goodness into the world is its own reward. Jews don't follow the commandments - do mitzvot - because we're afraid we'll go to (Christian style) Hell if we don't. We do it because fixing the world begins with fixing oneself, and fixing oneself is both a personal reward - you're a better person - and a global good because you get to live in a world with more healthy better people.

Current Mood: worried

I may try to do one of my more traditional posts celebrating this holiday, but Pygment found this item and I just had to share:

Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen of Beth El-Keser Israel said in an email, “Any food purchased by crossing a picket line or from scab workers is not kosher for Passover.” He said it is “a matter of well-established Jewish law.”

from https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Jews-face-having-to-find-Passover-foods-without-13763250.php

Not only do I love that this is the decision, but I _adore_ that this is a question that is already a matter of long-settled law. Because of course it should be.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Lika Morgan - In Motion

Happy New Year. For the first time in a while I took off from work on the first day of Rosh Hashona. I still don't do shul, but I was hoping to get some walking and thinking time.

The walking, not so much. Between the weather (yuk) and Pygment's foot problems (double yuk) the walking didn't happen. Thinking has been ongoing for weeks now. I feel fortunate that I've been able to connect (via Twitter) with people who are both Jewish - and so steeped in the cultural traditions and religious teachings I value - and politically aligned.

A long time ago I walked out of two synagogues two years in a row and haven't gone back since (once it was over politics and once it was over money; if you want the stories, ask). I've felt a deep alienation between the beliefs that I think are core to the ethics I hold and the way the religion is practiced. The acceleration of modern Zionism toward fascist racism has only made this worse. Pygment pointed out (correctly I think) that in this Twitter community I've found people I can look up to and learn from. One of the things that made MIT so special for me was that I was literally surrounded by such people; since leaving there it's been hard to connect with those kinds of people. Now, again, I have found a couple people who share values I hold - sanctity of life, duty to the stranger, the deep sense that we are obliged not to turn our backs on people in need (for we were once refugees in Egypt comma dammit) and who can talk to those values from a Jewish perspective.

Every time I try to write about how I feel about this time of year, what I feel obliged to do, and how I might undertake that work in the present climate of the US I end up with incoherent babble. I'm not doing it well here, either, so forgive me if I revert to standard formulas.

If I have harmed you in the past, I hope you will feel OK telling me about it and pointing out how I might make up for that harm. I will try hard to do the work, and not to make the same mistakes again.