Gifted Well This Holy Season

Big box on the threshold this morning, one I managed to get to without tripping over the cat or stepping in the pile of honked up cat food he deposited on the (carpeted) stairs. It's from David Hansen and Megan Dosher Hansen, dear friends I met via Twitter years ago and finally ITF (In The Flesh) during a recent trip to Texas.

For a big box, it's surprisingly lightweight and so at first I'm thinking Ostrich Pillow. The reality turns out to be even more mind-blowing. It's a menorah, complete with wax drippings. I feel a ruach-ish jolt of  recognition.

I grew up with several menorot on the family bookshelves, including one that looked exactly like this gift from the Hansens. The likelihood of inheriting that one is minimal. Mommy Dearest disowned me a couple of years ago in an exquisitely crafted typed letter with impeccable punctuation -- yet another upside of being formally disowned by a professional copy editor.

Ironically, she did quasi-offer the wooden menorah someone on her side of my clinically nuts family smuggled out of a now non-existent shtetl in Eastern Europe. The Hansens know nothing about this twisted part of my abundantly twisted family of origin.

Clearly, a Power Greater Than All of Us does. My evidence? This handwritten note from David:

"In September 2008, I went to Galveston Island as part of the Lutheran Disaster Response relief effort following Hurricane Ike. After a cleaning a home (throwing most water logged possessions away) the home owner gave me this -- his family menorah. I knew you would appreciate it & use it."

Indeed, amen, dayenu, and thank you.

Yom Kippur 5774: Kol Nidre (Moroccan Version)

Again.

Every vow and bond

every oath

every promise

every obligation or every renunciation

between ourselves and God

which we have vowed 

which we have sworn 

which we have promised

and taken upon ourselves 

from the preceding Day of Atonement 

unto this Day of Atonement 

may it come upon us in peace. 

All such oaths 

all such vows 

all such promises or renunciations 

are as if they were not 

they shall not be binding 

nor shall they have any power.

Days of Awe, 2013/5774

Days of Awe? Yamim Noraim. The 10 days between between Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur, aka, Days of Repentance; time to contemplate crap from the previous year. For those of you in 12 Step Recovery, think, "4th Step on Steroids." If you're into Ignatian spirituality, think, "Examen on Steroids." Glatt steroids, of course.

As a semi-side note, I happen to think the word "awesome" has become awesomely abused and I, for one, would like to get back to its "fear of the Lord" roots. But that's just me. Moving right along. 

This year I've been using 10Q to help me wander through this sacred time. I have my friend Jim Siegel, Director of Marketing & Communications at HealthCare Chaplaincy, to thank for this online assist. 

10Q is efficiently brilliant: "10 Days. 10 Questions." Well-crafted, simple, direct questions; nothing arch or distractedly clever. Archived so they can be revisited. Options include keeping the answer private, posting publicly openly, posting publicly anonymously:

I've opted to keep all but two of my answers private and shared two anonymously on the main site. With what did I go public? My answer to today's question about fear(s):

After realizing that my initial list include fears that were more routinized than real, I decided to get real. Turns out my top limiting fear is that of getting and staying stuck. My plan for overcoming it? Goosing my consciousness with more prayer and other spiritual practices, like writing. And possibly drinking more coffee.

5774? Bring it!

Hot, muggy air oozes in if I open the windows, so I keep them shut to pretend it's Fall. The subtle shift in light from brutally bright to somewhat softer, plus bark peeling off the sycamore trees makes it easier to pretend summer is really and truly over.

I'm ready for autumn and greeting an extremely early new year helps. Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashonah.

So what if I'm baptized? So what if I embrace with deep delight the Christian liturgical calendar? Deeper still is the rhythm of the Jewish calendar, even if I cannot accurately recite the months in Hebrew and need to consult Rebbe Google for dates of the High Holy Days.

This year, Rosh Hashonah begins at sundown on September 4, 2013. I'm ready...and not just because I have linked it to the end of summer. I'm about due for paying closer attention to what, in the world of Twelve Step recovery, shows up as Steps 4 through 9* and for what, in the world of Ignatian Spirituality, is the stuff of a Daily Examen. Actually, I'm a bit overdue for this interior spelunking.

The traditional greeting, L'shanah Tova, is a wish for a "good" year. On my list of Prayerful To Do's during this year's Days of Awe:  contemplating the upside of unhooking "good" from "happy" and what being "inscribed in the Book of Life" might require in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

5774? Bring it!

*
Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8: Make a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

       

Yom Kippur 5773: Not Your Usual Kol Nidre

Kol Nidrei (Moroccan Version)

Was considering posting the Johnny Mathis version, 

but felt called to post this rendition...again. It's gorgeous.

Every vow and bond

every oath

every promise

every obligation or every renunciation

between ourselves and God

which we have vowed 

which we have sworn 

which we have promised

and taken upon ourselves 

from the preceding Day of Atonement 

unto this Day of Atonement 

may it come upon us in peace. 

All such oaths 

all such vows 

all such promises or renunciations 

are as if they were not 

they shall not be binding 

nor shall they have any power.

Avinu Malkenu: Our Father, Our King...

Recited* on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and 
during the Ten Days of Repentance in between . . .

 

Our Father, our King, hear our voice.
Our Father, our King, we have sinned before you.
Our Father, our King, have compassion upon us and upon our children.

Our Father, our King, bring an end to pestilence, war, and famine around us.
Our Father, our King, bring an end to all trouble and oppression around us.
Our Father, our King, Our Father, our King, inscribe us in the book of (good) life.
Our Father, our King, renew upon us a good year.

Hear our voice.
Hear our voice.
Hear our voice.

*I grew up hearing and chanting this version, but neither our Rabbi nor our Cantor looked or sounded at all like this. Dang!

5773 already? Seems like it was just 5771.

L'shana tovah!

And may you be inscribed in the Book of Life.

L'Shana Tovah! 5772

My great and groovy advice for Rosh Hashonah:  


If you're going to eat taiglach, make an appointment with your dentist now.

Purim: When I Was Queen

Although I believe these images require no explanation, I still feel compelled to mention: 

Here's me, costumed as Queen Esther for a Purim festival at the synagogue of my childhood. Please note: these are not pictures of my First Holy Communion.

These pictures were taken only two years apart. Please note: Queen Esther eventually matures into being regal instead of a campy vamp.

My mother made the royal wear and gear. Please note: Same blue sheet, different ornamentation and accessories. I'm wearing peep-toe shoes at age 10.

There you have it, nearly the whole megillah! (Follow the previous link for an audio file of Megillat Ester).

Yom Kippur 5771

Kol Nidrei (Moroccan Version)*

Every vow and bond

every oath
every promise
every obligation or every renunciation
between ourselves and God
which we have vowed
which we have sworn
which we have promised
and taken upon ourselves
from the preceding Day of Atonement
unto this Day of Atonement
may it come upon us in peace
All such oaths
all such vows
all such promises
or renunciations
are as if they were not
they shall not be binding
nor shall they have any power

* H/T to chavarim at OneShul for introducing me to this gorgeous rendition of Kol Nidrei

5771

5771 . . .
Shofar, so good!

The Tashlich Scene at My House

God will take us back in love;
God will cover up our iniquities,
God will hurl all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19

The Betta Boys are honored
to participate
in the Rosh HaShanah custom of tashlich
which, from their perspective,
beats being featured in the meal
for Yom Kippur's break-the-fast.

Not quite ready for 5771

"Holy crap!" is probably not the expression such news should prompt, but that's what zipped through my head and out of my mouth when I discovered how early Rosh Hashanah would be this year.

The Jewish new year, 5771, begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 8. I am so not ready for this, a sentiment that's guaranteed to generate predictable comments like, "What do you care, aren't you Roman Catholic now?"

These types of remarks used to cheese me off and still do, except I've learned to use them as opportunities to flog my book, Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar: Jewish Roots of Christian Worship...kind of like I just did.

I've also started suggesting a visit to Jewcy: What Matter Now might be instructive. A tour through that fabulous site reveals variations of self-definition among contemporary Jews. After decades of inter-everything marriage, it's looking to me like self-definition trumps the rulebook written during antiquity. Not to mention that identity and faith and religion do not necessarily overlap; certainly not neatly.

In fact, I do care that Rosh Hashanah is sooner rather than later. It doesn't matter how long I've been baptized or in what Christian church I hold open my hands and lift them to receive the host, the rhythm of the Jewish liturgical calendar still has the power to shape my daily life.

During the High Holy Days I'm invited to contemplate the year just finished and how I might discover and live according to God's will in the year ahead. Not sure I'm ready, willing or able to do this in a few short weeks. And of course I'll contemplate all this yet again when the Christian liturgical year begins at Advent ─ which also seems to be arriving very early this year.

When Liturgical Calendars Collide: The 14th of Adar 5770 & February 28, 2010

Recognitio this: CCC 121

So much was going on for me this summer, that I just wasn't in the mood to deal with any United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) or Vatican-generated chazzarai about Catholic-Jewish relations.

More specifically, I'd just calmed down about the SSPX situation when the USCCB issued its June statement, "A Note on Ambiguities Contained in Reflections on Covenant and Mission." I read and printed out a few news reports, then set them aside. Didn't read the original document. Shame on "Jewish in identity, Christian in faith, and Catholic in religious practice" me for not paying attention.

Even more shame on me for only glancing at news reports about the U.S. Catholic Bishops voting to ask the Vatican "to approve a small change" in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. The small change? Striking this sentence: "Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them." (p. 131).

What they kept in is a pile o' words that includes a quote from Paul's letter to the church in Rome (Romans 9:4-5). Read that scripture snippet in context and you'll find yet another great example of, revealed especially in his use of pronouns, Paul's own identity-faith issues. Have I mentioned lately that I'm glad it's no longer the Year of St. Paul?

And of course every other commentator jumped all over this story. I let it slide when it was reported first on August 12 and two weeks later when the USCCB received Vatican Recognitio for this change. So what finally prompted me to yank my head out of the sand?

I dunno. Maybe it's because I'd just finished explaining -- to a Catholic who had to look up the word -- that supercessionism is, at long last, considered a disreputable theological stance. (Making a comeback?) Or, maybe it's because I read Rocco Palmo recent post about the Vatican announcing that its teachings about the Jewish people are "not negotiable." (Oh really?)

More likely it's because all this interfaith dishabille seems especially distressing as Rosh Hashonah approaches. I really do prefer the new year include stuff worth celebrating. In the domain of Catholic-Jewish relations, this is hardly the case. I'm counting it all oy.

Balls...Made of Matzo Meal

Sometimes the most innocent question will plunge me into an unexpected amount of pondering. A not-Jewish someone recently asked if I had a good recipe for matzo ball soup. I came to a full stop at the concept of good.

Finding a good recipe for matzo balls is easy. Use whatever recipe is printed on the box of matzo meal. If that seems too prosaic, then by all means search the Internet or crack open a Jewish holiday cookbook. The recipe you find will be like the one printed on the box of matzo meal, with perhaps chopped parsley added for culinary bling.

Making matzo balls that are good? How the Gehenna would I know?

My grandmother's balls were so compact and tough that a serrated knife could hardly hack through them. Were her matzo balls good? Decades passed before I encountered firm yet light matzo balls. Being able to use the side of a soup to slice through them easily was certainly a pleasant relief, but were they good?

When it comes to matzo balls, good is a relative concept and I mean that quite literally. No one raised Jewish would even think to ask anyone other than the family matriarch for a recipe. The word "good" would remain silent as the box of matzo meal was handed over.

Photo: Coconut & Lime/Flickr

Happy New Year again. This time, to trees!

15 Shvat

Before there was Earth Day and everyone was going green, the Jewish people established the feast of Tu B'Shvat. This is the New Year of the Trees! Yet another opportunity to praise and thank God for these marvelous creations.

Torah prohibits injuring, let alone destroying trees, which makes sense given the Israelites' history of desert wandering. Check out Chapter 8 in Deuteronomy which, please note, includes the first mention that we "do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord " (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Food is, of course, involved. In addition to planting and blessing trees, this holiday includes the custom of blessing and eating the seven species at a festive meal:

1. wheat (chitah)
2. barley (se'orah)
3. grapes (gefen)
4. fig (te'enah)
5. pomegranate (rimon)
6. olive (zayit)
7. date (tamar)

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who has not omitted anything in His world, but has created in it goodly creatures and goodly trees, to give delight through them to the children of man.

Feast of Mary, Mother of God? World Day of Peace? How About the Feast of the Circumcision?

Many centuries before today's Holy Day of Obligation was established as the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, it was known as the Feast of the Circumcision. Here's why: Jesus was Jewish.

According to Torah law, Jewish boys must be circumcised eight days after birth as a sign of the enduring covenant God made with his Chosen People (Genesis 17:10-14).

That's right, my dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, Jesus had a bris. I want to encourage you to remember and celebrate this event. Doing so cannot help but strengthen awareness of your Jewish heritage. It also provides a great excuse to have lox, sable, whitefish, bagels, and cream cheese for blunch -- if you need an excuse.

As you might imagine, I'm working on shtick about why the name of this feast might have been changed. It seemed to be working just fine from the 6th to the 20th century.

Onward Toward Christmas

The tree prayer in progress.







I suspect they stopped off somewhere for a dreidel spin & latkes.

My Chanukah: When Worlds Collide

Be Not Afraid of Chanukah