Judaism – Excerpted

“A mature adult faith demands that we take in difficult, painful facts and allow them to become part of our understandings of God, our language of faith and connection”

4 December 2018 Drew KaplanHanukah

A mature adult faith demands that we take in difficult, painful facts and allow them to become part of our understandings of God, our language of faith and connection. Hanukah is not a holiday about[…]

“Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves”

16 April 201812 April 2018 Drew KaplanMenstrual Impurity

This term, first used by medieval commentators (see Zimmerman, p. 27, note 6), is, itself, an inaccuracy: Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves. Thus, the correct[…]

“Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt…to a proud American Jew, living with equality and freedom, it seems impossible”

28 March 201827 March 2018 Drew KaplanJews in America

Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt. For my ancestors, this may have been possible. They were regularly oppressed[…]

“The creators of the Mishnaic Haggadah structured it as a work of Greco-Roman rhetorical oratory, the most common and effective means of persuasion available in their culture…”

28 March 201827 March 2018 Drew KaplanPassover

The creators of the Mishnaic Haggadah structured it as a work of Greco-Roman rhetorical oratory, the most common and effective means of persuasion available in their culture, precisely in order to achieve the liturgical goal[…]

“…scholars have argued that the Seder might be understood as a modified Roman symposium”

27 March 201827 March 2018 Drew KaplanPassover

For over half a century, scholars have argued that the Seder might be understood as a modified Roman symposium. Both the Roman symposium and the Rabbis’ Passover meal, Barukh Bokser observes, include “the use of[…]

“…the Israelites departed from Egypt, a country where this bread-beer was the only obtainable or national alcoholic luxury, to the land flowing with milk, honey, and wine…”

21 March 2018 Drew KaplanBeer

…the Israelites departed from Egypt, a country where this bread-beer was the only obtainable or national alcoholic luxury, to the land flowing with milk, honey, and wine: instead of poverty-stricken slaves, they became a free[…]

“…the words in Exodus xii. 19, “that which is leavened,” which in Hebrew are rendered מַחְמֶצֶת, or machmetzeth, was a beer similar to the modern Egyptian paste or bread beer…”

21 March 2018 Drew KaplanBeer

…I contend that the words in Exodus xii. 19, “that which is leavened,” which in Hebrew are rendered מַחְמֶצֶת, or machmetzeth, was a beer similar to the modern Egyptian paste or bread beer (Boosa), now[…]

“…the substance now rendered as “that which is leavened” (Exodus xii. 19) was, in reality, the Hebrew beer…”

21 March 2018 Drew KaplanBeer

…the substance now rendered as “that which is leavened” (Exodus xii. 19) was, in reality, the Hebrew beer, a substance resembling the present Arab bread-beer Boosa, a fermented and eatable paste of the consistency of[…]

“…parthenogenetic (self-fertilizing) hamantaschen—pubic triangles traditionally filled with black seeds—are pre-spring, full-moon fertility cookies…”

1 March 2018 Drew KaplanFood

So…can I prove that hamantaschen are contemporary sacred vulva cakes? No. But it certainly makes academic and gut sense to me: that parthenogenetic (self-fertilizing) hamantaschen—pubic triangles traditionally filled with black seeds—are pre-spring, full-moon fertility cookies,[…]

“Jewish comedy was influenced by social types portrayed by the mask in the commedia dell’arte”

22 February 2018 Drew KaplanPurim

We wish to confine ourselves to showing how the mask was related to “the play element”, to “comic gaiety”, as well as satire, during Purim, while recognizing that, in the Italian comedy, the mask represented[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Judaism

“A mature adult faith demands that we take in difficult, painful facts and allow them to become part of our understandings of God, our language of faith and connection”

“Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves”

“Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt…to a proud American Jew, living with equality and freedom, it seems impossible”

“The creators of the Mishnaic Haggadah structured it as a work of Greco-Roman rhetorical oratory, the most common and effective means of persuasion available in their culture…”

“…scholars have argued that the Seder might be understood as a modified Roman symposium”

“…the Israelites departed from Egypt, a country where this bread-beer was the only obtainable or national alcoholic luxury, to the land flowing with milk, honey, and wine…”

“…the words in Exodus xii. 19, “that which is leavened,” which in Hebrew are rendered מַחְמֶצֶת, or machmetzeth, was a beer similar to the modern Egyptian paste or bread beer…”

“…the substance now rendered as “that which is leavened” (Exodus xii. 19) was, in reality, the Hebrew beer…”

“…parthenogenetic (self-fertilizing) hamantaschen—pubic triangles traditionally filled with black seeds—are pre-spring, full-moon fertility cookies…”

“Jewish comedy was influenced by social types portrayed by the mask in the commedia dell’arte”