Heritage

[beetiger]

The Jewish holidays are coming up. Rosh Hashanah's coming up Friday night, so I've got to pull out my recipes for honey cake and dip tart apples from the tree in honey. It reminds me of my grandparents, and of where I come from. I may even try to make taiglach again, though I don't have a recipe I like yet. (If you do, please share!)

I'm not a practicing Jew. It's pretty clear from a quick overview of my life that I'm an idolater in the classic sense (ooh, pretty statues!). I've never had any interest in keeping kosher. Bard and I have decided not to circumcise our soon-to-arrive son. I never went to Hebrew School, never learned to read Hebrew, never had a bat mitzvah. I don't belong to a temple.

In my group at Seagram, I was kind of the token Jew, the one people would ask questions of if they were confused about something. It's the longish nose and the last name that does it, I guess. Since I am moderately knowledgeable about the basics, I generally just answered. One year, so many people asked me if I was taking Yom Kippur off that I just decided to, after all. I went to hang out with a reform congregation which had a cantor with a phenomenal voice, and which only wanted a donation to join them as opposed to the high ticket prices that most congregations around here charge. Between the early and late parts of the service, I went to Pound Ridge Reservation to meditate and watch wild turkeys.

But I do keep the major fasts, the restrictions on leavened products at Passover, the full fast at Yom Kippur. The rest of my family, though overall much more practicing, doesn't. They think it's very odd that I do, when I don't really believe that G-d cares. *I* care. It keeps me connected to my past, and is the kind of discipline I find pleasing. This year, I won't -- even Jewish tradition says that pregnant women should not fast, as it could endanger the life of the child. I think it's going to feel weird, and I suspect I'll eat sparse, basic foods, rather than just eating normally.

And I'll think about how to teach a young boy that something is important, even if it isn't really true.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

In my group at Seagram, I was kind of the token Jew, the one people would ask questions of if they were confused about something. It's the longish nose and the last name that does it, I guess. Since I am moderately knowledgeable about the basics, I generally just answered.

Hee. In most of my social group, I'm the token person-raised-Catholic (although lediva fits the bill too), and I get questions that often show me just how skewed and incomplete my education was. Much of the history of the Church I've picked up in my readings about, of all things, the Hapsburgs. I know a fair amount about saints (only the ones martyred in interesting ways, though, or who were really insane) and Marian visitations. And a bit about nuns. And that's really it. Negative points to the Catholic educators who designed my weekly classes.