Category: Jewish holidays
-
Brain dump, Tuesday night
I have to blog a thousand things, but I’ll just keep this to the top that I’m able to think of, in no particular order, before my fingers get tired: The evil bastards who control the food packaging disaster that is hot dogs and buns are even more devious than I previously suspected: We recently…
-
Shabbat shalom and happy bageling!
Despite the name of the practice, bageling is a very appropriate Pesach activity. I was introduced to this charmingly named entertainment by a friend of my dad’s, who forwarded me the column below today. Happily, unlike in the case of many such forwards, this one still had the author’s byline, and a little Googling turned…
-
Equal Time #12
A(wesome)-capella:
-
Post-Chanukah good news reporting
Thanks to Joel for passing this along: Arkansas Menorah in the Baghdad Palace Celebrating Chanukah 2007 in Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace, who would think? Yet tonight inside a marble encrusted hall in Baghdad, we lit the eighth light of a hand-made, 6-foot tall menorah. We prayed in Hebrew, joyfully sang a medley of Chanukah songs,…
-
The Meaning of Chanukah
In the interest of equal time, please enjoy this utterly inappropriate bit of Chanukah cheer from South Park, and the lovely musical stylings of acclaimed musical genius Adam Sandler: The Chanukah Song, Parts 1, 2, and 3.
-
Concert review: Jingle Ball 2007
Local Top 40 station Star 94.1 (which is, yes, owned by ClearChannel, those corporate radio bastards) raises money for Becky’s House, a domestic violence shelter. The main fundraiser for the year is Jingle Ball, a multi-band concert that this year featured Vanessa Carlton, Lenny Kravitz, Duran Duran, and Matchbox 20. My lovely wife was kind…
-
THIS is how you spend Shabbat?!
Well, not normally, no.. er… wait a minute! Why am I making excuses? This is MY blog! Yeah, well, I decided long ago that Shabbat observance for me was not going to look like the traditional, Orthodox version. The key elements in the concept and point of Shabbat for me were the separation from the…
-
It’s the Irony, Stupid: Hospitality and Spirituality in the Middle East, Then and Now
When I started writing this (Sunday, July 15 or thereabouts) I didn’t know where it was going, so I didn’t post it. It took about a week for the realization to sink in that the thing that brought these two subjects into relief for me was the irony and sadness over the powerful positive connotations…
-
Jewish Education, the Simpsons Way
Thanks to Counting the Homer, I found out that this year’s Simpsons Treehouse of Horror (the Halloween special show) included this segment:
-
Chag sameach
It’s the holiday of Sukkot, sometimes referred to in English as the Feast of Tabernacles. There’s a whole long story behind why these people are shaking a bunch of vegetation around, which I’ll explain another time, but watch the video and enjoy.