There are many customs on Rosh Hashanah: blowing the shofar, eating apples dipped in honey, and long hours of prayer and meditation. But until I watched the cartoon adventures of Todd and God on You Tube, I never knew that taking communion was one of them. What else would you call the practice of God appearing to a young man and offering him the chance to consume God's body as a way of experiencing spiritual renewal in the New Year?
Actually, I love the fact that this very funny video (complete with allusions to the Simpsons as well as Beavis and Buthead), produced to teach the practice of eating a new fruit on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, does so by taping in to the power of a practice that is synonymous with Christianity. It demonstrates the universal urges that we meet with particular practices. There is no such thing as a "Jewish spiritual need", because Jews are not essentially different from other people. But there are brilliant Jewish practices which meet fundamental human spiritual needs, and this new fruit thing is one of them.
Boredom and lack of spiritual connection are challenges we all face. They are the root causes of so many problems in our lives, from cheating on our spouses (over 50% of Americans admit they do), to misery at work (over one third of us report that) to just feeling empty and lonely inside. Eating a piece of fruit, no matter how good it is, will not solve that. But we all need practices which renew us and help us feel that renewal is always possible. And it doesn't hurt that this one acknowledges that even by the second day of the New Year, those feelings can set in.
The reason offered by this video for eating a new fruit on the second night of Rosh Hashanah is to experience the newness of the year. Ironically, for a cartoon that invokes Jewish tradition, this rationale is not found in any classical Jewish sources! But that's great. It means that the deepest tradition is to infuse new meaning into received practices so that they both connect us to past generations and work for us in the present. When we do that, we find the relief we seek from the boredom we feel and fill the void we feel inside.
God offers Todd all kinds of exotic fruits to fulfill this practice, but Todd has had them all. Like many of us in this globalized world, there is nothing we can not get and very little we have not already tried. What Todd needs is not something exotic, what he needs is intimacy, a direct connection with God. That is what he has not had in a great while. And all of the exciting alternatives which God offers are pointless. Todd needs to eat God - to feel God inside of him.
Where do you find that direct connection? Wherever it is, that is where you belong. And I hope that in the coming year, we are all blessed to be in that place as often as we need to be. Because when we are, we overcome the boredom which we only think comes from the outside. We finally remember that novelty is no replacement for intimacy, and that intimacy can always be renewed whether it is with God, our job, or the people we love.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
As mentioned above by some posters, even with the differences between Catholic and Protestant communities, Communion reminds me of cannibalism and I was raised in a Protestant church, which I subsequently left at an early age. Communion is right up there with the symbol of the RCC, Jesus hanging on the cross. That is to me is a horrible way to represent a religion. The cross all by itself works, but why raise kids looking at a man being tortured? No sense in that. Enough violence in the world. However this article is about a very cool cartoon to teach about day 2 of Rash Hashanah, and I wish the folks who celebrate this hoiday a Happy one.
Dear Blondie,
Your posts exhibit an annoying aspect of some Christians -- the belief that they have the one right answer to life and everyone else is wrong. Some Christians believe that only through Faith in Jesus can anyone be saved. Due to this narrowed minded belief, such Christians have no respect for other people. They say "G-d is LOVE," but if one does not believe in an absurd myth of a 1/2 man 1/2 G-d dying for people's sins (a concept with makes no sense) that person will suffer eternal damnation in HELL.
We Jews say that our ways are appropriate for us, but there is no reason other people should follow Jewish customs. Your choice not to be a monotheist is fine with us. There is no reason that Christians have to adhere to the Shema. If Christians want to participate in symbolic cannibalism, that's fine. If they want to erect gigantic phallic symbols as part of their churches and then denounce sex, we may privately comment upon the silliness, but it's a free country and you believe what you want.
The harm arises when the "Know it All" faction of Christianity insists their religious beliefs must be imposed on everyone else. They want myth of Creationism taught in public schools, they want to place prayer in public schools, they to limit the medical information doctors may give on birth control, they keep Gays out of the military thereby undermining the nation's military preparedness in the time of war, they forced alcohol Prohibition upon the entire nation with horrible results, and they are the major reason that the country still have Prohibition for certain drugs. They insist other religions give up their beliefs about when life begins. For people like Blondie, it is not enough that America gives them freedom of religion. They interpret their freedom of religion to mean that the government must make their religious dogma into law. These type of Christians have no tolerance for other Christians whom they declare are going to Hell along with the Jews, the secularists and the Humanists and everyone else who is the least bit different from them.
With Gay Marriage, for example, they want to retract the unalienable right of Liberty and prevent any other religion from sanctioning Gay marriage. Nothing in Gay Marriage forces any religion to marry Gays if they do not want to do so. The "exclusivistic" Christians insist, however, that the State permit only the type marriage which they recognize. At one time, they made divorce illegal and before that they insisted that inter-racial marriages be illegal. So, while people like Blondie believe that they LOVE others, their actions show an extreme intolerance for other people.
Lastly, these things would not be said in public if the this aspect of Christianity did not demand that its religious dogma be imposed upon everyone.
Ruvain,
There you go again, teasing the Ignoranti. There's a Christian saying, "Don't throw pearls before swine."
Fundies "love" Jews the way pit bulls love raw meat -- we're only good for devouring.
If we don't throw our collective hands into the air shouting, "Lordie, Lordie I have seen the Light," then as you say, we can all burn in hell.
It does seem apt on a subconscious level that the cannibals want to swallow up the Jewish people into the body of Jesus. (Yuk)
Dear Ruvain and even dearer Scott,
Wow, you guys are way out of my league..Here I am a lowly little Christian girl trying to "share the love" and you guys are eating me alive..ha-ha! I guess it's not just the Catholics who are "cannibals."
On a more serious note, each of my posts have only explained what MY beliefs are...I have never suggested or told or even implied that anyone who did not accept Jesus as their Savior was going to hell...Your salvation is between you and God.
And the way I have been treated here really surprizes me...Are my opinions and beliefs REALLY the intolerant ones? But then again, just because you are so "self rightous" I guess is indeed me!
Thank you and you all have a nice day!
Blondie,
I do not know you, and so the picture I get of you from your posts could be completely wrong. But your posts remind me somewhat of my Christian grandmother. I have no doubt that her conscious motives were not bad. However, she would say hurtful things against her family members who were not Christian claiming that all the negativity that came out of her mouth was because she was concerned for the eternal souls of her family members. My Christian cousins think she was a saint. I saw her as manipulative and unkind to a part of her family who would have been happy to love her for who she was despite the differences in identity and belief except that she kept throwing it up as a roadblock and then insisting that she was the aggrieved and injured party when we expressed our dislike of her tactics.
I hope that my memories have no relationship to who you are. But people will respond to you on the basis of their prior experiences with other people, many of whom also thought of themselves as "spreading the love" but who nonetheless function within a position identified with the "dominant" religious culture. The person who is part of the majority should realize that personal and group history has colored the responses certain statements will bring from those in the minority. So if you as a Christian in a Christian-majority part of the world are speaking to Jews (and others not of your group), you should be aware of phrases or concepts that are likely to raise the hackles of those you are addressing. The fact that these are "your" beliefs does not mitigate the tension or likelihood of negative response to certain formulations.
L'Shalom,
Chaim
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