May 2009 Archives

Of course, child sacrifice should horrify us. But the fact that it still exists, and is making headlines in a number of states, should not really surprise us. After all, the notion of using the life of one's child to prove the depth of one's faith and commitment is present in virtually all of the world's religious and political traditions. The followers of all three Abrahamic faiths flirt with this tradition in numerous ways including the foundational stories of the "binding of Isaac" in Genesis, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael in the Qur'an, and the entire story of Jesus which celebrates a "father" who offers "his only begotten son" on the cross.

Similar stories can be found in other religious traditions as well, and writing this on Memorial Day reminds me that politics is just as effective as religion in mobilizing nations to prove their commitment to a cause by sacrificing young men and women to implement the policies of their elders.

Since I believe that some wars do need to be fought, I can accept this. But we should not pretend that the impulse to celebrate the loss of children "who made the ultimate sacrifice" is foreign to any of us. In fact, our distancing ourselves from this question actually empowers and protects those who respond to it in the most grotesque ways. The real question is what do we do with that impulse, the impulse to offer those people we love most for the ideas we love most?

Clearly, the parents of children like Leilani Neumann and Daniel Hauser have decided that murdering their children to honor their faith is the way to go. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. From coast to coast, thousands of kids are in danger because of the fanatical faith of their parents.

Time Magazine has an article under the banner Postcard from Ramallah. It describes a compelling exercise in freedom of speech and conscious worthy of celebration, regardless of what one thinks of the situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories or even the wall/security barrier/fence itself. Sadly, the story is told with such rage at Israel, that it's hard to see that. Once again those who share the author's bias will stoke the furnaces of their own rage. Those who don't share that hostility will use the presence of ugly bias to deflect the real lessons to be learned from this amazing project.

The truth is that it is hard to take seriously any author who opens their work with the following: "Few things are as monumentally ugly as the Israeli separation wall on Jerusalem's edge." Either the author, Tim Mcgirk has had a very sheltered life or has no awareness of how many things are going on in this world that are much, much uglier. That or he just hates Israel so much that he cannot help himself from making truly stupid and totally insensitive remarks.

Shavuot, literally the festival of weeks and known to Christians as Pentecost, begins tomorrow night. And this year especially, I find myself excited about some of its special traditions. I love staying up all night studying, talking, and eating cheesecake with friends. I love walking into our synagogue and seeing it covered in fresh greenery, vines twisted about the furnishings and filling the air with their fresh scent. But where did these customs come from and what do they mean?

Like many popular practices there are many and competing views about their origins and meaning and I would love to have people add theirs in the comments below. My own understanding of these three customs begins with the fact that all are significant departures from typical Jewish custom of the last thousand or more years. And the fact that we choose the night on which re recall the revelation at Sinai, the giving of the law, as a time to subvert our usual customs is pretty interesting and I think, quite instructive.

Since the time of the Talmud, rabbis have understood eating meat to be a central expression, even an obligation, of the joy we are meant to experience on holidays. (Sorry Vegetarians! I will explore the vegetarian/carnivore tension in the tradition some other time.) Yet on Shavuot, we specifically eat dairy meals. And yes, that means that grilled fish and a salad would be as proper as blintzes and cheesecake, but they are not as much fun! Please don't tell my doctor!!

Generally speaking, nighttime was frightening until recent times. There was little cheap, artificial lighting and so most people could not function at night. This left them feeling scared and the practice of being up and about all night long was frowned upon by many religious authorities, both Jewish and not. Again though, we find ourselves flouting that norm on the night we receive the book of norms!

And the greening of the synagogue was seen as sufficiently pagan by some rabbis that they opposed the custom of draping Jewish prayer spaces with the kind of greens which often marked classical temples. Yet Shavuot was the holiday in which this often frowned upon practice became popular. What is going on?

Normally, I save my musings about American Girl dolls and their roll in life for home - we have three daughters ranging in age from 15 - 8, so it's not unfamiliar territory. But comments about the release of the new doll, due out May 31st, are stunningly revelatory about common attitudes towards Jews and Jewishness in America. And I don't mean on the part of the manufacturers, but on the part of Jews.

Let's start with the fact that this is the 14th doll in the American Girl series, but it's being greeted like something for which we have been waiting with as much anticipation as we do the Messiah. I mean I understand the value of having dolls which reflect and affirm the experience of the kids who play with them, but I also like the fact that my youngest daughter chose a doll that is not even Caucasian, let alone Jewish!

I also find it a little weird when other writers and bloggers make declarations like "this is our history, right here in this doll". Oh really, which "our" do they mean?

David Gibson's piece on Carrie Prejean, Queen Esther and American Evangelicals was an eye-opener for me, and I am not even entirely clear about his conclusion. But the fact that the conflict-embroiled Miss USA wannabe is being touted by many Christians as a contemporary Queen Esther is pretty interesting. And in some ways, they have a point.

Like Queen Esther, Miss Prejean seems to be caught up in a controversy that is beyond either what she ever intended or even fully comprehended. Like Queen Esther, and totally unlike the current mis-reading of the story by Prejean's Evangelical supporters, this is a story with many players pulling at, and pushing on, the heroine to get her to do what they want as much as her acting based on her own deeply-held beliefs.

Contrary to the quoted Boston University professor in his piece, Esther never asserts the belief that she has become queen in order to save her people. Those are Mordechai's words when he pushes her to speak out on their behalf. In fact, Esther is only able to carry out the mission on which she is sent because she resigns herself to failure and even death if she disappoints the king.

The most interesting thing here about the comparison to queen Esther is that for the parallel to work, we would need to presume that Evangelical Christians are being persecuted by a government which seeks their physical destruction. Is that what they believe? Now that's something worth exploring....