#observant jew

[ask-a-queer-jew]

Today is Yom Kippur

Shout out to all the queer Jews who have to explain this holiday to their queer friends.

Shout out to all the queer Jews who have friends that respond with laughter, or calling fasting child abuse, or asking why you even bother.

Shout out to all the queer Jews who feel conflicted over this holiday.

Shout out to all the queer Jews forced to participate (you deserve to make your own choices).

Shout out to all the queer Jews who are in traditional communities, and will read in tomorrow's torah reading that being queer is wrong

Shout out to all the queer Jews who feel the need to repent for their queerness (you are perfect the way you are).

Shout out to all the queer Jews who are tired of lying, and tired of repenting for lying.

Shout out to all the queer Jews who can only think of all the times and all the people they are lying to every time they read Al Chet (על חטא)

Shout out to all the queer Jews who think of how many less sins they'd commit if only they weren't queer.

Shout out to all the queer Jews who do not feel safe today.

Shout out to all the queer Jews who do not know if or when they will ever feel safe on Yom Kippur.

You are all accepted here. You deserve a voice. My DMs are open if you need someone to talk to. This holiday can be challenging, but you will make it through.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

I'm allowed to make this joke, but I love that Jewish death rituals are like:

"Pfeh, for what should I spend $12,000 on a big fekakte box they see only for five minutes before they cover it with dirt?"

"Don't waste my good suit what might fit my nephew Lev if the bum should ever even try to get a real job!"

"Embalming? Don't mind me, I'll rot in the dark."

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Can't believe the high holy days are so soon... to anybody observing, may the holy days be gentle and kind to you, and may the preparation for these days be as stress-free as it can be 🩵

[ave-immaculata]

The Church didn't change the Sabbath day to Sunday; Saturday is still the Sabbath

but Gentiles aren't obligated to observe the Sabbath

all Christians, Jewish or Gentile, however, are called to observe the Lord's Day which is the fullfilment of the Sabbath

edit for clarification: The Lord's Day is Sunday

[eretzyisrael]

by John Podhoretz

A day after Jewish college kids found it necessary to barricade themselves inside a library in the center of Greenwich Village while a mob of repugnant terrorist-lovers banged on the locked doors trying to get at them, the message is being broadcast that, on this Sabbath, Jews in Brooklyn had better remain at home.

Stay inside.

Lock the doors.

A pro-Palestinian protest is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday in front of the Brooklyn Museum.

That’s a mile from 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the largest ultra-Orthodox sect in the world, the Lubavitch Hasidim.

Roughly 20,000 observant Jews live around 770, in the neighborhood called Crown Heights.

“Jews should definitely avoid the area,” an ultra-Orthodox news site called COLlive.com said a “security source” had advised them and the Shmira, the local Jewish self-defense association.

“There’s no intel at this time in which direction the protest will head. Locals should definitely stay away from Eastern Parkway in that area.”

The Jews of Brooklyn feel they are at risk, and — this is the implicit corollary — they cannot be protected.

On the Sabbath, observant Jews do not use electricity or vehicles or screens of any kind.

To pass the time on a Sabbath afternoon, they often go on a long walk.

Not this weekend.

As the security source said, after all, who knows which direction the mob will go?

Better for the Jews to stay inside.

Just as it became a matter of life and death for them to stay inside back in 1991, in the very same neighborhood.

What everyone is afraid of is a repeat of August 1991.

In Crown Heights that year, a three-day anti-Jewish riot followed a tragic automobile accident that took the life of a 7-year-old black child after he was hit by a car being driven by a Hasidic Jew.

Not only were 38 Jews beaten, seven Jewish-owned businesses were looted and burned to the ground.

“Let’s go get a Jew,” a mob chanted, and then they did — they murdered an Australian doctoral student named Yankel Rosenbaum, stabbing him and smashing in his skull.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

One might wonder why I'm so specifically hung up on the driving issue on Shabbat, when I tend to be liberal on other issues. So let me explain.

In addition to the fact that it is inarguably melacha (forbidden work), I have some major ideological and just practical issues with it, too.

First, by having your community within walking distance, you create a real community. People know where others live and eat by them and socialize more and better. You don't have the immediate "pack everyone up in the car and drive off" flurry after services, but rather more leisurely conversations as you stroll home or to another person's home, or to the park, or to mincha, etc. The instant everyone lives all over and has the ability to just take off to another part of town, you ruin both the slow pace of the day as well as lose out on the closeness of community. (There's also a lot that could be said about Jewish participation in white flight from city centers and how this enables it, but that's a can of worms that I'm not sure I want to open.)

Second, it's a way of treating creation as sacred, because that is a whole 25 hours during which you are not driving your vehicle and therefore burning more fossil fuels. Shabbat is meant to be a day of rest after the seventh day of creation; what better way to honor it than by reducing your impact on the environment?

Third, for those of us who commute, it's not just symbolic work, but invokes the atmosphere of workweek work (not just melacha, which is sometimes much easier than the shabbosdik workaround.) For me, it totally ruins the Shabbos atmosphere every minute I'm in the car, because it just feels like any other day going to my job or running errands.

So even just beyond the fact that it is melacha, there are solid practical reasons to avoid driving on Shabbat.

[lawbreaker13]

I may be ten years late to this take but Schmidt is sincerely the best Jewish representation anywhere in the media

[jewish-microwave-laser]

Hello! I see that you converted with a conservative rabbi. Bit of a dumb question, but what did "kabbalat ol Mitzvot" entail for you? What's the expectation for the level of observance when you arrive in front of the Beit din?

not dumb at all!!! i'm actually interested in finding out what the rabbinical assembly officially has to say on the matter, bc for myself this wasn't an issue at all. it kinda seemed like i was holding myself up to a higher standard than even my rabbi was—for example i didn't want to convert until i had my own personal understanding of tznius and how i was going to honor it in my life. essentially, there was the desire that i engage with mitzvot, even if that interaction led to me deciding not to do it (either at all or just in the "traditional" way). for example, making sure i have some type of shabbat observance, even if i'm not Shomer Shabbes™️. in kentucky it's pretty much impossible to follow all the laws of kashrut, especially if you eat meat, so for that one it was like "are you at least trying." tho there are other people in my conversion class who don't keep kosher and my rabbi's completely fine with that

essentially it's putting the emphasis on the wrestling, even if you aren't following the orthodox understanding of how to to comply with a mitzvah (if at all), did you at least think it through and do you have a reason for taking that approach

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Adam Levick

Jay Rayner, in a restaurant review for The Observer (sister site of The Guardian), sampled the salt beef sandwich, matzah ball soup, chopped liver, bagels, and pickles at a new Jewish deli in London called Freddie’s. (Freddie’s, London: “Over salt beef, I brood on the need to review this Jewish deli” — restaurant review, March 31).

The review was mixed. The Jewish journalist loved the salt beef sandwich, but it “pained” him to criticize the chicken soup as “desperately under-seasoned.” Something else that clearly pained him actually isn’t on the menu. Nor does it have anything whatsoever to do with the review. Though, as you’ll see in the paragraphs below, he tries desperately to imagine one:

And now I should warn you that it’s going to take a dark turn. When I first came across Freddie’s I was excited. For all my lack of faith or observance these dishes, kept alive by a vestigial memory of the shtetl, root me. Then I hesitated. Could I really write about a Jewish restaurant given the current political turmoil? Would I get abuse for doing so? Surely better to keep shtum.

At which point I knew I had no choice: I had to write about it. The horrendous campaign of the government and armed forces of Israel in Gaza cannot be allowed to make being Jewish a source of shame.

When Hamas mounted their 7 October attack on Israel, they committed both an atrocity and a provocation. With so many hostages taken, there were no good options for the Israeli government. Nevertheless, they managed to choose the very worst one. They have killed thousands, starved many more, destroyed homes and turned their country into a pariah. As it happens, they have also made life for Jews who live outside Israel and have no responsibility for the decisions its government takes, so very much harder. I deplore what Israel is doing. But that doesn’t mean I can “refute” my Jewishness. That is a surrender to antisemitism. And so I sit here with my terrific salt beef sandwich and my chocolate mousse, indulging that bit of my Jewish identity which makes sense to me. It’s not much, but it’s all I have. [emphasis added]

Life for the British Jewish community has indeed been much, much harder since Oct. 7.

The CST reported 4,103 instances of anti-Jewish hate in 2023, 2,699 (66%) of which occurred on or after October 7. This figure alone, they note, “exceeds any previous annual antisemitic incident total recorded by CST, and marks an increase of 589% from the 392 instances of antisemitism reported to CST over the same time period in 2022″ [emphasis added].

However, Rayner’s suggestion that the decisions of Israel’s government has made life for Jews “so very much harder” is itself a classic (and codified) trope that has been used by antisemites — blaming Jews in Israel for the racist actions of non-Jews in the UK.

It’s amazing that this even needs to be stated, but the only ones responsible for increased antisemitism — in the UK or anywhere else — are those committing antisemitic acts. Even if you buy into the author’s argument that Jerusalem’s military decisions since the barbarism of Oct. 7 have been the “worst” ones possible, or subscribe to the specific lie that Israel has intentionally “starved” Gazans, what people — other than those who are already predisposed to hating Jews — would take their anti-Israel fury out on diaspora Jews?

Only at The Guardian, would a Jewish restaurant critic writing a review about salt beef, bagels, and shmears feel the need to condemn and distance himself from the Jewish State.

[dragoneyes618]

An important point in this matter of shades of observance, it seems to me, is to avoid calling one's own practice the only true Judaism; to label anything stricter mere fanaticism, and anything less strict mere pork-eating. One can fall into such an attitude because the old stability and uniformity of practice do not at the moment exist. People who eat ham or shrimps, or steaks from electrocuted or poleaxed cattle, are clearly not following the law of Moses. People who never eat or drink in public restaurants surely run less risk of accidental deviation from the diet than those who do. The exigencies of an active life may make this strictness difficult. The observant follow conscience under guidance of teachers they trust. They all hold to the same disciplines; the variations are in detail.

- This Is My God, Herman Wouk, pages 117-118

[power-chords]

Chanukah is kind of a bullshit holiday that nobody takes particularly seriously, but instead of telling guys like Blake Flayton that they can shove all 44 candles where the sun don't shine I just may bust out the menorah this year.

[unopenablebox]

ive never in my life gotten rid of all household chametz for passover and would not have said it was possible for me to have strong opinions on the enforcement of chametz but i recently got an email to sign up for a ~progressive passover seder~ the menu of which included. macaroni and cheese

[shalom-iamcominghome]

You know it's almost shabbos when you fall asleep with a prayer stuck in your head

[stars-inthe-sky]

So, hey. How did you and your family celebrate Passover when you were a kid? How about now?

My Rhode Island aunt and uncle almost always hosted a big family Seder, and it was the absolute best. A good Seder is educational, food-filled, and legit fun—it's a ritual meal that includes storytelling, singing, prayers, and a general focus on including and teaching everyone involved, regardless of age or even whether attendees are Jewish. (If ever you're invited to a friend's Seder, go! Do not bring a challah, which my actually-bar-mitzvahed brother-in-law did once as an attempt at a thoughtful host gift. We still make fun of him.)

And my uncle (the same one who officiated at my wedding, and the wedding of my other sister) may well be the greatest host/leader there is; over the years he compiled from a medley of sources what added up to his own Haggadah (basically the guidebook to the Seder—there are a million published and informal versions working off the same template, with readings and activities and interpretations that can go kid-centric or feminist or traditional or whatever). It was always just insanely fun, and warm, and joyous, with incredible food and an increasing array of baked-in, just-us traditions.

Since I went to college basically down the street from their house, and then lived just an hour away in Boston for so long, that was pretty much the heart of my and my family's celebration most years—right up until Passover 2020, at which point the pandemic negated what had been plans to travel from our new home in Illinois for it, and they also downsized and had their own kids scatter geographically and gain very little ones, so that particular tradition is at best on hiatus now.

But there are fun Seders everywhere—well, the Zoom ones of the pandemic years were a mixed bag, but we've found friends who've make a good go of it, over the years, too, if not quite as an elaborately planned out hourslong celebration as my uncle would do. When I studied abroad in Denmark, Boyfriend and I went to an Orthodox Seder that was in a mix of Danish and Hebrew, for instance—that was novel, and so much of the procedure and the Hebrew was familiar enough to follow along.

Still working on exactly where we'll be for those two nights this year (we haven't really met any Jewish families in Pittsburgh yet to garner an invite, and none of the Reform or Conservative synagogues seem to have community events, which is surprising? And I don't really want to go to Chabad?) but we'll figure something out.

That said, as fun as the Seders can and should be, the rest of Passover is a slog of not eating bread or adjacent products, and experiencing whatever it is matzah does to one's digestive system over the course of a week. It's a meaningful observance, and the fact that the relevant rabbinical boards have stopped including rice and legumes in the "no" column in recent years has been great, but...it's ultimately a holiday recalling the story of the Exodus, and how we were slaves once, so, like, there are some less-fun elements. But the freedom celebration parts usually outweigh that!

[chaotic-opossum58]

Fiddler on the Roof get out of my head I’ve gotta do college stuff!!!!

[macbethz]

*thinks about Erik lensherr in relation to Judaism so hard I get dizzy*