weekend

[cellio]

Shabbat was also the last day of Pesach (a holiday), so our informal minyan didn't meet in favor of a holiday service at the later time. After the service another regular pointed out to me that while all our other services have gradually changed over the last few years to include more Hebrew, less repetition (in English), and more-accessible music, our holiday service has stayed pretty much the same all along. She's right, but for something that only happens a few times a year I'm not sure how much I want to worry about it. Because this service has Yizkor (memorial prayers), this service particularly attracts a demographic that doesn't show up often otherwise. They're older and more inclined toward "classical reform"; for a few days a year I can just wait for this portion of the congregation to gradually fade away.

There are special torah readings for the holidays (that is, we break the weekly cycle). The last day of Pesach gets the end of the exodus story, with the scene at the sea of reeds. It struck me during the reading that this passage is a pretty good argument for human authorship of the torah. Think about it: God persuades Paro to pursue, interferes with their ability to do so, performs a miracle, and when the Egyptians try to give up and flee, recognizing God's obvious superior might, God picks them up and flings them into the sea, wiping out every last one of them. That sounds pretty vengeful (contrary to the famous midrash about God reprimanding the angels for rejoicing), and it sounds like just the sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy an underdog would write. Mind, I am not actually making this argument (I have different non-orthodox beliefs about that), but it struck me pretty hard during the reading. How odd -- it's not like I haven't heard/read this passage many times before.

Saturday afternoon/evening we had an exciting D&D game. There's some stuff in the game journal about it. I'm way behind on my own entries there; must catch up soon. What made the game especially fun was the good role-playing and scene-painting from everyone there. It's neat when things click.

I don't keep extra days of holidays so Pesach ended for me last night. This morning I had french toast. Mmm. :-) (Random food aside: does brisket, already cooked and in sauce, freeze well?)

This afternoon we visited with my parents. For our anniversary they bought us a Pomerantz Wine Pro cork remover that is a joy to behold (and to use). They found a nice bottle of kosher wine to go with it too; I didn't know that stores in their area carried anything but Manischevitz. I test-drove it tonight with a bottle of Lindeman's (lambic ale, capped and corked and a real struggle for me in the past), and the cork came right out with no effort on my part. Woot! (I did have to use a cutting board to raise the short lambic bottle to a suitable height, but that's fine.)

Comments

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I must know. What different non-Orthodox beliefs do you have about the vengeful tone of the exodus text?

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

I don't keep extra days of holidays so Pesach ended for me last night.

Know that well. Forced us to stay playing games at the game gather until sundown, when we went out to eat. We brought matzah to the games gather.

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

Now if only someone would invent a gadget to go over the top of a wine bottle and make Manischewitz taste palatable. Even their horseradish is dreadful.

We had some very nice kosher wine from a winery in the yarra valley. Good fruity Australian red, I think it was a cabernet sauvignon. Ask nobble.

[cellio]

Sorry, imprecise reference. I have non-orthodox views about authorship, not about vengefulness in particular. I think Moshe and God did have an extended encounter, but that people wrote it all down. I have too much trouble wrapping my head around the loss of Moshe's free will that would result if God gave the entire torah as we now have it to Moshe on Mt. Sinai. I mean, essentially that'd be telling Moshe how the next 40 years will play out and Moshe can do nothing about it; that doesn't seem right.

[cellio]

I took matzah and macaroons to the D&D game. It turned out that we ate dinner late enough that I could eat the bread they'd made for everyone else, but we still ate the macaroons 'cause, well, cookies. :-)

[cellio]

Now if only someone would invent a gadget to go over the top of a wine bottle and make Manischewitz taste palatable.

That gadget is called "consumer discretion". Sadly, that doesn't help when you're not the one who bought the wine for the meal. :-) (I always bring some wine to any seder I suspect will be Manishevitz-centric; it's not impolite to contribute wine, after all, so the host needn't see it as judgemental.)

Now all that said, I'm not a fan of dry wines and especially not dry reds; it's an acquired taste that I haven't yet acquired. But it is possible to go too far in the other direction. :-)

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Since AFAIK wine is vegetarian, and I'd thought that there were no rules covering vegetables, what makes wine kosher or not?
If it's kosher-for-passover and due to the fermentation rule that covers beer and bread, um, how do you produce wine except by fermentation?

[cellio]

There are no ingredient issues with wine per se. However, the rabbis of the talmud were very much concerned that Jews not drink wine that had been used for idol-worship, such as wine from which a libation to the pagan gods had been drawn. This resulted in rules that wine be supervised by Jews during all stages of production. It's now been a very long time since this was really a concern, but laws change slowly. :-)

I, personally, will drink non-kosher commercial wine, so long as you aren't, say, serving me from an open bottle that you brought from your church after mass. Not that that's likely. I hadn't actually thought about home-brew before starting to type this (I'm almost never offered home-brew wine), but I think I would want to know who made it because the context is like to be the SCA or fandom and both do actually contain people who might just maybe have poured a libation to someone from the cask before bottling. So if I don't know the maker I'd probably turn it down, but people already expect me to turn down food (if I can't verify ingredients) so that probably wouldn't turn heads. I certainly wouldn't want to explain why I'm turning it down and would find something inoffensive to say if pressed.