Slow down you move too fast

In no way do I mean to boast, but, I’ve been fasting a good deal this past month. I’ve fasted to call attention to the situation in Darfur and also Gaza. I’m a rather slender man (most people call me skinny) and my wife insisted that I not fast more than three times in that two-week period.

This week, my CSA pick-up at the 14th street Y in Downtown Manhattan, occurs on the 9th of Av before sundown, a time that marks the end of the fast which brings our awareness to ancient horrors our people experienced: the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as more recent calamities such as the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. This year, the end of the fast coincides with my CSA pick-up.

Cross-posted at davka.org

Tiny Vial of Pharisäer

What do you put in your coffee?

Pharisees of course

Ever-sensitive to appearances of Jewish references in popular culture, I was a bit surprised to read Maureen Dowd’s headline in the New York Times on Sunday, July 19, 2009: “Pharisees on the Potomac”

I did not see any mention of late antiquity in her column and it was not until a number of hours later that I realized she had used the Christian allusion to Pharisees as hypocrites! Shame on her and shame on her editors (I wonder if William Safire saw the column). As the Wikipedia makes quite clear:

Cross-posted at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and at davka.org

The prophet Isaiah asks (58:6-7):

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover them, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?

If we are to “loose the fetters of wickedness”, what might our fasting have to do with Darfur?

Judith came in from the fields where it appeared as though the whole community was out harvesting the new grain crop. The rains had ceased and the ground had dried enough to enable them to walk through the plants and collect the ripened sheaves. The stone house still felt damp from the winter and she helped her mother empty the storage urns of the remainder of the previous year’s grains.

At Pesach we drink a lot of wine. Why is it called the symbol of our joy?

In an arid environment, wine can be seen a method of preservation. If you do not live or work near a well or a spring or some other source of fresh water you need to have something else to drink during the day.

• Milk does not last without refrigeration; actually we can think of cheese as a form of dried milk (that is a form of preserving milk).
• Crushing olives obtains oil, which while highly useful, does not quench thirst.
• Squashing pomegranates produces a very tart juice, but it doesn’t last long at room temperature.
• Squeezing dates creates a very sweet paste our ancestors called “dvash“.
• And figs don’t produce much in the manner of a drinkable juice either.

The Grape

But, that other fruit mentioned among the seven species, the grape, undergoes an amazing transformation when it is crushed, squashed and squeezed. With just the right amount of exposure to oxygen it becomes a drink that, like a good person, becomes more distinguished as it ages.