ellenkushner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellenkushner) wrote2009-04-11 02:27 pm
ellenkushner) wrote2009-04-11 02:27 pm
Seder in the White House
Here's a photo!
Also, did you see the NTimes profile on Michelle O's cousin the Rabbi? Capers Funnye is in the "Hebrew Israelite" movement - a fascinating chapter of African-American history & culture all by itself - and also studied at a mainstream Jewish Spertus Institute. He leads a Hebrew Israelite congregation in Chicago. My favorite bit from the terrific article by Zev Chafets:
On one of the days I was there, in early February, I was the only white Jew in the shul, and an old guy in front of me kept turning around and showing me the right page. There’s a nudnik like him in every shul I’ve ever been to.
I forgave him, though, during the Torah service, when a young man faltered over the blessings and looked mortified. “Not your fault, young man,” the nudnik said. “The fire of the Torah burns so hot to where sometimes it just confuses your mind.”
Oh, yeah!
Delia & I are home now, and realizing we were so focused on getting my Mom's house Pesadikhe, we totally forgot to make sure we had any food when we got home! Shopping lists have now been made, and recipes dug out. We are doing half-measures (don't ask, Mom!) but trying to be strict about what we're eating for the remaining 6 days. It's an annual Spiritual and Physical Discipline I like to practice. Almost everything has to be prepared from scratch, from a limited set of ingredients. If I lived like this year-round, I'd surely weigh less and be healthier, too. I always watch what I eat (and don't have much of a sweet tooth), but I'm a big Grazer, and my Passover snacking options are limited to Fruit & Nuts.... Every year I think I should at least make a stab at it. But it's Work, and I never can. At least this is an 8-day period when I am supremely Conscious of what I eat, and that carries a little.
It also means I get to tell my favorite Matzah joke again! (Just consider me the annoying uncle who asks each year if you've heard this one, and ignores you if you say, YES!):
So (famous blind musician) Ray Charles goes to a Passover Seder, and they hand him a big square piece of matzah. He holds onto it for a moment . . . .
. . . and then exclaims,
"Who wrote this shit?"
Also, did you see the NTimes profile on Michelle O's cousin the Rabbi? Capers Funnye is in the "Hebrew Israelite" movement - a fascinating chapter of African-American history & culture all by itself - and also studied at a mainstream Jewish Spertus Institute. He leads a Hebrew Israelite congregation in Chicago. My favorite bit from the terrific article by Zev Chafets:
On one of the days I was there, in early February, I was the only white Jew in the shul, and an old guy in front of me kept turning around and showing me the right page. There’s a nudnik like him in every shul I’ve ever been to.
I forgave him, though, during the Torah service, when a young man faltered over the blessings and looked mortified. “Not your fault, young man,” the nudnik said. “The fire of the Torah burns so hot to where sometimes it just confuses your mind.”
Oh, yeah!
Delia & I are home now, and realizing we were so focused on getting my Mom's house Pesadikhe, we totally forgot to make sure we had any food when we got home! Shopping lists have now been made, and recipes dug out. We are doing half-measures (don't ask, Mom!) but trying to be strict about what we're eating for the remaining 6 days. It's an annual Spiritual and Physical Discipline I like to practice. Almost everything has to be prepared from scratch, from a limited set of ingredients. If I lived like this year-round, I'd surely weigh less and be healthier, too. I always watch what I eat (and don't have much of a sweet tooth), but I'm a big Grazer, and my Passover snacking options are limited to Fruit & Nuts.... Every year I think I should at least make a stab at it. But it's Work, and I never can. At least this is an 8-day period when I am supremely Conscious of what I eat, and that carries a little.
It also means I get to tell my favorite Matzah joke again! (Just consider me the annoying uncle who asks each year if you've heard this one, and ignores you if you say, YES!):
So (famous blind musician) Ray Charles goes to a Passover Seder, and they hand him a big square piece of matzah. He holds onto it for a moment . . . .
. . . and then exclaims,
"Who wrote this shit?"
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We're doing our first and only seder tonight (if I live that long), and I am fighting a horrible temptation to rewrite the Four Questions for a contemporary setting, and then bribe my nephew to ask them in place of the traditional formula.
Why is tonight different from all other nights?
On all other nights, we eat Grandpa's sourdough bread, or Aunt Phoebe's fry bread; what's up with this weird stuff in the box?
On all other nights we eat perched on the edges of our seats, or standing up at the refrigerator, or at least some of us do. Why on this night are we all sitting here at this table, for like, *hours*? Are the Red Sox not playing?
On all other nights there are all these icky vegetables. Why on this night are we getting away with a slice of horseradish and a sprig of parsley?
On all other nights, if we try to play with our horseradish and parsley people will yell at us. Why on this night are we invited to play with it? And why do we have to stop?
Et cetera, et cetera. Honestly, it's not as if they aren't the same questions as the originals. But now, they're accessible!
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(You make frybread for them? You've never made frybread for me!)
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If you promise not to mind about those things, I'll be very happy indeed to make you frybread. It is yummy, and unlike other bread only requires an hour or so of notice!
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and I also loved that part of the Funnye article! Nudnikhood knows no color, I guess.
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I am that Nudnik.
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Those perfect individual seder plates crack me up, too.
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http://www.uscj.org/The_Mystery_of_the_F7973.html:
- argh, wait, where's the illo? Not there! Well, in the magazine it was illustrated by a Medieval Woodcut of a seder, where each person literally has 4 cups in front of each place. Theories abound - including the notion that it was carved by someone who had never been to a seder, heard about the 4 cups of wine each person drank, and thought, "Well, OK, if they say so...."!
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Also, for next year, someone needs to send him a kippah, no? (Obama, I mean. I'm sure Rav Gamliel had his own kippah.)
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I love your matzoh joke. You may tell it as often as you please. *g*
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You still have to laugh, though.
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Love this!
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I don't know which one I love more, the first anecdote or the second one. :D
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Off topic
(Anonymous) 2009-04-12 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)Off topic: Have you seen the mess Amazon has created pulling tons of books with gay themes and also some erotica from the sales rankings? Check out jezebel, dear author, and Mark Probst. It's appalling.
Mary Beth
Little Dorrit tonight, yay.
Maxwell House?!?!
Can anyone identify the painting over the fireplace? It's gorgeous and I'm guessing it's a Sargent.