I woke up early this morning with a bit of a headache, so I thought I would share with you some holiday-related chum:
- The NY Times has a nice article on mezuzot, specifically, mezuzot on the doors of non-Jewish households. Now, for those who don’t know what I’m talking about: If you read your Bible, you’ll see that Deuteronomy 6:9 has the words, “And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” Jews take this literally, and the words of that section are written on a small piece of parchment, put in a (usually) decorative case, and affixed to the doorpost of every room entrance (except for bathrooms). For example, we have one at the entrance to every room; they vary from one I made at camp when I was young to one my wife cross-stiched (at the entrance to the Sewing Room, ‘natch) to artistic ones to more plain ones. This case/parchment is called a mezuzah, and there are a variety of customs/rules regarding it. One of these is that you normally remove it when you move, unless you know the new owner is Jewish, so that it isn’t treated with disrespect. Well, some people move without removing them… and for whatever reason, the new owner keeps them. The NY Times article looks at these new owners and their relationship to these mezuzot (the pl. of mezuzah).
- The NY Times also has an article on the new Conservative High Holiday machzor. For those who don’t know what a machzor is (and I know this from reading Gates of Understanding 2): In the Ashkenazic world of Northern Europe, the daily and Shabbat book was called a Siddur (from the Hebrew word meaning “order”), while the name machzor (from the Hebrew word meaning “cycle”) was reserved for the liturgy of holidays. Anyway, Conservative Judaism has a new machzor for the High Holidays called Lev Shalem that modernizes the translations of the Hebrew and adds more modern readings. Reform Judaism (the movement with which I associate) also recently modernized their siddur—Mishkan T’filah has a similar goal as the new Conservative machzor: adding modern readings, and reworking things to work with current stylings. However, Reform hasn’t updated their High Holiday machzor in years: they are still using Gates of Repentence, which was published in the late 1970s, with a gender-neutral update in the mid-1980s. We happen to have the early editions, which means we get to see the gender-neutralization changes on the fly. In any case, the older prayerbook often uses the language and structure different than the modern service, which with its long use over the years moves worship from the meaningful to the rote (I remember the transition to Gates of Repentence from Union Prayer Book II, published in 1941). I’d ask if anyone has used the new Conservative machzor and their thoughts on it, but of course they likely wouldn’t be reading this 🙂
- Lastly, those that fast today likely know the scourge of the fast: the Yom Kippur headache. The LA Times has a nice health piece on these headaches, and how there’s a drug that can help—alas, however, it is not approved by the FDA.
To all my friends and readers: Gemar Chatimah Tovah: May you be written for a blessing in the book of Life. As I wrote in my High Holyday post: If I have offended any of you, in any way, shape, manner, or form, real or imagined, then I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done anything to hurt, demean, or otherwise injure you, I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done or said over the past year that has upset, or otherwise bothered you, I sincerely apologize, and will do my best to ensure it won’t happen again. If you have done something in the above categories, don’t worry. I know it wasn’t intentional, and I would accept any apology you would make.
May all my blog readers and all my friends have a very happy, healthy, and meaningful new year. May you find in this year what you need to find in life.
