Passover Insights : Slave Mentality and Blaming the Victim

We are in the final stretch of Passover week, and I've been thinking about the basic holiday themes - miracles, faith, and courage - especially courage.  As I understand it, courage is the willingness to do the right thing even when you are afraid to do it. I've felt for a long, long time that I am a person with little courage. Many people have told me they think of me as courageous, because I'm willing to admit and talk about things they might be too scared to. But the things they see as courageous aren't that difficult for me. I've always been bold.

Passover and Harriet Tubman, The Black Moses

Passover will arrive in just under 24 hours (where I live), and time is of the essence. There are many places you can go to find funky, alternative seders and traditions. I wish I had time to give a significant list of links. But since I don't, I'm going to focus on Moses. Specifically, the Black Moses. You know, the woman.

Is Judaism Dying?

Some people have an easy time connecting to their spiritual path. I've seen it in their faces. They have nothing to prove. They have a sense of peace and being at ease about themselves. I saw it in the Neo-Pagan scene I tried to join in my teens. I've seen it in born-again Christians and been upset because I knew I identified with them. In seminary in Jerusalem, I saw it in a friend who was relaxing into her frum-keit (Orthodox Jewish lifestyle). Although I have a long way to go, I, too, have made strides in opening up to my path in this last year.

It's clear that, even though our paths appear different from one another, we are actually walking the same path. We are walking a path of self-acceptance. I say self-acceptance because I think there is a natural, basic flow to the universe - a great harmony in which everything fits together. We are tapping into a part of ourselves that helps us "go with the flow". I could separate the aspects of this energy into categories of honesty, acceptance, truth, humility, etc... But they're all just temporary tools to help me grasp this harmony intellectually. If I try to hold on to the distinct categories for too long, they leak back into each other. That being said, this post is not about spiritual harmony. This post is about my ongoing struggle to find a way to connect to Judaism.

Hagar vs. Sarah : Fear and Loathing in Lech Lecha

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the biblical figure Abraham. Today, I want to share my thoughts on a connecting relationship in the Bible/Torah - that of Sarah and Hagar. Let's start by looking at the text in Chapter 16 of the Torah, Parshah Lech Lecha (16 is also the corresponding biblical chapter).

16:1
Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl by the name of Hagar.

My First Jewish-Renewal Yom Kippur

So this past Yom Kippur, I had the privilege of attending a Jewish Renewal Yom Kippur sponsored by the Chavurahs of "Har Kodesh" and Mile End. We used the Ukranian Federation building, which was a synagogue decades ago when Mile End was a more predominantly Jewish neighborhood. I mean, it still is Jewish, but now it's mostly Hasidim.

Abraham the Rapist, a.k.a. A Jewish Woman's Changing Perspective Of The Father of the Jewish People

Today I'm going to write about something that has offended many Jewish (and probably some non-Jewish) people I've spoken with over the years. I'm going to write about my opinion about a Jewish Patriarch and Catholic saint, Abraham. I'm going to write about the fact that Abraham, or "Avraham Aveinu" (Abraham, our father), often called Father of the Jewish People, was a rapist. He is also guilty of enslavement, a particularly nasty and prevalent form abuse or life-long torture. Oh, and I'd better not forget child neglect. And attempted negligent homicide.