Completely out of season

In going through a Random Pile O' Stuff, I found this paragraph. I'm not sure where it came from, since it looks like it was cut out of a larger piece of paper, and I don't remember having seen it before. I also can't credit it. It has to do with Tashlich, the Jewish custom practiced on Rosh Hashanah afternoon of casting our sins away in the form of throwing bread into a moving body of water.

"Each quality, even those that seem bad, contributed somehow to our self-preservation. It had a good life-affirming purpose at one point, even this that is now no longer true. In order to let go of such a habit, I need to give it a 'testimonal' to send it away with my thanks. 'I needed you, and there you were, and I thank you for it. And now, with full appreciation, I know that I no longer need you and I can send you away.' This is different from trying to stamp it out. We no longer say, 'I'm sorry I did this. I'm throwing that behavior away.' We say, 'Thank you, God, for this gift. I needed it then; I no longer need it now. I am returning it to the universe in the hope that it can help generate life elsewhere as it did for me.' And this needs to be true for all the things we want to say good-bye to at Tashlikh. This is what we mean by biodegradable."

I suppose one hardly needs to wait for Tashlich for this, and I suppose Pesach is also a particularly good time to think of those habits and ways of thinking which we could stand to cast off. And considering shedding those habits as regifting rather than destroying may come in great use.

Baruch who? Aror who?

This is the first year we've actually celebrated Purim. While we did not get too drunk to differentiate between Mordechai and Haman (and there's an intriguing analysis of that mitzvah here), we did go to the PurimShpiel at our synagogue. Although I was slightly disappointed that this year did not feature rabbis cross-dressing, I enjoyed the improv troupe they had instead. Also free snacks. Afterwards, we went out for sushi with several friends, and our conversation devolved into "making beef stroganoff" as a euphemism for other activities.

This is probably why the rabbis who taught our Intro to Judaism class recommended Purim or Chanukah rather than the High Holy Days as one's first Jewish holiday. Oops.

Helpful Hint

I was talking to my friend Esther about my anxiety concerning the Beit Din, and she said, "If they ask you what Jewish person you most admire, just don't say Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you can't really screw up a Beit Din."