From 2005-2007, this podcast was hosted by a "nice Jewish couple" (and their baby girl!) living in the buckle of the Bible Belt. Eric and Raya talked about married life, Sophie Arielle, the Simpsons, Judaism, and anything else which wandered across their brains.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Jews in Alabama, Episode #13
Chag Sameach, it's the second day of Sukkot and we talk about Yom Kippur services with the Tuscaloosa Twins, the Kentuck Arts Festival, the NCCJ Walk as One, and jerky fundamentalist prosletyzers and solicitors. (36 minutes, 32 seconds).
14 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Aw, all that Kadimah talk really made me miss Kadimah/USY.
My senior year of college I took a class called Gender Theory and the Study of Religion. In the last month, we did a LOT of stuff around different ideas of Jesus, and my original paper for that section of the course (I rewrote it about something else because I was angry and wanted to piss off my class -- really mature of me, I know) was based off a book called Queering Christ by Robert E. Goss. Despite my strong feelings that a new representation of Jesus is unnecessary to advance women's positions in the church, I found this take on Jesus to be really interesting and actually pretty valid.
Ok, I'm sure you don't care, but I just had to share, since Eric said something about maybe Jesus was gay...
-the girl who was once told by her supervisee that she makes baby Jesus cry
Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf says that "twice-a-year to synagogue" families should, rather than go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, go to Purim and Simchas Torah, so they get the experience of excitement and joy, and something to love about being Jewish.
Your shul is onto something, I think, with the communal shofar-blowing and the glowsticks... anything to make the high holidays special for kids without diluting down their importance.
Eric is cute with his romantic response to Raya's heated phone debate. The most romantic moments of my college years were spent protesting outside an international arms convention in Newport Beach. Different years, different girlfriends, but same candlelight protests, same realization of how pretty people are in candlelight, same idealistic hopes and enthusiasm making everything warm and fuzzy and sexy....
But not the arguments with true believers. That stuff makes me so angry, even when Raya relates it after the fact. We are dealing with people who are purposely opting out of intelligent thought and questioning by putting on their "The Bible says..." blindfold.
And you know, I am so tired of Christianity, especially the Southern variant, dipping into the "OLD Testament" when it's convenient while at the same time insisting that, per Paul, the written Covenant is the "Covenant of Death" and Jesus was the "Covenant of Life." So on the one hand, as they love to say, they are not bound to the written law. (like the Ten Commandments or the relevant Leviticus prohibitions.) On the other hand, when its convenient, they ram {baa-aah! tekiah!}) these same laws, (again, that they are not even bound by)down everyone's throats.
Orthodox Jews often have a position that is superficially the same as the Christians, but really, it's quite different. Because Jews that bring up the particular commandments believe that they are bound to these commandments, ALL of them. They are not merely rifling through what they consider obsolete laws like Bartletts, looking for something that helps them legitimize lynching whoever they have in the rope this year, be it Blacks, Women, Jews, divorcees, adulterers, etc.
See? All this is Raya's fault. :-)
As far as Jesus being gay, I don't think so, but when you read the 'new testament' letters of Paul, there's something going on with Paul that feels awfully similar to other historic tortured closet folks like Roy Cohn....
You know, at Oberlin, I don't think people would have been pissed off at all. At least not in my class.
My rewritten paper, the one meant to annoy (although I do believe in what I wrote) was about how transforming Jesus was contradictory to the idea of a feminist Christology, and how trying to change how Jesus is presented is the wrong approach (and an un-feminist one) to getting women an equal place in the church.
Now I should go re-read my paper. I really loved that class.
In yesterday's Talmud Daf (Eruvin, 13b), it is reported that the followers of Rabbi Hillel and the followers of Rabbi Shammai argued about whether or not it would have been better if people had not been created.
After over 2 years of debate, they decided to put it up for a vote, and the result was that "shouldn't have been created" won out over "should have been created."
The rabbinical analysis of this Daf is that those students who voted that it would have been better had people not been created were thinking when they cast their vote about people who proselytize at equal rights rallies and telemarketers who push poll their surveys.
Lee......amen, brother. I can't stand this Christian theology that focuses on the homosexuality prohibitions in Leviticus while insisting that the Torah was replaced by Jesus on the cross. Make up your mind, people!! And I think you're right about Paul. A little light in his sandals. Maybe he just couldn't come out to his Jewish mother, after already having forsaken his Judaism and everything.....a mother can only accept so much shanda, after all....
Rebecca.....if you don't mind sharing that paper, I'd love to read it. Sounds fascinating.
Matthew.....very interesting!! Sometimes I wonder if, on balance, people bring more good or more bad to the world. There are days when i feel that it's definitely a toss-up.
Ari....in Eilat, I already feel like I'm in heaven, so yeah, it's hard to imagine that it's a fertile ground for prosleytzers. But, not a bad assignment if you can get it.
I have to disagree with Lee about the Orthodox. They don't follow everything to the letter. Some things they interpret in a much gentler way like the eye for an eye bit. And when was the last time they had a good old fashion stoning. I think they could reinterpret things to be more accepting. They are as bad as the Fundamentalist Christians in this respect. Come by next Gay pride parade we have in Jerusalem.
Proselytizing is not allowed here in Israel. But I have allows felt that Eilat is like a seperate country. If it wasn't so hot I might move there! :)
Carol.....sad, but true. Often times, there is hardly any difference between fundamental Christians and fundamental Jews....although they do dress a little differently!!!
And yes, Eilat is truly a whole different world. Not necessarily better or worse, but absolutely different than the rest of Israel. That big ol' Negev desert kind of makes Eilat an island on its own down there!! If MTV ever films "Spring Break Israel," they'll be in Eilat...
Jen....welcome to the podcast!! Raya kicks ass, no question!! OMG, how funny would that be if the CallerID had provided their number; we could sic our listeners on those jerks!! :)
Always a pleasure to meet another Jew by choice; I've got about a six-year head start on you, but I remember all those "firsts" very well!
Jen-- LOL, so true, so true. When church services say they start at 8, that means they START AT 8, and everyone better be there!! My dad was one of the ones who always wanted to leave after Communion. For a long time, I never knew there was anything else to a Catholic Mass after communion!! :)
No question, there are some things you can only learn by "living Jewish," things they don't teach in conversion classes!!!!
What are you saying -- people only listen to our podcast, and comment, if they live in a dreadfully boring place like Northeast Ohio?!?!? Well, I'm shocked!!
But, incidentally....if NE Ohio is as boring as SOUTHeast Michigan, its neighbor....well then, I understand completely.
14 comments:
Aw, all that Kadimah talk really made me miss Kadimah/USY.
My senior year of college I took a class called Gender Theory and the Study of Religion. In the last month, we did a LOT of stuff around different ideas of Jesus, and my original paper for that section of the course (I rewrote it about something else because I was angry and wanted to piss off my class -- really mature of me, I know) was based off a book called Queering Christ by Robert E. Goss. Despite my strong feelings that a new representation of Jesus is unnecessary to advance women's positions in the church, I found this take on Jesus to be really interesting and actually pretty valid.
Ok, I'm sure you don't care, but I just had to share, since Eric said something about maybe Jesus was gay...
-the girl who was once told by her supervisee that she makes baby Jesus cry
LOL!!
Oh man, I bet that paper would pissed a lot of people off....what was the topic of your rewritten paper?? I'm going to look up that book now.
And I have to ask....what did you do to bring on the "baby Jesus cry" comment??? :)
Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf says that "twice-a-year to synagogue" families should, rather than go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, go to Purim and Simchas Torah, so they get the experience of excitement and joy, and something to love about being Jewish.
Your shul is onto something, I think, with the communal shofar-blowing and the glowsticks... anything to make the high holidays special for kids without diluting down their importance.
Eric is cute with his romantic response to Raya's heated phone debate. The most romantic moments of my college years were spent protesting outside an international arms convention in Newport Beach. Different years, different girlfriends, but same candlelight protests, same realization of how pretty people are in candlelight, same idealistic hopes and enthusiasm making everything warm and fuzzy and sexy....
But not the arguments with true believers. That stuff makes me so angry, even when Raya relates it after the fact. We are dealing with people who are purposely opting out of intelligent thought and questioning by putting on their "The Bible says..." blindfold.
And you know, I am so tired of Christianity, especially the Southern variant, dipping into the "OLD Testament" when it's convenient while at the same time insisting that, per Paul, the written Covenant is the "Covenant of Death" and Jesus was the "Covenant of Life." So on the one hand, as they love to say, they are not bound to the written law. (like the Ten Commandments or the relevant Leviticus prohibitions.) On the other hand, when its convenient, they ram {baa-aah! tekiah!}) these same laws, (again, that they are not even bound by)down everyone's throats.
Orthodox Jews often have a position that is superficially the same as the Christians, but really, it's quite different. Because Jews that bring up the particular commandments believe that they are bound to these commandments, ALL of them. They are not merely rifling through what they consider obsolete laws like Bartletts, looking for something that helps them legitimize lynching whoever they have in the rope this year, be it Blacks, Women, Jews, divorcees, adulterers, etc.
See? All this is Raya's fault. :-)
As far as Jesus being gay, I don't think so, but when you read the 'new testament' letters of Paul, there's something going on with Paul that feels awfully similar to other historic tortured closet folks like Roy Cohn....
You know, at Oberlin, I don't think people would have been pissed off at all. At least not in my class.
My rewritten paper, the one meant to annoy (although I do believe in what I wrote) was about how transforming Jesus was contradictory to the idea of a feminist Christology, and how trying to change how Jesus is presented is the wrong approach (and an un-feminist one) to getting women an equal place in the church.
Now I should go re-read my paper. I really loved that class.
In yesterday's Talmud Daf (Eruvin, 13b), it is reported that the followers of Rabbi Hillel and the followers of Rabbi Shammai argued about whether or not it would have been better if people had not been created.
After over 2 years of debate, they decided to put it up for a vote, and the result was that "shouldn't have been created" won out over "should have been created."
The rabbinical analysis of this Daf is that those students who voted that it would have been better had people not been created were thinking when they cast their vote about people who proselytize at equal rights rallies and telemarketers who push poll their surveys.
Lee......amen, brother. I can't stand this Christian theology that focuses on the homosexuality prohibitions in Leviticus while insisting that the Torah was replaced by Jesus on the cross. Make up your mind, people!! And I think you're right about Paul. A little light in his sandals. Maybe he just couldn't come out to his Jewish mother, after already having forsaken his Judaism and everything.....a mother can only accept so much shanda, after all....
Rebecca.....if you don't mind sharing that paper, I'd love to read it. Sounds fascinating.
Matthew.....very interesting!! Sometimes I wonder if, on balance, people bring more good or more bad to the world. There are days when i feel that it's definitely a toss-up.
Ari....in Eilat, I already feel like I'm in heaven, so yeah, it's hard to imagine that it's a fertile ground for prosleytzers. But, not a bad assignment if you can get it.
I have to disagree with Lee about the Orthodox. They don't follow everything to the letter. Some things they interpret in a much gentler way like the eye for an eye bit. And when was the last time they had a good old fashion stoning. I think they could reinterpret things to be more accepting. They are as bad as the Fundamentalist Christians in this respect. Come by next Gay pride parade we have in Jerusalem.
Proselytizing is not allowed here in Israel. But I have allows felt that Eilat is like a seperate country. If it wasn't so hot I might move there! :)
Fun show.
Carol.....sad, but true. Often times, there is hardly any difference between fundamental Christians and fundamental Jews....although they do dress a little differently!!!
And yes, Eilat is truly a whole different world. Not necessarily better or worse, but absolutely different than the rest of Israel. That big ol' Negev desert kind of makes Eilat an island on its own down there!! If MTV ever films "Spring Break Israel," they'll be in Eilat...
Jen....welcome to the podcast!! Raya kicks ass, no question!! OMG, how funny would that be if the CallerID had provided their number; we could sic our listeners on those jerks!! :)
Always a pleasure to meet another Jew by choice; I've got about a six-year head start on you, but I remember all those "firsts" very well!
Jen-- LOL, so true, so true. When church services say they start at 8, that means they START AT 8, and everyone better be there!! My dad was one of the ones who always wanted to leave after Communion. For a long time, I never knew there was anything else to a Catholic Mass after communion!! :)
No question, there are some things you can only learn by "living Jewish," things they don't teach in conversion classes!!!!
I loved being mentioned on the show!
I'd post something here but I am posting it on the new board instead.
I'm happy to share my paper, if you promise not to notice the really poor writing and very superior tone. =D I'll send it on over.
Ok, I was just reading over these comments and I noticed that at least 3 of your listeners are in NE Ohio -- me, Jen, and Marquise.
I take this as a sign that NE Ohio really is as boring as I believe it to be (sorry to Jen and Marquise if they like it here).
Rebecca!!!
What are you saying -- people only listen to our podcast, and comment, if they live in a dreadfully boring place like Northeast Ohio?!?!? Well, I'm shocked!!
But, incidentally....if NE Ohio is as boring as SOUTHeast Michigan, its neighbor....well then, I understand completely.
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