Thursday, April 24, 2008

Call me irresponsible...

In a previous blog I said I would stick with Hillary until; the bitter end. Not true. After her debate in Philadelphia last week with Obama I changed my mind. She didn't have to keep jumping on him for his remark about "small town..." blah, blah. She's just waiting to pounce on any slip of his rather than being able to offer something positive of her own. And now she sounds like a shrill harridan claiming that more people have voted for her than him - which of course is a half-truth and worse than an outright lie. Bye Hillary...but it's OK. I still like you.
I confess I've been cheating every day during Passover week by eating various kinds of chometz when my wife isn't looking. Being a freethinker it goes against my grain to have to abide by man-made religious fatwas. When she goes to volunteer duty today I'm going to make pasta.
Since making my own bread I hardly ever go to City anymore which pains me.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

On being Jewish

One of the hallmarks of being a Jew is that you question everything. If you just accept everything you're told by your parents or rabbis you violate one of the most important precepts of Judaism: ask questions. For instance, my daughter-in-law (DIL) told me the other day that they found out God has a secret name that only ordained rabbis know and they are sworn not to tell anyone. Give me a break...if there were such a thing someone would have leaked it in three thousand years!

Passover is another time to ask questions. When I studied for my Bar Mitzvah in 1982 at the age of 42 (I was a little late) I got carried away by the stirring melodies of Adon Olam but did I really believe the Red Sea parted just to let Moses and the Jews cross? No. Do I even believe in God? No, again. (In fact I just read an article in this week's New Yorker by Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor, who says that most of the "Founding Fathers" didn't believe in God either and the word "God" doesn't even appear in the U.S. Consitiution. So how should I conduct myself at the Seder? I'm actually looking forward to it as our Haggadahs this year have been modified by my S and DIL to more accurately reflect contemporary culture. Way to go!

Still, I question everything. This made me unpopular in school with my teachers as they used to have to squirm at some of my questions. And in college I found that it was much easier (if not intellectually dishonest) to just spew back at the professors what they wanted to hear. People don't generally like someone who questions - unless you are talking to another Jew. Then we recognize our solidarity in skepticism. We are sometimes referred to as "Pharisees" in the bible questioning everything from the morality of divorce to how many shekels you should tip in a sushi joint. Quesstions, questions...that's the glory of our secularism.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Where have Hillary and Obama gone?

Like a parade that has passed by, Hillary and Obama seem to be fading into the past. Let's face it: the Democrats strong suit was providing an exit from our occupation of Iraq. That's what created the excitement in their campaigns. And then two things happened: first, the primaries were held so early in the year that there's no sense of building up to a real climax. The campaigns should have continued until June, say, and then all the states should have had their primaries together instead of this pointless game of who's first. Second: the focus shifted to the economy in March with the sub-prime crisis and as an issue this mostly produces yawns among people that realize you shouldn't buy something you can't afford.
For me, the real issue is still our occupation in Iraq. Many of you are too young to remember the Vietnam War where, toward the end we were losing upward of 300 soldiers - per week - and the administration kept saying we can't leave in "the face of Communist aggression from the North." As it turned out we could and we did and the same holds tru for this Iraq thing. Enough families and lives have already been wrecked on both sides. We should start to leave, now, and let Arabs deal with Arabs. It sounds scary but it's the only alternative to being there indefinitely.
The Democratic candidates should get back to where they stand on the occupation. This should be the true debate - the economy will take care of itself. That is too complex for anyione to understand.