Passover is here. Jewish homes are gathering for our yearly seder, the recounting of God’s deliverance from the hands of our enemies in Egypt. This is the Jewish family celebration par excellence. I have cherished childhood memories of my Ukraine-born bobbeh (Jewish grandmother) bringing out culinary masterpieces, one after another, to the festive table. […]
Category Archives: Feasts
Let’s move the hands of the clock back more than 2,400 years to ancient Iran. Two high-level Persian court politicians had become so angry with King Ahasuerus that they plotted together to assassinate him. The old Latin word for this plan – conspiracy – comes from the joining of ‘spiro’ (to breath) and ‘con’ (together). […]
Many Jewish people have a hard time figuring out what Christmas is about. When I was a young Jewish kid growing up in Catholic-Protestant Quebec, I loved the winking tree lights, the holly and the ivy wreaths, the fact that many people were getting tipsy and acting especially friendly to each other. As a musician, […]
Growing up as a Jewish kid in Montreal, I loved Christmas. Snowy winter lawns were bejeweled at night with twinkling trees. People got tipsy and were nice to each other. What could be bad about all that? And a baby nursed in a Bethlehem stable seemed like friendly ‘family content’. Secular Westerners love the tinsel […]
Passover actually happened. It was a real historical event. Real Hebrew slaves, real Egyptian bondage, and real Ten Plagues: “They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel started out boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians, while […]
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea – though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride (Psalm 46:1-3) The Jewish people’s history is flecked with tragedy and shakings. Moyshe Rabbenu’s (Moses’) curses of […]