Listen, I know I don’t fit most of the ideological and behavioural criteria for being Jewish, even supposing there are criteria, and whoever wrote them can have the moral right to make that call. I don’t believe in G-d or in the divinity of the Torah; I don’t celebrate most Jewish holidays the way you’re [...]

In my head, the title of this entry is spoken with the same intonation as The Muppet Show’s “Pigs… In… Space!” *ahem* The title actually might as well be “Religion… In… Stories!”, but as I’m Jewish, this is really the only aspect of religion I’m somewhat qualified to blog on. Here’s my basic thesis: we [...]

I don’t eat pork. (You probably guessed that from the title.) Not only do I not eat pork, I don’t eat other products derived from pigs, including bacon, lard, and gelatin, or any sort of food containing those items. Up until now, if you’d asked me why not, I’d shrug and explain: I’m Jewish. I [...]

We seem to have a strong intuition that part of what makes us human is our ability to die. Witness the countless stories in which the villains’ goal is to live forever, or in which a character demonstrates his or her essential humanity by giving up the opportunity to do so: J. K. Rowling’s Harry [...]

The Haggadah, or prayerbook for the Passover seder speaks of four children: the wise child, the rebellious child, the simple child, and the child who doesn’t know how to ask. All four of these children are to be told the story of Passover, but each must be told in a different way, suited to her [...]

Did anybody else eat uncooked packs of ramen noodles as a kid? Or was this just a thing at my elementary school? You’d crush the noodles without opening the package. Once they were in tiny pieces, you’d open it and fish out the now-very-powdery packet of soup mix. Then you’d dump said mix into the [...]

That is the title of the Paul Zim cassette tape my family plays every Chanukah. If you are not Jewish (or if you are Jewish but aren’t a dork), you are probably wondering who the heck Paul Zim is. That is what Google is for. The thing about Chanukah is it doesn’t have pretty English-language [...]

1. I found this essay on Harry Potter and (erroneously expressed) Calvinism pretty interesting. And entertaining. Now, I’m not saying you’d enjoy going and reading it, but, for Pete’s sake, I went to the trouble of figuring out how to post a link and all, didn’t I? 2. Spanish flu. Just kidding! (If you didn’t [...]