I Hate Thanksgiving

Maybe I’m just a “fundamentalist” rabbi who’s lost his sense of fun, but when it comes to giving thanks, I don’t “get” it.

We don’t celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in my native country of England, and can you blame us? Imagine gathering around plates of mushy peas to express your gratitude for another year of record rainfall.

Being new around here, I looked up the history of Thanksgiving and now I’m more confused than ever. Those Pilgrims and their native neighbors first gathered around the table in 1565, in the month of September. Now that makes sense: celebrating a harvest festival during harvest time. (That’s what they still do up in Canada, by the way; their Thanksgiving always falls on the second Monday in October. This year that was also the first night of Sukkot, so that must have made it extra special.) Read more

Jews are Funny People?

Let’s face it: the story about the time the Jews of ancient Persia were saved from genocide doesn’t sound like a recipe for hilarity. Yet every year, we celebrate the festival of Purim to commemorate that important victory. In doing so, we also acknowledge the significant role humor plays in the Jewish faith.

The lasting appeal of the Purim story, or megilah, owes a great deal to its split-second reversals of fortune, called hippuch in Hebrew. A potential tragedy turns triumphant just in time, when, in an ironic twist, the evil villain Haman ends up being executed on the very gallows he’d built to hang the Jews. The Purim story, with its upside down punchline of an ending, is the taproot of all Jewish humor, which traditionally links the tragic with the comic, and the bitter with the sweet. Read more

Loving Susie Essman?

On January 25, CBS aired the TV movie “Loving Leah.” This pleasant if forgettable Hallmark Hall of Fame production told the romantic tale of a secular Jewish doctor (what else?) who marries his Chabad-Chasidic sister-in-law, Leah, after the death of his brother, the rabbi (but of course!) 

 
Actress Susie Essman, who portrayed Leah’s overbearing bubbe, appeared on the talk show The View last week to promote the new movie. However, Essman spent much of her time berating the real-life Chasidic women she’d met during filming. 
 
View co-host Joy Behar asked Essman, CSo what did you learn about the Chasidic religion?” 
 
Essman replied, “They’re not very good dressers… Have you seen what these women look like half the time?”  Read more