Jewish Holidays

From what I've been told about the AJU conversion course, the core of the conservative conversion process is based on your knowledge of the holidays. I know of very few Jewish holidays and absolutely no knowledge of why they are holidays. We learned there are 3 cycles of holiday stories: the Jewish people's stories, the Jewish personal stories, and the Jewish holidays of history stories.

Jewish People's Stories

The Jewish people's stories are biblically centered around harvest days. These are the original holidays. Since there is no harvest in the winter, there is not an original winter holiday. You may be thinking Hanukkah, but it does not have anything to do with wintery Christmas stuff. Hanukkah is not a biblical holiday so it is under the history stories. The core of the Jewish people's stories are Passover (which I've heard of), Shavuot (never heard of it), and Sukkot (never heard of it).

Passover
Passover's theme is freedom and redemption from slavery. We are to remember that the world is capable of changing from bad to good, which is also a common theme for Shabbat and quite frankly throughout the religion as a whole.

Shavuot
Shavuot's theme comes from being released from slavery when the people received the Torah. This is when the Jewish people enter into the covenant with God, an agreement to live by the Torah (including the 10 commandments), and in return God will protect and reward the Jewish people with food and land. It was also interesting to find out that the Book of Ruth is read on this holiday because in a way all Jews were converts on this day; meaning they opted in to the covenant.

Sukkot
Sukkot is one of the 8-day holidays. This holiday's theme remembers the 40 years of wandering in the desert to find their Promised Land. Because of the 40 years of wandering without a home, the Jewish people were forced to build temporary "homes" while traveling. Sukkot is meant to celebrate the anti-materialistic world and appreciate the struggle made in order to get to where you want to be. It is also celebrating the ongoing commitment and faith of finding their new land. 

What Do Jewish People Look Like?

The week leading up to my third class was a pretty interesting one. Ever since I moved to the Valley (even before I moved) I knew there was a strong Jewish culture and presence. Naturally, it wasn't until I started to get more involved and take classes about Judaism that I began to encounter more of the Jewish experience. I started to realize people can be really surprised by what Jewish people look like (including the ones that convert).

So in this week's class it got us discussing, what exactly do Jews look like? We started the conversation with a video from Def Comedy Jam by the Hebrew Mamita. She explains how she meets a guy at a bar, he asks her out on a Tuesday, and she declines because it is Yom Kippur. He then tells her she doesn't look or act Jewish, and she just smiles. She gets angry and thinks, what exactly does a Jew look like and act like to you? Should she be acting like the quintessential Jew portrayed in movies? She gets angry because she thinks he is talking down to her and accusing her of NOT being a Jew, accusing her of not being a part of her people or her community.

Hebrew Mamita
It's a great video to watch. I'm not sure how old the video is. I didn't even know Def Poetry Jam was still active (if it is) when the video was uploaded in 2010.

So Really, What Do Jewish People Look Like? 

Obviously Jewish

Orthodox Jew. Photo by Danny Hammontree