blake murphy > fnord
:

> On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:16:32 GMT, Saerah Gray wrote:
>
>> blake murphy > fnord
>> :
>>
>>> On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:06:53 -0700 (PDT), Karen wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sep 15, 8:07*pm, Orlando Enrique Fiol > wrote:
>>>>> I don't know about you, but celebrating that unfortunate period of
>>>>> history doesn't seem fun to me.
>>>>
>>>> Conquerors, imperialists, dictators, have been a part of the entire
>>>> human history. The celebration comes in the survivalists.
>>>>
>>>> Karen
>>>
>>> i've always liked this brief summary of the jewish holiday *purim*:
>>>
>>> 'they tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat!'
>>>
>>
>> It's most definitely appropriate to Purin, but suits a number of
>> other holidays.
>>
>
> actually, i had to google to connect it with *purim*. i would be
> tempted to broaden it to jewish history in general.
>
>>
>> Hell, we eat matzah on Pesach *because* it was the only thing we had
>> to eat!
>
> i was my the first passover seder a few years ago. i was the youngest
> male (except for a four- or five-year old who was considered generally
> unreliable), and the made *me* ask the questions! since i am a
> gentile and fairly hard-core atheist, i was a little taken aback.
>
> your pal,
> blake
>

Well, the whole point of a seder is to encourage children to ask
questions, as a lead-in to discuss the exodus from Egypt, which is a
positive commandment for observant Jews. Although most Orthodox Jews
would not have a non-Jew at their seder (because the exodus only
involved Jews, natch), it seems fairly appropriate, considering you
probably wondering what the hell was up with the sal****er and the
horseradish...

I am a hard-core agnostic . My brother (who "runs" the seder my mother
hosts) gives me shit for asking relevant questions at the seder because
I am not observant, as he is. He also gives me shit for not sending my
daughter to a Jewish school, but at the last few seders at my mom's, got
into philosphical and talmudic debates with his friends, ignoring
Ellie's questions, and making the seder run so long that she was falling
asleep by the time dinner was served :<

For the other seder, we are all invited to a friend's home, and they
think it's great that I make an effort to involve Ellie in Jewish stuff,
and try and make things more kid-friendly.

FWIW, I made Ellie memorize Ma Nishtanah (the 'four questions') in
Hebrew last year, and she still remembers it

--
Saerah (wishes there was a third seder so she could host one in the near
future)

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