Circled Lots

In honor of something I wrote in October because I obviously exist out of the temporal chronology that y'all are trapped in.

You have two lots a year: One is to spend all year prepping your soul for Yom Kippur. And the other is to spend it prepping your liver for Purim. Or at least your heart of joy.

So often Purim and Halloween are lumped together. Sure, they are celebrated with costumes and punishing my bad, bad liver but there's so much more going on. This year, I read a few disparaging articles about Jews participating in Halloween. It's hard because I was raised Catholic with a side of New Age Pagan and Halloween was a Big. Fucking. Deal. and a little religious.

If I had to rank holidays growing up:

1: Halloween; 2: Xmas; 3: maybe Easter?; 4: St. Patty's

I'm not belittling dressing up. It's magical in the Spring and in the Autumn. I love going to the bar with a raccoon and a zombie and I also love watching Katy Perry (aka my rabbi) tell me an ancient tale of feminine heroism. And what a joyous, happy story. That's not Halloween. Halloween is in the horror and death. One of the articles stated that Halloween doesn't express “Jewish Values.” They don't know from Halloween. And they apparently completely forgot the other day of pur: Yom Kippur—the second the shofar sounded and the gates closed.

The whole encapsulation of Horror isn't meant to be gore-porn. It's meant to help us confront death. The infatuation with spirits is the burning question of “what's next?” It's almost like at Yom Kippur literally prepare for death because of thses same reasons. We confront death so it doesn't rule our lives (Dying Gates). And the Celtic predecessor Samhain (''sowen'') marks the New Year, followed by several days when the world is in chaos. Hmm, what other new year is followed by days of unknowing before a celebration/exploration of mortality?

The world can be dark, and for a few months will be. So no matter how we dress, we will meet that challenge head-on. We will not be robbed our light in the darkness. #WinterIsComing #LightFestivalsAreComing

I Never Said I Was A Role Model

Xenophobia is part of a class of words in my history that I have learned outside of my mother language. Ironically I learned it in Spanish. There's a metric ton of it in The Torah. And that's a struggle I will always have.

True to form, I haven't been engaging in the cycle of bible as well as I'd like. But for sure, I'm tuning in for Yitro. In a recent letter to a friend (that's right #snailmail), I made a case about how one of the best things about The Torah is that the characters are flawed and approachable. Sometimes we squeeze water-virtue out of very human rock in order to create and maintain Biblical Heroes that are solid role models. And that too is important to the tradition and us as it forces us to always search out the best in everyone. Keep those optimistic muscles strong.

This week we don't have to work so hard. Enter Jethro, priest of Midian. The yoke of Oral Law is filling in an incomplete text, but if we go pashut (simple, literal), just what are we given of Jethro? He is the only person in Torah who is 100% helpful.

The only other gentile whom a Parsha is named after is Balak. He's sort of helpful, but he is compelled to be and he's mean to his donkey so screw him.

Yitro's virtues are many, feel free to get me started sometime. But in a story where someone will soon be rewarded for skewering an interfaith couple, Jethro's story is here to show us something more than menschlichkeit.

When we put up walls to keep things out we also trap ourselves. This idolater is maybe more Jewish than most. He houses the homeless, he takes care of his extended family and he gives great advice. He manages to embody the values, while characteristically embodying many gods.

He definitely sees that G-d is awesome—I'd have to agree (and I am not a contemporary of the miraculous Exodus), but he doesn't stay. And I'd have to conjecture that he doesn't end up a monotheist.

AND THAT'S OKAY.

I don't need Jethro to be 100% Kosher to be my 100% awesome role-model. He is tolerant, helpful, and kind. May we all be more like Yitro.

EPILOGUE

Oral Law Says:

He worked for Pharoah and repented

He gave us monotheism.

He made Moses promise to raise idol worshipers

Moses sent him away so he couldn't receive Revelation: the Talmud says because he wasn't a Jew and should not be there...I'd say, so he could stay not a Jew and be him.