Sort of.
A lady who belongs to the Middle Eastern something or other as an advisor here in Portland sent out an email three days ago to our department for Middle Eastern Studies wanting to know if any students would be willing to come over to her house for passover to wash dishes. Naturally the email got sent down the line (Middle Eastern Studies office is in the same building as the Office of Intentional Affairs --where I work) and it got handed to me by my supervisor. 12 bucks an hour plus free food and a ride back home? Count me in!
This family lives in the West Hills which means they're rich and their house exemplified that fact. Beautiful kitchen, old gas stove (the kind with the pilot exposed that are illegal to sell now-a-days) plus a wood stove for heating and an electrical stove thrown in for shits and giggles. Wood floors, wood counter tops, lots of cabinets and flood space. I didn't see the rest of the house (for obvious reasons) other than the bathroom and the entrance way that sported a beautiful painting of a Chinese warrior. I guess Carol (the hostess) is really into Asian pottery and letterings and has been to Japan a couple times. Her husband is a linguist like me except he focused on Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, etc. Their daughter, Marissa graduated from U of O, but in what I don't remember. Carol reminded me of my Asian Studies prof I had last year; sort of quiet and walks around with a sort of disconnect that leaves conversations a little bit awkward. I didn't talk to her husband very much but her daughter was the complete opposite of her; loud, amiable, and totally and completely into this passover thing. Nice people overall.
Not being Jewish (nor religious in any other particular way) I didn't really know exactly what was going down for this "passover". Carol and her husband (who's the Rabi for their local synagogue) filled me in on a couple things. Passover is sort of what Easter is for Christians (minus frighteningly giant bunnies hiding colored eggs). She had about 14 people both nights (passover lasts 8 days but most people only celebrate the first couple days).
I didn't really witness what went on during the sedar (is that what they call it? I guess it means ceremony or something) due to being in the kitchen the whole time (talk about kitchen wench) but I did hear most of what they were doing (although I couldn't understand what they were saying most of the time due to it being mostly in Hebrew). They started at about 7:00pm and went through the Tora reading passages and sang some songs. Then they went into some debates about various topics revolving around the Jewish community (one of the topics being about more support for GLBT, which I thought was cool ~they didn't sound like they were very conservative Jews ). Then the food was served and I was preoccupied with keeping up on the leaning tower of plates and pots so I don't know what went on during the eating portion (other than eating).
After all the courses were served they went back to reading passages and singing more song (one of them I got stuck in my head but can't remember any of the words other than "10 for the weeee commandments" ...idk either).
They were all really nice people and the food was spectacular. I've never had kosher food before (other than the salt, haha) but I guess the process it goes through before it can be considered "kosher" is long and expensive sounding. It all has to be inspected by a certain person before it's processed and in the case of meat, has to be drained completely in a certain way, then is has to be inspected again by the same exact person as before (can you imagine if that person got sick or something in the middle? They'd have to halt the whole operation!) before it can be packaged and sold. They don't eat pig or shell fish (that little specific right there is enough to count me out! Ain't no body tell me I can't eat food!), nor can they have milk products if the meal had meat in it (I wanted to get some more in depth detail on this peculiarity, but the dishes came pouring in as I was asking so I forgot).
Normally I feel very uncomfortable around religious people and religious ceremonies leave me feeling anxious, but I didn't experience either here. Granted I wasn't really apart of it but I guess because I don't really know anything about the Jewish religion they didn't creep me out like Christians do. Could also be that they were really chill and didn't appear to be hard-core conservatives or shove their views down my throat. It was a nice overall experience. I had gone to a Mosque last year for my Middle Eastern studies class and just sat in on their morning service in which afterward I felt some of those feelings that I described above but it did give me a better understanding of the Islamic faith. I think I want to go to a Synagogue sometime and do the same sort of thing. Would be interesting (I've done the Church thing more times than I wish to count so i'm done in with that field; although it would be interesting to go to a Catholic ceremony sometime because those people intrigue me).
I must say though that I have found that I much prefer the Buddhist ceremonies and practices that I experienced in Japan (and southeast Asia). They're much more relaxing and make me feel less stressed somehow. Maybe it's because there's no priest (or what have you) up in front of you telling you this and that and to do this and that. Buddhism is more personal/private from my experiences and I do find the idea of reincarnation better than the idea of an after life.
Needless to say it was an easy $130 dollars made and i'm glad I did it.
Now off to figure out what's wrong with the car I just bought.
PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie
A lady who belongs to the Middle Eastern something or other as an advisor here in Portland sent out an email three days ago to our department for Middle Eastern Studies wanting to know if any students would be willing to come over to her house for passover to wash dishes. Naturally the email got sent down the line (Middle Eastern Studies office is in the same building as the Office of Intentional Affairs --where I work) and it got handed to me by my supervisor. 12 bucks an hour plus free food and a ride back home? Count me in!
This family lives in the West Hills which means they're rich and their house exemplified that fact. Beautiful kitchen, old gas stove (the kind with the pilot exposed that are illegal to sell now-a-days) plus a wood stove for heating and an electrical stove thrown in for shits and giggles. Wood floors, wood counter tops, lots of cabinets and flood space. I didn't see the rest of the house (for obvious reasons) other than the bathroom and the entrance way that sported a beautiful painting of a Chinese warrior. I guess Carol (the hostess) is really into Asian pottery and letterings and has been to Japan a couple times. Her husband is a linguist like me except he focused on Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, etc. Their daughter, Marissa graduated from U of O, but in what I don't remember. Carol reminded me of my Asian Studies prof I had last year; sort of quiet and walks around with a sort of disconnect that leaves conversations a little bit awkward. I didn't talk to her husband very much but her daughter was the complete opposite of her; loud, amiable, and totally and completely into this passover thing. Nice people overall.
Not being Jewish (nor religious in any other particular way) I didn't really know exactly what was going down for this "passover". Carol and her husband (who's the Rabi for their local synagogue) filled me in on a couple things. Passover is sort of what Easter is for Christians (minus frighteningly giant bunnies hiding colored eggs). She had about 14 people both nights (passover lasts 8 days but most people only celebrate the first couple days).
I didn't really witness what went on during the sedar (is that what they call it? I guess it means ceremony or something) due to being in the kitchen the whole time (talk about kitchen wench) but I did hear most of what they were doing (although I couldn't understand what they were saying most of the time due to it being mostly in Hebrew). They started at about 7:00pm and went through the Tora reading passages and sang some songs. Then they went into some debates about various topics revolving around the Jewish community (one of the topics being about more support for GLBT, which I thought was cool ~they didn't sound like they were very conservative Jews ). Then the food was served and I was preoccupied with keeping up on the leaning tower of plates and pots so I don't know what went on during the eating portion (other than eating).
After all the courses were served they went back to reading passages and singing more song (one of them I got stuck in my head but can't remember any of the words other than "10 for the weeee commandments" ...idk either).
 |
| All of the people there looked about like this + a yamaka . |
Normally I feel very uncomfortable around religious people and religious ceremonies leave me feeling anxious, but I didn't experience either here. Granted I wasn't really apart of it but I guess because I don't really know anything about the Jewish religion they didn't creep me out like Christians do. Could also be that they were really chill and didn't appear to be hard-core conservatives or shove their views down my throat. It was a nice overall experience. I had gone to a Mosque last year for my Middle Eastern studies class and just sat in on their morning service in which afterward I felt some of those feelings that I described above but it did give me a better understanding of the Islamic faith. I think I want to go to a Synagogue sometime and do the same sort of thing. Would be interesting (I've done the Church thing more times than I wish to count so i'm done in with that field; although it would be interesting to go to a Catholic ceremony sometime because those people intrigue me).
I must say though that I have found that I much prefer the Buddhist ceremonies and practices that I experienced in Japan (and southeast Asia). They're much more relaxing and make me feel less stressed somehow. Maybe it's because there's no priest (or what have you) up in front of you telling you this and that and to do this and that. Buddhism is more personal/private from my experiences and I do find the idea of reincarnation better than the idea of an after life.
 |
| and lets face it, rock gardens are prettier to look at than dead guys on crosses. |
Needless to say it was an easy $130 dollars made and i'm glad I did it.
Now off to figure out what's wrong with the car I just bought.
PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie
