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Mitzvah Moments: everything you want to know about Jews including the two kitchen sinks.

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
@JustGeorge

When I began my posts on the Shabbat, I thought the disclaimer in my post about the variety of our theologies and practices among religious Jews was enough. But I think now that I should make it clear that my discussion was skewed towards Orthodoxy. I'm sure the reason I did this is because my fondest memories of Shabbat were those years. However, there were things the Orthodox do that were not mentioned. Conservative Jews are fairly observant, but less strict than the Orthodox. Reform Jews feel fulfilled to simply attend synagogue, although they might increase their observance voluntarily. I am not familiar with Construction Judaism, so I can't comment on that. Because the question was about Judaism, I answered from that context. However, remember that of course secular Jews have no reason to observe Shabbat at all.

A couple of quick points:
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Can you explain a bit what this means?
As a conservative Jew, I keep the Shabbat, although not as strictly as an Orthodox Jew. An Orthodox Jew will not flip light switches. I do. An orthodox Jew will not drive a car on Shabbat. I drive to synagogue. You get the idea.

As a conservative Jew, I keep kosher, but not to the same level as someone who is orthodox. For example, an Orthodox Jew will only eat out at a restaurant that is certified kosher. While I do observe kashrut in the home, on those rare occasions where I eat out, I relax the rules a little. Sure, I'd love to eat at kosher certified restaurants, but there isn't a single one within an hour of me. So I will avoid unclean meats and not mix meat and dairy, but the restaurant is not certified kosher. That means that it does things like add butter to vegetables in a steak dinner, cook both meat and dairy in the same pans, and use meat that has not been kosher slaughtered.

As a conservative Jew, I keep all the same holy days as an Orthodox Jew, but not always to the same degree. For example, an Orthodox Jew will not use electronics on Yom Kippur, so any attendance must be in person. Because I'm disabled, I have begun using live Zoom broadcasts of High Holy day services and I feel very fortunate that this option is available.

There are a myriad of other little differences, like that the Orthodox have a tradition of putting their right shoe on first, a custom rooted in Jewish Law. I don't really keep track of how I put on my shoes.

I do not look down on Jews who see any of this differently. I'm fine with the Orthodox being stricter, and fine with Reform Jews considering all these things voluntary. Truth be told, I really have nothing against even Jews who are not religious at all, but are still good people. This is just how I personally rock and roll.

Unlike my conservative observance, like I said, my theology and stuff is extremely liberal. I line up completely with the use of textual criticism and literary analysis, comparison to outside texts, and archeology to understand the Torah. For me, studying the Torah is like turning an apple around and viewing it from all sides. Textual criticism, literary analysis, comparison with outside texts, and archeology, are simply different different vantage points to view the same apple. They are not at all at odds with delving deep for how to live my life and understand God.

I don't need to believe that Moses wrote the Torah for the Torah to be my primary source of religious inspiration. Understanding that the flood is a myth in no way prevents me from getting the message that God hates sin and cares about the preservation of all living species. Knowing that a rabbit really does not chew its cud does not diminish my respect for the Torah.
 
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IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
  • I observe Shabbat as do most of my friends. We are far from unique. I assume that by "no reason to observe" you meant "no reason to observe that I find legitimate and/or noteworthy."
You know, I thought about this for a while, and I think you have changed my opinion. I was approaching it from the point of view that keeping the Shabbat is a religious observance, which would mean that anyone who observes the Shabbat is religious. But I can see what you are saying that you find meaning/value in the Shabbat despite not being religious. Thank you for your input. I learn something new every day. :)
 

Alien826

No religious beliefs
Finally, there is the prohibition of mixing meat and dairy. They may not be eaten together, cooked together, placed on the same table, washed together or stored together (some Jews even have two refrigerators and two sinks). We use two sets of dishes so that even the residuals will not cause cross contamination.

I know this goes back to a verse about boiling a kid in its mother's milk, but it still seems a heck of a lot of prohibition over a single sentence. On the other hand, I have learned that over the centuries Rabbis have interpreted and re-interpreted every word in the Torah and often the meaning they come up with is a long way from a literal meaning of the text. (I hope I phrased that respectfully enough). Do you know how that one verse got so complicated?
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
I think this forum would be a wonderful place to have a casual discussion about Jews and Judaism. Within that very broad category, ask anything you wish, anything you have ever wondered about.

Ideas might be:
  • Are Jews an ethnicity or a religious group.
  • What does it mean to keep the Shabbat (sabbath).
  • What does "kosher" mean, and what are its rules.
  • What sacred books do Jews have.
  • What holy days..
  • What is tzedakah and how is it different from charity.
  • At the synagogue, how do Jews pray and what kinds of rituals are there.
  • How do Jews observe Life Cycle events like birth, coming of age, marriage, death.
  • What happened in Jewish history between the return from captivity and the beginning of Christianity.
  • How has Judaism continued to develop in the last 2000 years.
  • What are the different groups of Jews.
  • What are the different movements of Judaism.
  • Antisemitism and the Holocaust.
  • How do Jews see other religions.
  • What makes a person a Jew.
  • What are some of the yiddish words that have made it into English.
  • Jewish food: what is your favorite recipe for challah.
LOL you get the idea. Ask away...
Is there a limit on how far you travel on the Sabbath? How did the distance come about?
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I know this goes back to a verse about boiling a kid in its mother's milk, but it still seems a heck of a lot of prohibition over a single sentence. On the other hand, I have learned that over the centuries Rabbis have interpreted and re-interpreted every word in the Torah and often the meaning they come up with is a long way from a literal meaning of the text. (I hope I phrased that respectfully enough). Do you know how that one verse got so complicated?
You have asked a really excellent question. It has to do with the fact that the prohibition of not cooking a kid in its own mother's milk is mentioned not once, not twice, but three times. This tells us that whatever is going on here is very very important, and better to err on the side of caution.

"Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah." (Pirkei Avot 1:1)

What this means is to live our lives in such a way that not only do we not break a commandment, but we do not even put ourselves into a situation where we might. Catholics have the same sort of idea when they say, "Avoid the near occasion of sin."

A bit of further information that you might find interesting is that the Rabbis felt that each time the commandment was mentioned, it referred to something subtly different:
1. Don't cook them together.
2. Don't eat them together.
3. Don't derive benefit from them being mixed (like selling products where they are mixed.)

Now my own mind doesn't use that sort of logic, but then again, I'm not a sage and my opinions don't count for much. :)

BTW, I think I should reiterate that different Jews approach this differently. I gave the Orthodox version. But a Conservative Jew has a less strict understanding of Kashrut, and a Reform Jew sees kashrut is something that is voluntary. And of course there are many Jews who are secular, who may or may not prefer to keep kosher to some degree, but don't see it as their religious obligation.

( @Jayhawker Soule See! i have repented! :) )
 
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IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Is there a limit on how far you travel on the Sabbath? How did the distance come about?
Exodus 16:29 states: "Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." This commandment was interpreted by the rabbis as a prohibition against traveling beyond a certain distance from one's place of residence on Shabbat. That distance was determined by the Rabbis.

I get confused about this sometimes. When I was Orthodox and lived in the Jewish neighborhood of a large city, my Rabbi taught me to live within 3/5 of a mile from the shul. But since then I've had other Jews tell me other things, so now I don't know what to think. There are at least two Rabbis in the forum who are better suited than I am to answer.

When I switched to Conservative observance, there were some Conservative Jews who kept the same travel restrictions as the Orthodox, and others who didn't. Since a lot of Conservative Jews live a ways away from the synagogue, it is common for us to simply drive there, something an Orthodox Jew would never do.

Reform Jews recognize Jewish law, but consider it voluntary. They are free to restrict their travel, but do not view it as an obligation.

And many Jews are secular. They might find value in keeping the Shabbat even though they are not religious. How they do it would vary.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Exodus 16:29 states: "Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." This commandment was interpreted by the rabbis as a prohibition against traveling beyond a certain distance from one's place of residence on Shabbat. That distance was determined by the Rabbis.

I get confused about this sometimes. When I was Orthodox and lived in the Jewish neighborhood of a large city, my Rabbi taught me to live within 3/5 of a mile from the shul. But since then I've had other Jews tell me other things, so now I don't know what to think. There are at least two Rabbis in the forum who are better suited than I am to answer.

When I switched to Conservative observance, there were some Conservative Jews who kept the same travel restrictions as the Orthodox, and others who didn't. Since a lot of Conservative Jews live a ways away from the synagogue, it is common for us to simply drive there, something an Orthodox Jew would never do.

Reform Jews recognize Jewish law, but consider it voluntary. They are free to restrict their travel, but do not view it as an obligation.

And many Jews are secular. They might find value in keeping the Shabbat even though they are not religious. How they do it would vary.
thank you !!
 

  • What does "kosher" mean, and what are its rules.

  • What happened in Jewish history between the return from captivity and the beginning of Christianity.

  • Antisemitism and the Holocaust.
  • How do Jews see other religions.

  • What are some of the yiddish words that have made it into English.
  • Jewish food: what is your favorite recipe for challah.
I hear a Jewish person should not drive on the Sabbath because a car has combustion engines. Something about fire on the Sabbath.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.

  • What does "kosher" mean, and what are its rules.
Please see post number 18. I give the Orthodox rundown. Conservative Jews observe most of those rules but not all, and Reform consider the rules to be entirely voluntary. We also have secular Jews that observe kashrut to various degrees for their own reasons, but don't consider them to be religious obligations.
I hear a Jewish person should not drive on the Sabbath because a car has combustion engines. Something about fire on the Sabbath.
It depends on the Jew. An Orthodox Jew takes the prohibition of "kindling a flame" very seriously, and yes, a car has a combustion engine. However, the Halakha (Jewish law) of Conservative Jews is a tad different. Conservative Judaism has no problem with me driving my car to synagogue. And Reform Jews, even though they recognize Halakhah, they consider it to be entirely voluntary.

You might find my two posts on Shabbat laws worth reading. Remember that I'm giving the Orthodox version. Other Jewish groups do things somewhat differently. See post numbers 3 and 4.
 
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IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.

  • What happened in Jewish history between the return from captivity and the beginning of Christianity.
You probably already know that after the Babylonian Exile, the Jewish people returned to Judah in the late 6th century BCE, led by figures like Zerubbabel and later Ezra and Nehemiah, under the auspices of the Persian Empire. This is why King Cyrus the Great is called a messiah. The Jews rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem (known as the Second Temple) around 515 BCE. Now let's get to the juicy stuff... :)

During the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great's conquests led to the Hellenistic influence over the region, which continued under his successors, the Ptolemies and Seleucids. The introduction of Hellenistic culture created tensions within the Jewish community, between those who embraced Greek culture and those who resisted it. The Seleucids forced Hellenism on the Jews, and forbade the study of the Torah, circumcision, and observance of the sabbath. There were even some Jews who went along with this so much that they had their circumcisions reversed, and would do their athletics in the nude like Greeks.

This cultural clash culminated in the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE) against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The successful revolt led to the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty, when Judea was free from rule by any empire, and the rededication of the Temple (celebrated by the festival of Hanukkah).

One of the last Hasmonean monarchs was actually a Queen (making her REALLY interesting to me). Salome Alexandra (also known as Shlomtzion) reigned as queen of Judea from 76 to 67 BCE, following the death of her husband.

One of the things most notable about the Hasmonean era, is that this is the first period in Jewish history that archeology supports the suggestion that the Torah was widely known and the vast majority of Jews consistently observed the religious laws and commandments. While no one doubts that Jews were constantly flipping in and out of idolatry in our early years, it is clear that the Babylonian exile PERMANENTLY drove idolatry out of our systems.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Hasmonean kings were Kohanim (Aaronic priests), so these kings were simultaneously the civic rulers and high priests.

By the mid-1st century BCE, internal strife and external pressures led to the decline of the Hasmonean kingdom, resulting in Roman intervention. In 63 BCE, the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem, placing Judea under Roman influence.

Herod the Great, a puppet king under the Romans, ruled from 37 to 4 BCE, extensively rebuilding the Second Temple and other infrastructure. Herod was NOT a Hasmonean. He established an entirely new dynasty. Despite Herod's building projects and political maneuvering, discontent remained among the Jewish populace due to heavy taxation, Roman oversight, and the perceived illegitimacy of Herod's rule.

This period set the stage for increased tensions between Jews and Romans, leading to the Jewish revolts in the first century CE.

It is interesting that during this time, there were all sorts of different men claiming to be the messiah, someone who would deliver Israel. This is something that Monty Python had loads of fun with in Life of Brian. "The SHOE of the messiah!"

Obviously the actual history is far more detailed, but I'm sure you didn't want a whole book. :)
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.

  • Antisemitism and the Holocaust.
This is a very long topic, and I don't think I could even begin to do it justice in a post. However, I'll touch on certain things, and if you wish you can ask further questions. And I'm sooo sorry its as long as it is. If I could have made this shorter and felt like I had done the topic justice, I would have.

Let me first say, and I cannot stress this enough, Christians today have (with very few exceptions) turned their backs on antisemitism. It will be difficult for you guys to hear about the past, but PLEASE know that I do NOT think of Christians today as antisemites, and this post in no way is meant to bash you or your faith in Jesus. I'm simply seeking to be informative about the history of antisemitism (since I was asked), so if you would be so kind as to keep that in mind...

Antisemitism has existed as long as there have been Jews. In fact, we joke about our holidays being "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat." LOL You may recall that Pharaoh passed an edict calling for the murder of all Jewish male babies. When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews captive, he would have expected them to simply assimilate as other peoples had. In the story of Esther, Haman literally plots the genocide of the Jews. The Greeks engaged in cultural genocide, forcing Hellenism on all the peoples they conquered, including the Jews. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, and exiled the Jews. They even went so far as to rename Judea "Palestine" (after the Philistines) in an effort to wipe Jews from history.

However, no one persecuted us for as long or to such a deep extent as Christians. By the second century, the new religion of Christianity had become differentiated from Judaism, and an animosity developed. Christians went out of their way to avoid doing anything Jewish, such as stopping all observance of the Shabbat and Passover.

It was during this time that Replacement Theology aka Supersessionism developed. This theology says that although the Jews were once God's people, God has abandoned physical Israel. The Church is the New Israel and now all the promises given to the Jews belong to Christians. Every once in a great while, you still hear this doctrine echoed by a few Christians today who claim that Christians are the REAL Jews. Replacement Theology directly undermines Jewish identity and our covenant. It has contributed to the marginalization, persecution, and exclusion of Jews from Christian societies by framing us as having been superseded or rejected by God. Major proponents of this theology include Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, and Augustine.

Things went from bad to worse in the 4th century when the Council of Nicea decided Jesus was God. This was when Christians began accusing Jews of "deicide"--the murder of God. And I don't mean just the Jews in the courtyard of Jesus' trial, but all Jews right up to the present. It resulted in the destruction of synagogues, riots, and violence against Jews. This is when the phrase "Christ-Killer" came into history, a phrase that would be used to incite violence against Jews right up into the 20th century.

In the fourth century, a particular Christian bishop, John Chrysostom, deserves to be singled out for his passionate set of sermons called "Against the Jews," designed to inflame Christian anger. He accused Jews of being immoral, participating in ritual murder, and other heinous acts. He called for Jews to be excluded from public life and social interactions with Christians. "The Jews are a bloodthirsty race, a race that, by their wicked deeds, have called down upon themselves the wrath of God... They are a race that slaughters the prophets and kills the saints." "The Jews are a race that is cursed, a race that is polluted, a race that is a servant to every other race." "The synagogue is worse than a brothel... It is the den of scorpions, the place of the devils... It is a den of thieves and robbers."

Also during this same era, Augustine needs to be noted for teachings that became entrenched in Christian theology. Augustine taught that Jews were suffering divine punishment for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. He believed that God had sentenced us to be forever wandering the earth, outcast. He viewed our hardships as a consequence of our failure to accept Christ and believed this was part of God's plan to make Christianity more evident.

Common antisemitic tropes:
  • The Blood Libel -- the claim that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make Passover matzah. Related to this was the idea that Jews engaged in the ritual murder of Christians.
  • The Poisoning of Wells by Jews -- this was particularly common during the Black Death, as Christians blamed Jews for the Plague. Jews were also commonly blamed for economic crises.
  • Greedy Jews: It was Christians that first got Jews into banking and money lending by outlawing our participation in other trades. Then they turned around and blamed us for requiring Christians to pay interest.
  • Deformed Jews: This era began the tradition of portraying Jews with big noses, etc.
  • Blasphemers: Jews were thought to desecrate the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and other imagined offenses.

And this era also began a long, long history of inviting Jews, knowing that they would help build the economies, and then turning around and exiling us. Probably most notable was the exile of Jews from Christian nations was England (1290), France (1306), and Spain (1492)--all of which occured on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'av, said to be the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.

It became quite common during the Easter season for Christians to do Passion Plays depicting the trial, torture, and crucifixion of Jesus. Inevitably, these plays riled up Christians, who would go on rampages against the Jews afterwards. In fact, the connection between the plays and the violence was so strong, that many Jews were afraid of what might happen after Mel Gibson released his Passion of the Christ.

There were many forced conversions, and many Jews went to their deaths rather than convert. Perhaps the two that most readily come to my mind were in Portugal and Russia.

After the Alhambra decree banishing all non-Catholics from Spain in 1492, Jews fled to Portugal. But we went from the frying pan into the fire, because Portugal would not allow Jews to leave, but insisted on forced conversions. Jews were baptized en masse against their will. Later, these Jews were persecuted by the Inquisition because their conversions were suspect.

During the 17th and 18th centuries in Russia, especially during the reign of Tsar Alexis, Jews were forcibly converted. Any Jew who resisted conversion faced harsh penalties, including violence, forced relocation, etc. Not only were Jews forcibly baptized, but those who continued to practice Judaism in secret would be subject to arrest and punishment. The idea here was for Jews to assimilate and become Russians, obliterating us as a distinct people.

Of particular note is Martin Luther, the man who began the Protestant revolution in the 16th century. At first, he was kind to Jews, expecting us to simply become Christians when we heard the gospel. However, when the conversions never materialized, he became angry and bitter. He wrote a text called "On the Jews and Their Lies" that was a tirade, and which advocated all sort of punishments that Jews deserved: the burning of all synagogues, the burning of all Jewish books, the confiscation of all our property, expulsion from Christian countries, and forced conversion accompanied by severe penalties for those who resisted. This document would later become the blueprint for the Holocaust.

Perhaps the worst persecution of Jews before the Holocaust were the pogroms of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Pale of Settlement (a territory encompassing parts of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus where Jews were segregated to). These attacks were characterized by brutal violence, and the government response was often inadequate or or even supportive. I met an older Jew who told me a nightmarish story passed on by his grandparents. When they were children they hid in the cupboard while Cossacks wearing crosses hacked their parents to death as they shouted "Christ Killers!" These pogroms led to the most massive migration of Jews in history.

What can I say about the Holocaust that would even begin to do justice to the suffering and deaths of six million Jews? In Auschwitz, a group of Orthodox Rabbis formed a beit din (tribunal) to try God for abandoning his covenant with the Jews. They found God guilty. I'm sure you have all heard the gruesome stories, so no need for me to mention them here. It is, btw, probably the best recorded event in history, due to the Germans being meticulous record keepers.

Before World War II, the global Jewish population was estimated to be around 16.6 million. The Holocaust exterminated roughly 60% of the Jews in Europe, a significant portion of the Jewish population globally. Today, Jews have STILL not recovered from that; we are still at only about 15 million today.

Unlike Christians who focused on religious discrimination, the Nazis of course were well known for their racist ideology -- they were the master race, and Slavs, Roma, etc., were inferior races good only for serving the German people. This didn't even begin to compare with their hatred towards Jews, whom they believed were a dangerous race and needed to be completely wiped off the planet--the "final solution" to the "Jewish problem."

But the Nazis could never have accomplished their genocide without the help of Christians. Most Germans during the holocaust were either Catholic or Lutheran. These Christians had been fed a steady diet of antisemitism from birth. In particular, Hitler basically treated Luther's "On the Jews and Their Lies" as an instruction manual for the holocaust. It worth noting that not all Christians were like this. There were a remnant that risked their lives to hide Jews. In Italy, every monastery and convent hid Jews, and thousands were hid in the Vatican alone. But these Christians were the exception to the rule. Indeed, in Croatia, the Catholic Ustasha were even more monstrous than the Nazis.

It was after Christians looked upon the horrors of the Holocaust that things changed. Most churches repudiated Replacement Theology and the Augustinian views. The Catholic Church in particular disavowed the idea that the Jews were communally responsible for the death of Jesus and were worthy of Christian respect. (Nostra Aetate). And indeed, probably no other group besides Jews has been more supportive of Israel than Evangelical Christians.

Today, we are seeing an enormous upswing in antisemitism, but it is not coming from Christians. It is coming from the far left and Muslims. This is not to say that all leftists and Muslim are antisemitic. Only that the hatred of Jews is coming from within these groups. The increase was alarming even before 10/7, but has reached epic proportions--Jews are hiding that we are Jews, upping security at synagogues, and many leaving for Israel.

This week, the courts ruled that UCLA could no longer have Jewish-free zones on campus. Do you know how the governing body of UCLA responded? They protested, saying that there was nothing wrong with Jewish free zones. So we are back to the Nazi idea of Judenfrei areas. It is fascinating to note that hundreds of Jews left France for Israel in the past month DURING THE ISRAEL HAMAS WAR. They feel safer in a war zone than in France.

People, we are living in Germany, 1935.
 
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IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.

  • How do Jews see other religions.
Phew! This will be so much easier than my last post!

Basically, Judaism makes no claim to be the "one, true religion." We are absolutely fine with others worshiping God in their own way. Sure, we think that certain ideas are mistaken. But our history is one of trying to get along with others. No one NEEDS to become a Jew. Being a righteous non-Jew is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it is a Jewish teaching the righteous among the nations have a share in the world to come.

Some Jewish groups are highly insular. They worry that contact with the world will have a corruptive influence. But other Jewish groups seek to harmonize our religion with being a part of the local community, even actually encouraging interfaith activities with other religions.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
  • What are some of the yiddish words that have made it into English.
Ah this will be a fun one.

First, there are a gazillion Yiddish words for the male member that are adopted into in English. Who can forget Young Frankenstein and the Schwanzstücker. A rabbi I knew told me about an incident he witnessed in NYC. Two Puerto Rican kids were playing in an alley, and one asked, "What's a schmuck?" The other replies, "It's like a putz." My friend said he laughed. Where else but NYC can you find two goyim that define one Yiddish word with another Yiddish word?

Mazel Tov: (מזל טוב) Literally "good luck," used to convey congratulations or best wishes.

Shalom: (שָׁלוֹם) Meaning "peace" or "hello," it is often used as a greeting or farewell.

Pish posh: (פּישפּוש) An expression used to dismiss something as trivial or nonsense.

Chutzpah: (חוצפה) Audacity or nerve. It describes a bold or brash attitude, often admired for its daring or courage. "That's some chutzpah you've got, pal!"

Tush or Tushie: (תּוֹשׁ) Informal term for "buttocks," used in a casual or playful context.

Bubkes: (באָבקס) Meaning "nothing" or "insignificant amount," often used to describe something of little value or worth. For example, "I looked for your evidence, and found bupkis."

Gelt: (געלט) Money, particularly in a casual or informal context.

Shtick: (שטיק) Refers to a distinctive characteristic or routine, often used in the context of a performer’s routine or gimmick. "That's his shtick."

Schmooze: (שמוּזן) To chat or converse informally. Often used to describe casual conversation or networking. For example, "We went to the dinner party and schmoozed."

Schlep: (שלעפּן) To carry or drag something heavy or cumbersome. It can also mean to travel with difficulty. "I don't expect you to schlep all the way across town."

Mensch: (מענטש) A person of integrity and honor. Often used to describe someone who is kind and decent. "He's such a mensch!"

Kvetch: (קוועטשן) To complain or whine. It refers to expressing dissatisfaction or discomfort. "Stop kvetching about the weather; it’s not like we can change it with our complaints!"

Bubbe: (באָבע) Grandmother. Used affectionately to refer to one’s grandmother.

Tchotchke: (צ'אָטשקע) A small, decorative object or trinket. It can also refer to knick-knacks or souvenirs.

There's more, but that's a pretty good list.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Jewish food: what is your favorite recipe for challah.
LOL, this was meant as a joke. Challah is a braided egg bread that is served on Shabbat. I have many recipes, but I especially like the ones that are extra sweet. In my personal experience, I think the secret to making good challah is ten minutes of kneading. It takes that long to develop the glutton and trap enough air. A well kneaded bread will be light and fluffy. Cheat on the kneading and you will have a tough, chewy ick on your hands. :)

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