I forgot what I was going to write about- now I remember- check it out

I went to a Pashach aka Passover ceremony on- well the day after Passover, but close enough for me.

There was 10 or 12 people there, two Jews, two Christians and a whole passel of agnostics, atheists and other confused people. Sure maybe the Jews and Christians are confused too- but at least we got something.

Top moments of the night:

The Kosher wine was quite nice. Two of the party had recently returned from vacation in Israel.

The Passover meal has much to do with questions and answers. While I did study Jewish scripture, I’ve never studied the traditions; so much of what they had to say was news to me.

Several people were Jew experts out of the blue. It was kind of a strange thing to see. I have often observed that not revealing everything you know or you think you know about a topic is very difficult for many people. Sometimes difficult for me- but I’m pretty good at that “keep it on the inside and lets see what they say” attitude.

Every once in a while the host, who was leading the story/question/discussion part of the dinner, would ask me about a detail in the story- which I would fill in. Eventually someone asked why the host was directing question to me when obviously I was not one of the self appointed experts of Judaism. You know- I wasn’t jumping in and yelling out all the answers.

Jew Expert: Why are you asking her?
Host: She has a Bible degree.
JE: So?
H: So. . . that’s what she studied in college- so she knows the stories
JE: But the Bible is Christian!
H: Uh- The Jewish Bible is in the Bible
JE: It is? I thought the Torah was Jewish
Me: The Torah is the Old Testament
JE: So, you studied the Torah?
Me: Yes

So- for anyone who is confused- Christians call the Torah the Old Testament. The Torah is also known as the Jewish bible. The Christian bible aka “The Bible” includes the Old Testament, aka the Torah, and the New Testament, aka the bit about Jesus.

The other Christian wasn’t taking wine, because as we found out later, she was studying to be a missionary- later she went out for a smoke. Which for some reason I thought was really ironic. She didn’t want to drink wine at a Passover ceremony- but cancer sticks are forever!

Who am I to judge? Doesn’t say anything about smoking in the Bible- so go for it I guess. It does say bunches about wine and drinking it, but don’t drink it- must be evil- I guess. As the apostle Paul said, Well, I can’t remember exactly what he said, I’ll have to look it up- which reminds me-

Someone started talking about the 10 commandments at some point. Then it came up that “love your neighbor as yourself” is one of the 10. Well Educated Boy in the corner, who had already, has his fair share of Kosher and non kosher wine said, “No, it’s not.”
I agreed with him and said, “It’s not.”

The Jew experts (not the actual Jews mind you) insisted it was one of the 10.
WEB: It’s Christian; it’s diametrically opposed to Judaism.
Me: No it isn’t. It is Christian, but it’s not opposed to Judaism.
WEB: Yeah, Jesus said it. It’s in the New Testament.
Me: I know, but he was quoting from the Old Testament
WEB: No he wasn’t
Jew Experts: It’s one of the 10 commandments
WEB and Me: NO! It’s not!
Me: Jesus said, it, and he was quoting from the OT
WEB: Where is it then?
Me: I don’t know the chapter and verse, but I can find it for you.
(Lev 19:18 FYI)
WEB: sure

I’m sure he thought he got the best of me. Then he drank three more bottles of wine and forgot about it.

Another really funny thing was a song they sang- it was like “The Old Woman Who Swallowed the Fly.” But it started with a goat, a cat, a dog, a stick on fire, and ended with the angel of death and the Holy one himself taking part in the fiasco of the lost “kid” which some in the group thought meant a baby goat (as it actually did) and others thought it meant a human “kid.”

It was an interesting in a good way experience- but I chose to leave in the first volley of people leaving. It is possible to have too much of an interesting thing.