So as you can read from the title of this blog, I had a lot of religous experiences recently. I experienced my first Jewish Passover, I really wasn't directly involved with the dinner but I learned a lot of from it. This is what Wikipedia says about Passover...
In the story of Moses, God set ten plagues upon the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. The tenth plague was the killing of the firstborn sons. However, the Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb, and upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, hence the term "passover". When Pharaoh then freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is also called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". Instead matzah eaten, and is the primary symbol of the holiday.
I don't know a whole lot but that parts I do know I think are interesting. Everything they eat during the meal, which is called a seder, represents something. The seder last a long time and they recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt. They eat unleavened bread because their ancestors didn't have the time to let the bread rise. The unleavened bread is called matzah and is basically a cracker. It really has no taste to it. Everything during the meal was a representation of the sacrifices that the Jewish people have gone through. It was all very interesting to learn about new things. I was happy because there was left over cake. We all got to take some with us. My favorite was the red velvet. It was SO good.
In the story of Moses, God set ten plagues upon the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. The tenth plague was the killing of the firstborn sons. However, the Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb, and upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, hence the term "passover". When Pharaoh then freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is also called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". Instead matzah eaten, and is the primary symbol of the holiday.
I don't know a whole lot but that parts I do know I think are interesting. Everything they eat during the meal, which is called a seder, represents something. The seder last a long time and they recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt. They eat unleavened bread because their ancestors didn't have the time to let the bread rise. The unleavened bread is called matzah and is basically a cracker. It really has no taste to it. Everything during the meal was a representation of the sacrifices that the Jewish people have gone through. It was all very interesting to learn about new things. I was happy because there was left over cake. We all got to take some with us. My favorite was the red velvet. It was SO good.
So, the Pope was in town a couple weeks ago. It was chaos around here. He was actually staying just around the corner and so our street was blocked off numerous times. It was more chaotic when the Pope came than when the President Bush came. There was policeman EVERYWHERE.
This was the line of motorcycle cops the ran from Madison to Park on 72nd Street.
That white tent looking thing in the background was where he was staying. He was about to leave and those were all the people waiting to see him. Since they were so close, I took Will to see the motorcylce cops a couple of times. One time we went, one of the sergeants let him on his motorcycle and let Will turn on the siren. It was really neat.
I learned from some of the staff here, that if the Pope sees you it is as if he blesses you. My boss was watching some news coverage of the Pope and at one place he was at there was a line of these handicap children and they were all hoping that he would see them and bless them all. My boss said he was very touched by that and it made him cry. Early Sunday morning we went to 5th and 73rd and watched him leave with his whole entourage. I am not joking, it took a whole 2 minutes from start to finish. I think there were 4 limos, too many to count black sedans, some black SUVs, cop cars, and probably a hundred motorcycle cops. I think they had every street blocked off that he would be driving through. It was insane the amount of police that were around.
The night he left, which was Sunday I believe, I was with Will. His parents had gone out and they said he could stay up until they got home. So, we were going to watch some of Will's TV shows. When the TV came on, the news coverage of the Pope was on. It was showing the plane that he would be taking back to Italy. Well, Will wanted to watch it take off. He was so interested in the Pope and everything he did. So as we were watching Will starting asking some questions. How do you become the Pope? Can I become the Pope? Am I a good boy? It was all very cute but what are you supposed to say to a 4 year old Jewish boy who wants to become the Pope. I was a little at a lost for words. I told him you first at to be good your whole life and you had to be Catholic. Then he asked me, how do you become Catholic? Oh boy was I in trouble. I answered all of these questions the best I could without giving him false hope that he could one day become the Pope. When I told him that you had to be good your whole life, he asked if he was a good boy. Earlier that day he had given me some problems so I told him, sometimes. It was all very cute and somewhat funny. When his parents got home I filled them in on our conversation earlier. The mom said I don't think so and the dad said he can be whatever he wants to be. Honestly, if a little boy wants to grow up to be the Pope, I didn't think it would be a bad thing. If he started to act up, all you would have to say is, Is that how the Pope acts? I think that just made work...
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