Lagh ba‘Omer bonfires and HapPijamoth

Jewish date:  18 ’Iyyar 5772 (Parashath Behar).

Today’s holidays:  Day 33 of the ‘Omer/Lagh ba‘Omer (Judaism), Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of the Apostle Simon (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast Day of St. John Holmes (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Last year I somehow missed the Lagh ba‘Omer bonfires.  This year I planned ahead and captured a few pictures last night at a vacant lot near the local mall:

This activity was primarily one of children and families and included roasting marshmallows.  Bonfires also seem to be a relatively recent practice.  For more on current lore on Lagh ba‘Omer, especially inaccuracies in it, please see “Lagh Ba’Omer - A Gratuitous Holiday”.  It takes an hour to listen to the lecture, and it is in Judeo-English, but it is well-worth it.

This poster advertises a Lagh ba‘Omer parade and show this afternoon, courtesy of Ḥabbadh.  Parades are not a Lagh ba‘Omer tradition, but given that Israel is the only predominantly Jewish country on the planet, one has to expect that celebrations of Jewish holidays over here would be scaled up to a larger scale than in the Diaspora.  The man pictured on the poster and featured at the show is Gershon “Geri HambuGeri” Mandelba’um, a character from the Israeli children’s show HapPijamoth (“The Pyjamas”).  I have seen seasons 3, 4, and 5 of HapPijamoth on-line as part of my efforts to better understand spoken Modern Hebrew, and so I am going to use this opportunity to talk about the treatment of religion in HapPijamoth.


HapPijamoth belongs to the genre of “stupid shows”, not meant to be taken seriously and with most of the characters being not particularly bright.  (This is not an insult, but a statement of fact.  For example, one of the main characters, ‘Odhedh Paz, actually thinks he is pregnant in one episode, despite being unambiguously male.)  The show is named after a band, HapPijamoth (who actually wear pajamas during performances), and strongly associated with the band is Geri Mandelba’um (who runs a low-quality hamburger restaurant called HambuGeri) and his teenage daughter Roni.  HapPijamoth and Geri frequently get into trouble due to their lack of intelligence, greed, ignorance, laziness, and lack of foresight.  Roni is smarter than any of them and seems to be in the show for teenagers to identify with.

Given that this is a stupid show, no topic is treated particularly deeply, including religion.  The average episode ignores religion altogether, though it is dealt with from time to time:

• One of HapPijamoth, Qobbi Faraj, has a superhero-level ability to change his appearance.  (If they ever explain this, it is not in an episode I have seen.)  One of Qobbi’s alter-egos is Sabbabah Sa’li, apparently a parody of the Qabbalist Baba Sali.  This quasi-character’s speech is very difficult to understand, and I do not mean that he speaks with an accent which gives me trouble or he speaks too fast; a lot of what he says is deliberately ungrammatical or nonsense, to the point where the other characters do not know what he is trying to say.
• Roni often asks for (or extorts) money from Geri.  In one episode he takes money out of a ṣedhaqah (charity) box and gives it to her.
• In one episode Geri attempts to get kashruth certification for HambuGeri.  In order to avoid having to hire a rabbinical supervisor, he claims that his rav is Sabbabah Sa’li, which gets Qobbi into trouble since not only is Sabbabah Sa’li not on record as being ordained, but Qobbi lacks even rudimentary knowledge of kashruth.  A song in this episode about HapPijamoth becoming ba‘ale teshuvah (becoming religious) is not reflected in their behavior.
• One of HapPijamoth, Yamith Sol, enters a talent show doing an interpretive dance which goes horribly wrong in that the chair she uses during the dance falls apart and has to be repaired on stage.  The music she chooses, “’Eḥadh Mi Yodhea‘?”, is a traditional Pesaḥ song reviewing a number of the basics of Judaism; her outfit and dance are not consistent with the song or observant Jewish norms.
• Season 4 ends with all the characters mysteriously dying.  Season 5 begins with HapPijamoth in the Gan ‘Edhen for TV shows, which seems based on a popular American Christian conception of Heaven, and trying to go back to Earth in response to a prayer from a child who is distressed that the show has ended.  One of HapPijamoth, Nathan Qupperman, is put into the role of God, though as a shining human-shaped being rather than incorporeal; he declines to go back to Earth.  Geri is in the Gehinnom for TV shows, a place blatantly based on a popular American Christian conception of Hell, complete with the demon king ’Ashmedha’y in the role of the Devil.  It goes without saying that HapPijamoth are successful in their quest, as failure would mean the end of the show.  ’Ashmedha’y recurs in another episode, in which one of his schemes ends up destroying the Earth, which gets him in big trouble with YHWH.  (Yes, that gets undone, too.)

Theological rating:  D (the afterlife episode is what really did it in).

Peace, and please be careful burning stuff today.

’Aharon/Aaron

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Update a few hours later:

I am aware of the incongruity between a Habbadh event and a character from a show with a theological rating of D.  This is Earth.  Weird things happen here.  I did not plan to attend the show, period.  That did not stop it from being held in the basketball court next to the synagogue I went to for minḥah (afternoon services).  And I heard Yaniv Polishuq doing his Geri HambuGeri character, including his trademark taunting (for which mere transcription cannot do justice).  And he even did a song including the trademark taunting.  Given the incongruity, the effect was surreal.

Holidays between Pesaḥ and Shavu‘oth

 Jewish date: 15 Siwan 5771 (Parashath Shelaḥ Lekha).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Marvel “Jack” Parsons (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Zontar of Venus (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

To get completely caught up, I should put in a few words on Jewish/Israeli holidays which occur between Pesaḥ (Passover) and Shavu‘oth (Pentecost).  I am sorry I did not get around to writing about them earlier; my memory of them seems to have faded further than I should have allowed it.

Yom hashSho’ah (Israeli Holocaust Day) and Yom hazZikkaron (Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day):  These are naturally solemn days.  The first does not seem to be taken off from work, while the second everyone left early from.  Both I remember being marked by the lighting of memorial candles, such as this one:

I also remember a national minute of silence on both days.

Yom ha‘Aṣma’uth (Israeli Independence Day):  This holiday celebrates the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.  My activities on that day on the Temple Mount have already received the attention of an entire blog post.  Yom ha‘Aṣma’uth is celebrated as a national holiday, with everyone getting off of work, and here in Giv‘ath Shemu’el we celebrated it as a religious holiday, too.  Our synagogue had an evening assembly with prayer services, speakers, and music to celebrate, and in the morning the synagogue I prayed out said Hallel (celebratory psalms) with blessings—something done in recognition of the arguably miraculous nature of Israel’s surviving the attack of the surrounding Arab countries intent on preventing there being a non-Muslim state in the region.  This was not only a day off from work, but the country really meant it.  As I walked from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to the Old City, I saw barely any store of any kind open.  People also tend to have barbecues, and there were a lot of blue and white decorations around.  (Actually, a lot of them are still up, come to think of it.)

Day 33 of the ‘Omer/Lagh ba‘Omer:  I have already posted a link to commentary on the questionable origins of this holiday.  This holiday is infamous for people making bonfires.  Unfortunately, I somehow managed to avoid seeing any.

Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day):  This holiday celebrates the reunion of Jerusalem in 1967 when the Arabs attacked again, intent on wiping Israel off the map again, and not only lost the war, but territory as well.  This was not a day off, but we had another assembly, and Hallel with blessings was said in the morning.  I assumed that there was no way that the Waqf was going to let an observant Jew visit the Temple Mount this day, so I did not arrange my schedule for such a visit.  To my surprise, I afterward learned that Rav ’Ari’el of the Temple Institute did ascend on Yom Yerushalayim, lectured up there, and even laid a stone towards the rebuilding of the Temple.

OK, that is it for the moment.  I have other writing projects in the works.  I have learned of another passage in the Talmudh on Jesus (found in two places) and translated both versions; I now need to get around to writing commentary on it.  There is also a Jesus movie on Hulu which I ought to comment on.  Furthermore, Barry has alerted me to Ayn Rand becoming popular among the Republican Party lately.  Ayn Rand’s quasi-religion, Objectivism (a misnomer if there ever was one), is openly pro-selfishness—something rare in moral systems—leading to an obvious contradiction with Christianity.  I have started reading Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and it definitely merits moral commentary.  This may also lead me to reread material on LaVeyan Satanism, another pro-selfishness quasi-religion.  (Now somebody remind me to get back to reading The Golden Bough, which I am stuck in the middle of and need to get around to finishing.  Come to think of it, I am still in the middle of the Mahabharata, too.  So much material, so little time to review it…)

I would like to end with a bit of religious humor before it eats my brain.  I have finished unpacking all the books I had shipped to me here in Israel.  The last box contained the entire Scientology public canon.  The cover of one of the books struck me as shocking:

I realize that the Church of Scientology loves to recruit celebrities and have them promote Scientology, but HOW COULD THING (OF THE ADDAMS FAMILY) EVER BECOME A SCIENTOLOGIST?  SAY IT ISN'T SO!  SAY IT ISN'T SO!

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Rapture and soft maṣṣah

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s holidays:  Day 31 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Feast Day of Bernardine of Siena (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Edward II (Church of the SubGenius).

Note:  I am working my way through An Episode of Flatland, so there is another theological review coming up, though with the other things I am trying to do, this will take some time before it gets written and published.

Topic 1:  The Rapture according to Harold Camping is tomorrow (21 May 2011).  See “May 21: Is the end near?”, “May 21 End of the World: Harold Camping's $72M business”, and his farewell letter.  Please note that though the end of the world as we know it has been predicted many times before, all of these predictions have been wrong.  If the Rapture actually happens tomorrow, I will be nothing less than shocked.

Topic 2:  Back to discussing Pesaḥ.  One thing they have over here which I only heard about in the United States is soft maṣṣah.  The maṣṣah available in the United States is hard and brittle, more of a cracker than a proper bread.  But maṣṣah in the old days was softer.  E.g., korekh literally means that one wraps the maṣṣah around the qorban Pesaḥ (paschal sacrifice, which would be lamb or baby goat) and maror (bitter herbs).  (See “Soft Massa: It’s the Real Thing”.)  I was delighted to find soft maṣṣah commercially available in Israel, and so I bought a three-pack to examine them myself.  These were not the first that I ate; at the sedher I attended they had soft maṣṣah.  The following pictures are of the maṣṣah I bought myself.

This is the box the maṣṣah came in.  Do note that according to the instructions on the box indicate it should be kept frozen, unlike brittle maṣṣah, which requires no refrigeration.  The box was kept in my freezer until Pesaḥ.  I put the box in the refrigerator and let it defrost.

 This is what a soft maṣṣah looks like.  I thought it would look more like a pita than this.

It is also fairly thick.

A soft maṣṣah compared with a brittle maṣṣah.

Comparative maṣṣah thickness.  The soft maṣṣah is noticeably thicker.

Not visible in the photographs are the physical properties.  It is much less bendable than pita, though (expectedly) a lot more than brittle maṣṣah.  It still is flexible enough to wrap lamb and romaine lettuce in it.  The taste is fairly doughy, even though it is thoroughly baked; it takes getting used to.

Topic 3:  Sunday is Lagh ba‘Omer.  “Lagh Ba’Omer - A Gratuitous Holiday” claims that the holiday is not what it is commonly claimed to be.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor (something I have not done in a while: “The LOLcat Passover story”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron