Adventures in Judaism

A Facebook friend of mine, a Unitarian Universalist minister at that, posted something a day ago asking people about intentional spiritual practices and how we are changed by them. This friend knew me back when I was a Seminary student, a fellow UU for part of that time and a Unitarian Considering Christ* for another part, and if he had asked me back then, at a time when I was devoting my career life to spirituality, about my intentional spiritual practice…well, he would have gotten little more than a blank stare for his effort.  Me, set aside particular times in advance to…do what, exactly? Pray? Meditate? Play with rosary beads? The idea seemed not only impractical but laughable. And yet, at the same time, if you had asked me to describe myself spiritually back then? Words like adrift, unrooted, and unsettled come to mind. I was fraying at the edges with no center to hold.  Fast forward the better part of a decade and I have left the D-I-Y religious paths of my young

It happened again today. I was approached by a total stranger simply because of the Jewish head covering – called a kippah  (pronounced keep-ah) in Hebrew and a yarmulke  (pronounced yah-ma-kah) in Yiddish, and there seems to be very little pattern about who uses which term – that I've been wearing more-or-less regularly since last August. She was a fellow Starbucks customer and wanted to ask me if Hanukkah is still going on and wish me a Happy Hanukkah even though it isn't.  I wouldn't say that this sort of thing happens all  the time, but it happens often enough that I feel I should write about it. I've also been asked at least once why I wear the darned thing when so few Jews these days do – one student seemed to think it was a requirement of my conversion process, like a Jewish hazing ritual – and so I thought I'd clear that up, too.  First, the "why wear a kippah" question.  For a similar answer to mine, see  this excellent recent op-ed by Jewish Tele

Before we completely forget 2016, I want to weigh in on one of the year's most virulent controversies: whether to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" to random strangers during the late fall and early winter. Okay, so the "Happy Holidays" season is pretty much over for the majority of Americans at this point. But that's actually not quite fair. There are still a few of the "twelve days of Christmas" left for those few Christians who celebrate the entire Christmas liturgical season, ending in Twelfth Night and the day of Epiphany. Eastern Orthodox Christians, such as a Russian colleague of mine, actually celebrate Christmas on the day other Christians celebrate Epiphany. And for some Latin American Christians, "Three Kings Day" gets a bigger celebration than Christmas anyway. Today is actually the last day of Hanukkah for Jews. And those of an East Asian culture have almost a month to go until their big winter holiday,