I feel kind of guilty having done so much research on Baruch Spinoza and Judaism in order to write a biographical novel about one of the greatest philosophers who also happens to have been Jewish. However, because of his unorthodox views he was excommunicated and spent the rest of his life in solitude writing his philosophical masterpiece, "Ethics" and grinding lenses for eyeglasses. My guilt involves my inability to write this novel because of the difficulty understanding his work and because of all the convoluted facts that I had to organize in order to write something that would be readable. But...I'll hang on anyway.
I also feel some guilt in not keeping up with my blogs. I learned in my research that if you're Jewish you have to feel guilty about most things. And so I'm trying very hard to do that. Robin wrote a comment asking if Judaism still practices the Cherem. My response was that in case they do, she better light candles on Friday nights and spin the dreidel at Chanakuh. I do remember at one time in Tallahassee when she first moved into her new house, she had the local rabbi come and put mezzuzzahs on every door while Rho and I and a bunch of neighbors celebrated the event. I don't know if she still does that.
Yesterday we went to the Festival, a huge flea market on Sample Road in order to buy a couple of duffle bag luggages for our trip to Scandinavia in July. They will be much lighter than the heavy bags we usually carry. And now the airlines are getting pretty strict about charging for luggage that is overweight. And for the flight to Amsterdam we are being hit with a daily "fuel charge" of $8 for each person up to a total of $112 each. Our only hope is that Obama or Hillary can do something about the gas companies and their CEOs getting richer by the fillup. Of course, since the flea market requires quite a bit of walking, we put my scooter together and so I scooted around with Rho for a couple of hours. We did find the luggage we were looking for at a decent price. Fortunately my scooter doesn't use up a lot of gas...and when it runs down, we simply plug it in a wall to charge it up...just like a cell phone. Since I hate to have anyone see me driving a scooter, I put a few Harley-Davidson stickers on it to disguise it as a motorcycle. I might do better if I also wore a helmet.
1 comment:
Thank you, Red Baron, for reintroducing the Cherem, our answer to other religions who thought they had the last word in excommunication procedure for their stray religionists.
I have reserved the hall and band with a sizable down payment and am in the process of insuring that my cherem will be the hit of the social affairs in this part of the country. I hope that this will dwarf our neighbors attempt to show off, when they paid for all the expenses, plane fare and hotels, for the recent Bar-Mitzvah Safari in Swaziland, Africa. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to show them all our higher pretentiousness.
I am having some difficulty in determining what party pays for the incidentals, like flowers, booze and music. I cannot find any protocol list for this upcoming affair. I need this information to give the bills to the proper parties. Can you please forward that information to me?
Thank you.
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