I'm really supposed to be putting Christmas away, so of course I do a quick web-hooky and go over to Baraita's site. A long, involved, and very funnypost on an obscure Jewish ritual, her grandfather's free-associating skills, and retail special pleading. You go, girl.
Why, you ask, am I so fascinated by this whole chicken-swinging business? Well, really -- chicken-swinging. Need I say more? But, more seriously, there's a deep hunger for mildly goofy ritual in contemporary culture, and I know this because Temple Boondoggle is hosting an upcoming Interfaith Event (for an exceedingly good cause, I hasten to add) featuring vibrating crystal something-or-others and Gregorian chant.**** And if people insist on cannibalizing the world's religious traditions in search of Something Meaningful And High-Drama Yet Undemanding (I'll be interested to see if the worshippers react to Gregorian chant the way my students do, namely, by falling asleep within three minutes) -- well, anyway, if everyone and his guru insists on doing this, I see no reason why the Jewish tradition can't hold its own under these circumstances, and I don't think the Kabbalah Center should have all the fun either. Why, we have chicken-slinging to offer -- or, for the vegetarians, seedling-slinging! And there's always the boring mercantile-economy version if you can't cope with killing a bean plant or have lower-back problems.
Go. Read. Laugh.
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