Recent Comments

1. about 14 hours ago on Off the Mark

   Matzoh has two significances in Passover ritual. Moses (speaking on behalf of God) instructed the Israelites to prepare provisions for their journey out of Egypt, and to omit leavening from their bread because they might need to start moving at a moment’s notice with no time to let it rise. (Baking powder wouldn’t be invented for centuries thereafter.) But in addition, tradition says that during the time of slavery, the Egyptian taskmasters fed the Israelites unleavened bread, which was the cheapest and easiest food for them to make. Therefore, matzoh commemorates both the slavery and the liberation.

   I’m told that in the past, they made somewhat thicker matzoh which was relatively soft, and some communities in the Middle East still do; it indeed resembles tortillas or pita. (It’s still lacking in flavor and is therefore still the “bread of affliction.”) But it has a very short shelf life, so it’s impractical for people who aren’t baking their own every day or two. The first machine for mass-producing matzoh was developed in the mid-19th century, leading to the present-day hard, brittle boards.

   The yarmulke (a/k/a kippah) is a custom that seems to have been developed deliberately to differentiate Jews from Gentiles. Whereas taking off one’s hat is a gesture of respect or obedience in many other cultures, Jews decided to keep a hat on to remind them of God’s presence. But custom has varied widely from era to era and community to community on when to wear a head covering (all the time? only during prayer services?) and what kind to wear.

2. about 19 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   That’s setting the bar pretty low.

   (And yet Pastis used to be a lawyer, so he must have passed the bar.)

3. about 20 hours ago on Close to Home

   “There was an old lady who swallowed a spider

   That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;

   She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;

   But I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.

   Perhaps she’ll die!"

4. about 20 hours ago on Rubes

   The end of the age was brought on by the development of pipers.

5. about 20 hours ago on Off the Mark

   I wasn’t quite sure about that. A pamphlet on mourning practices from a congregation in Virginia notes, “Mourners sit on low stools to signify their lack of concern for personal comfort….” Wikipedia also mentions that in the Book of Job, during mourning, Job’s friends “sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights.” Some do indeed sit on the floor; the low stools may be a kind of symbolic compromise.

6. about 21 hours ago on 1 and Done

   Silliest cartoon of the day, hands down.

7. about 22 hours ago on Day by Dave

   The dog doesn’t need a blanket. He’s already a hot dog.

8. about 22 hours ago on Off the Mark

   The boiled eggs are for the seder and are representative of rebirth—both the season of spring (seen in many religions’ celebrations of the season) and the emergence of the Hebrews from slavery into autonomous nationhood.

   Most of the other observances during shiva symbolize aspects of the mourning process: the mourners are expected to express their grief by “rending their garments” and neglecting their own personal appetites and vanity.

9. 2 days ago on Frank and Ernest

   Better to be in physical distress and have an identifiable cause (and a possible course of action) than to be in physical distress AND have all your friends think you’re a hypochondriac who doesn’t deserve any help or sympathy.

10. 2 days ago on Close to Home

    Many ladies I’ve known have enjoyed receiving head.