Luke Melia

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June 14, 2005

The Wire

Over at WFMU’s blog, an odd Orthodox Jewish thing I didn’t know existed: “Why My Hometown Wears a Wire”. The whole thing with goys doing things that Jews couldn’t on holy days always struck me as weird, but this takes the cake. In following up on this strange subject of eruvim, I came an entertaining email response “Eruvim are worthless.”

This irrationality fits in with the eating of the communion crackers (the body of JC, dontchya know), the idea that the Koran must not be allowed to get dirty, the insistence that evolution is bunk, and the giving of large sums of money to one’s religious leaders. I may say gently that they all increase my skepticism of religions and religion.

6 Responses to “The Wire”

  1. jbm chimed in:

    The part of New Rochelle we used to live in had an eruv, which my wife’s family referred to as the “magic schlepping circle.” Property values were higher within the eruv.

  2. Shifra chimed in:

    I gently reply ouch. Eruvim may sound irrational and comical to you, but the eruv makes a big difference to people like those in my family who care a lot about their Sabbath observance. Every religion sounds wacky taken out of context, but I just have to point out that traditional observance can be a sweet, benign, powerful binding force for community — not just a collection of laughable eccentricities. Come to synagogue with me sometime when you’re on the West Coast.

  3. lukemelia chimed in:

    I can appreciate that I may be wrong. I have 28-year history of disdain for traditions that I later come to appreciate, first and foremost among them being marriage. I’m open to changing my mind about eruvim, but to my mind as it is — evolved (somewhat) from a child kid born to a non-practicing Jew and a non-practicing Catholic and trained to be good at reasoning technical problems — many religious beliefs do seem wacky to me out of context. As an atheist, I am by definition “out of context” when it comes to religion.

  4. Shifra chimed in:

    Understandable… By the way, it’s fun to hear about how Huck is coming along…

  5. Mike Melia chimed in:

    You referred to me as a “non-practicing Catholic” which is not a term I’ve ever used to describe myself. “I was raised Catholic,” but do not identify myself as one, even as one “non-practicing.” My journey thru life though has brought me thru lots of religious, spiritual terrain and I’ve informally studied Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and one of my favorites Taoism.
    Being raised a Catholic was a mistake of birth or simply my karma – Take your Pick – but there wasn’t much conscious choice made by me until the time came I decided to get out. Conditioned guilt played a bit role during my exit.
    Shifra says it “can be a sweet, benign, powerful binding force for community” and while that is true there are two points I’ll state:
    1) Religion can be divisive and and excuse for atrocious behavior.
    2) People who are raised/brainwashed inside of a specific religion and never forsake it can not see things from the perspective of people raised outside religion – – – and cannot see life from the perspective of those who have left organized religion.
    Still I agree that it’s great to have Huckleberry Updates.

  6. lukemelia chimed in:

    Thanks for the clarification, Dad. I was kind of thinking of being Catholic or Jewish as an ethnicity. But obviously, they’re not really, and even if you could consider them that way, it would be wrong to pair an ethnicity with “non-practicing.”

    Speaking of religion and Huckleberry updates, yesterday Jeanhee was marveling at her now quite large belly, and said, “I feel like Buddha.” I replied, “Some people strive all their lives for that!”

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LukeMelia.com created 1999. ··· Luke Melia created 1976. ··· Live With Passion!