Use a Different Word

Not all words are the same. Sometimes, they may seem like they are the same, or seem to have the right meaning, but some words just have added...shall we say baggage.

I would like to aver that the word "Schlep," does not mean to go somewhere far, or somewhere that takes a long time to get to even though technically it is fairly close (yes, metropolitan New York area, I am looking at you).

Schlep is a word for going someplace you do not want to go. Schlep is a word for a place you would rather not be, even if you have to be. Schlep is a word for something tedious.

So please. If you are going to a simcha that is far away, and you want to be at that simcha (as opposed to say an obligation wedding in...oh, Lakewood), do not talk about the "Schlep.  Getting there gets you to the simcha, and going home is part of that too.

Just enjoy the happy occasion. It's like Pesach cleaning-it's a means to an end. So just do it, and enjoy the travel.

Thanks, But No Turkey-EDITED FOR CLARITY

It's that time of year again, the time that seems to get earlier if you listen to the music playing in the mall: It's the Holiday Season. In my mind,that means the kickoff or run up to Christmas. .

I consider myself an American, I love this country and everything it has given and afforded us. So why don't I celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional sense, cooking and serving the Turkey Dinner? There aren't too many American holidays that have actual rituals (barbeques don't count), and Thanksgiving definitely does. Thanksgiving. Is it religious? Is it secular?  Certainly, it cannot be thought of as purely secular since it was the Pilgrims/Puritans, a fairly religious bunch, who originally celebrated it. It wasn't a national holiday until Lincoln's time, though many states had their own days of Thanksgiving set up in which the wording of the proclamation that founded it was clearly religious in nature- as George Washington put it in 1789 "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God." 

To me Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the holiday season, the run up to Christmas, and for those who say, "well that's all commercial," then why not celebrate Christmas too? If Christmas is nothing but a commercial entity for so many, and the lights have no religious significance why not decorate our houses for the "season." Costco sells these gorgeous icicle lights which would look great ringing my front porch. I am not saying that celebrating Thanksgiving is like celebrating Christmas. What I am saying is that if something started out religious, but has become commercial and secular, and that's the reason it is OK for us to celebrate it, in the manner celebrated by most people, then the argument could follow to both Christmnas and Halloween. Heck, Easter eggs have very little to do with Jesus!

Another aspect of the day is the meal. As a frum woman so much of my Yom Tov and Shabbos preparations and celebrations involve the meals. I cannot bring myself to serve what amounts to a yom tov meal on a regular Thursday, to elevate it to the status that I reserve for days that the Torah tells us to celebrate. (plus, do people serve their leftovers for Shabbos? from a Thursday?)

We have so many Holidays that are ours, that have depth and meaning. We have so many days where we gather as families and celebrate and appreciate what we have (not to mention the daily giving of thanks, beginning with the first moment we awake in the morning).

Thanksgiving may seem as American as July 4th, but I don't think it is. I think it goes into territory that we as people who follow the Torah, and keep its days would do better to acknowledge, but not "celebrate" in the traditional sense.



Football, however, is always OK.