Kesher Talk

A Very Merry Yom Kippur! Some cute anecdotes about well-meaning but inappropriate attempts to commercialize Jewish holidays without learning about them first, such as offering fruit baskets or chirpy greeting cards for Yom Kippur or Jewish Star cookies for Pesach. My favorite:

. . . one year at Passover I received a phone call from a member of a Santa Rosa-area church who was responsible for baking matzah for a Christian seder. She asked me for a recipe. I proceeded to tell her that Jews in this country don't make matzah but buy it instead, since it wouldn't be kosher for Passover unless a rabbi were around to supervise the preparation.

"Oh," she said. "Well, could I bake plain white bread instead?"

"No!" I shouted into the receiver, taking her aback. Then I proceeded to tell her the story of Passover, its restrictions and commandments, and how we as Jews commemorate it.

"Wow!" she said. "There's more to it than I thought!"

Yup. Actually, there's no reason a Christian couldn't bake bread for Pesach, since she's not bound by Jewish law and a Christian seder isn't a Jewish seder, but it wouldn't be matzah.

UPDATE: Sometimes Jews miss the point too.

posted by Judith @ 9/25/2003 11:00:15 AM