Up and Running

Thank you to those who have sent your support!  I am very excited about this project over the next year.  The other night I was at a party, not a fancy dress party, just a relaxed get together of folk and I was somehow dragged into a discussion about Atheism, and keeping Jewish culture while being an atheist.

Judaism, is a religion that has a culture to it.  When you are born a Jew, you can assure your self (most of the time) that if you go back far enough, then you will find ancestors that came out of Egypt.  Passover is the celebration of this event.  Even though it is said God brought the Jews out of Egypt, it is still an event that happened.

Remaining culturally Jewish is something I find common about many Jewish Atheists I meet.  To myself, it is more about holding onto the heritage of my family, and the story that we come from.  It is not about gratefulness of an almighty God.  The Jewish culture has survived for thousands of years amid many conflicts and targeting of more powerful groups, governments and religions.  After growing up in a Jewish family that shared these traditions, abandoning them along with God seems unreasonable.  Mostly, Jews are born Jews, and while some are converted and accepted, they make up a small population of an entire community.

The argument put before me was that if you celebrate a Jewish holiday, how can one NOT be religious.  Looking at other Jewish holidays however, one sees that many of them do not involve the Deus Ex Machina of a deity, but more or less the celebration of a time of year, or event.  To go through the major Jewish holidays, lets start....

Shabbat...I do not observe, and view it as a more religious tradition.

Rosh Hashanah- The Jewish New Year...Praise to God is given, but it is a holiday based off a Jewish Lunar Calendar.  I do not know anyone who lives but this calender, but is still celebrated...I would like to know why it is celebrated in a modern society

Yom Kippur-  The holiest day of the year, where Jews ask forgivness from one another and from God...(the most religious as well)

Simchat Torah-The end of the cycle of Torah readings...time to roll it back the other way and dance with it!

Sukkot- Harvest festival- go camping in the backyard and live like a nomad

Hanukkah- Jews vs Romans....JEWS WIN!   God is not mentioned once in the telling of the story...only a miracle that oil lasts in the temple for eight days that should have lasted for one.

Purim- Esther saves her people from Haman-Drink till you cannot tell friend from foe (I have been told) and be merry...another holiday I have never heard God mentioned, just the strength of one woman.

Passover-Egypt got rocked by a really wierd weather systems, today we will have floods of blood followed by a passive frog shower (more on this one)

Yes, I have taken liberties, but have you met me?  No?  You should...but this is how I have viewed the culture and these are what these holidays mean to me.  A very strong people, I am still proud to come from...I do not think there is a higher power at work.

That being said, I hope there is more respect for a Jewish culture from this post along with a Jewish Religion.

As for Hagadah work, I am trying to find my Rabbinical friends to help me get started.  Let's hope they get back to me soon!

For an interesting letter, that I enjoyed, go here  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-americans-still-dislike-atheists/2011/02/18/AFqgnwGF_story.html

Good luck to all us college folk during finals!

Technical Difficulties

So this is a slightly slow start, but my current computer is not my computer.....more like a borrowed one, while mine is fixed by norse gods, that is how I imagine these things...also I need suggestions on how to get people to follow this. 

Happy Passover

Alas, it is near the end of Passover, my favorite Jewish Holiday.  Wait, before we start there, Hello!  Thank you for coming here.  I am a graduate student who was raised in a Jewish home in the Washington D.C. area, but has become an atheist in the last year. 

However, I have felt along with others, that you simply do not stop being Jewish.  Jews are a common people with a common heritage.  And I choose to celebrate my heritage.  This year I held a sedar for my friends, most are not Jewish, to share the stories with them.  I needed a hagadah and found one to download (I hope to find this one and link it to you).  In the end, it was not all that great and did not cover what I felt was imporant and did not really fulfill what I wanted.  This week I was at Easter Vigil with my girlfriend (yes I date a Catholic, and no our differences are not usually an issue), and I thought that with all of history floating around and re-interpretations, that there should be an atheist's hagadah, or more a hagadah that shares the traditions of Passover in a positive way that a Jew would appreciate it, and non-jews and most importantly, Jewish Atheists would enjoy. 

I know I am not the only one that has these needs, nor do I thing I can do this on my own.

Starting now, I hope to complete a Hagadah that will celebrate the Passover Sedar in a new, positive way that also questions our modern traditions.  Reporting my findings here, I wish to see a dialogue that will help me deliver a good sedar to you in 2012.

3....2....1......0.....go!