Passover

The Jewish holiday of Passover starts at sundown this evening. I am proud to be Jewish but I am not a believer. As has been demonstrated literally millions of times, our enemies don't care whether I believe in the Jewish God. My blood is Jewish and so they have sworn to kill me today as they have so often in the past and no doubt will in the future. I have never been able to understand visceral racial or religious animosity. I suppose understanding these 100's of millions of crazy adherents of the Religion of Peace and their various Christian predecessors is not necessary.

The Passover liturgy insists that we remember our days as slaves in Egypt and internalize the lessons learned by once having been the "other". The scorned and mistreated outsider. To a large extent our status as the "other" has not changed. Non-Jews are just less impolite and vocal about it, except for the Islamists of course, who wear their Jew hatred as a badge of honor.

Like so many other religious stories the story of Passover is probably not true. There is no archaeological evidence of Jewish slavery in Egypt, which, as you likely are aware, is a treasure trove of archaeological finds. None. Not a shard of crockery nor an hieroglyphic tablet.

Does that mean that the lessons of the Passover "story" are not valuable. No it does not.

Whenever I bring up this lack of evidence and point out the almost endless stream of inconsistencies in the story, I am told that it is not necessary that the events described actually happened in order to learn valuable truths from the story. I agree. It is the methodology that insists on lying to children to which I object.

Also troubling is the apparent necessity our religious leaders find, as well as those of all the other religions that I have some small knowledge of, to spin heroic tales in their effort to convince the believers to believe.

Mohamed rode a flying horse to heaven to chat with Allah.

The Immaculate Conception.

Jesus rising from the dead.

Jesus walking on water.

The parting of the Red Sea.

Given that the people who believe these tales, or claim to, are solicited to donate money to the causes telling these tales perhaps the FTC should open an investigation. After all, you can't sell a car that way.

In my view religions are, in general, blue prints for a well regulated society.

For example, in earlier times spring cleaning was an important component of community health after a winter spent mostly indoors in an ever more poisonous environment.

Do you know what each Jewish household is commanded to do to prepare for Passover?

"For many Jews, one of the most vivid memories of their childhood is the seemingly endless cleaning and scrubbing of their homes during the weeks and days before Passover." The Family Haggadah, Menorah Publications, P.13.

So, in an astonishing coincidence the holiday that mandates a thorough cleaning of  homes and businesses happens at exactly the time of year it is most urgent.

It is almost as though the people who made up the story were actually bureaucrats intent on persuading their charges to clean out the detritus of winter hoping to minimize parasites emerging in the warmer months. One never knows.