Sunday, February 13, 2005
My Talmud of Beer
I'm working with the church youth's "Bible Bowl" team this year, I guess because I have experience being on a game show or something. This year one of the topics is the book of Galatians. Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians for many reasons, one being that the church in Galatia was continuing to follow Jewish traditions. Paul writes to convince them why this is no longer nescessary.
The church at Galatia was lucky. In college I took a class on Judaism. Since I took the class at a small midwestern college, most of us students knew very little about the world of Judaism or the intricacies of Jewish law. Since then, I've read the books of Leviticus and Deutoronomy a couple of times since these are the books where Jewish law came from. Ah, but two entire books of the bible weren't enough laws for the Jewish people, they went on to write the Talmud, a compilation and explanation of the law. It's fascinating to look at the developement of laws among these people. For instance, an edict not to eat a calf cooked in its mother's milk became one of the primary kosher laws of not eating meat and milk together.
So not only have they interpreted themselves new laws, they've interpreted ways around them. The command to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy was interpreted into a number of Talmudic laws. One prohibits building a fire during the sabbath. This in turn led to a prohibition of turning on an electric light. Now it has been deemed OK to turn an electric light on before the sabbath and leave it on throughout, however, the same prohibition also prevents an observant Jew from turning off an electric light. Additionaly, it's OK to hire someone to "build a fire" for you on the sabbath, providing the transaction of money doesn't take place on the sabbath. So it is somewhat common for Jewish families to hire a non-Jewish person to come over to their house the evening of the sabbath to turn out all the lights and return to turn them on again in the morning. I won't even get into the discussion of shabbos telephone usage.
So Jewish law has been on my mind a lot lately. That got me thinking about my giving up beer for lent. Yes, I had a shot of bourbon in my coffee while playing at the Chop House on Friday night and a shot of Jagermeister at TSA's last night. Am I interpreting my own "lenten law" to make things easier on myself? I suppose a cynic would argue that. What I promised to give up specifically, though, was beer. I never promised to give up all alcohol. I make the distinction for one reason, I really, really like beer. I enjoy a glass of wine or a shot of bourbon quite a lot, but nowhere near the amount that I love beer. Beer is a lifestyle, I've described homebrewing as almost a religion.
If I drank beer soley to get drunk, then an argument that I had built a loophole into my promise would hold water. I don't. I love the taste of beer, the way it tickles my nose when I drink it, that sting of the carbonated liquid on my tongue, the aroma of the hops, and yes Andy, the sound a bottle of beer makes when you open it. I love everything about beer. I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I see TSA get involved in brewing. You have to really love beer to keep homebrewing after the novelty wears off. If you didn't love beer, if you couldn't distinguish the subtle differences between homebrew and mass produced beer, if you didn't truely appreciate all the flavor components in that pint, it would be way too much trouble to keep up with.
Last year in addition to having the occasional shot during lent (probably less than 5) I also had a couple of non-alcoholic beers. This year I've decided not to do that. If I'm going to argue that I drink beer for the taste and not the alcohol, then I shouldn't drink beer that has had the alcohol removed. I could argue that it's also had most of the flavor removed as I've only found one near beer that I've really enjoyed.
In the intrest of fairness, I'm not going to drink to drunkeness this lent either. That didn't happen last year, but I want to go on the record with it, as much as a weblog that nobody reads is the record. And truthfully, getting drunk on anything other than beer has been a rareity over the last couple of years. Yes, there was a time in my life that a bottle of Jim Beam was consumed as if it had the shelf life of fresh fruit, but those days are mostly gone. So if I've left myself a loophole, I'm going to use it for social reasons, not for drunkeness.
"Rabbi ben ali BOJ"
The church at Galatia was lucky. In college I took a class on Judaism. Since I took the class at a small midwestern college, most of us students knew very little about the world of Judaism or the intricacies of Jewish law. Since then, I've read the books of Leviticus and Deutoronomy a couple of times since these are the books where Jewish law came from. Ah, but two entire books of the bible weren't enough laws for the Jewish people, they went on to write the Talmud, a compilation and explanation of the law. It's fascinating to look at the developement of laws among these people. For instance, an edict not to eat a calf cooked in its mother's milk became one of the primary kosher laws of not eating meat and milk together.
So not only have they interpreted themselves new laws, they've interpreted ways around them. The command to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy was interpreted into a number of Talmudic laws. One prohibits building a fire during the sabbath. This in turn led to a prohibition of turning on an electric light. Now it has been deemed OK to turn an electric light on before the sabbath and leave it on throughout, however, the same prohibition also prevents an observant Jew from turning off an electric light. Additionaly, it's OK to hire someone to "build a fire" for you on the sabbath, providing the transaction of money doesn't take place on the sabbath. So it is somewhat common for Jewish families to hire a non-Jewish person to come over to their house the evening of the sabbath to turn out all the lights and return to turn them on again in the morning. I won't even get into the discussion of shabbos telephone usage.
So Jewish law has been on my mind a lot lately. That got me thinking about my giving up beer for lent. Yes, I had a shot of bourbon in my coffee while playing at the Chop House on Friday night and a shot of Jagermeister at TSA's last night. Am I interpreting my own "lenten law" to make things easier on myself? I suppose a cynic would argue that. What I promised to give up specifically, though, was beer. I never promised to give up all alcohol. I make the distinction for one reason, I really, really like beer. I enjoy a glass of wine or a shot of bourbon quite a lot, but nowhere near the amount that I love beer. Beer is a lifestyle, I've described homebrewing as almost a religion.
If I drank beer soley to get drunk, then an argument that I had built a loophole into my promise would hold water. I don't. I love the taste of beer, the way it tickles my nose when I drink it, that sting of the carbonated liquid on my tongue, the aroma of the hops, and yes Andy, the sound a bottle of beer makes when you open it. I love everything about beer. I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I see TSA get involved in brewing. You have to really love beer to keep homebrewing after the novelty wears off. If you didn't love beer, if you couldn't distinguish the subtle differences between homebrew and mass produced beer, if you didn't truely appreciate all the flavor components in that pint, it would be way too much trouble to keep up with.
Last year in addition to having the occasional shot during lent (probably less than 5) I also had a couple of non-alcoholic beers. This year I've decided not to do that. If I'm going to argue that I drink beer for the taste and not the alcohol, then I shouldn't drink beer that has had the alcohol removed. I could argue that it's also had most of the flavor removed as I've only found one near beer that I've really enjoyed.
In the intrest of fairness, I'm not going to drink to drunkeness this lent either. That didn't happen last year, but I want to go on the record with it, as much as a weblog that nobody reads is the record. And truthfully, getting drunk on anything other than beer has been a rareity over the last couple of years. Yes, there was a time in my life that a bottle of Jim Beam was consumed as if it had the shelf life of fresh fruit, but those days are mostly gone. So if I've left myself a loophole, I'm going to use it for social reasons, not for drunkeness.
"Rabbi ben ali BOJ"
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 8:40 AM 
