Hope everyone had a great and happy Purim!
Mine consisted of another amazing weekend in Misgav, seeing my Diller friends. The highlight of my weekend was definitely cancelling my lost credit card, then finding it 10 minutes later.
I was also a proud daughter this weekend, when learning that my father won the Temple Sinai adult Purim costume contest...as a minion. My 6'3'' bald-ish father painted himself yellow, bought goggles, and, of course, already owned the overalls. I still don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud.
Anyway, earlier this week I read an interesting article on the Jewish take on fur. Marjorie Ingall writes about her feelings about wearing her fur coat in public, and how she as a Jew feels about. it. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/164717/fur-coats
Ms. Ingall made many excuses in wearing her vintage fur coat, trying to convince herself that it's ok to wear coat that was made by hurting innocent animals. Wow, that sounds very stereotypical anti-fur.
But I can completely relate to Ms. Ingall. I didn't know that there was real fur in my Uggs for about a half year.Once I learned, I continued to wear them saying, "Oh, well I didn't know, and I'm already wearing them so..." and "well they were a gift so it's ok". I attempted to justify them. But I didn't have any excuses for buying the second pair. All I can think now is that I honestly forgot, which is true.
I'm not going to get into the ethics of fur coats or even the Jewish perspective on fur coats. I have been anti-fur since the That's So Raven episode where Chelsea protests furs. But it had nothing to do with my Jewish morals.
Something, though, that I've been trying to do for some time now is draw lines for myself. What I do and don't agree with. I must stop crossing those lines because what I want is cute, or easier, or what everyone else is doing. When drawing those lines, say for alcohol, or fur, or being Kosher, etc., I look at a number of things: what my parents taught me, how it feels to me, is it stereo-typically ethically right or wrong, would I be disappointed in myself afterwards, and would my parents be disappointed.
Often in Jewish programming, we're asked how our Jewish morals affect us. To me, they never really have unless it's a straight up Jewish question such as keeping Kosher. But I like to think that my parents raised me with fairly Jewish ethics. Thus, by taking in account what my parents taught me, I'm also basing my decisions on Jewish ethics. No pressure.
I'm still figuring out my lines, and working on never crossing them. But staying true to your own morals in harder than I would have ever thought.
That's all for now,
Have a good week!
Shoshana :)
Mine consisted of another amazing weekend in Misgav, seeing my Diller friends. The highlight of my weekend was definitely cancelling my lost credit card, then finding it 10 minutes later.
I was also a proud daughter this weekend, when learning that my father won the Temple Sinai adult Purim costume contest...as a minion. My 6'3'' bald-ish father painted himself yellow, bought goggles, and, of course, already owned the overalls. I still don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud.
Anyway, earlier this week I read an interesting article on the Jewish take on fur. Marjorie Ingall writes about her feelings about wearing her fur coat in public, and how she as a Jew feels about. it. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/164717/fur-coats
Ms. Ingall made many excuses in wearing her vintage fur coat, trying to convince herself that it's ok to wear coat that was made by hurting innocent animals. Wow, that sounds very stereotypical anti-fur.
But I can completely relate to Ms. Ingall. I didn't know that there was real fur in my Uggs for about a half year.Once I learned, I continued to wear them saying, "Oh, well I didn't know, and I'm already wearing them so..." and "well they were a gift so it's ok". I attempted to justify them. But I didn't have any excuses for buying the second pair. All I can think now is that I honestly forgot, which is true.
I'm not going to get into the ethics of fur coats or even the Jewish perspective on fur coats. I have been anti-fur since the That's So Raven episode where Chelsea protests furs. But it had nothing to do with my Jewish morals.
Something, though, that I've been trying to do for some time now is draw lines for myself. What I do and don't agree with. I must stop crossing those lines because what I want is cute, or easier, or what everyone else is doing. When drawing those lines, say for alcohol, or fur, or being Kosher, etc., I look at a number of things: what my parents taught me, how it feels to me, is it stereo-typically ethically right or wrong, would I be disappointed in myself afterwards, and would my parents be disappointed.
Often in Jewish programming, we're asked how our Jewish morals affect us. To me, they never really have unless it's a straight up Jewish question such as keeping Kosher. But I like to think that my parents raised me with fairly Jewish ethics. Thus, by taking in account what my parents taught me, I'm also basing my decisions on Jewish ethics. No pressure.
I'm still figuring out my lines, and working on never crossing them. But staying true to your own morals in harder than I would have ever thought.
That's all for now,
Have a good week!
Shoshana :)
I am completely anti- fur and also think that it is against my Jewish morals. But, Ms. Ingall was only trying to express herself by wearing the coat so she kind of had to make a couple of excuses to wear it.
ReplyDeleteHi Shoshana- i learned about your blog from your mom.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say that we were at the Purimspiel, and my 3 y.o. daughter was totally obsessed with your dad's awesome minion costume!
I enjoy reading about your adventures in Israel. Have a great time!
Hi Shoshana - Heard about your blog from your mom on the Temple Sinai facebook page. Figuring out what is the "right" thing to do in situations is a life long quest. It is good you are getting practice now. Let us know if you ever figure it out.
ReplyDelete