[HANASHIR:8058] What makes a song Jewish (Tu B'Shevat songs)

[Eric Simon <erics...>]

>Namely that we are to look within, 
>we are to keep the "outside world" outside and educate the Jewish community 
>with an inward focus.

Whoa . . . . I didn't see that at all in Karen's post.

I agree with Karen, primarily for this reason: our kids, particularly those
in Sunday schools, are getting nowhere near the education that prior
generations did.  (Not for nothing does Eric Yoffie assert that we are the
most Jewishly illiterate generation in history).

So, with limited time, we ought to be doing all we can to rectify that
situation.  Doing songs in Hebrew that can help teach the language,
teaching songs from our heritage, and so forth.  One of my favorite Tu
B'Shevat songs, in turns out, is Karen Daniel's "Tu B'Shevat Cha Cha",
which actually talks about the Tu B'Shevat seder, what the four different
kinds of fruits are, and touches on their symbolism.  Now _this_ is a song
that _teaches_!

If all our kids get out of Tu B'Shevat is that it's a fun holiday about
trees and the environment, they're missing a lot.

After all, most of our kids already know that a tree starts with a seed,
and it needs water.

>Of course, there are some problems with this approach, not the least of
which 
>is that it perpetuates the idea of "separation" between the Jews and 
>everybody else.    

Well, _are_ we separate or not?

If we aren't seperate, then what's wrong with intermarriage and assimilation?

>I come down strongly on the side of reaching out, of sharing our traditions 
>with the "outside" world, and in fact, working to end those distinctions.  

End distinctions between Judaism and the outside world?  How far do you
take this?  We can end all distinctions immediately if we simply become
Unitarians, I'm sure you don't mean that . . . 

>This debate has been going on for centuries, and I'm certain that it will 
>continue.

and so, I continued it! <g>

-- Eric


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