Rules are made to be broken

[Geggy]

Last weekend, I visited a friend in philadelphia. The original plan was for us to go camping and biking in west virginia but was dropped due to weather. He still lives with his parents so I had no other choice but to sleep over their house for 4 days. The family is strictly conservative jewish and follows long list of rules to live by. I hadn't had a clue of what the rules were, i didn't even know they had rules. I end up breaking three rules, anyway. They were...

1. I had a bowl of cereal with a spoon i picked out from the meat silverware tray. Little did I know they seperate silverwares for two different food groups, one tray is for meat which represents death. another is for dairy which represents life. Death spoon scooping the life out of honey nuts cheerios surely got them aggravated.

2. After a traditional friday evening jewish family dinner, we all kicked back and watched a movie. I was the last person to hit the sack. Beforehand, i noticed they had left the lights on in every room. I was like, 'what the fuck are they doing wasting electricity?' so i went into every room and turned off all the lights. next morning, his parents came into the basement where i slept, kicking and screaming. Shouting along the line of 'you're not supposed to turn the fucking lights off until the next day, you catholic heathen!' i guess there are reasons for them being cheap, to be able to afford to pay for electricity on every friday night.

3. I walked into the living room where my friend's 20 year old sister were chilling by herself. I decided to join her to watch tv. As i was just sitting down, she walked right out of the room without saying anything. I took it personally. Later on I found out a guy and a girl aren't supposed to be in the same room of the house alone. jewish people are much sicker than i originally thought.

I told them they should've had a handout for every non jewish person who walks into the house. They said it would be 80 pages long, they would break some rules before they even finish reading the list of rules. thanks to the jews, i'm going straight to hell when i die, all because of the death spoon.

[executioneer]

LIKE YOU WEREN'T GOING TO ANYWAY

-willie

[Captain Robo]

I am confused as to why anyone would eat meat with a spoon.

[executioneer]

chicken soup :/

-willie

[Protoclown]

I could never understand all those crazy little rules. For any religion. I guess that's why I'm not very religious. :/

I HATE RULES

[kellychaos]

Which explains why there are no "dribble chalices", "trick candles" or "Jesus balloon sculptures" at Sunday mass ... 'cause he's a clown ... Get it?! ... nevermind. :/

[Protoclown]

I HATE CLOWNS TOO

[kellychaos]

They give me the willies too ... even more than latin mass.

[mburbank]

I thought that was all fairly hysterical, excpet for the vaguely anti-semitic conclusions. Your friend out to have warned you that his folks were orthodox, and they, as orthodox jews should have felt compelled to be a whole lot more hospitable as your host, and anything you did wrong isn't problem anyway, because you're not Jewish.

My conclusion? These folks messed up ness is a product of who they are as people, not what variety of religion they practice.

That being said, in my teen years when I got mad at my step father I would go in the kitchen and touch a milk utensil and a meat utensil togeether and then put them back.

You know how you re-kosher a utensil? Bury it. I shit you not. My step Grandmother kept a window box of dirt in her kitchen and if she didn't like you (and she did not like me) she would sometimes without explanation snatch a fork out of your hands, rush into the kitchen and bury it. She also wore a Yalmuke to Temple, but everyone was to scared of her to ask her why.

Did they have to seperate dishwashers? If not, all their Koshering is BULSHIT and you can tell them I said so.

[Jeanette X]

They should have warned you about their house rules. That was extremely rude and arrogant of them not to have told you. And it wouldn't have to eighty pages long, two would have been enough to cover the important areas. I am embarressed, because I am also a Jew, although not such a strict one. Please don't think all of us would be so obnoxious. Most strict Jews are polite enough to inform their guests of things like this.
The mixing of meat and milk is forbidden to Jews because of the verses in Exodus and Deuteronomy that state not to boil a goat in its mother's milk. The life and death symbolism is a later interpretation. I can understand being upset about the spoon, as using it for milk would make it ritually unclean, but its their fault because they should have told you!

Originally Posted by Geggy

Beforehand, i noticed they had left the lights on in every room. I was like, 'what the fuck are they doing wasting electricity?' so i went into every room and turned off all the lights. next morning, his parents came into the basement where i slept, kicking and screaming. Shouting along the line of 'you're not supposed to turn the fucking lights off until the next day, you catholic heathen!'

Very strict Jews observe the Sabbath so stringently that they do not even turn the lights on or off, because it would be doing labor on the sabbath. But it makes no sense for them to be offended by a non-Jew doing it. It is not a matter of ritual cleanliness, its just them not doing something that they don't they should. Why should they care if you do it?

Originally Posted by Geggy

Later on I found out a guy and a girl aren't supposed to be in the same room of the house alone. jewish people are much sicker than i originally thought.

That isn't in the Bible. That is an eastern European cultural taboo that became absorbed into religious taboo. No actual religious rule forbids that.