As I’m writing this, it’s Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה for the cool kidz), a.k.a the Jewish new year. Holiday texts have been pouring in all day from family and friends, and tonight, I plan on going to Hillel for the holiday dinner. I haven’t gone to many holiday dinners at Hillel during my time at Brown– mostly because mainstream American Judaism is jarringly different than mainstream Israeli Judaism–and I’ve never managed to feel completely at home there. However, with this new year, both academic and lunar, I’ve decided to make an effort towards becoming more in touch with my religion. My religion, of course, being the church of Free Food.
See, I recently moved off campus, and with that, left the comfort of my pre-paid (and parental-paid) meal plan in order to fend for myself. I’m going back to my ancestral roots to find my inner hunter-gatherer; scrounging and scavenging food from wherever I can. This includes Brown/RISD Hillel, an establishment that graciously provides dinner for the Jewish community every Friday night and on Jewish holidays. Attending Shabbat dinners for the past two weeks has been an interesting adjustment. It’s rather disorienting hearing American accents pray and sing in Hebrew, especially to a god I don’t believe in, but it’s worth it to be able to silently pray and pay gratitude to my own god, the god of Free Food.
A major part of Rosh Hashanah is the act of eating an apple dipped in honey, which symbolizes the sweetness we hope the new year will bring. Similarly, a major part of Shabbat is eating challah, which, to be honest, I don’t fully understand the meaning behind. I do, however, know that my personal tradition of eating apples with honey on the new year and challah on Saturdays stems from my religion’s practice of putting Free Food in one’s mouth as frequently and enthusiastically as possible. And of course, we can’t forget the wine (read: grape juice) that comes alongside each meal, as a significant aspect of the Free Food religion is the concept of inclusivity. Specifically, the inclusion of Free Beverages within our areas of worship.
This journey of spiritual exploration will definitely be both a challenge and an adventure, but hopefully I’ll start feeling more comfortable in a religious environment soon. Hopefully I’ll soon be able to go more than once a week, and maybe even find myself exploring other religious venues. Like the Ratty. Can someone please swipe me in?
Image via.