Happy Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah)

BimBam, 9/1/17; Sheldon S., CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Does the Non-State of Israel (not bound by a codified constitution) give Jews a bad name?

Pope, not good to yell at Rabbi. - Dolly, let me handle this. I'm CEO of their king's corporation.

.

What is Rosh Hashanah? The Jewish New Year

Author Emily Sigalow

(BimBam) Here's a basic primer explaining what the high holiday Rosh Hashanah is, for everyone. It explains what it's about, how different communities celebrate it, what the special foods and traditions are, and the spiritual connection.

• Q&A: Hey, Sheldon, what's a mitzvah (as in Bar Mitzvah)? It's following a commandment or duty in obedience to the God/tradition.

• 

  American JewBu

  Can a person really be a JuBu (JewBu)? YES, one sure can (at least according to Emily Sigalow, author of American JewBu: Jews, Buddhists, and Religious Change.
• Is Adam Sandler really a Jew, or does he just like outing other Jews? After Woody Allen, he's the Jewy Jewisson of Hollywood, judging by his last movie where nepotism seems to have gotten his co-stars their roles (being related to him).
• Sheldon, why are so many Jews into Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism? Because Jesus (Issa, Y'Shua, Joshua, Son of Zeus, or Akhenaten) who was born as a Jew was a tulku, recognized by Tibetan lamas, emissaries from Lhasa, who came to remind him, and we call them the "Three Wise Men." So reminded, Jesus/Issa traveled with a Jewish merchant's caravan, according to German Holger Kersten, to Kashmir and Ladakh in ancient Himalayan India and Tibet. There he studied Buddhism at Hemis Monastery, according to Russian Nicolas Notovitch, Indian Swami Abhedananda, Alice Dunbar Nelson, American Christian Elizabeth Clare Prophet (Montana cult leader and visionary who wrote The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus' 17-Year Journey to the East), and Muslim Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (Jesus in India) became well known in Buddhism and Hinduism as Saint Issa (Isa in Islam, along with his famous mother Miriam, who is mentioned more often in the Quran/Koran than she is in the New Testament and Jesus is mentioned by name more than Mohammed is, but they say so because the Vatican/Catholic Church secretly wrote that relatively new Abrahamic religion's holy book), returned to Israel with what he learned, the got in big trouble with the Romans and ran back to India, where he lived to the age of 80 (just like the Buddha) and is buried, Jewish style, in Kashmir, India, in tomb marked by his footprints (Buddhist style) but over-buried by a Muslim figure. And lots of Jews practice Zen, and the most famous and spiritually successful practice Vipassana (in the Theravada tradition), plus think of all the early Jews interested in Mahayana.
• Wikipedia adds that absurdist author Christopher Moore, in his 2002 comedic fantasy novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, parodies the notion that between the ages of 15 and 30, Jesus traveled to Tibet to study Buddhism in a monastery (after first having traveled to [Buddhist] Afghanistan), then to India to study Hinduism [actually Vedic Brahmanism, because "Hinduism" had not yet been systematized into a religion like we have today, which came with Sri Sankhara circa 750 CE].
• He's an absurdist comedian, Sheldon, so how is that additional evidence? There's much truth in humor, as absurd as it may seem to us when we first learn it.
• Are you secretly a Christian? No, I'm a Buddhist and, therefore, a happy nontheist like other Wisdom Quarterly contributors.

JuBus at Pacific Zen Institute: lay Buddhists don traditional Japanese robes for zazen.

.

Many Jews practice Buddhism

It's an introduction for Jews and Gentiles alike. There have never been many Jews in the United States, always numbering less than one million, but one would never know, owing to their outsized influence. There may be a curious coworker or family member wondering what Jewish holy-days (holidays) are about and why there are so many of them. Who's got time to look into it? Pagan and Post-Pagan (i.e., early Christian) Europe used to be full of holy days, too, but industrialization seems to have cut those right out of the calendar in the name of productivity.

Why do so many Jews and Christians want war?

ABOUT: BimBam sparks connections to Judaism through digital storytelling for learners of all ages. Founded in 2008, BimBam’s catalog of hundreds of animated videos and other digital content are now under the auspices of the Union for Reform Judaism, and many can be found on its flagship educational website, ReformJudaism.org. Watch something Jewish at https://reformjudaism.org.

This video was made possible with generous support from The Koret Foundation, as part of its Initiative on Jewish Peoplehood. SUBSCRIBE to RJ on the GO: https://reformjudaism.org/rjonthego to attend live, interactive, virtual experiences for children and families. FOLLOW https://www.facebook.com/reformjudaism, https://twitter.com/reformjudaism, https://www.instagram.com/reformjudaism/.