Saturday, September 07, 2002

Take it from the rooster's standpoint Yesterday at sundown was the beginning of the Jewish New Year.  From now until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a stretch of time commonly known as the "Days of Awe," although I would translate it as the “Horrible Days.”  During this time, it is considered that our fate is being weighed and determined -- whether we were good enough throughout the year to survive.  The reckoning is over on Yom Kippur, whereupon those who were sufficiently good continue living, and those of us who have not quite measure up kick the proverbial bucket.  Not to make light of the matter, if you truly believe in this process, these are truly "Horrible Days" and one does whatever possible to survive. The more famous and common acts are asking forgiveness of people one interacts with during the year.  On Yom Kipur, an observant Jew refrains from taking in either food or drink to concentrate at the process at hand and get purified.  What I want to touch upon is a much less known sanguine custom, which I am told is still practiced, although very seldom.  The process involves a rooster, which is summarily sacrificed to atone for human sins.  The process works something like that -- the rooster's legs are bound, its throat is slit, and as the animal is bleeding to death, it is being whirled over the head of the sinner.  The person whirling repeats an incantation that goes something to the effect of -- "This rooster is going to butchery, and I am going to a good life."  The person's sins are supposed to be transmitted to the rooster and evaporate once the bird expires. Now, on the whole I am usually not on the side of the underdog.  I remember quite clearly when I saw "Empire Strikes Back" in the late 70's that I was rooting for Darth Vader.  At this particular case though, I empathize with the rooster.  I mean, if it truly were to take place according to what tradition tells us (and for the sake of argument let us assume that this is indeed the case), what an incredible insight the bird must have from its unusual vantage point of twirling in the air.  Even more interesting would be to get into the rooster’s mind and see his take on his own situation vis-à-vis the sins of his owner.  Below is an attempt to do exactly that.  It is dedicated to all roosters, past and present that bravely attempt to take away our sins.  Any resemblance to people or birds living or dead is coincidental.  Kislev is the third month of the Jewish calendar. The Rooster of Atonement   Have you ever been told that your hair is dirty? And if you stopped, I could show you where. But no, you have to swirl me like a lasso, And along with me, your crimes Away from you.   You’re stupid though. To kill a rooster is a great sin, Much greater than your petty, little crimes! Why, I remember on the second of Kislev, In the back yard, behind the horse manure, I mounted a hen (my duty, mind you), The one your wife calls Shifra. You know her, with the darling curving beak, The tender cockerel… ah well. And then I saw you, Indulging in the same activity as I, And if my memory serves me right, Her name was also Shifra, your wife’s handmaiden.   Don’t you remember?  You and I, secluded by the horse shit, Each with his own Shifra, Heaving on the second of Kislev.   You won’t admit it, So now, on judgment day, you kill one cock, in order to redeem another. I see no justice in it, just your dirty hair. Such cruelty to animals whose only sin is that they saw you… Hey! Is that the reason? You do not seriously think that I will tell you wife or any of the hens? (Forget the dog, I do not speak his language). Ah well, it figures; My uncle, the one you had three weeks ago for dinner, Had warned me many times against those mixed manage-a-quatres. He knew what he was saying, the old coot.   4:18:04 PM    comment []

You are not like me, how cool is that! To start with a generalization, I would state that one way to view life is as a constant struggle against stagnation.  Like any all encompassing, sweeping generalization it can be endlessly (and appropriately) disputed, but at the same time, it provides me with a convenient backdrop for what I wish to elaborate upon.  Modern life, and any life for that matter, places us into a series of patterns and routines.  We end up moving through prefabricated grooves, following faithfully our life’s theme.  I don’t know about you, but complete determinism sickens me.  I am therefore a firm believer in our ability tap the needle and make it jump.  The results are often quite screechy and might leave a scratch or two, but at least we forced an experience of our own volition.  With the notable exception of childhood friends, all of my current friends and acquaintances are in the high tech field.  The situation has its own warmth that issues from mutual familiarity with each other’s jobs, as well as struggles peculiar to our industry.  You realize that you are in a groove when confronted by people fundamentally outside of your milieu, and then there is a potential for exhilaration. Through a completely fortuitous set of circumstances, my wife and I met a couple, both of which are physicians, as well as a number of their friends.  Ranging in age from late 20’s to mid 30’s, these people are anywhere from their first to fifth year of medical practice.  When meeting another couple for the first time a couple leaves the hosts, and once the door closes give each other a look.  It is the “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down” look – Do they have a potential to become really good friends?  Do we like BOTH the man and the woman?  Are they our type of people?  This is usually expressed with no words.  Well, the consensus was a Thumbs up with an extra joint thrown in for good measure.  Besides the usual positive qualities we look for in couples, these people had something extra – they had nothing to do with the technology of business and the business of technology. The first gathering involved our new friends, several more physicians, and us.  We certainly got a couple “cool, you’re not doctors” comments, which indicated that the need to associate with people outside of one’s professional circle is not limited to the casualties of the new economy.  The reason became fairly clear, and manifested itself several days later, that is yesterday on eve of the Jewish New Year. Once again we wended over to our physician friends, and once again the rest of the guests were mostly other physicians.  It should be noted that a lawyer neighbor has joined as well.  Because the crowd was professionally mixed, purely professional discussion seemed inappropriate.  Being a New Year celebration, there was a natural tendency to focus on the attendant tradition.  A friend of our hosts who is not a physician, but rather a teacher of Ethics, put together a New Year Haggadah – something that is usually done for Passover.  As most of the guests were not Jewish a lot of explanation and explication followed.  But even when that was all over the conversation persisted on not turning to emergency room gossip.    Maybe it was the fact that any professional discussion would have sounded like Greek to the non-initiated, that we ended up on a neutral ground, that being Greek.  The lawyer, besides being a lawyer turned out to be an ancient Greek scholar as well with a rather prodigious memory.   We were treated to extensive recitations from the Iliad and the Odyssey in the original.  We talked about the fact that so many things described by Homer also sound like what they are (the shooting of a bow has a twang sound to it, when Sisyphus’ rock tumbles down we could hear the roll in the actual words, etc.).  Economics and politics followed with a critique of Marx and a snub towards Hegel.  The alcohol level was rising, but somehow Schoenberg ended up there as well.  The point was that the mixed nature of the group forced everyone to go outside the normal groove of the conversation.  The only screeching that ensued from the “tap to the needle” was everyone’s attempt to blow the Shofar (a traditional hollowed ram’s horn that is blown on the New Year and the day of atonement) that the ethics teacher brought with him as a part of the overall cultural show and tell.   2:59:49 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2002 Daniel Dolinov. Last update: 10/1/2002; 12:33:52 PM.