0:01 Who are you and where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to Jiggers's Place. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and we're here every other Thursday to sit back and have a cocktail and talk about all the things in life that have nothing
0:38 to do with business and finance. So, uh, today, Thursday, um, let's see, it's April 10th, 2025. Uh, is, uh, just a couple days before the holiday of Passover begins. Uh, the first first night is Saturday night, April 12th. It'll begin at about roughly 8:00 p.m. with a meal known as the seder. Uh, seder means order and uh and and this
1:13 uh millennial millennium no millennia long tradition um will be repeated once again. And so, um, this time of year, uh, is a time for, um, for for Jews to reflect on their lives and figure out what inside of them needs to be improved. And that's the internal preparation. And
1:51 the ex the external preparation is going through their homes and cleaning out the so is a Hebrew term that essentially means leaven. So, um, specifically it's things like bread, cakes, cookies, uh, things that are made from one of five grains. Wheat, rye, oats, spelt, and I'm missing I'm missing the fifth one. It's not rice. Um, gosh, I'm
2:27 I'm going up on it. Um but in any event, uh it's it's an interesting time of year and um some people go really absolutely crazy cleaning their drapes and and I mean it's just it's it becomes basically spring cleaning and all their focus goes into uh removing moving the hummets from their home.
3:02 And uh I I I'm not very connected with my community anymore, frankly. But uh when I was uh the men especially would bitterly complain about this and um frankly I had very little sympathy for them um because the cleaning of the house was being done at the expense of the cleaning of the soul. And of the two, I would argue that cleaning out the hummets inside ourselves is is far more
3:38 important because that's what impedes our relationship with other people and with God. And so, uh, sort of in preparation for, uh, Passover or as it's known in Hebrew, Pesak, which refers to the sacrifice that was brought, uh, at this time of year. Uh, I'm going to talk about biblical commandments. And even that word commandment is misleading. uh but it's the word that's come to be
4:14 used as a translation for the Hebrew word mitzvah. And so I'm going to talk about that and hopefully um help us better understand really what the the commandments, the mitzvah or mitzvote are all about a and make this time of year more meaningful. I will hasten to add that uh is I believe Easter is a week from Sunday. So this is also a a special time of year for Christians
4:49 um and um they uh go through the period of Lent um where they give something up um something that they enjoy up. Um and and I I I so I think that you know a a lot of us uh are are sharing a somewhat similar experience um with our faith. I think this year also Ramadan is has has been occurring around this same time. So um now Ramadan kind of moves throughout uh the annual secular calendar but I think coincidentally it's around this
5:25 time as well. So uh in honor of um today's show uh with the help of chat GPT um we designed a cocktail called the Shahina's kiss. Now Shahina is an interesting word. It's one of the numerous names for God. Now, Shah, um, you can tell by the sound of the ending, is a female manifestation of God. It's the spiritual nature of God as
6:00 opposed to Adonoi, which is a male uh manifestation of God. Um, and has more to do with the lordly aspect of God. And by the way, of course, God is neither male nor female. God is simply God. It's just for for us as human beings to relate to him as he's usually referred. Uh we we use uh uh human language and and as a result uh in Hebrew there there are diff different endings uh for men
6:38 and women or male and female. So that that's where that comes from. So the shahina's kiss is it's it's it's a sense of intimacy with the spiritual uh the spiritual aspect of God. And and so um to make that we're going to use uh messcal. This is a bozo messcal. I love this bottle. It's just it's it's beautifully packaged. But the mascal itself is also very good. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with messcal as a spirit. So, uh, this is made from agave. So, you say, well, what's the
7:13 difference between this and tequila? So, tequila is made solely from blue agave and is only made in the Haliscoco um, uh, region of Mexico. Mscow can be made in other areas. Um, and this one is made in, let me see, uh, um, uh, let's see, San Dio Rio de. So, I'm not sure where that is in Mexico, but anyway. So, we're going to start with Mscal. masc mascal. It has
7:51 has a a smoky sort of mysterious u flavor to it like the divine presence which is the chapina. And then we're going to use some honey syrup which I've I've made just a little while ago. And that's the that's the sweetness of having a spiritual connection with God. We're going to use some lemon juice um which balances the sweetness and and and any relationship needs to have a balance of humility to it in order to maintain it. And then we're going to add a little uh an addicting. This is a lure and it's it's been made for
8:28 hundreds of years. Yeah. Since 1510. Now you might say, "Wait, what's what's a Christian liquor doing in a in a Jewish cocktail?" Well, that's okay. Um, you know, there's a a sense of uh um focus on spirituality uh that monks uh bring to to you know their practice. And then there's some angusturo bitters. And then um the original recipe called for a sprig of uh of of thyme. I'm going to just sprinkle a little thyme on top. Try something
9:04 like that. Um and uh time has a sense of uh purification um and and and and um and and divine flavor. Um and uh angister of bitters, right? Through bitter times, we hopefully grow, gain wisdom, that sort of thing. Okay, so we've got our shaker with ice. We're going to start out with 2 oz of mascal. Okay, so let's see. Where's the Yeah. Okay.
9:40 So there's our mscal and then an ounce of honey syrup and a half ounce of the lemon juice. Now, if you saw the recipe um on uh my email, if you get my emails, um it said use fresh lemon juice. I just didn't have time to
10:15 go get a fresh lemon and and squeeze it. But this uh Italia lemon juice is is is excellent. I always keep it on hand in case I need some. And then a half an ounce of Benedictine. Okay. And then we're going to have just a dash of Angostura bitters. Okay. And we're going to cover
10:50 this up and we're going to shake. And as you know, the the idea of the shaking is both to um cool down the ingredients, mix them together, but also get some of the ice to melt. So, a little bit of water brings out the various flavors. That'll shake for about 20 to 30 seconds. You can see that the shaker is all frosty on the outside, which is a nice thing. I've got my tooth glass ready right here. My beautiful ones originally from I believe
11:27 was Barney's course no longer in existence. Life changes. Okay, so there we go. and pour this out. And I'm just going to shake a little bit of time on top. There we go. And let's give this a
12:10 try. Wow. That's a nice layered uh group of flavors. So, it was good. Do you recall two weeks ago? Yeah, not so good. This one, excellent. I'll meet up with the sofa.
13:02 So, here we are. It's uh Thursday afternoon, a little after 5:00 p.m. Pacific time, and um as I mentioned in the intro, um heading into the end of the week, not only will it be the Sabbath starting tomorrow night, but then into Passover. The first two fa days of Passover are festival days. So if they're observed traditionally um like on the Sabbath, we don't drive. We don't use we don't manipulate electric and electronic
13:37 devices. So we're not on cell phones, we're not using computers, email, any of that stuff. Uh and uh it's it's a time of uh uh relaxation, a time to focus on relationships both with family and friends and God. Um a time to do some studying and uh and just disconnect from all of the uh creating and destroying that uh makes up the the bulk of of our week.
14:12 So have another sit. Nice. So um biblical commandments, you know, it's an interesting uh topic, if you will. Um, most people have heard of the Ten Commandments, right? And so when when I refer to biblical
14:49 commandments, uh, that's probably what most people think about, uh, um, in Jewish philosophy, there are 613 commandments. And indeed, although sometimes they're broken down into categories of sort of major and minor, the the truth of the matter is no commandment is um or no, I'm going to start using the word mitzvah instead of commandment. No mitzvah is more
15:25 important than another. In fact, um there really there are two categories of mitzvah. There are the mitzvah assay which which literally means the mitzvah um of doing and there are the mitzvah loas which are literally the mitzvah of not doing otherwise known as the positive mitzvah or the positive commandments and the negative commandments. The thou shall or that thou will and the d thou shalt not that
16:01 thou will not. So, um, in looking at the ten commandments, what what I'm going to refer to from here on out is the aseris hados, which literally means which is Hebrew for the 10 sayings. You can even see that in these sort of 10 archetypal um, commandments. Um, we don't actually refer to them as commandments. um they're they're the 10 says. So we have um
16:36 kud which is translated as you will honor your father and your mother. That's a a positive mitzvah, something that you're you are you need to do. And then there's which literally means you will not murder, right? That's a negative uh mitzvah, something you you're you not you you should not do. Right? So those are the two categories of uh mitzvot. Okay? And
17:12 now you could rightly ask why why for example would God care about whether we honor our mother and father. Okay, we could probably figure out pretty easily why God doesn't want us to murder. uh were all his children and like any loving parent, he doesn't want any of his children to be killed. Okay, so that was pretty. Why does God care if we honor our mother and father? Well,
17:48 so the fact of the matter is um our God is our father in heaven and if if we uh if we but it's very hard to love God because he's an incorporeal entity, right? You can't see touch God the way you can another human being. So, one of the ways we learn how to love God is by learning to love our parents.
18:24 Uh, and it's it's easier to love our parents, although it's challenging because sometimes we sometimes our parents do things and it and and we really dislike or maybe even hate our parents, right? Uh and so uh by um by uh telling us to uh um honor our our mother and father, I'm sorry. The the commandment is to honor your mother and your father, not to love them. So, but to honor someone that you're mad at
19:00 is very difficult. And and yet we're supposed to honor them nonetheless. And and if we can honor our parents, then we can probably we can we have a better chance of being able to honor uh God as well, right? Uh and it may seem like it's easier to honor God, but how do you honor, you know, an entity with which you can't really uh interact um only really in the spiritual realm?
19:36 So these are the the sort of dos and don'ts if you will of the mitzvote. And the reality is that the word although the word mitzvah is translated as commandment really what it means is something a person can do or refrain from doing that will build a relationship
20:11 with God. That is truly what a mitzvah is. Okay? And so to use the two I mentioned a moment ago, when we refrain from killing another human being, that helps build a relationship with God. A as as we might imagine, right? Because if we're going around and killing his children, it's very difficult to have a relationship uh with with God just like it would be extremely difficult to have a relationship with a human being uh whose god forbid child uh we killed. Uh and
20:46 likewise honoring our mother and father. Okay. So again, as I was mentioning before, if we can learn to honor our mother and father, that helps us learn how to honor God. So let's take another of the asera sadros um uh you will honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So, um, traditional traditionally, um, well, the Jewish Sabbath begins at
21:22 essentially sundown on Friday, what's what's known as Shia, and it ends on Saturday night with the appearance of three stars, what's called Sat Khavim, literally three stars. uh and the period between Shia on Friday and Sat Kohave on Saturday is roughly 25 hours. And during that time, as I mentioned a moment ago, uh we we don't um we don't ride in a car, we don't drive a car, um we don't
22:00 ride we really shouldn't ride on scooters or bicycles. we should stay in our homes or within walking distance of our homes. Um we don't use uh electronic devices, phones, computers, etc. So all of these things which can become distractions go away so that we can focus on the truly important things in life like family, friends, relationships, and including a
22:35 relationship with God. And so if if we honor the Sabbath to keep it holy, then what we're doing is we're taking the time out of our uh out of our our week to really focus on our relationship with God and and other people. So I was having a a conversation uh several days ago uh with a friend of mine who's he's he's not Jewish. Indeed, he has no religious affiliation, but he was talking about how it would be nice for one week not to
23:14 uh have to pick up his cell phone and be on the computer, this and that. And I said, well, I said, you know, you can do it. I said, I do it every week. It's called it's called the Sabbath or Shabbat. And we talked about that. and he you know it kind of intrigued him um this idea of having a day every week where we are not involved with those kind of things. So um the the actual um prohibition is to do no mala. Now, mala is typically termed translated as
23:50 work, but really what it means is perform any act of creating or uh destruction. Um, and I'm not going to go into the details of that, but but again, you see that uh the way our interactions with God are translated into English are not particularly accurate to the original Hebrew in which the Bible, the Torah was written. And so it kind of
24:25 skews our understanding of of what these things are all about. So if instead of talking about biblical commandments, we talked about mitzvah or mitzvot, right? and and then we understand what the word mitzvah means uh which is again something we can do or refrain from doing in order to to build a relationship or or to improve our relationship with God. So we can see a much more meaningful uh way of observing
25:04 um our faith uh than we might have perceived if we stayed solely with the English translation uh of of the Bible. And and also we can then really begin to understand so what is religion all about right is is it about uh you know the very stricts strict dos and don'ts and and sort of counting up oh I did you know 50 dues this week and I only violated one don't and and sort of you know playing almost a you know a
25:41 game like we might at work of you know who who made the most sales or something like that. No, it's not like that at all. Especially because we can't know as individuals how easy or difficult it is for another human being to perform a particular mitzvah. And that's where this gets a little bit
26:16 uh complicated and where humility is essential. Um, and if you saw my show a few weeks ago, I talked about the lack of faith or the lack of not faith, the lack of uh u respect for institutions um in in our communities in our country. So I think this is one of the reasons that uh um religion has uh uh has lost a lot of respect
26:51 because people get too involved with this sort of competition of you know who is who is more pious who who follows more commandments than than somebody else. It's it's it's not that's not what this is about per se. Um, each of us is on our own journey to having a relationship with God and with our fellow children of God. And we can't possibly know how easy or difficult it
27:27 is for any other person to fulfill or not fulfill a particular mitzvah. And so we can't know how deeply God appreciates a mitzvah that's done or refrained from being done by some other person. In fact, it's hard for for us to know that even about ourselves, right? And so that's why uh in this whole process, humility is such an important aspect.
28:02 Um, but it's also it's also why we need to help each other. And and this goes back to what I was saying about people who this time of year go so crazy about, you know, cleaning their homes and forget about, you know, sort of cleaning themselves. Um, it's to have a to have a rel to to um exhaust oneself cleaning one's home. So that by the time the seder rolls around, you know, one is exhausted, uh, on edge because they're so tired,
28:40 um, maybe angry because they didn't feel they got sufficient help cleaning up the home. Really counterproductive. Very counterproductive because now the person is not in a mindset of engaging with other people and engaging with with God, right? So then it becomes um our responsibility to reach out and help them understand what is really important about this time of year. And that's very difficult especially
29:15 between a husband and a wife, right? Where um you know sometimes you know relationships can be fraught. Um, but rather than abdicating that responsibility, I think the the proper thing to do is to figure out how a husband can approach his wife and how a wife can approach her husband so that the two of them can find common ground and really fulfill the purpose of the weeks leading up to Passover Pesak of
29:51 cleaning cleaning the KTS. right? The leaven, the things that make us haughty out of ourselves. That's far more important than cleaning draperies and and uh you know washing down walls. Not that those things aren't good to do. They're perfectly good to do. Um but they don't have any meaning in the context of Passover. Okay? Because the physical comets we we are responsible for getting rid of is what's
30:26 called gumar which is sort of like large. So, you know, a piece of bread crust, you know, that, you know, fell down uh, you know, behind the couch because the kids were running around the living room eating a sandwich and part of the bread fell off and now there's this, you know, hunk hunk of bread that's, you know, stale bread behind the couch. Okay, that we're supposed to clean out. Um, so, you know, we're responsible for pulling the couch away from the wall. Oh, look, there's a big piece of bread there. sweep it up or or vacuum it up or, you
31:01 know, get a a wet rag and wipe it up and okay, we're done, right? We clean be we clean underneath and behind the couch. Done, right? Um but but that's really what we're responsible for in terms of the physical world uh in terms of the spiritual world which is much more difficult. the the the emotional and spiritual world much more difficult takes much more time much more thought and I think it also takes some conversation so uh I've had uh
31:37 conversations a number of conversations with uh uh one of my friends um the last few weeks Bill and and we've talked about these things and we've helped each other see where where the hum is in ourselves so that we can work on that and improve our insides to get rid of the levan in there and and improve our chances of of developing a closer relationship with God. And and while we have a particular focus on such a
32:14 process this time of year, and there are other times in the Jewish calendar where that's also the case, it's really all all the time. That's our goal. Our goal is to do the mitzvah. Um and and you know whether one follows uh when whether one looks at just the aseras the so-called ten commandments or the noahhide laws which are basically there's eight of them or follows a traditional Jewish path where there's 613 uh
32:50 248 positive commandments and uh I think let's see 248 in uh 365 negative commandments I believe it is uh so or could be could be could be switched a lot of them we can't do anyway because there's no temple in in Jerusalem but in any event if one follows a a traditional uh Jewish uh path um there's 613 ways of building a relationship with God and And
33:26 and part of the challenge is to find the ones that um not are the easiest for us, but the ones that help us work most deeply. Um you know, all of them are designed for to to pursue the same process to create relationships. So there when I going back to the the the mitzvah for just a moment I I mentioned there were uh basically two categories of mitzvah mitzvah mitzvah mitzvah assay to mitzvah
34:02 to mitzvah for doing mitzvah mitzvah for not doing. So there's another way to break them down into two categories and there that is there are mitzvah involving uh two human beings and there are mitzvah involving a human being and god right and uh this is particularly important at in the fall as we head toward roshashana because roshashana and then yam kipur because the belief is is that if we haven't made things right
34:38 between ourselves and other people. When on yum kipur we go to God and ask forgiveness for the things that we did to interrupt our relationship with God, uh God's response is, well, you're you you've still been messing with this other person. So, until you fix that, you know, don't don't come to me kind of thing. So there's, you know, there's a number of different ways of approaching uh the mitzvah, the the so-called commandments, and and the challenge is to be working on them regularly. Um not to wait for
35:14 just this, you know, special times of year. uh not to wait until relationships are so broken, so fraught that um you know we we have to otherwise they'll be lost forever. Uh and and so uh you know th this is this is the message that I that I bring today. Um it's not about um how how many mitzvah or commandments we do compared to somebody else. It's not that that is
35:51 filling ourselves with levan and not only this time of year but at no time of year is is that appropriate. Um, what really matters is how do we do the things that God is asking us to do or refrain from doing in order to build a relationship with him. I'm going to give you one example. So, when I was a boy, uh, you know, I'd wake up in the morning, get dressed, get ready for
36:27 school, I'd go have my breakfast, and my mother would look in my room, she would see my bed wasn't made, she'd come into the kitchen where I was eating breakfast, and she'd say, "Go make your bed." And I'd say to her, "Mom, I'm just going to get in my bed again tonight. There's no point in making it." She said, "Go make your bed." And we would have this interaction day after day after day until finally I just realized while it made no sense to me making my bed every morning, if I wanted to have a relationship with my mother, I had to make my bed. And now I
37:05 don't want to I I I don't want to, you know, imply that at, you know, 10 years old that somehow I figured it out in those kind of sophisticated terms. I didn't. What I figured out as a 10-year-old was probably something along the lines of if I don't want my mother annoying me by telling me to make my bed, I need to make my bed. But I made my bed. And the fact of the matter is by making my bed, I you know, my my mother annoyed me a little less, which made it easier for me to love her. And hopefully I annoyed her a little less, which made it easier for her to love me.
37:41 So kind of in a nutshell that's the essence of any mitzvah any commandment that we do. Some of them we we can may make sense like you know you will not murder that makes sense right but some of the um some of the um mitzvah may not make much sense. So, for example, in Judaism, the dietary laws, what's called kash, like not eating uh meat and milk together, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And in fact, um if you've ever
38:17 had beef stroenoff, you know that eating milk and meat together is delicious and and the milk tenderizes the meat, which is the point of beef stroganov, right? Uh but if if one is keeping a traditional Jewish life, one keeps kosher. And so then one doesn't eat a cheeseburger or beef stroenoff or any mixture of milk and meat. In fact, one does not consume any dairy products at a meal when one is having meat, right? No real reason for that. It's like my mother, you know, telling me to make my
38:53 bed. It's something she wants me to do and and I should do it because it it helps build the relationship. So this this is the essence of the biblical commandments, the the mitzvot uh is to is to realize that doing them helps us build relationships with our fellow human beings and with God. And so I I would toast you with another drink of the cocktail, but as you can see, I drank it right up. It was so delicious. So, um, for for my uh Jewish friends out
39:29 there, um, I wish you a meaningful and happy Pesak. I hope your saters are are are joyful and that you you find uh clarity uh during this this holiday and and ever after. and for everyone. Um, I I hope that this has given you a different perspective on what it is to have a relationship with God, what it is to follow, whether it's the Ten Commandments or or whatever else. gives you a sense of uh
40:05 what practicing a religion is really all about and why it can be such a profoundly worthwhile thing to do. So, I I appreciate you tuning in for this this show um in particular, but but Jiggers I coming to Jiggers's place every other Thursday. It's it's nice to just sit and relax, have this time together, have a cocktail, and uh as we head to uh the end of the week, I wish you uh a wonderful evening, a wonderful rest of
40:41 the week and weekend, and look forward to uh seeing you next week. And signing off as I always do. Marie, darling, you are my bell.