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Asking on behalf of a friend:
“what should i tell a teacher when they ask about our holidays because it has happened and probably will again? i usually get shocked and am quiet because its out of the most random time.
a non jewish teacher asking their student what passover is and what they enjoyed most about it so my response was that i was bad at explaining it and that i loved everything. also i DONT read all threads because if it sounds boring to me then i dont read it. some threads i feel like i wouldnt be interested in reading.”
Passover explanation=our nation of jews were freed from slavery and were redeemed
Shavuous explanation=day we received the bible (old testament) from G-d
Succos explanation=we traveled 40 years in the desert upon leaving to freedom from Passover….. And lived in tents so we now eat in tents/Succos during these days of the year.
Good luck. You can expand the explanation a little longer
Passover: when we eat our fire crackers of independence!
For Passover, just tell your teacher to watch the first half of “The Ten Commandments.” 🙂
The Wolf
“Succos explanation=we traveled 40 years in the desert upon leaving to freedom from Passover….. And lived in tents so we now eat in tents/Succos during these days of the year.”
lol. I am just thinking about how a goy would react on hearing that. It’s a great start, but should be expanded a bit to explain why this is important.
“Passover explanation=our nation of jews were freed from slavery and were redeemed
Shavuous explanation=day we received the bible (old testament) from G-d”
Good explanations, MA. I would maybe add for Passover that G-d made a lot of miracles to free us, and that it is when we became a Nation (or G-d’s Nation).
Not a problem if the teacher is a Christian. Problem if the teacher is a secular Jew (helps to be familiar with the civil rights laws on the matter). And if you are explaining Hol ha-Moed to a frum Jew who ignores it, best to have the Shulhan Arukh with you.
I recvieved some well placed mussar from a non-jewish coworker who asked me why I wouldnt be in the following Monday
I replied Along the lines of” Oh its one of our minor holidays, you probably never heard of it” she asked for deatils saying “well if IVe never heard of it, all the more reason for you to tell me about it”
so I said “Its the day God gave us the bible”
she was astonished “thats not minor at all!”
(To be clear I didnt mean to down play Shavuous ch”v I meant minor in the sense that it wasnt as well known as some of our others like Pesach, Chanukah, rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur which most quasi educated people ahve heard of.)
Ubiquitin: I recently heard a speaker (can’t remember who) talking about Shavuos. He started off by saying something to the effect that it’s the most important day in history for EVERYONE since an event took place that changed the entire world, and yet, most people are not even aware of the day’s existence.
” Problem if the teacher is a secular Jew (helps to be familiar with the civil rights laws on the matter).”
Akuperma, explanation?
“And if you are explaining Hol ha-Moed to a frum Jew who ignores it, best to have the Shulhan Arukh with you.”
If they won’t listen to you, halachically it might be better not to say anything unless they asked. If they asked you, it’s probably different.
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