On the way to BareBones last Saturday...
"Mama, how do you know you are Jewish?"
"Well... you are born Jewish. If your mother is Jewish, you are. I am Jewish because my mom is. You are Jewish because I am. Noah is Jewish because his mom is. Dada isn't Jewish, but you are because I am. Technically anyway..."
"Oh."
"Now, we're not really practicing Jews, per se..."
"What's pactising Jews?"
"Well... like, you know, our friends L and J in St Louis Park?"
Yeah?
You know how they do Shabbat every Friday? Which is why they couldn't come Trick or Treating with us this year?
Yeah.
"Well... " So I explain how Shabbat is a time of rest. I focus on the rest. The time to be together and rest. Not to work or do, but just to rest. "They rest from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday," I remind him, adding they don't use electricity or drive or anything. I wonder if he will want to start doing this. I ponder it now and then. "You know?"
"So, they're like bats," Jude concludes.
Bats?
Yeah. They rest all day and come out out at night.
I guess I'll have to work on my explanation of our religion. Though I can't deny how much I delighted in thinking and imagining my dear friends as bats hanging upside down in their beautiful home.
