Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

Angry Chinese kahanist,

You and your wife are missing the enzyme that allows a person to metabolize alcohol?  That is very common among Asians and Native Americans.

Yes, sir! Exactly.

Saki is Japanese, and Soju is Korean; do the Chinese have any similar drinks which can be digested w/o problems?  My excellent [Japanese] friend gets a RED face if he partakes in red wine... he explained it has to do with sulfates [?].

Perhaps many Asian people live such long healthy lives partly because alcohol consumption is lessor than other cultures?

--------

I have been told mixed things about other cultures holidays.  One view expressed, I forget which book it was, but Jews are forbidden to CELEBRATE others holidays, but are allowed to participate in the celebration to some degree [seems iffy, and I am not a rabbi].  V-day has disgusting origins [evidenced above, thanks for schooling me!], and seems like a very commercialized event.  Perhaps Feb 15th is the day we go out and buy all the discounted chocolate and then melt it down into Chanukah gelt for later in the year. lol... 

Jews have PLENTY of holidays to celebrate without adding to the stack, and offending God is never a risk worth taking.  Not celebrating a non-Jewish holiday is such a tiny/easy thing to do to please God.

Easter strikes me as another holiday I cannot make heads or tails out of... Jesus came back from the dead and then... started eating chocolate rabbits and going on egg hunts?

I do like the high spirits my righteous Gentile friends are in around their holidays.  Seeing people in good spirits always gladdens my heart.

--------

  Are we allowed to let others celebrate with us on our holidays?  My x-roomate made me soooo much latke this past Chanukah, and she won all of my gelt with dreidl [but shared, for she is righteous].  She is a Buddhist/Christian, and she feels OK with participating in Jewish holidays because Christianity started with a Jew.  Have I committed any error?  She doesn't believe in Jesus being part of God, so she strikes me as more of a Ben-Noah than a Christian, and she uses only the meditation taught in Buddhism... not a very religious girl really.

--------

  Chanukah dreidl history struck me as interesting.  The game can last forever, and I understand while being oppressed Jews could congregate in a "harmless" dreidl game and teach Torah secretly as the main activity.  I realize much of Chanukah has been corrupted to be a Jew Christmas, but the dreidl history is something I wish to impart on my kids when I have a family.  Like I told my roommate, "look how long this game lasts, if an evil Roman sat in on a game they would find out that there is a good chance the game may never end, and if chocolate is prohibited from being eaten until a winner is established... they get bored, move on, never having an interest in the game again... and it's back to Torah for us".
 

[angryChineseKahanist]

Yes, Ariel Shayn, there are plenty of booze from the far east. There are people from China/Korea/Japan who can drink like fish. I know someone who drinks and smokes and gambles all the time. He died at 55. His lungs were black. His liver was like a sponge. And his soul was scarred.

[pennyjangle]

Try 27 years to alcoholic (2nd marriage) happily separated, divorce pending!   
My cousin gave me heads up on the holidays. I guess I can't claim ignorance anymore! 

So sorry you went through so many years of it Pennyjangle. My first time around was like that, and to be honest, I don't even feel like I was ever married to the SOB. Time really does heal!

Thanks. I know what you mean, he was always out drinking bourbon & coke and I would literally jump into bed & pretend to be sleeping to avoid his wrath when he came home drunk! It wasn't until a friend guided me to a Recovery group that I got the courage to leave!

[nessuno]

Angry Chinese kahanist,

You and your wife are missing the enzyme that allows a person to metabolize alcohol?  That is very common among Asians and Native Americans.

Yes, sir! Exactly.

Saki is Japanese, and Soju is Korean; do the Chinese have any similar drinks which can be digested w/o problems?  My excellent [Japanese] friend gets a RED face if he partakes in red wine... he explained it has to do with sulfates [?].

Perhaps many Asian people live such long healthy lives partly because alcohol consumption is lessor than other cultures?

--------

I have been told mixed things about other cultures holidays.  One view expressed, I forget which book it was, but Jews are forbidden to CELEBRATE others holidays, but are allowed to participate in the celebration to some degree [seems iffy, and I am not a rabbi].  V-day has disgusting origins [evidenced above, thanks for schooling me!], and seems like a very commercialized event.  Perhaps Feb 15th is the day we go out and buy all the discounted chocolate and then melt it down into Chanukah gelt for later in the year. lol... 

Jews have PLENTY of holidays to celebrate without adding to the stack, and offending G-d is never a risk worth taking.  Not celebrating a non-Jewish holiday is such a tiny/easy thing to do to please G-d.

Easter strikes me as another holiday I cannot make heads or tails out of... Jesus came back from the dead and then... started eating chocolate rabbits and going on egg hunts?

I do like the high spirits my righteous Gentile friends are in around their holidays.  Seeing people in good spirits always gladdens my heart.

--------

  Are we allowed to let others celebrate with us on our holidays?  My x-roomate made me soooo much latke this past Chanukah, and she won all of my gelt with dreidl [but shared, for she is righteous].  She is a Buddhist/Christian, and she feels OK with participating in Jewish holidays because Christianity started with a Jew.  Have I committed any error?  She doesn't believe in Jesus being part of G-d, so she strikes me as more of a Ben-Noah than a Christian, and she uses only the meditation taught in Buddhism... not a very religious girl really.

--------

  Chanukah dreidl history struck me as interesting.  The game can last forever, and I understand while being oppressed Jews could congregate in a "harmless" dreidl game and teach Torah secretly as the main activity.  I realize much of Chanukah has been corrupted to be a Jew Christmas, but the dreidl history is something I wish to impart on my kids when I have a family.  Like I told my roommate, "look how long this game lasts, if an evil Roman sat in on a game they would find out that there is a good chance the game may never end, and if chocolate is prohibited from being eaten until a winner is established... they get bored, move on, never having an interest in the game again... and it's back to Torah for us".
 

Why do you need to make heads or tails out of EASTER, JESUS, CHOCOLATE EGGS OR EGG HUNTS? 

[arksis]