Preparing for the Passing Over of the Angel of Death

“Preparing for the Passing Over of the Angel of Death,” illustration by C. M. Burd for With the Children on Sundays: Through Eye‐Gate and Ear‐Gate into the City of Child‐Soul, by Sylvanus Stall, Philadelphia: Uplift Publishing Co., 1911, p. 229. (In the public domain.)

— https://www.archive.org/details/withchildrenonsu00stal/page/229
— https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14783117655

With five participants (plus the facilitator), the gay men’s discussion group Friday was quite well attended compared to how it’s been recently. The introductions and preliminary talk about ourselves led into an organic discussion about addiction. As it turns out, I was the only one without an addictive personality; everyone else present has had true addictions to alcohol or to recreational drugs or to sex or to overeating. Gripping a discussion as it was, I had difficulty relating to it for that reason, but also for one other: Multiple participants were happy to attribute their strengths to God and take credit for their accomplishments away from themselves in order to hand it over to a Deity. Even those who saw the benefit of praising and recognizing merit in human accomplishment still tempered it with God talk. (God gave me the tools the overcome my addiction but I had to use them.) The facilitator even attributed human ethics to God, saying that he truly believed that our internal voice that knows right from wrong (to which we do not always listen) is God. Another participant compared God to the sun and humans to the planets which revolve around it. Nevertheless, this was an exceptional discussion in which I learned about their strategies for overcoming their issues and I got to briefly discuss the adjustment disorder I feel I had in the early Aughts.

It was the first night of Passover and I had no seder to attend, but I went out to eat with the men’s group participants to a local diner and had a Passover meal of chicken cordon bleu, a garden salad and side vegetables (no bread).

Passover mythology

How does Eliyyahu (a.k.a Elijah/Elias) manage to get to absolutely every Passover seder? Why it must be with his chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire (rekeb ēsh wə‐sûsê ēsh רכב אש וסוסי אש)! The Greeks identified Elias with the sun god Helios due to a superficial similarity in their names and in their conveyances (although their names are etymologically unrelated, אליהו Ēliyyāhû being Afro‐Asiatic and Ήλιος Hēlios Indo‐European), and Eliyyahu is frequently portrayed in a fire chariot not unlike Helios’ sun chariot.

This is a detail of a fresco in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria, portraying Eliyyahu (Saint Elias) and his chariot of fire (from a larger picture on Wikimedia, in the public domain).

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[I]t is easily seen how, by a scarcely perceptible change of sound, the great god Helios could be transmuted into Elias. Helios drove round the world in his fiery chariot, drawn by horses. Elias went up to heaven in a similar conveyance. Helios produced rain and storm, and so did Elias by the fervor of his prayer on Mount Carmel. Elias brought down fire from heaven and so did the great sun‐god. Hence the parallel between the two was too tempting to be passed over.

—J. Theodore Bent, “Paganism in England,” The Gentleman’s Magazine 262, Jan. 1887, 36.

Cake-off chitchat.

For those of you who asked, here is the surreptitious video of my telling friends about the Passover pastries. The conversation took place at an event called the “cake-off” in the Woodside apartment of a friend from the Ambassador Program and Jackson Heights Food Group. I was about as stereotypically Jewish as I can imagine being: discussing Jewish cuisine while coincidentally wearing a Hadassah (ההסתדרות הציונית הדסה) t-shirt.

Video by judibean. “Cake-off” at Stella’s place, Woodside, 17 April 2010.

Previously

• “Passover sweets,” 6 May 2010.
• “From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, April 2009,” 19 May 2009.

Related

• Sara Markel‐González, “Eating Our Way Through The Menu at Red Ribbon Bakeshop,” Serious Eats, 26 April 2010.

• A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5pZVlCy2o.
• Additional comments on this article may be available on Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Jaiku (and Google Buzz and FriendFeed), and Facebook.

Passover sweets.

Photograph by Elyaqim Mosheh Adam. The best Passover pastries I’d ever had in my life. Community Passover seder (ליל הסדר של פסח), the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, 37-06 77th Street, Jackson Heights, 29 March 2010.

As I was later captured on video telling friends, these and others consumed that night were probably the best Passover pastries I’d ever had in my life. See more of my pictures of the community Passover seder at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights.

Previously

• “From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, Apr. 2009,” 19 May 2009. Passover content.

Related

• Chap James Day, Twitter, 29 Mar. 2010; Google Buzz, 30 Mar. 2010.
• My pictures on Facebook.

• Last modified 28 March 2012.
• A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5pXbAkQGJ.
• Additional comments on this article may be available on Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Jaiku (and Google Buzz and FriendFeed), and Facebook.

From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, April 2009.

 Compiled below are my writings (excluding comments) on my own Facebook wall in April 2009, as well as anything else that might be construed as an example of micro-blogging.

▴ Brutal as it was, Saddam Hussein’s régime was at least secular. —1 April, 15:39 (UKGN, Fb.|FF)
▴ Elyaqim has never been there but thinks the view must be stunning if it’s called “the Eyeful Tower.” —1 April, 15:41. (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Elyaqim is greatly relieved the supermarket cashier on whom he has a crush had been on vacation rather than gone forever. Now bag my groceries! —3 April, 20:56 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ When religious people determine public mores, critical thinking goes out the window and gays die. Saddam Hussein’s régime was secular; then the US occupied ‘Iraq, and zealots gained control. —4 April, 23:23 (Reuters, Fb.|FF)
▴ After a rather intense argument among four gay men in a Jackson Heights restaurant last night, I offer this link as one of many that illustrate how the current Gay Marriage Machine steamrolls over and discriminates against all sorts of families that don’t fit the “nuclear” model. Nancy D. Polikoff has become one of my heroes. —6 April, 20:20 (LAT, Fb.|FF)
▴ “Six gay men confirmed killed in Iraq” in the past week alone. —7 April, 12:58 (GNZ, Fb.|FF)
▴ Elyaqim loved when his friend Glenn expressed pride in the borough of Queens by referring to one of our supermarkets’ selling “the bounty of the county.” —8 April, 14:10 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Elyaqim reminds all his friends to put blood on their doors tonight to avoid plague. Happy Pesaḥ to every-bloody! חג פסח שׂמח!‏ ‎—8 April, 19:02 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Passover song by the legendary Jo ‘Amar. —8 April, 20:19 (YT, Fb.|FF)
▴ A “Vigil of Remembrance and Solidarity” will occur tomorrow at noon at the UN Mission of ‘Iraq (iraqunmission.org), 14 East 79 Street in New York City, in protest of the anti-gay murders and arrests in Baghdad. —9 April, 18:39 (GWB, Fb.|FF)
▴ Elyaqim just returned home from a trans-folk concert (double entendre intended) in his neighborhood and particularly enjoyed the “dentures”/“oysters” rhyme, the drawing of the “impractical mermaid” and the puppet show that starred a platypus. Don’t you wish you had been there? —10 April, 21:42 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Elyaqim wishes that, in the spirit of sadism/masochism, he had been invited to a seder/massacre this Passover, but alas was not. —11 April, 19:37 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Elyaqim is appalled customers write on the wall of his local Japanese/ Chinese/ Thai restaurant, but one graffito does make for a good status update: “Girl you look good! Like turkey breast and Pepsi.” (If you don’t believe him, he’ll post the photograph.) —12 April, 18:02 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ Sounds like a nice Sunday afternoon, but I have a sneaky suspicion I have a schedule conflict. If only I could remember. —13 April, 22:57 (PGM, Fb.)
▴ Elyaqim went out Friday night in Astoria and met two great guys named Ken and Michael, and then went out Saturday afternoon in Elmhurst and met two great guys named Ken and Michael. —18 April, 18:37 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ I think I would prefer the horses do it than the traffic agents, but I admit it’s a tough call. —20 April, 00:50 (JHL|FF)
▴ I took gobs of pictures. See album number 1 and album number 2. (A Facebook account is not required to view the pictures.) —20 April, 04:43 (JHL|FF)
▴ How did I not know about this 2004 song sooner? Thanks to Avi for posting it. The title of the song (“Keep Your Jesus off My Penis”) reveals the lyric may be a little saucy for work. My favorite lines:
“So you’re screaming bloody murder ’bout the Taliban régime
Subjugating women and being too extreme
And basing legislation on some ancient holy book.
Does that sound a bit familiar? Here’s a mirror. Have a look!” —22 April, 19:44 (YT, Fb.|FF)
▴ What an odd autograph. “I LOVE CHILI! [Signed,] Phyllis Diller.” —23 April, 06:37 (TLL, Fb.|FF)
▴ Elyaqim shopped at the Queens Center Mall for the first time and enjoyed seeing the people far more than the merchandise in any store other than his destination. –24 April, 14:35 (Fb.|FF|FF)
▴ My closest friends know me as someone who doesn’t like children but who loves entertainment for children (so long as it was created by adults). I was still watching children’s télévision in the 1990s as this video shows. I miss Lynne Thigpen. —24 April, 14:48 (YT, Fb.|FF)
▴ Elyaqim heard his friends refer to “matzo pizza” and thought they were talking about the Peruvian city and tourist site. —24 April, 15:02 (Fb.|FF|FF, Jk.|FF)
▴ The musician Kip Attaway has a gay-themed song, “Mahu from Oahu.” (Working at Waikiki Wally’s and Lucky Cheng’s over three years, I learned what “mahu” means.) The song is not flattering, but not truly anti-gay either. (It also has some inaccuracies; it’s not likely a drag queen would use the men’s room.) What do you think? —26 April, 06:06 (K.A. on MS, Fb.|FF)
▴ “[Gays] have been forced to re-think the…notion of what a family is. ‘Through our success in creating different kinds of families, we have shown that groups of people can constitute a family without being heterosexual, biologically related, married, or functioning under a male head-of-household….’ [We] would be better off continuing to expand how family is defined ‘rather than confin[ing] ourselves to marriage.’” —27 April, 23:41 (Phœnix, Fb.|FF)

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5gtHLFYQi.