RE: Have you met people criticizing atheists who use the expression OMG
March 15, 2019 at 8:22 pm
(March 15, 2019 at 5:49 pm)Yonadav Wrote: I wasn't there when it happened, but the story was told to me by a man who does not make up stories and he was there.
We have weekday Torah readings on Mondays and Thursdays. Everything about it is ritualized. Someone has the honor of removing the Torah from the Ark. Someone has the honor of lifting the Torah up into the air so that everyone can see it. Someone has the honor of rolling the scroll back up. The honor of lifting the Torah into the air is called 'hagbah'. We give that honor to someone who is strong and steady and will not drop the scroll, because the consequences of dropping a Torah scroll are severe for everyone who witnesses it. So the honor was given to a guy one day who had never done hagbah before. He heaved the scroll up into the air, was surprised by its weight, and exclaimed, "Jesus Christ this thing is heavy!"
That is about the most outrageous thing that a person could do while performing hagbah. I am told that it was met with howls of laughter. The guy wasn't taken out and stoned or anything.
Laughter? How fantastic.
I've alway found Catholics rather laughable too. (until the recent catastrophic scandals)
