FUCK I FORGOT THAT THE BIRD STORE I WORK AT HAS ONE BABY BIRD THAT LIKES TO SLEEP IN PEOPLES POCKETS IM HOME AND SOMETHING IS MOVING IN MY POCKET OH FUCK
YEAH ITS THE BIRD I JUST ACCIDENTALLY STOLE A BIRD
MY BOSS JUST GAVE ME THE MOST STERN LOOK OF DISAPPROVAL BEFORE HE STARTED LAUGHING SO HARD HE HAD TO GRAB THE EDGE OF A TABLE
NO GOD PLEASE DONT LET THIS BE THE POST THAT MAKES ME TUMBLR FAMOUS
I have a distinct memory from my childhood of my parents arguing in the kitchen after our Passover seder. They realized after clearing the table that my family members had drank the last of our wine and we had nothing to leave out for Elijah. My dad suggested we could leave a can of Coke, and my mom shrieked, “You can’t leave COKE for ELIJAH!”
now you can 😛
There is a halachic classification of beverages called chamar medina (literally, “the national beverage”) which refers to non-wine beverages that are nevertheless considered “respectable” enough to be the bedi’eved (not ideal, but still halachically permitted) liquid used for kiddush, havdala and other ritual uses.
Classic examples of chamar medina are beer, coffee and tea. While some authorities¹ don’t consider soft drinks to be “respectable” enough, others² do.
The Four Cups themselves are actually obligatory; Elijah’s Cup is merely traditional. So while I would suggest using Kosher-for-Pesach Coke (made with cane sugar, not corn syrup) for the Four Cups only as a last resort, I imagine one could rely on chamar medina to Share an Ice Cold Coke with Eliyah.
¹ Iggros Moshe (R’ Moshe Feinstein)
² Shearim Metzuyanim Behalacha 5:page 74; Rivevos Ephraim 3:290, and p. 358, citing from a number of authorities
The notion that political enemies are human, too, sharing our common human hopes and fears, triumphs and vulnerabilities, is often deployed in a way to downplay political division and enmity. In reality, though, the fact that our enemies are human, too, is what makes them morally accountable. If they were inhuman monsters who thrived on death and suffering, then we would expect nothing of them but sadism. The fact that they share our common humanity, that they have experienced love and pain and disappointment and satisfaction just like us, is what makes it so intolerable that they would, for instance, vote to take away people’s access to health care just because they said they would, with no plausible narrative for why such a thing is beneficial as public policy or even as an act of political expediency.
The fact that John McCain would get up off his deathbed to participate in this cruel farce does not make him a hero, it makes him a bad person. He had a perfectly valid excuse to skip the vote. Indeed, he had a perfectly valid excuse to resign his senate seat altogether and wash his hands of this mess. Those would both be understandable human actions. What he chose to do instead was completely gratuitous and cruel, which is comprehensible only as an attempt to bask in the media’s adoration one last time. That motivation is human, and that’s what makes it morally blameworthy. If he were a mystical creature who fed on the praise of journalists, then we could write it off as a survival instinct. Since he is a human being with human moral agency, we are entitled to our equally human moral judgment. And in my judgment, which is my right as a human being, John McCain is an evil man and anyone who is trying to use his unfortunate medical condition to distract from that fact is a fool at best and a fellow villain at worst.
Yes, our enemies are human. That’s what makes them enemies. That’s why their actions are unacceptable — because they are just like us. If we can make the morally right choice, so can they. And they have not.
Adam Kotsko, “On the old saw, “Remember your enemies are human too”,” An und für sich (x)
fearlessstateofmind backup 