Triple-A Holiday

Holidays are big for Jews - and I mean volume-wise. It seems that every other week is a holiday of some sort. Tonight, the family and I hopped on over to our synagogue for Simchat Torah. Now I consulted my trusty "Jewish Book of Why" (a must-have reference guide for anyone needing quick info -- http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Book-Why-Alfred-Kolatch/dp/0824602560) to get the lowdown. Overall, good stuff, until of course my kids melted down faster than the carmel covering on the candied apples they got their hands on after the service. If Jewish holidays were baseball, Simchat Torah seems like its the Toledo Mudhens - by that I mean a really good time, but not quite the same level of significance as the Yankees (read: Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur). The one thing Jews have over Gentiles is holidays - boy, when I was growing up, you had to wait months - Winter was Christmas, then you had to wait four months for Easter, then...well...you had to wait eight months for Christmas again (unless you count things like Lent which would be the Tidewater Tides of Christian holidays, but promosing not to touch the $2.50 beers). But these past few weeks have had an average of a holiday and a quarter per week, so it's been a virtual smorgasbord of celebrations; but that's one thing I admire about Judaism - it doesn't seem like you much to get a little party going...