Conference taveng::bagels

>   During Passover, what  type ( or types ) of " bitter roots " are
>   served ?
We use horseradish. If I recall correctly, celery has a bitter root.
Anything that leaves a bitter aftertaste is useable (Romaine lettuce?).

>   I LOVE the name CHAIM !!!  When I first heard it, i thought it was
>   the most beautiful name I'd ever heard.  What does it mean ?
Literally, it is the plural form of "life". A traditional Jewish toast
is "LeChaim" (To life!). It is an old Jewish custom that a man who has
survived a serious illness (or other life-threatening danger?) could
change his name to "Chaim" in honor of surviving. My brother's given
Hebrew name was Chaim, but we used "Charles" in English.

>   Why, according to Jewish relegious law, can't meat and dairy products
>   be consumed at the same time ?
The Torah commands us (I forget chapter and verse, but I think it's in
Leviticus) not to "seeth the kid in its mother's milk". From this we
derive a law to not COOK meat with diary products. In order to avoid issues
such as: can you cook meat and THEN pour on the cream sauce?; or does hot
food continue to cook in your stomach? -- the ancient rabbis decided we
should not consume milk and meat at the same meal. In fact, there is a
waiting period following a milk or meat meal during which we should refrain
from eating the other type.

Dave

    For the bitter herb at a Passover seder, most people of Eastern
    European (Askenazic) decent will use horseradish, although romaine
    lettuce (which isn't really very bitter) can be used instead.  I don't
    know what is used by Sephardic people; horseradish isn't a
    Mediterranean crop.  I've been tempted to supply some wasabi (Japanese
    green horseradish) one of these years.  I don't think that would go
    over well at my mother-in-law's house, though - for those people,
    regular horseradish, definitely.  The horseradish or whatever is used
    is part of some ritual foods that are eaten during the ceremony, and it
    is eaten both as slices and grated up - for a good time, try peeling a
    hand-grating a nice big horseradish root....NOT!
    
    A lot of synagogues have adult-study programs on various subjects, one
    of which often is an introduction to Judaism.  SOme of these are geared
    towards people considering or studying for conversion, and some of them
    are more geared to people who just want to learn more.  You could try
    calling up a few near where you live and see what courses are being
    offered.  You could also ask about books you might want to read.
    
    /Charlotte

Trying again, in the hopes that I won't be rudely interrupted by another
server disconnect:

The redoubtable Daniel Faigin, a committed Reform Jew, maintains an
extensive series of FAQs [Frequently Asked Questions] and a reading list
for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.jewish, which is a lot like BAGELS, except
that more anti-Semites slip through :-(

If you have WWW access, the FAQs can be found at:
http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/index.html

Here is a listing of "credits": the names of those who have been consulted
on the development of the FAQs [Taken from the soc.culture.jewish FAQ]
Members of the committee represent all branches of Judaism (NOTE: 
Jews for Jesus is _not_ a branch of Judaism), and include several ordained
rabbis and other noted scholars:

>Subject: Credits

>The Frequently Asked Questions were developed by a committee consisting of Mike
>Allen, Jerry Altzman, Rabbi Charles Arian, Jacob Baltuch (Past Chair), Joseph
>Berry, Warren Burstein, Stewart Clamen, Daniel Faigin, Avi Feldblum, Itzhak
>"Jeff" Finger, Gedaliah Friedenberg, Yechezkal Gutfreund, Art Kamlet, Alan
>Lustiger, Hillel Markowitz, Len Moskowitz, Colin Naturman, Aliza Panitz, Eliot
>Shimoff, Mark Steinberger, Steven Weintraub, Matthew Wiener, and headed by
>Robert Levene. The organization and structuring of the lists for posting
>purposes was done by D. Faigin, who is currently maintaining the lists.Other
>contributors include A. Engler Anderson, Ken Arromdee, Seymour Axelrod, Josh
>Backon, Micha Berger, Steven M. Bergson, Eli Birnbaum, Kevin Brook, Harvey
>Cohen, Todd J.Dicker, Michael Dinowitz, Sean Engelson, Mike Fessler, Menachem
>Glickman, Amitai Halevi, Walter Hellman, Miriam Jerris, Robert D. Kaiser, Yosef
>Kazen, Rabbi Jay Lapidus, Mier Lehrer, Heather Luntz, Arnaldo Mandel, Ilana
>Manspeizer, Seth Ness, Chris Newport, Alan Pfeffer, Adam Reed, Seth Rosenthall,
>[email protected], David Sheen, Michael Sidlofsky, Michael Slifkin, Frank
>Smith, Andy Tannenbaum, [email protected], Bill Wadlinger, Arel Weisberg, and Art
>Werschulz. Comments and corrections are welcome. You may address comments either
>to the maintainer ([email protected]) or to the SCJ FAQ committee
>([email protected]). 

Bobbi Fox