Judaism
Winnie the Pooh’s tip for celebrating birthdays
Is there a Jewish way to mark the occasion? The ever-green children's character might have the answer
April 23, 2021 14:35
Is there a Jewish way to mark the occasion? The ever-green children's character might have the answer
April 23, 2021 14:35I’ve noticed that people approach birthdays differently.
We all know people who go wild and others who sink into depression at the very mention of birthdays. The existential psychiatrist Irvin Yalom suggests this reaction stems from the patent reminder of the inexorable passage of time and the fear of our mortality.
The oddest one I’ve come across was a rabbi who would always cry on his birthday, not because he was sad to be a year older, but because he was thinking of the pain he’d caused his mother when she gave birth to him!
I’ve been asked if Judaism has a view on celebrating birthdays. I remembered the biblical story of Joseph. He was in an Egyptian prison on a false charge, together with Pharaoh’s wine waiter and his chief baker.
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