Tell me what's funny

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. The focus on details of ritual in any religion can be funny

to the point when, if you hear them for the first time from outside the sect, you can wonder if it's not just a joke.

The importance of how you dress to say your prayers, what you wash when, which direction you face, when you stand up, kneel, and so on. Why would a god that created the universe give a toss about details like that? Or whether, like Catholics, you need a whole new section of philosophy to try and accommodate a decision that that bit of damp wafer in your mouth really is the body of your god, despite what your tongue tells you.

I didn't believe the decisions from Judaism about 'not working on the Sabbath' including things like not having a light come on in a fridge when you open the door. Or the decision that if you could run string around an area, it counted as 'home' and the rules suddenly changed. I really thought that was a parody when I first heard about it.

Hasidic dress is weird. If they decided on clothes from the time a version of the Jerusalem temple was built or destroyed, or some other time and place that was actually meaningful in the religion, the symbolism might have an excuse.