My grandmother used to tell me, “Don’t frown like that too long or your face might get stuck,” and, “If you don’t eat your bread crusts you won’t grow curly hair.” Now, while neither of those is literally true, they hold truth. Going around with a sour face can easily lead to more frowning because people read our facial expressions and react to them. This can be a real problem if you suffer from “resting grumpy face” as I do. And not eating the crust of bread is at least wasteful and sometimes misses the best part.

Our Old Testament reading today is, I think, the shortest one I’ve ever heard. Its wisdom is clear. When you are under authority, don’t push yourself forward, rather let the authority call you forward. That’s not always true in every circumstance, sometimes initiative and assertiveness are good, but it is generally true that self-promotion comes off badly. The leader of the Pharisees should know this proverb and, frankly his guests should have as well. Yet, they clearly miss it.

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One of the interesting sights in Jerusalem, or in New York, are these Jewish guys wearing black suits with white shirts buttoned all the way up, no ties, wearing black hats with ringlets of hair hanging down. They are what Jews call “the religious” or you may have heard of them as ultra-Orthodox or Hassidic Jews.

It surprised me to learn that they are not one group. There are differences in their hair, the shape of their hats, the width of the brim and so on that signify which school or tradition or rabbi they follow, which may be tied to a place or country – say Lithuania or Ukraine – from which their group came. Why are there so many flavors of ultra-conservative Jews?

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