"Does this kippah make my head look fat?"

Oh the joys of expressing one's Judaism is a not-so Jewish world.

At a party tonight, a friend of mine commented that my head looked wide (or was it long? I don't recall.) with my kippah. She soon decided that it was just the haircut I got. Or the other night when a got a rather interesting yet simple comment, "nice tassels." This of course referring to my tallit katan. At any rate, trying to explain the fringes came to no avail. It is hard to justify something as complex as the 613 mitzvot of Torah being represented in this simple garment to anyone who really had no interest in the first place. Well no interest, of course, other than to remark on my "tassels."

At the end of the day you realize something interesting about sporting Jewish garb as it were: you become a spokes person for all things Jewish (I think I read that in an iTorah somewhere). At any rate, what is the obligation, is there one even, of wearing these items in a public setting? Certainly, there is a stereotype.

At the party I attended tonight, there were several types of pizza. Indiscriminate in my eating habits as I am, I reached for a slice with meat. Stop the presses. Immediately I had a total stranger inform me that there was meat on that slice of pizza. I looked puzzled and replied that "Yes, yes there is." The person gave me an even more confused look than I could ever muster and commented that, "I didn't think you would mix meat and dairy..." Needless to say I spent quite a while having a conversation about my reasoning behind my feelings of our Kosher tradition. But what was the point of that?

Honestly, I think the person that commented was more confused than I about Judaism by the end of our conversation. It's hard to explain the ideology of an entire movement in one 10 minute period.

I think we should print out leaflets.