Articles with the tag: birthdays

Birthday Reflections

Today, the 13th day of Kislev is my birthday. True, I have now been around awhile, but not as long as birthday celebrations have been. Already in the book of Genesis there is mention of a banquet in honor of Pharaoh’s birthday back in 1534 BCE. The interesting thing is, for much of our history, birthday parties were not part of the Jewish social scene.  Compare!  The yahrzeit dates of the various Biblical and Rabbinic personalities are recorded and commemorated, whereas their dates of birth are mostly unknown. King Solomon gave voice to this attitude when he said, < em>

“Better the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”