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#Post#: 44713--------------------------------------------------
Nazirite
By: DaDancingPsych Date: January 3, 2020, 10:57 am
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I have a good, old friend who apparently spent the last six
months as a Nazirite. I am not religious; he is. I am so out of
my comfort zone here. Does one congratulate them on
accomplishing this? I want to say, "Good job, Buddy", but maybe
that's no appropriate? How does one respond to this news?
#Post#: 44722--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: TootsNYC Date: January 3, 2020, 11:41 am
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I'm out of my depth abit too--I went reading.
I think it would be weird to say "congratulation" or to treat it
as an achievement, the way one would a college degree.
It IS an achievement of dedication, but it's holy, not
necessarily something to be congratulated for.
(and apparently there are three things: don't cut your hair,
don't drink wine, don't touch dead bodies--none of those
difficult to achieve in our modern world; though it may also be
that he has spent some time in study or contemplation)
It's more like someone who spent half a year at a monaster w/ a
vow of silence--only way less difficulty.
I hope Gellchom can give some guidance; I feel like this is up
her alley.
But otherwise, I think I'd say a mild "congratulations," more on
the level of intensity of someone who finished a year-long
course in a foreign language. And move quickly to a question
like "What was the biggest thing you took away from the
experience?"
#Post#: 44727--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: DaDancingPsych Date: January 3, 2020, 11:56 am
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I appreciate your research, Toots! I read the same things. This
is all so foreign to me.
So maybe something like, "That must have been an incredible
experience"??? I love your follow-up question!
He posted pictures of pre and post haircut, so I assume that
it's appropriate to comment on appearance. Something like "Oh
wow, I've never seen you with a beard; it's a good look." But
again, the religious aspects have me confused!
#Post#: 44732--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: bopper Date: January 3, 2020, 12:30 pm
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"I hope it was meaningful for you."
#Post#: 44740--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: DaDancingPsych Date: January 3, 2020, 1:33 pm
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[quote author=bopper link=topic=1474.msg44732#msg44732
date=1578076207]
"I hope it was meaningful for you."
[/quote]
Ahhh... that's a great stock phrase for many religious
situations.
#Post#: 44741--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: Twik Date: January 3, 2020, 1:36 pm
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Or "I hope you found it spiritually enriching!"
#Post#: 44750--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: Gellchom Date: January 3, 2020, 3:12 pm
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Toots, thanks for your confidence in me, but I wasn't aware that
there have been any Nazirites for thousands of years! The only
ones I ever heard of are Samson and Samuel in the Bible.
I don't think that it's a Jewish thing today. I've certainly
never heard of it. DaDancingPsych, can you tell us what the
deal is with your friend?
I think I'd be less likely to congratulate than to ask about it
-- both because I'd be genuinely interested and because it seems
like that would be honoring the experience more. I like Toots's
suggestion. Other questions could be "What did that entail?
How long did it take? What did you learn/get out of it? Was it
different than you'd expected?" Depending on your relationship,
you could ask more personal questions like why he did it and if
he is glad he did. I should think he would want to talk about
it.
#Post#: 44793--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: Aleko Date: January 4, 2020, 2:08 am
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Given that it seems nobody here is able to give us the lowdown
on what 'being a Nazirite' means in modern-day terms, it is
evidently nowhere near being a mainstream thing that Joe Soap
might be expected to know about. There's also a possibility that
more than one group uses the term, so it might well entail
something slightly different in each of them. Altogether, it
seems to me that the best and most useful response would be to
ask the friend 'do tell me all about it!'
In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that that may be the
response the friend was actually hoping for. If I'd completed a
little-known spiritual activity that I couldn't assume my old
friend would be familiar with, and wanted to tell them about it
but didn't want to seem to be spiritually bragging, I might drop
in a casual remark that 'I've just done a month as a hierodule'
in the hope that they would ask me to tell them all about it.
I'd be really miffed if instead they just remarked 'how nice',
or 'congratulations'!
#Post#: 44816--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: bopper Date: January 4, 2020, 12:58 pm
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"I am not familiar with Nazarites. Could you tell me more about
it?"
#Post#: 44823--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nazirite
By: DaDancingPsych Date: January 4, 2020, 1:48 pm
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Thanks everyone! Your comments were all very helpful. When it
comes to anything religious (any religion), I have always felt
so awkward. No religion was really part of my up bringing, so I
run into so many situations where people assume that I know or
understand something, because it is fairly mainstream knowledge.
(I just saw "Jesus Christ Superstar" with some friends. I was so
lost as to what was going on! But apparently, everyone else in
my theater group had an understanding.) I just assumed that this
was one of those situations! You made me feel more comfortable
about asking questions. If friend shares any insights, I will
come back and update!
He is definitely the sort of person to dance to the beat of his
own drummer. He tends to enjoy music, movies, ect that are
lesser known. I suppose that he is like hipster... before that
was a cool, popular thing to be! =P (And he's so off the wall
that you can't really call him a hipster; he doesn't fit that
mold either.) I would not be surprised to learn that there was a
deep, religious reason for doing this... or that he just wanted
to see what he would look like with a full beard. It really
could go either way! ;D He's a good guy... a little strange
and unusual, but never boring! :)
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