Clearly, these dogs missed something in Sunday School

Have I mentioned that we live in the Jewish neighborhood in Seattle? There are two synagogues within a couple blocks from us, and another within walking distance. The two close ones are conservative and orthodox, so on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, there are many people walking by our house on their way to services.

Today is Sunday however, and as we sit here doing our own Sabbath thing, Enrico is reading a new translation and commentary of the Torah (yeah, he's as big a geek as I am). And he just came upon the following:

"But against the Israelites, no dog will snarl."(Exodus 11:7)

This is definitely news to our dogs, who look forward all week to positioning themselves at the window and giving the Israelites a vigorous barking. I guess they aren't snarling, they're just barking. And I'm confident this behavior doesn't imply any ill will towards the Jews,* because when we encounter them on the street during a walk, Nelly and Toby are just as polite as pie. In fact, once we were even invited into the home of some Orthodox neighbors, asked by these complete strangers to help with a Sabbath-related lightbulb crisis. (I'm told by a Jewish friend that this made me a Shabbas goy, one who helps observant Jews avoid the Sabbath work prohibition.) For weeks after that, the dogs wanted to charge up the steps of that house every time we passed it by, and visit our newfound Jewish friends again!

But nonetheless, from the distance of the window or the yard, these dogs definitely like to make some noise at the Israelites. Clearly, among the many sins we'll have to answer for come judgement day will be the unforgivable laxity of canine Biblical education in this house.

* (Ok, technically, Nelly dislikes the elderly Jewish gentlemen who lives two doors down. But as I've mentioned before, she was beaten with a stick by an older person before she came to live with us, so her wariness around the silver-haired is understandable, and definitely not a Jewish thing. And our neighbor is a Holocaust survivor, so I suspect he understands much about the lasting scars of cruel treatment, and bears Nelly no ill will for her rudeness.)