We have folklore and superstition and magic. The first book I ever wrote was on magic incantations written by Jewish magi.

You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. . . . Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.

MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.

There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.

Judaism is a civilization. It has history, culture, literature. It has jokes, ... Part of any civilization is its religious beliefs, and so part of Judaism is the religion of the Jew, but they are not the same thing. We're looking at the ways in which a person who is Jewish by birth, civilization, culture, context and family may look at things differently from the way a person who is Catholic and lives down the road may see them.

You don't have to be a fish to study underwater archeology or to swim. You don't have to be Jewish to be interested in Jewish literature.