Tonight’s sermon begins with a confession: I have a pierced ear. Actually, I only wore an earring in that hole for five months, fifteen years ago, but my ear lobes are so fat that the hole never fully closed. My earring days came to an abrupt end when I was told to remove it if I wished to serve on the staff of our U.A.H.C. Greene Family Camp. Loui Dobin, Director of the Camp then as now, felt that an earringwearing male would not project the appropriate image for the Camp. My, how times have changed. Not only boys with earrings, but multiple body piercings on young people of both sexes, have become quite commonplace. Some parents don’t like this phenomenon, but most have decided not to object too strenuously. If a young person is a good student, a careful driver, and one who avoids alcohol and illegal drugs, parents may well be wise to overlook a few unusual holes in a teenager’s body. After all, even if the hole doesn’t close, as mine hasn’t, it’s hardly noticeable once the jewelry is removed. And, by the way, Loui Dobin no longer asks his male staff to remove their earrings Attitudes have indeed changed with the times in our own day. You may be interested to know, though, that ear piercing is not exclusively a contemporary phenomenon. It was known even in Biblical and Talmudic times. In the Torah, a pierced ear is the sign of a slave who had earned freedom but chose to remain enslaved. The Talmud tells of various Jewish artisans who wore earrings to indicate the specific nature of their trades. The rabbis make no negative comment about those ancient examples of widespread piercing.

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