This is not the last official post. בלי נדר The last official post appears below this one. This is just some housekeeping to tie up some loose ends.
For the time being I am NOT following the lead of Not Brisk and I will be leaving the blog up. As Elul and the Days of Awe approach I may have a change of heart but for the time being feel free to browse the archives and comment. As the blog is inactive I can't say I'll be following any comments too regularly (there were few enough comments even when there was new material almost daily!) so if you do comment I'd appreciate it if you gave me a heads up via email.
My email address click.
If you enjoyed the masthead lines/ quotes click here to see them all in one spot.
If you are DovBear click here.
If you are דין ומוכיח click here.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Swan Song (B'lee Neder)
Nothing great. A mediocre ending for a lousy blog. I apologize that I couldn't come up with anything better but the deadline was looming. I wanted to khop arain one last post before the year was up. Sayonara!
There once lived a class of aristocrats who loved fine wine and despised beer. Everything about beer turned their stomachs- the aroma, the color, the carbonation the corkless bottles but most of all, the foamy collection at the tops of beer mugs that they derided as "beer heads."
The aristocrats indulged in wine at every opportunity and obsessed over it. Their highly sensitized palates discerned every subtle nuance of flavor and aroma and the unique properties of every vintage and harvest. They expertly paired wines with appropriate cheeses and foods and dinner wines with aperitifs. When they weren’t imbibing wine they were discussing it and arguing over its finer points. So great was their love of wine that, when heady and aromatic with the nectar of the vine they would often quip that they’d become walking talking wine bottles themselves!
Their fear and loathing of beer was closely matched by their dismissiveness of cheap wine. They hated the wine-beers for their beer-like qualities; the screw caps, the straightforward simplicity of the taste lacking any depth or complexity, the washed out watery hue of the wine and the uniform blandness of vintage after vintage.
There came a day when a group of these aristocrats chanced upon hundreds of the discarded T-Bird bottles after some ethnic-day parade. Not only did these empty bottles emit a ghastly stench of their former contents but a strong residue of weed, malt-liquor and tobacco clung to them as well. Their garish labels had been ripped in many places and they were stained with splashes of mud and revelers sweat. Yet rather than being revolted as usual they were strangely moved. These bottles had, after all, contained wine, not beer or soda.
Gathering up all the wine bottles from amidst the reeking piles of trash they lovingly washed them, reattached their labels, gerrymandered corks into their spouts once capped with screw tops, carried them in solemn procession down to the wine cellars and arranged them horizontally on the racks.
Observing this racking of the empty wine bottles the King, who was both a master vintner and brewer was puzzled. “If my aristocrats consider even the cheap wine to be wine why have they waited until the bottles were empty to love them for the wine bottles that they are?”
There once lived a class of aristocrats who loved fine wine and despised beer. Everything about beer turned their stomachs- the aroma, the color, the carbonation the corkless bottles but most of all, the foamy collection at the tops of beer mugs that they derided as "beer heads."
The aristocrats indulged in wine at every opportunity and obsessed over it. Their highly sensitized palates discerned every subtle nuance of flavor and aroma and the unique properties of every vintage and harvest. They expertly paired wines with appropriate cheeses and foods and dinner wines with aperitifs. When they weren’t imbibing wine they were discussing it and arguing over its finer points. So great was their love of wine that, when heady and aromatic with the nectar of the vine they would often quip that they’d become walking talking wine bottles themselves!
Their fear and loathing of beer was closely matched by their dismissiveness of cheap wine. They hated the wine-beers for their beer-like qualities; the screw caps, the straightforward simplicity of the taste lacking any depth or complexity, the washed out watery hue of the wine and the uniform blandness of vintage after vintage.
There came a day when a group of these aristocrats chanced upon hundreds of the discarded T-Bird bottles after some ethnic-day parade. Not only did these empty bottles emit a ghastly stench of their former contents but a strong residue of weed, malt-liquor and tobacco clung to them as well. Their garish labels had been ripped in many places and they were stained with splashes of mud and revelers sweat. Yet rather than being revolted as usual they were strangely moved. These bottles had, after all, contained wine, not beer or soda.
Gathering up all the wine bottles from amidst the reeking piles of trash they lovingly washed them, reattached their labels, gerrymandered corks into their spouts once capped with screw tops, carried them in solemn procession down to the wine cellars and arranged them horizontally on the racks.
Observing this racking of the empty wine bottles the King, who was both a master vintner and brewer was puzzled. “If my aristocrats consider even the cheap wine to be wine why have they waited until the bottles were empty to love them for the wine bottles that they are?”
והמבינים יבינו
Qedusha-Havdala. If you haven't gotten any here this past year you'll have to go elsewhere in the future.
Qedusha-Havdala. If you haven't gotten any here this past year you'll have to go elsewhere in the future.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Fisking the "Principles"
The original statement of principles can be found here.
1. All human beings are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect (kevod haberiyot).
IIRC whether or not non-Jews have retained their Tzelem Elokim since the election and separation of Israel is debated by great Jewish thinkers. Even if the inclusive "All human beings" was the unanimous opinion in Jewish Law and Lore it is the proverbial arbis in vant vis a vis the discussion at hand as there are gradations of how much dignity and respect people are entitled to. We do not respect youngsters as we would the elderly, ignorant as we would the scholarly, wicked as we would the righteous nor faithful as we would the heretical.
Every Jew is obligated to fulfill the entire range of mitzvot between person and person in relation to persons who are homosexual or have feelings of same sex attraction. Embarrassing, harassing or demeaning someone with a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism.
My only quibble here is with the word "harassing". Does attempting tokhakha constitute "harassment"? Would the good signatories be as sanguine about not "harassing" people who have a predilection to motzee shem ra, sleazy business ethics or pedophilia? Or are they only so soft on harassing those with same sex attraction because it is the cause de jour and the PC thing to do/write/say/declare?
2. The question of whether sexual orientation is primarily genetic, or rather environmentally generated, is irrelevant to our obligation to treat human beings with same-sex attractions and orientations with dignity and respect.
Why is it irrelevant? The more environmentally based it is the more, presumably, it is in the realm of bekheera khofshis and subject to Teshuva. Or should we not attempt to do Teshuva for our desire(s) to sin but only for the sinful behaviors themselves? The Rambam seems to disagree. (Hilkhos Teshuva 7:3)
3. Halakhah sees heterosexual marriage as the ideal model and sole legitimate outlet for human sexual expression. The sensitivity and understanding we properly express for human beings with other sexual orientations does not diminish our commitment to that principle.
OK. But it does seem to create a moral equivalency. How can a gay couple and a straight couple be deserving of equal dignity and respect if only the latter is "ideal" and exclusively "legitimate". Does no Havdala distinguish legitimacy from illegitimacy?
4. Halakhic Judaism views all male and female same-sex sexual interactions as prohibited. The question of whether sexual orientation is primarily genetic, or rather environmentally generated, is irrelevant to this prohibition. While halakha categorizes various homosexual acts with different degrees of severity and opprobrium, including toeivah, this does not in any way imply that lesser acts are permitted. But it is critical to emphasize that halakha only prohibits homosexual acts; it does not prohibit orientation
L'khai. But this presumes orientation to be genetic or, in any event, beyond the realm of bekheera. Should I take the signatories word for it? I'm from Missouri. Show me.
or feelings of same-sex attraction, and nothing in the Torah devalues the human beings who struggle with them.
Hmmm. Like saying that halakha only prohibits sibling incest acts; it does not prohibit orientation or feelings of brother sister sexual attraction. I suppose that would depend on how much the siblings allowed themselves to indulge in feeling those feelings and the intensity of those feelings. Why not apply the same standard to gays?
5. Whatever the origin or cause of homosexual orientation, many individuals believe that for most people this orientation cannot be changed. Others believe that for most people it is a matter of free will. Similarly, while some mental health professionals and rabbis in the community strongly believe in the efficacy of “change therapies”, most of the mental health community, many rabbis, and most people with a homosexual orientation feel that some of these therapies are either ineffective or potentially damaging psychologically for many patients.
We affirm the religious right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject
therapeutic approaches they reasonably see as useless or dangerous.
What can I say. This one takes braita plaitzes or as the Italians say kullions. WADR to the august signatories can anyone short of a Rav Moshe z"l or zuhl zian vait upgesheit a Rav Eliyashiv shlit"a really affirm this "right" with any credibility and traction? Is anyone willing to simultaneously deny the "rights" of the parents, friends siblings and/ or Rebbeim of the ones afflicted (sorry, insensitive word choice lacking the adequate respect and dignity) with homosexual orientation from incessantly urging them to pursue/ subject themselves to therapeutic approaches as they see leaving matters as is as useless, self-destructive or dangerous? Furthermore if homosexual longings are themselves sinful, can the "reason" of those with a homosexual orientation who see therapeutic approaches as useless or dangerous really be respected or taken seriously? Perhaps their rejection of therapeutic approaches is not grounded in their reason at all but in ריש לקיש אמר) אין אדם עובר עבירה אא"כ נכנס בו רוח שטות ?
6. Jews with a homosexual orientation who live in the Orthodox community confront serious emotional, communal and psychological challenges that cause them and their families great pain and suffering. For example, homosexual orientation may greatly increase the risk of suicide among teenagers in our community. Rabbis and communities need to be sensitive and empathetic to that reality. Rabbis and mental health professionals must provide responsible and ethical assistance to congregants and clients dealing with those human challenges.
I'm going to ask a very cruel but by no means frivolous question. If a persons b'kheera is limited to choosing the lesser of two evils are these signatory poskim prepared to paskin that suicide, rather than acting out on a male gay orientation, is the greater of the two evils? Especially since suicide is a sin involving one whereas homosexual intercourse is a sin involving two. While I grasp the finality of, and the inability to do Teshuva for, suicide doesn't Jewish tradition venerate Rabee Elazar ben Durdai who , essentially, committed suicide rather than fall prey to heterosexual indiscretions? Don't we chant elegies on Tisha B'Av to Crusade era martyrs who slew their own children and then themselves rather than fall prey to idolatry? Some fates/ sins are worse than death.
7. Jews struggling to live their lives in accordance with halakhic values need and deserve our support. Accordingly, we believe that the decision as to whether to be open about one's sexual orientation should be left to such individuals, who should consider their own needs and those of the community. We are opposed on ethical and moral grounds to both the “outing” of individuals who want to remain private and to coercing those who desire to be open about their orientation to keep it hidden.
Would you be similarly opposed to urging (coercing is too strong a word) those who desire to be open about their lusting after married women or prohibited relatives or for that matter, who desire to cheat and steal, to keep these desires hidden? Is there no element of khilul HaShem in publicly flaunting an anti-Torah desire? Is there no tradition of keeping ones spiritual struggles , both the defeats and the victories, hidden from the public eye? in short, is there no element of Tznius that ought to inform our Avodas haShem, especially in the sexual sphere?
8. Accordingly, Jews with homosexual orientations or same sex-attractions should be welcomed as full members of the synagogue and school community. As appropriate with regard to gender and lineage, they should participate and count ritually, be eligible for ritual synagogue honors, and generally be treated in the same fashion and under the same halakhic and hashkafic framework as any other member of the synagogue they join. Conversely, they must accept and fulfill all the responsibilities of such membership, including those generated by communal norms or broad Jewish principles that go beyond formal halakhah.
well this depends on amswers to the questions I articulated in principle # 7.
We do not here address what synagogues should do about accepting members
who are openly practicing homosexuals and/or living with a same-sex partner.
Each synagogue together with its rabbi must establish its own standard with
regard to membership for open violators of halakha.
Those standards should be applied fairly and objectively.
Why the equivocation? Why not address the issue? It seems pretty clear cut. Open violators of halakha that have neither the excuse of mental incapacity nor of Tinok Shenishba need to be censured and /or ostracized until and unless they do Teshuva. Here's the rub. If gay tendencies are indeed a genetic predisposition and beyond bekheera how can a Torah Jew view such orientation as anything other than a mental disorder? Now I must accord ill people dignity and respect as they are still b'tzelem Elokim, but I cannot ignore the evidence that they are ill. So what is a practicing gay more akin to; a willful gonif or a , nebikh sick-in-the-head kleptomaniac?
I have no quibbles with principles 9 and 10.
11. Halakhic Judaism cannot give its blessing and imprimatur to Jewish religious
same-sex commitment ceremonies and weddings, and halakhic values proscribe individuals and communities from encouraging practices that grant religious legitimacy to gay marriage and couplehood. But communities should display sensitivity, acceptance and full embrace of the adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews in the synagogue and school setting, and we encourage parents and family of homosexually partnered Jews to make every effort to maintain harmonious family relations and connections.
WHAAT??? If we fully accept the family arrangements of the parents of adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews in the synagogue and school setting, and create a moral equivalency between the straight and gay family units what chance do these kids have of not growing up with warped values and Havdala obliviousness? How can communities possibly avoid granting religious legitimacy to gay marriage and couplehood while simultaneously fully embracing the adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews? To me this is not just ethically confusing and spiritually reprehensible but technically impossible. White signatories speak'm with forked tongue. Here, these august rabbis have been גוזר גזירה על הצבור שאין רובם יכולין לעמוד בה
I have no quibble with 12.
We hope and pray that by sharing these thoughts we will help the Orthodox
community to fully live out its commitment to the principles and values of
Torah and Halakha as practiced and cherished by the children of Abraham, who
our sages teach us are recognized by the qualities of being rahamanim
(merciful), bayshanim (modest), and gomelei hasadim
engaging in acts of loving-kindness).
Not nice to fisk a prayer but in this declaration of Principles I discern an aggrandizing of rahamanim at the expense of bayshanim .
1. All human beings are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect (kevod haberiyot).
IIRC whether or not non-Jews have retained their Tzelem Elokim since the election and separation of Israel is debated by great Jewish thinkers. Even if the inclusive "All human beings" was the unanimous opinion in Jewish Law and Lore it is the proverbial arbis in vant vis a vis the discussion at hand as there are gradations of how much dignity and respect people are entitled to. We do not respect youngsters as we would the elderly, ignorant as we would the scholarly, wicked as we would the righteous nor faithful as we would the heretical.
Every Jew is obligated to fulfill the entire range of mitzvot between person and person in relation to persons who are homosexual or have feelings of same sex attraction. Embarrassing, harassing or demeaning someone with a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism.
My only quibble here is with the word "harassing". Does attempting tokhakha constitute "harassment"? Would the good signatories be as sanguine about not "harassing" people who have a predilection to motzee shem ra, sleazy business ethics or pedophilia? Or are they only so soft on harassing those with same sex attraction because it is the cause de jour and the PC thing to do/write/say/declare?
2. The question of whether sexual orientation is primarily genetic, or rather environmentally generated, is irrelevant to our obligation to treat human beings with same-sex attractions and orientations with dignity and respect.
Why is it irrelevant? The more environmentally based it is the more, presumably, it is in the realm of bekheera khofshis and subject to Teshuva. Or should we not attempt to do Teshuva for our desire(s) to sin but only for the sinful behaviors themselves? The Rambam seems to disagree. (Hilkhos Teshuva 7:3)
ג ואל תאמר שאין התשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה, כגון זנות וגזל וגניבה. כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו--כך הוא צריך לחפש בדעות רעות שיש לו, ולשוב מהן: מן הכעס, ומן האיבה, ומן הקנאה, ומן התחרות, ומן ההתל, ומרדיפת הממון והכבוד, ומרדיפת המאכלות, וכיוצא בהן--מן הכול צריך לחזור בתשובה. ואלו העוונות, קשים מאותן שיש בהן מעשה, שבזמן שאדם נשקע באלו, קשה הוא לפרוש. וכן הוא אומר "יעזוב רשע דרכו, ואיש אוון מחשבותיו" (ישעיהו נה,ז).
3. Halakhah sees heterosexual marriage as the ideal model and sole legitimate outlet for human sexual expression. The sensitivity and understanding we properly express for human beings with other sexual orientations does not diminish our commitment to that principle.
OK. But it does seem to create a moral equivalency. How can a gay couple and a straight couple be deserving of equal dignity and respect if only the latter is "ideal" and exclusively "legitimate". Does no Havdala distinguish legitimacy from illegitimacy?
4. Halakhic Judaism views all male and female same-sex sexual interactions as prohibited. The question of whether sexual orientation is primarily genetic, or rather environmentally generated, is irrelevant to this prohibition. While halakha categorizes various homosexual acts with different degrees of severity and opprobrium, including toeivah, this does not in any way imply that lesser acts are permitted. But it is critical to emphasize that halakha only prohibits homosexual acts; it does not prohibit orientation
L'khai. But this presumes orientation to be genetic or, in any event, beyond the realm of bekheera. Should I take the signatories word for it? I'm from Missouri. Show me.
or feelings of same-sex attraction, and nothing in the Torah devalues the human beings who struggle with them.
Hmmm. Like saying that halakha only prohibits sibling incest acts; it does not prohibit orientation or feelings of brother sister sexual attraction. I suppose that would depend on how much the siblings allowed themselves to indulge in feeling those feelings and the intensity of those feelings. Why not apply the same standard to gays?
5. Whatever the origin or cause of homosexual orientation, many individuals believe that for most people this orientation cannot be changed. Others believe that for most people it is a matter of free will. Similarly, while some mental health professionals and rabbis in the community strongly believe in the efficacy of “change therapies”, most of the mental health community, many rabbis, and most people with a homosexual orientation feel that some of these therapies are either ineffective or potentially damaging psychologically for many patients.
We affirm the religious right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject
therapeutic approaches they reasonably see as useless or dangerous.
What can I say. This one takes braita plaitzes or as the Italians say kullions. WADR to the august signatories can anyone short of a Rav Moshe z"l or zuhl zian vait upgesheit a Rav Eliyashiv shlit"a really affirm this "right" with any credibility and traction? Is anyone willing to simultaneously deny the "rights" of the parents, friends siblings and/ or Rebbeim of the ones afflicted (sorry, insensitive word choice lacking the adequate respect and dignity) with homosexual orientation from incessantly urging them to pursue/ subject themselves to therapeutic approaches as they see leaving matters as is as useless, self-destructive or dangerous? Furthermore if homosexual longings are themselves sinful, can the "reason" of those with a homosexual orientation who see therapeutic approaches as useless or dangerous really be respected or taken seriously? Perhaps their rejection of therapeutic approaches is not grounded in their reason at all but in ריש לקיש אמר) אין אדם עובר עבירה אא"כ נכנס בו רוח שטות ?
6. Jews with a homosexual orientation who live in the Orthodox community confront serious emotional, communal and psychological challenges that cause them and their families great pain and suffering. For example, homosexual orientation may greatly increase the risk of suicide among teenagers in our community. Rabbis and communities need to be sensitive and empathetic to that reality. Rabbis and mental health professionals must provide responsible and ethical assistance to congregants and clients dealing with those human challenges.
I'm going to ask a very cruel but by no means frivolous question. If a persons b'kheera is limited to choosing the lesser of two evils are these signatory poskim prepared to paskin that suicide, rather than acting out on a male gay orientation, is the greater of the two evils? Especially since suicide is a sin involving one whereas homosexual intercourse is a sin involving two. While I grasp the finality of, and the inability to do Teshuva for, suicide doesn't Jewish tradition venerate Rabee Elazar ben Durdai who , essentially, committed suicide rather than fall prey to heterosexual indiscretions? Don't we chant elegies on Tisha B'Av to Crusade era martyrs who slew their own children and then themselves rather than fall prey to idolatry? Some fates/ sins are worse than death.
7. Jews struggling to live their lives in accordance with halakhic values need and deserve our support. Accordingly, we believe that the decision as to whether to be open about one's sexual orientation should be left to such individuals, who should consider their own needs and those of the community. We are opposed on ethical and moral grounds to both the “outing” of individuals who want to remain private and to coercing those who desire to be open about their orientation to keep it hidden.
Would you be similarly opposed to urging (coercing is too strong a word) those who desire to be open about their lusting after married women or prohibited relatives or for that matter, who desire to cheat and steal, to keep these desires hidden? Is there no element of khilul HaShem in publicly flaunting an anti-Torah desire? Is there no tradition of keeping ones spiritual struggles , both the defeats and the victories, hidden from the public eye? in short, is there no element of Tznius that ought to inform our Avodas haShem, especially in the sexual sphere?
8. Accordingly, Jews with homosexual orientations or same sex-attractions should be welcomed as full members of the synagogue and school community. As appropriate with regard to gender and lineage, they should participate and count ritually, be eligible for ritual synagogue honors, and generally be treated in the same fashion and under the same halakhic and hashkafic framework as any other member of the synagogue they join. Conversely, they must accept and fulfill all the responsibilities of such membership, including those generated by communal norms or broad Jewish principles that go beyond formal halakhah.
well this depends on amswers to the questions I articulated in principle # 7.
We do not here address what synagogues should do about accepting members
who are openly practicing homosexuals and/or living with a same-sex partner.
Each synagogue together with its rabbi must establish its own standard with
regard to membership for open violators of halakha.
Those standards should be applied fairly and objectively.
Why the equivocation? Why not address the issue? It seems pretty clear cut. Open violators of halakha that have neither the excuse of mental incapacity nor of Tinok Shenishba need to be censured and /or ostracized until and unless they do Teshuva. Here's the rub. If gay tendencies are indeed a genetic predisposition and beyond bekheera how can a Torah Jew view such orientation as anything other than a mental disorder? Now I must accord ill people dignity and respect as they are still b'tzelem Elokim, but I cannot ignore the evidence that they are ill. So what is a practicing gay more akin to; a willful gonif or a , nebikh sick-in-the-head kleptomaniac?
I have no quibbles with principles 9 and 10.
11. Halakhic Judaism cannot give its blessing and imprimatur to Jewish religious
same-sex commitment ceremonies and weddings, and halakhic values proscribe individuals and communities from encouraging practices that grant religious legitimacy to gay marriage and couplehood. But communities should display sensitivity, acceptance and full embrace of the adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews in the synagogue and school setting, and we encourage parents and family of homosexually partnered Jews to make every effort to maintain harmonious family relations and connections.
WHAAT??? If we fully accept the family arrangements of the parents of adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews in the synagogue and school setting, and create a moral equivalency between the straight and gay family units what chance do these kids have of not growing up with warped values and Havdala obliviousness? How can communities possibly avoid granting religious legitimacy to gay marriage and couplehood while simultaneously fully embracing the adopted or biological children of homosexually active Jews? To me this is not just ethically confusing and spiritually reprehensible but technically impossible. White signatories speak'm with forked tongue. Here, these august rabbis have been גוזר גזירה על הצבור שאין רובם יכולין לעמוד בה
I have no quibble with 12.
We hope and pray that by sharing these thoughts we will help the Orthodox
community to fully live out its commitment to the principles and values of
Torah and Halakha as practiced and cherished by the children of Abraham, who
our sages teach us are recognized by the qualities of being rahamanim
(merciful), bayshanim (modest), and gomelei hasadim
engaging in acts of loving-kindness).
Not nice to fisk a prayer but in this declaration of Principles I discern an aggrandizing of rahamanim at the expense of bayshanim .
A Bittersweet Anniversary
I am rapidly closing in on my one year anniversary. Who knew? Time really flies when you're engaged in a yearlong exercise in self-flagellation.In any event it's time for taking stock. In terms of gaining popularity and a voice in the J-Blogosphere (a dubious accomplishment even had it been accomplished) the verdict on HaMavdil is that it has been both an unmitigated disaster and an abysmal failure. I highly doubt that anyone's Havdala Consciousness has been raised even by a millimeter while, OTOH, the very term has become somewhat of a joke and object of derision due in no small part to my literary exertions. If I imagined that I was tapping a vein of outrage in the J-Blogosphere at the incessant attacks on Havdala/Qedusha appearing on the Blog that Banned Me I was either sorely mistaken about the existence of this precious mettle or I lack the mining skills to bring forth the gold.
As far as being a hobby and a creative outlet; when I post frequently it bears a greater resemblance to an unhealthy addiction and the self-imposed deadlines make the writing sloppy and unclear. Alternatively, when realizing that there ARE no deadlines I usually succumb to negativity and writers block and don't produce anything readable for weeks on end. Posting sporadically is no way to build a blog. It is also often among the symptoms of a dying blog.
While gaining me two or three regular readers this blog has garnered me at least two virulent enemies (or, if they despised me before the advent of my independent blog, it certainly brought them out of the woodwork) who bear the unfair and unnerving advantage of knowing who I am without me knowing who they are. These are the two that I know of as they deigned to post comments. For all I know they are but the tip of an iceberg of cold but seething hatred.
I am disappointed in the mediocre quality of my writing, in the many posts that went un-commented on, and in the many posts I was convinced would evince long and controversial discussions reflecting many POVs that elicited fewer than 10 comments of which I usually supplied 6 or more. I am also disappointed that the year of blogging will close with fewer than 365 posts in spite of the many fillers and placeholders that I cheated with.
Most frustrating of all are those who did read nearly every day but have never even posted a simple two word "Nice post" or "asinine blather" comment for me to gain some feedback with.
So as my one year anniversary looms I think it may be time to follow the lead of the Bloggish Aluf Ne'oorai (Not Brisk) and close up shop. Though it is impossible to retrieve the flying feathers it certainly will prevent any new ones from taking wing. There is a nice symmetry to ending the blog on it's first birthday. A kind of מיתת צדיקים infanticide-Libricide.
OTOH maybe I'll just do lunch with Rabbi Fink again and recharge my batteries for another year. ;-)
Qedusha-Havdala...have you had YOURS today??? Hmmm???
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Masthead Lines
That never got the attention for wit and world-weariness that they deserved. Then again nothing on the blog ever did.
AKA The Bray of Fundie.........consigned by DovBear to this "Red Tent" isolation blog reserved for flatulent, hunchbacked lepers suffering from halitosis
till 8.?.09
A nice quiet place to relax...a place with few or no visitors, A bloggish Moqom Hisbodedus for the virtual Breslovers among you
Till 8.19.09
אַל-תִּפְנוּ, אֶל-הָאֱלִילִם-קער זיך נישט צו די וואס ווערען פרום אלול-דער קאצקער זי"ע
"Turn not to those who grow pious in the month of Elul" The Kotzker Rebbe
Till 8.26.09
The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensible people- Charles de Gaulle
Till 9.9.09
Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
-Honore de Balzac................................Behind every popular, well-traficked Mega Blog there is a litany of crimes.
-The Bray of Fundie
Till 9.24
אז מען גייט אויף א גלייכען וועג טרעפט מען מענשען= When traveling the straight road one find's company -Old Yiddish Aphorism הינטיגע צייט'ן אז מען גייט אויף א קרומע וועג טרעפט מען מענשען = Nowadays, when traveling crooked and perverse paths one finds plenty of company -New Yiddish maxim coined by the Bray of Fundie
Till 10.13.2009
(Latin) academically jactantia run ut a concisus Latin dictum ut suum permaneo templum
until 10.21
כל מה שיאמר לך בעל-
הבלוג עשה...חוץ מצא
Heed every order the BlogMeister doth impart, unless'n he asketh you to depart -The Bray of Fundie till 10.27.2009
Until 11.3
The triumph of gold over glitter, of steak over sizzle, of substance over style. That is of course, until I learn to format the !@#$%^&* thing so that it looks better than a third place entry in a Middle-School Science Fair -The Bray of Fundie
Until 12.9.2009
Home of the Flaming-Diaper Dialogue©®™ (hat-tip Garnel IronHeart via Izgad)
Until 12.22.09
Be aromatic as the Rose, colorful as the Tulip, ubiquitous as the Weed, shady as the Elm, sweet as the Maple, sturdy as the Oak, productive as the Date-Palm, supple as the Reed, ravenous as the Venus-Fly-Trap to do the will of thy Father in heaven! -The Bray of Fundie
Be aromatic as the Rose, colorful as the Tulip, ubiquitous as the Weed, shady as the Elm, sweet as the Maple, sturdy as the Oak, productive as the Date-Palm, supple as the Reed, ravenous as the Venus-Fly-Trap to do the will of thy Father in heaven! -The Bray of Fundie
Until 4.14.10
Because MINE is an important voice...that deserves to go unheard.
Until 5.11.10
The limbs ceased to quiver gently, the tongue became loosened in its socket, and the backbone stiffened. - P. G. Wodehouse
Until 7.27.10
I can endure evrything but discomfort -The Bray of Fundie (with apologies to Oscar Wilde)
until 3.28.11
The only mark he ever left on this world was an oversized carbon footprint
-my tentative matzevah inscription
Till ????
The hand is faster than the eye but only the nose runs -William Saroyan
Till 12.8.11
My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed -CSA General Thomas E. "Stonewall" Jackson
till 1.6.12
We have enough historians. We need some pioneers.
-Ron Jaworski
until 3.20 .12
until 6.6.12
If a Jew doesn't make Kiddush then the non-Jew will make Havdalah for him
-Rav Chaim of Volozhin
until 3.5.13
AKA The Bray of Fundie.........consigned by DovBear to this "Red Tent" isolation blog reserved for flatulent, hunchbacked lepers suffering from halitosis
till 8.?.09
A nice quiet place to relax...a place with few or no visitors, A bloggish Moqom Hisbodedus for the virtual Breslovers among you
Till 8.19.09
אַל-תִּפְנוּ, אֶל-הָאֱלִילִם-קער זיך נישט צו די וואס ווערען פרום אלול-דער קאצקער זי"ע
"Turn not to those who grow pious in the month of Elul" The Kotzker Rebbe
Till 8.26.09
The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensible people- Charles de Gaulle
Till 9.9.09
Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
-Honore de Balzac................................Behind every popular, well-traficked Mega Blog there is a litany of crimes.
-The Bray of Fundie
Till 9.24
אז מען גייט אויף א גלייכען וועג טרעפט מען מענשען= When traveling the straight road one find's company -Old Yiddish Aphorism הינטיגע צייט'ן אז מען גייט אויף א קרומע וועג טרעפט מען מענשען = Nowadays, when traveling crooked and perverse paths one finds plenty of company -New Yiddish maxim coined by the Bray of Fundie
Till 10.13.2009
(Latin) academically jactantia run ut a concisus Latin dictum ut suum permaneo templum
until 10.21
כל מה שיאמר לך בעל-
הבלוג עשה...חוץ מצא
Heed every order the BlogMeister doth impart, unless'n he asketh you to depart -The Bray of Fundie till 10.27.2009
Until 11.3
The triumph of gold over glitter, of steak over sizzle, of substance over style. That is of course, until I learn to format the !@#$%^&* thing so that it looks better than a third place entry in a Middle-School Science Fair -The Bray of Fundie
Until 12.9.2009
Home of the Flaming-Diaper Dialogue©®™ (hat-tip Garnel IronHeart via Izgad)
Until 12.22.09
Be aromatic as the Rose, colorful as the Tulip, ubiquitous as the Weed, shady as the Elm, sweet as the Maple, sturdy as the Oak, productive as the Date-Palm, supple as the Reed, ravenous as the Venus-Fly-Trap to do the will of thy Father in heaven! -The Bray of Fundie
Be aromatic as the Rose, colorful as the Tulip, ubiquitous as the Weed, shady as the Elm, sweet as the Maple, sturdy as the Oak, productive as the Date-Palm, supple as the Reed, ravenous as the Venus-Fly-Trap to do the will of thy Father in heaven! -The Bray of Fundie
Until 4.14.10
Because MINE is an important voice...that deserves to go unheard.
Until 5.11.10
The limbs ceased to quiver gently, the tongue became loosened in its socket, and the backbone stiffened. - P. G. Wodehouse
Until 7.27.10
I can endure evrything but discomfort -The Bray of Fundie (with apologies to Oscar Wilde)
until 3.28.11
The only mark he ever left on this world was an oversized carbon footprint
-my tentative matzevah inscription
Till ????
The hand is faster than the eye but only the nose runs -William Saroyan
Till 12.8.11
My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed -CSA General Thomas E. "Stonewall" Jackson
till 1.6.12
We have enough historians. We need some pioneers.
-Ron Jaworski
until 3.20 .12
I don't just read the read...I screed the
screed.
The Bray of Fundie
until 6.6.12
If a Jew doesn't make Kiddush then the non-Jew will make Havdalah for him
-Rav Chaim of Volozhin
until 3.5.13
Monday, July 19, 2010
שנאת חנם quiz
How many of the following Jews/ types of Jews do you despise, disdain have irrational gripes against and/or hold in contempt?
Khasidim
Misnagdim
Musar-niks
Polishers
Hungarians
Galitzianers
Farsees
Halabim
Ashkenazim
Sefardim
Morrocons
Yemenites
Ethiopians
Gerim
Y. U. types
Lakewooders
Briskers
Yeshivisha
Ba'alibatisha
Eretz Yisroel-dika
Amerikahner
Englanders
South Africans
Russians
Bukharians
Lubavitchers
Meshichists
Elokists
Zionists
Religious Zionists
Post-Zionists
Chardals
Carlebach-ists
Na-Na-Nachman-ists
Chabakuks
Freakim
Schickniks
Breslovers
White Slonimers
Black Slonimers
Bobov 48thers
Bobov45thers
Zalmonee-Satmars
Ahroni-Satmars
Neturei Karta-niks
Eideh haCharedis-niks
Agudists
Mafdal-niks
BTs
FFBs
In-Towners
Out-of-Towners
People who live in Williamsburg
People who live in Teaneck
People who live in the Five Towns
People who live in Emmanuel
People who live in the West Bank
People who live in Flatbush
People who live in Monsey
People who live in Boro Park
People who live in Hancock Park
People who live in West Rogers Park
People who live in Park Heights
People who live in Crown Heights
People who live in Washington Heights
People who live in Wuthering Heights
People who live in North Miami Beach
People who live in Har Nof
People who live in Ramat Bet Shemesh
People who live in Ra'ananah
Your Mother-in-Law
Your son(s)-in-Law
Your father-in-law
Your Daughter(s)-in-law
Your Makhatonim
Your siblings
The older generation
The younger generation
Your Boss
Your Manager
Your employee(s)
Your landlord
Your tenant(s)
Your neighbor(s)
Your Rabbi
J-Bloggers
anti-J-Blogging Crusaders
DovBear
Chaim Grossferstant-The Bray of Fundie
Dayon U'Mokhiakh
The guy in the second seat in the third row
While this list is by no means exhaustive it has been exhausting and, in any event, you get the picture. No need to answer in the comments. Just a handy-dandy checklist for introspection and, if necessary, Teshuva.
Khasidim
Misnagdim
Musar-niks
Polishers
Hungarians
Galitzianers
Farsees
Halabim
Ashkenazim
Sefardim
Morrocons
Yemenites
Ethiopians
Gerim
Y. U. types
Lakewooders
Briskers
Yeshivisha
Ba'alibatisha
Eretz Yisroel-dika
Amerikahner
Englanders
South Africans
Russians
Bukharians
Lubavitchers
Meshichists
Elokists
Zionists
Religious Zionists
Post-Zionists
Chardals
Carlebach-ists
Na-Na-Nachman-ists
Chabakuks
Freakim
Schickniks
Breslovers
White Slonimers
Black Slonimers
Bobov 48thers
Bobov45thers
Zalmonee-Satmars
Ahroni-Satmars
Neturei Karta-niks
Eideh haCharedis-niks
Agudists
Mafdal-niks
BTs
FFBs
In-Towners
Out-of-Towners
People who live in Williamsburg
People who live in Teaneck
People who live in the Five Towns
People who live in Emmanuel
People who live in the West Bank
People who live in Flatbush
People who live in Monsey
People who live in Boro Park
People who live in Hancock Park
People who live in West Rogers Park
People who live in Park Heights
People who live in Crown Heights
People who live in Washington Heights
People who live in Wuthering Heights
People who live in North Miami Beach
People who live in Har Nof
People who live in Ramat Bet Shemesh
People who live in Ra'ananah
Your Mother-in-Law
Your son(s)-in-Law
Your father-in-law
Your Daughter(s)-in-law
Your Makhatonim
Your siblings
The older generation
The younger generation
Your Boss
Your Manager
Your employee(s)
Your landlord
Your tenant(s)
Your neighbor(s)
Your Rabbi
J-Bloggers
anti-J-Blogging Crusaders
DovBear
Chaim Grossferstant-The Bray of Fundie
Dayon U'Mokhiakh
The guy in the second seat in the third row
While this list is by no means exhaustive it has been exhausting and, in any event, you get the picture. No need to answer in the comments. Just a handy-dandy checklist for introspection and, if necessary, Teshuva.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Hiding in Plain Sight
On Wednesday I pointed out the seeming interminablilty of the Yiddish Golus. While the Golus most definitely will ultimately end this end, the ketz, is shrouded in mystery and as concealed as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma and it is this impregnable concealment that lends our current exile an air of endlessness.
The oddest thing about it is that the answer to this riddle, while revealed and in plain sight, remains invisible.
I came across this idea from the יערות דבש in a secondary work:
How can Khazal say that ראשונים שנתגלה עונם נתגלה קצם אחרונים שלא נתגלה עונם לא נתגלה קצם = "the sins of the first exiles were revealed and so their 'end' (i.e. the term of their exile) was revealed as well, while the second exiles sin was not revealed hence their 'end' wasn't either" when, in fact, the sin of baseless hatred that precipitated the second exile is well known and revealed to us by Khazal numerous times?
Answer: When people repeat a sin the sense of taboo disappears and it begins to feel like a permissible activity. Since even after the destruction of the second Temple, Jews continued to hate, and so do we to this very day, Khazal and contemporary rabbis can continue to tell us that we are guilty of baseless hatred until they are blue in the face...we can't recognize it for the sin that it is. It is known and unknown simultaneously. It is hiding in plain sight. Being habitual baseless haters while we may be cognizant of the antipathy that we bear towards other Jews we cannot recognize the hatred as being baseless and/or fail to see that we are not "allowed" to bear such hatred in our hearts i.e. we are incapable of recognizing it for the sin that it is.
I'd go a drop further than The Rebbe Reb Yonoson. The Baalei Mussar used to say that whereas כיון שעבר אדם עבירה ושנה בה הותרה לו הותרה לו סלקא דעתך אלא אימא נעשית לו כהיתר = "When a person transgresses and then repeats a sin it begins to feel like a permissible activity" that when one transgresses it for the third time it becomes a Mitzvah in his/ her eyes.
We have so many holy hatreds, so many putative מחלוקות לשם שמים= arguments/ schisms "for the sake of heaven" that it becomes even harder for us to recognize the 800 pound sinas khinam gorilla in the room for what it is. A prohibited hatred masquerading as a permissible one is wearing a fake mustache. But a prohibited hatred masquerading as a mandated mitzvah-akin-to Amalek one is wearing a burqa and has undergone major reconstructive surgery to hide it's true identity.
None of us are privy to enough historical secrets to know for sure whether the Nazis were the cruelest of all perpetrators of Jewish genocide. (If accounts of Gezeros Takh V"Tat are to be believed the Cossacks ripped open the abdomens of pregnant women, inserted live cats and sewed the abdomens up again.) But the Nazis infamy inheres in both the sheer numbers of Jews that they destroyed and in their systematizing of Jew-hatred, in making a pseudo-scientific documented and widespread ideology out of it. During the Third Reich the war against the Jews became the Statewide secular religion of Germany and the German Volk.
And while, once again, I am not privy enough to historical secrets lost in the mists of time to know for sure, I often wonder if there has ever been another time in Jewish history when the sheer numbers of Jews hating one another individually and groups of Jews hating large swaths of the nation for systematized, ideological reasons ever exceeded that of our own era. Every hater believes that they have (take your pick) the Torah, Tikun Olam, diqduq b'mitzvos, koakh d'hetera, Realpolitik, Love of The Land, submission to the Golus, ethics, the Jewish Prophetic tradition of social justice, progressiveness, exclusivity, inclusion, egalitarianism, elitism, hastening the coming of Moshiakh, rooting out False messiahs, morality...in short, G-d, on their side.
One Tisha B'Av decades ago I heard a kligeh Yid say that a good litmus test for sinas khinom is this " It's not that the fellow/group ever actually wronged me in any way but their whole shitteh, approach, outlook is just something that I can't stand!"
If not seeing any end to Golus in sight were not frustrating and tragic enough the fact that the answer is right there to see, yet stubbornly remains invisible, is more tragic still.
Qedusha-Havdala...have you had YOURS today??? Hmmm???
The oddest thing about it is that the answer to this riddle, while revealed and in plain sight, remains invisible.
I came across this idea from the יערות דבש in a secondary work:
How can Khazal say that ראשונים שנתגלה עונם נתגלה קצם אחרונים שלא נתגלה עונם לא נתגלה קצם = "the sins of the first exiles were revealed and so their 'end' (i.e. the term of their exile) was revealed as well, while the second exiles sin was not revealed hence their 'end' wasn't either" when, in fact, the sin of baseless hatred that precipitated the second exile is well known and revealed to us by Khazal numerous times?
Answer: When people repeat a sin the sense of taboo disappears and it begins to feel like a permissible activity. Since even after the destruction of the second Temple, Jews continued to hate, and so do we to this very day, Khazal and contemporary rabbis can continue to tell us that we are guilty of baseless hatred until they are blue in the face...we can't recognize it for the sin that it is. It is known and unknown simultaneously. It is hiding in plain sight. Being habitual baseless haters while we may be cognizant of the antipathy that we bear towards other Jews we cannot recognize the hatred as being baseless and/or fail to see that we are not "allowed" to bear such hatred in our hearts i.e. we are incapable of recognizing it for the sin that it is.
I'd go a drop further than The Rebbe Reb Yonoson. The Baalei Mussar used to say that whereas כיון שעבר אדם עבירה ושנה בה הותרה לו הותרה לו סלקא דעתך אלא אימא נעשית לו כהיתר = "When a person transgresses and then repeats a sin it begins to feel like a permissible activity" that when one transgresses it for the third time it becomes a Mitzvah in his/ her eyes.
We have so many holy hatreds, so many putative מחלוקות לשם שמים= arguments/ schisms "for the sake of heaven" that it becomes even harder for us to recognize the 800 pound sinas khinam gorilla in the room for what it is. A prohibited hatred masquerading as a permissible one is wearing a fake mustache. But a prohibited hatred masquerading as a mandated mitzvah-akin-to Amalek one is wearing a burqa and has undergone major reconstructive surgery to hide it's true identity.
None of us are privy to enough historical secrets to know for sure whether the Nazis were the cruelest of all perpetrators of Jewish genocide. (If accounts of Gezeros Takh V"Tat are to be believed the Cossacks ripped open the abdomens of pregnant women, inserted live cats and sewed the abdomens up again.) But the Nazis infamy inheres in both the sheer numbers of Jews that they destroyed and in their systematizing of Jew-hatred, in making a pseudo-scientific documented and widespread ideology out of it. During the Third Reich the war against the Jews became the Statewide secular religion of Germany and the German Volk.
And while, once again, I am not privy enough to historical secrets lost in the mists of time to know for sure, I often wonder if there has ever been another time in Jewish history when the sheer numbers of Jews hating one another individually and groups of Jews hating large swaths of the nation for systematized, ideological reasons ever exceeded that of our own era. Every hater believes that they have (take your pick) the Torah, Tikun Olam, diqduq b'mitzvos, koakh d'hetera, Realpolitik, Love of The Land, submission to the Golus, ethics, the Jewish Prophetic tradition of social justice, progressiveness, exclusivity, inclusion, egalitarianism, elitism, hastening the coming of Moshiakh, rooting out False messiahs, morality...in short, G-d, on their side.
One Tisha B'Av decades ago I heard a kligeh Yid say that a good litmus test for sinas khinom is this " It's not that the fellow/group ever actually wronged me in any way but their whole shitteh, approach, outlook is just something that I can't stand!"
If not seeing any end to Golus in sight were not frustrating and tragic enough the fact that the answer is right there to see, yet stubbornly remains invisible, is more tragic still.
Qedusha-Havdala...have you had YOURS today??? Hmmm???
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
What's Almost Like G-d?
The Yiddisha Golus. G-d is without beginning and without end whereas our current exile has a beginning point but is without end.
Well not exactly. That would be Qefira. We await the arrival of Moshiakh and the end of Golus every day. But it has been so long since it began that it feels and seems endless. So many false Messianic hopes dashed...the insoluble mystery of the "ketz"...More later...
Well not exactly. That would be Qefira. We await the arrival of Moshiakh and the end of Golus every day. But it has been so long since it began that it feels and seems endless. So many false Messianic hopes dashed...the insoluble mystery of the "ketz"...More later...
Monday, July 12, 2010
Some Champion of Free Speech
I guess that when the bad midah of anger collides with the bad midah of depression the former trumps the latter. All three of the loyal readers here who were paying attention last week may recall that I was too down for creative writing.What moves me to post today is not a rediscovered Joie de vivre but that I'm as mad as H**l over the shabby treatment I received today (for the umpteenth time) when commenting over on the Blog that banned me.
DovBears Blog is a wild free for all. Over the years comments of outright Qefira, ribald humor, scatological references and all manner of epithets, invective and cusses have been tolerated there without editorial excision. But today when I had the temerity to point out that he and a commenter were motivated by the need to humiliate individuals and/or institutions of what they perceived as past misdeeds that they had repented of, and that this is classic textbook Onoas Devarim, all of my comments were excised.
Further, all comments even referencing my comments were excised. I feel honored to be like Trotsky airbrushed out of the Lenin group photos by Communist apparatchiks. For a supposed champion of free speech and the free exchange of opinions and ideas 'ol DovBear behaves suspiciously like a totalitarian.
I just hope that I can stick to my b'lee neder resolution of no longer commenting on his sham blog again.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Too Down to Write
My , ahem, creative juices, such as they are, have been withered dry by the combination of the Hellish heat and more challenges and setbacks. Maybe I'll snap out of it. But I wouldn't count on it.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Some Irresitable Schadenfreude
Guest post by Korakh the Blogger
I know that "officially" I've shut down for the year but some of the news both in the recent Parshiyos and in current events has been so delicious that, in the midst of your July swelter, it's cooled off my perch in hell and I'm just bursting to share. I'm moved to blow off some hot air...as it were.
First we have Rabenus downfall at מי מריבה . Those astrologers in Mitzrayim sure nailed it. How this loyal pastor of the flock sleeps at night knowing that millions of innocent Jewish boy babies were drowned on his account is something that I've never been able to figure out. If I had to do things over again I'd have asked that our standoff be with נסוך המים= the water libation or השקאת סוטה = the trial by water of the suspected adulteress, rather than over fiery Ketores. Though no one can be certain of its location Amramowitz the Youngers grave is a watery one.
Then we've got Bila'am, the prophetic peer of the erstwhile peerless prophet. Any fair reader would have to conclude that while they may have been equal in the vision department (not too shabby for a one-eyed guy) Bila'am was the vastly superior writer. Moshe is the stolid purveyor of reams and reams of plodding, forgettable prose while Bila'am is the artist pithily painting unforgettable word pictures of soaring poetic imagery. I mean what in Shiras Ha'azinu can begin to compare with
? I rest my case.
Then we've got 'ol Zimri... a man after my own heart catching Amramowitz the Younger in the ultimate "Do as I say not as I do" hypocrisy when he drags the Midianite princess before him and challenges Moshe to forbid her when Rebitzin Lady-Bird Amramowitz is a Midianite herself! Moshe was left speechless, humiliated, forgetful-and-soon-to-be-forgotten and flummoxed. What an inspired bit of skeptical mockery and snark. If I had to do it again I'd skip the Tekheles Talesim and have my 250 men set up a mass Khupah with 250 Midianite women.
And whereas I may have fallen short in my attempts to forge Levi-Kohen parity at least the Tzelofkhod girls obtained some equal rights under the law for women.
Which brings me to Rabba (Babba?) Sara Hurwitz. What a gal... She really showed it to those power-hoarding, cliquish Talmidim of Moshe , ahem, "Rabenu" and proved once again that for every Halakhic second class there's a rabbinic lass. Now that she's finished her scholarship in residence at YI of Hewlett I wonder if we could get her to serve in that capacity down here. Nah...she'd probably just say "been there...done that". No doubt she's movin' on up to the big time, bigger and better things. Rabba, if your reading this just do me one favor. When the new, err, breakaway minyan forms and names you the supreme leader give me a little of the historical love I deserve by doing the right thing and naming your first Shul
קהל עדת קרח
Based on nothing other than Korakh the Blogger chaffing in the summer heat.
(read this first)
Consider this an example of "dead blogging".
I know that "officially" I've shut down for the year but some of the news both in the recent Parshiyos and in current events has been so delicious that, in the midst of your July swelter, it's cooled off my perch in hell and I'm just bursting to share. I'm moved to blow off some hot air...as it were.
First we have Rabenus downfall at מי מריבה . Those astrologers in Mitzrayim sure nailed it. How this loyal pastor of the flock sleeps at night knowing that millions of innocent Jewish boy babies were drowned on his account is something that I've never been able to figure out. If I had to do things over again I'd have asked that our standoff be with נסוך המים= the water libation or השקאת סוטה = the trial by water of the suspected adulteress, rather than over fiery Ketores. Though no one can be certain of its location Amramowitz the Youngers grave is a watery one.
Then we've got Bila'am, the prophetic peer of the erstwhile peerless prophet. Any fair reader would have to conclude that while they may have been equal in the vision department (not too shabby for a one-eyed guy) Bila'am was the vastly superior writer. Moshe is the stolid purveyor of reams and reams of plodding, forgettable prose while Bila'am is the artist pithily painting unforgettable word pictures of soaring poetic imagery. I mean what in Shiras Ha'azinu can begin to compare with
? I rest my case.
Then we've got 'ol Zimri... a man after my own heart catching Amramowitz the Younger in the ultimate "Do as I say not as I do" hypocrisy when he drags the Midianite princess before him and challenges Moshe to forbid her when Rebitzin Lady-Bird Amramowitz is a Midianite herself! Moshe was left speechless, humiliated, forgetful-and-soon-to-be-forgotten and flummoxed. What an inspired bit of skeptical mockery and snark. If I had to do it again I'd skip the Tekheles Talesim and have my 250 men set up a mass Khupah with 250 Midianite women.
And whereas I may have fallen short in my attempts to forge Levi-Kohen parity at least the Tzelofkhod girls obtained some equal rights under the law for women.
Which brings me to Rabba (Babba?) Sara Hurwitz. What a gal... She really showed it to those power-hoarding, cliquish Talmidim of Moshe , ahem, "Rabenu" and proved once again that for every Halakhic second class there's a rabbinic lass. Now that she's finished her scholarship in residence at YI of Hewlett I wonder if we could get her to serve in that capacity down here. Nah...she'd probably just say "been there...done that". No doubt she's movin' on up to the big time, bigger and better things. Rabba, if your reading this just do me one favor. When the new, err, breakaway minyan forms and names you the supreme leader give me a little of the historical love I deserve by doing the right thing and naming your first Shul
קהל עדת קרח
Based on nothing other than Korakh the Blogger chaffing in the summer heat.
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