Mazal Tov to Me

On achieving the dubious milestone of 50,000 page views. Ah the battles fought- the victories one. (not a typo).

And to think...I'm only responsible for 48,653 of them! Not too shabby for a Red-Tent Blog ©

Telshe may Have Crumbled Due to Makhlokes

But Telsher Kharoses lives on!



in the hearts and minds of people who got their mailings for decades.
Check out the clip beginning from 1:21.

If Only Hitler had United the Jewish People....

There never would have been a Holocaust.



Not sure who this Rebbe is and, as I assume that he lives in Israel, his cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor is impressive. But his dismissal of the threat from Iran and Ahmanjinijad sorely tests my Emunas Admorim.

Dagnabit.. I Almost Had a Good Post

What are the elements of a fine blog post? Equal parts righteous indignation and satiric snark. I've never been too strong on the latter but as for indignation? Suffice it to say that I not only read the read but screed the screed.

Yesterday while driving westbound along the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway for you firriners) the billboard depicted above assailed my eyes and sensibilities. I was furious. Now in spite of increasingly infrequent postings lately I am never מסיח דעת for too long from HaMavdil. So shortly thereafter I thought to myself "Now HERE is fodder for a great post. Not only are they apiqorsim but antisemitin as well. Why, of all the theistic religions, are they singling out Judaism for abuse? Don't more X-tians drive along the BQE every day than Jews? As for Muslims, they wouldn't DREAM of calling Allah or Muhammad myths. They lack the cullions for that. But Jews are patsies, easy targets, the last group that is still politically correct to mock".

Well you get the idea. I even began thinking of a multiple choice quiz to include in the post querying what the possible motivations of the American Atheists targeting Judaism specifically might have been.

Much to my chagrin when searching for the image of this offensive billboard online I discovered that they had, in fact, erected X-tian and Islam bashing billboards as well.


So why post a Hebrew one on the BQE? Simple. It was a demographically driven decision. They weren't targeting drivers they were targeting the denizens of Chasidisha Williamsburg. They wanted Jewish theists to begin considering that , kholila, HaShem is a myth. Jews already know and profess that Jesus and Muhammad, the theology they taught and the religions that they founded, are all mythological. So a billboard over the BQE mocking e.g. the nativity would have been preaching to the converted as the target audience is Jewish.

Oh well . There goes a great post.

Still the Apiqorsim of Atheists.org really blew it vis' a vis' the denizens of Williamsburg. The men are mostly ESL while all the women are literate in Yiddish. If they really wanted to get their attention they would've bilingualed the billboard in Yiddish instead of Tziyonish, skipped the off-putting colors of the Zionist entities flag and they would've made the tetragrammaton meshulav with adnus and in k'sav ashuris.

When Innocent Questions become Existential Ones

Scene I observed on Purim 5772:

It's Purim Seudah Time. A middle aged man, obviously in his cups, is taking some fresh air sitting on a folding chair outside a home celebrating a Purim Seudah. No doubt the site of his cupping. He is heavy-set, his beard is graying and his head is alternately lolling back or looking down. He is clad fairly sedately as Purim goes, regular dark suit, white shirt and conservative necktie. The only indicia of Purim in his getup are the Rattan Pith Helmet on his head and the white gartel circumnavigating his considerable girth.

A gaggle of children , all of whom are perfectly sober, have gathered around the funny man who proceeds to make slightly tipsy chit chat with them. A bold young girl about 9-10 years of age gives the aerating drunk a thorough once over, casts a precociously jaundiced eye on his inexplicable get-up and the following conversation ensues:

CHILD: What are YOU supposed to be?
ADULT: What am I supposed to be? I'm supposed to be a Talmid Khokhom and an ehrlikha yid. Unfortunately I am a grubba Ahm Ho'Oretz and a very sad excuse for a Jew.

Serious Fun

Everyone has heard of the Zohar Khodosh of Yom KE-Purim, i.e. that , Yom Kippur, Yom HaQudish far from being the apex of Qedushas HaZ'man, is merely "A Day LIKE Purim". Most of us have heard the beautiful Torah from diverse streams of Jewish Thought expostulating on just how these two Moadim yin-yang-like complement one another or are mirror images of one another.

But in keeping with the ever heavier, more-serious and increasingly-demanding iteration of Judaism that is the Zeitgeist of the Frum world this equation between Yom Kippur and Purim is taking on a whole new meaning. Currently there is a movement afoot to end the Purim Silliness and make it more somber, sacred and sober...just like Yom Kippur. This essentially turns the Yom KE-Purim equation on it's ear. The thinking must go that taken to it's logical conclusion ונהפוך הוא transforms Purim into a Fast Day of Angelic asceticism and ultimate gravitas. After all, , on Purim turnabout IS fair play.

While the evidence may be anecdotal at best, seen in the context of larger societal developments I find it both convincing and, sadly, unsurprising:

1. A Shul has banned the use of cap guns as Grahggers. The smoke offends the nostrils of some congregants. This is years after another Shul forbade all but traditional Grahggers or pots with wooden spoons. Great way to alienate the cap-gun-toting children and become the Grinchs that stole their Purim.

2. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb has published a very angry screed against drinking to excess on Purim.

3. A well-known Yeshiva has passed an edict that all those in costume (Silly Hats included???) will be refused admittance to their Mesiba. Burly bouncers with beefy arms and hammy-fists will enforce this new edict.

While all of the above mean well, are pursuing righteousness and have good reasons for their Takonos / appeals, especially insofar as excessive drinking and it's health and safety hazards, I can't help feeling that the צד השוה שבהן is a kind of prudish shame over the Purim Holiday itself as conduct / celebration unbecoming a Torah Jew. An attitude of "Well, we'll do it if we have to but let's make it as sane and serious as possible and get it over with quickly with a minimum of fuss and bother" like some family conclave with all the black sheep present.

I'm sorry. Merriment and mindlessness are the beating Heart of Purim. Indeed, it is because merriment and mindlessness are the ונהפוך הוא of default Jewish behaviors and mindsets of somber sobriety and intellectual acuity that make them so appropriate for Turnabout Day. To legislate and decree that all the fun on Purim be serious is to gut it. Sure Goyim have Mardis Gras, Halloween and St. Patty's Day but there must be, and TTBOMK there always has been, Qedusha-dika ways and means for Jews to drink spirits, masquerade, get loud and be rambunctious that showcases the הבדלה בין ישראל לעמים just when we seem to be at our most undifferentiated from them. It is only when we reach the unconsciousness that transcends normal Havdala Consciousness of עד דלא ידע that we can then grow savvy to the inner meaning of the lyrics of Purims Anthem: ברוך מרדכי היהודי ארור המן אשר ביקש לאבדי. There is nothing rational about the הבדלה בין ישראל לעמים. Hyper-rationality is antithetical to Qedusha-Havdala Consciousness the year round על אחת כמה וכמה on Purim.
Qedusha-Havdala...Have you had YOURS today??? Hmmm???

Diminishing Returns

As you may have noticed my real life has encroached on my cyber life in a big way. There is precious little time for blogging left. More importantly I think that there is precious little motivation for blogging left.

I began this enterprise to feed my sick narcissistic hungers. A no-account-sharecropping-colored-man in real life, whose opinions are routinely ignored if ever heard at all, I thought that feedback from the J-Blogosphere might proffer me the recognition and approbation that was sorely missing from my home and office.

Not only has this lonely Red-Tent Blog never attracted any readership and comments to speak of but , increasingly, I get the feeling that Blogging is an enterprise whose time has come and gone.

I neither tweet nor have a Face-book account. My sense is that there is a generational rift. At the slopes the over 45 set is still skiing while the hip youngsters are snowboarding. In cyberspace it is only a few crotchety old tech-challenged curmudgeons who are still blogging. Tweeting and Friending is where the action is... and where I am not.