Posted by voolavex in common sense, despicable, guilt, immigration, Jews, kosher, Pets, Social Issues, talmud, torah.
I was recently writing an email to a family member regarding the Middle East War in Israel and as I wrote some cold thoughts came to mind that I had not addressed before. Troubled times call for fierce examination. Troubled times make people point fingers and assign blame. Sometimes I think the simplest truth can explain the most complex problem. I kept getting a zetz* from some annoying truths that begged for air. As a humane gesture to my kishkes** I started letting them out. They are my own truths – but they may zetz you too. They are not very likeable – but they do ring true. See what you think.
Bernard Madoff and Aaron Rubashkin are two of the worst things that have happened to the Jews since Pharoah’s armies got grounded. The two of them feed into the worst depths of Anti-Semitism and serve that end as examples of what people who (check one) mistrust, hate, avoid, slur and or revile the Jews, see as a benchmark of the entire Jewish tribe (except the one you know and he/she is a really nice person). And why wouldn’t they? The name for what Bernie Madoff did is affinity scam. Taking advantage of your own to establish credibility and then keeping at it until you are either caught or die. Underlying the entire con is the knowledge you personally know it’s is wrong, illegal, lies and misery for your victims. You know this when you start and you it know when you give it up, die or get caught. I would say that essentially it is driven by greed no matter how you slice it. This is the man for whom the term Greedy Jew was created. And in this troubled time this is the man who may have slowed; maybe even stalled the engine of the world. And because he used his Jewishness to this end he merits every bad name one can call him. Bernie Madoff is NOT good for the Jews. His money is treyf*** and so is every penny that may have been touched by him. Think of Bernie as a pig disguised as a lobster pretending to be a matzo ball.. Before you even work your way through to the “others” who got shafted all 163 pp of them (which I have read) find the Jews. The ones who lost big. These are what “others” will label “Stupid Jews”. Bernie Madoff is not good for the Jews. By the time one gets to the others it hardly matters who they are in terms of ethnicity. The blood libel has been revived and some stupid, greedy Jew did it. This makes me livid and is going to take a long time to fix . Why isn’t every Jew vocally enraged by this man and what he has done? Not content to go in head again first at the deep end let’s move along to the next question. What does Aaron Rubashkin have in common with Bernie Madoff? Greed.
Aaron Rubashkin and Agriprocessors ignored Jewish law and screwed the Jews. Aaron and his family deny every single allegation and for this he is even more of a problem for the Jews. He exemplifies the slur “Those lousy Jews will do anything to make a buck”. Because that is precisely what he did and would have kept on doing if he had not been caught. Close friends of mine excuse him and tell me he has done so much good that he cannot have done what the law says he did but I don’t think prior good acts exonerate him. It’s like saying some Jew hater loves dogs. I love my friends and therefore I won’t argue with them but we disagree. Rubashkin is guilty of another kind of exploitation that was so specific to the Jews that it is disgusting. It’s not bad enough he exploited illegal and underage workers to work in his kosher meat factory. He is accused of breaking federal laws and religious law by his slaughtering methods and factory conditions and by doing so has made questionable every mouthful of kosher meat every observant Jew has bought under his aegis. This meat has been chewed and swallowed. Is it treyf? Part of the problem as I see it is in the entire behavior of Rubashkin and his cohorts. As with Madoff – they knew and they did it anyway. If you cut corners on one thing – where do you stop? And he did it in violation of Jewish law. He violated a mitzvah. He is a goniff, a hypocrite and betrayer. This makes me livid and is going to take a long time to fix . Why isn’t every Jew vocally enraged by this man and what he has done?
I don’t care if my meat is kosher and I am not observant but those who are deserve better than this. You might ask what happens if these folks ate the meat. Nothing except it is morally indefensible and therefore causes mental anguish among ****landsmen who have placed enormous trust in this product. If you recall how outraged we were in this country about the tainted dog food and baby formula – there is no difference. And the first tainted food was PET food. Think about it and get angry and let people know you’re an angry Jew.
Giving bigots a reason to use ethnic slurs is not good for the Jews. I think it is okay to be angry and vocal about both these men and what they have done. I think Jews should be outraged and say so. Nothing excuses them . Finding Bernie and Aaron outside the pale doesn’t do anything but say that you find this behavior unconscionable for everyone and especially the people that were targeted. Bernie Madoff is not good for the Jews. Aaron Rubashkin is not good for the Jews. We should all be much angrier than we appear to be.
* zetz = poke ** treyf/treif = not kosher ***kishkes = your gut ****landsmen = your co-religionists.
Comments are welcome but I will delete anyone using the term – self-hating Jew – just so we are clear.
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Posted by voolavex in baby gifts, chasids, evil eye, Jews, kosher, leviticus, Lubavitch, talmud, teddy bears, torah.
Tags: baby gifts, chasids, evil eye, Jews, kosher, leviticus, Lubavitch, talmud, teddy bears, torah
I have very close friends who are Lubavitch Chasids. I have known them for years and this year they welcomed their first grandchild – a lovely little girl. Usually when one goes to visit a new baby it’s fairly simple. Pink or blue, high end or tacky? Toys or clothes? Stocks or bonds? Usually.
To start, most Jewish folks do not have baby showers. It is considered bad luck to purchase anything for the baby before it is safely delivered from the womb. I tend to agree with this idea. By extension, however, Chasidic Jews do not even discuss names or gender. The basis for this is called kinahora – although it is spelled many ways. Ritualwell.org has this to say: “Jews have long believed that to call attention to a good thing-like overpraising a child-is to tempt the evil eye, a faux pas that demands the immediate recitation of “keyn eyn harah”, or kinahora, meaning “no evil eye” in Yiddish. This is also, in part, the basis for the little red string or bead that many observant Jews wear. Having this in mind I prepared to visit the new baby and her ecstatic family laden with gifts. But this was not just any baby; she was a Chasidic babe and if you want to do to the right thing for your friends’ joyous occasion (called a simcha), respecting their faith and tradition is the right thing to do and righter still if it’s your own faith as well.
Let me say this right away, shopping for babies is better than being pregnant and for little little girls it’s even better. Nowadays there are so many wonderful things to buy and knit and look for, that it boggles the mind. There seem to be endless sources of clothes and toys in every price range for boys and girls. Pale pastels, bright primaries and a world of amazing animals and soft things that shout “buy me!”. Except for the very observant. This is not to say that the very observant don’t go wild over their babies – they just don’t go hog-wild. Fortunately as I was tucking lions and tigers and bears, oh my, into my gift bags, I realized that these stuffies might not work for this little girl and her family. Now is when the concept of Tum’ah enters the picture. Tum’ah is a form of ritual impurity which can be expressed in several ways. For my purposes the most important consideration was in the representation of the stuffed animals. Wikipedia tells me that one may become tum’ah by coming in contact with certain animals; including some insects and lizards (enumerated in Leviticus, Chapter 11, verses 29 – 32). Leviticus is where we get the list of what’s kosher and what’s not and this includes animals. (I am still monumentally confused about Noah and the Ark – but that is another whole story.) And come on, who gets a baby bugs or lizards anway? I had also thought this restriction meant animals one ate – not house pets certainly, but apparently I was incorrect. I called my friend, the Bubbe (grandmother) who told me that ” you think a teddy bear is just a teddy bear – but it’s not”. I gather it’s a big, unkosher maneater. I started to point out that most Jews in Brooklyn don’t go out and run into bears but before I could mention this, she started to include other warm, fuzzy creatures that were treif (this is Yiddish for unclean) while I started to toss the poor, hapless stuffies from the bags. Pigs were out – no Olivia for this baby; no cats, no dogs, nothing with scales, no shellfish (Spongebob’s friends were totally a no-no – but the Sponge himself – not sure – isn’t he a kitchen sponge?), no crocodiles or alligators, no bunnies and presumably no mice or squirrels. The list is sort of narrow but I saw it as a challenge and one that I welcomed because domestic fowl are okay as are cows and goats and lambs. Ducklings!!! Chicks!!! And what could be more wonderful than a fuzzy, woolly little lamb? Could it be that simple? Not so fast. Nothing is wrong with a lamb unless the sheep wool is mixed with linen (and with things as they are in China you really cannot know). This is called “sha’atnez”. And is also covered in Leviticus and in the Talmud. Companies exist only to examine garments to guard against this admixture. So, in the end, the bags that went to visit this lovely little sheina maidele (beautiful girl) were filled with cotton onesies, little cotton tights, smocked cotton dresses, a Got Milk outfit in pink and androgynous little dolls that turned out to be perfect. I think I even worked in a little lamb too. Next time, though, I will go for duckies. The baby herself was adorable and just as sweet as she could be and the entire event was made even better because everything was, well, kosher. And when the next one arrives, I will be way ahead of the game. As soon as I know the gender I may even knit something – but not with sheep wool or spun flax; no, no, no – more likely it will be cashmere or cotton. Pareve, in kosher speak, neutral. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Voolavex 