After Shabbos was over, I turned my phone on and checked up on the news in the world. I came across this article on CNN.com called "Sperm smuggling alleged at terror prison." As soon as I began reading it, I was horrified, dismayed, and angry.
Wives of convicted (and often self-confessed and proud) Palestinian terrorists serving life or near-life sentences have arranged their incarcerated husbands' sperm to be smuggled out of the prison so that they can conceive children. They are denied conjugal visits, whereas Israeli prisoners are allowed such visits from their wives - though the only specific Israeli prisoner referenced was the assassin of Yitzchak Rabin.
It isn't fair, they say, to be denied the right to be with their husbands, who can then sire more children, all to prevent rumors being spread that they are unfaithful to their jailed husbands, or that their husbands may leave them for still-fertile women if their jail sentences last beyond the women's menopause.
I think the whole thing is utterly ridiculous.
Why, you ask? Because who are these children going to become, and how will they be brought up?
"You're father is a brave soldier, fighting for our freedom, he heroically murdered dozens of Jewish men, women, and children who all stole our homeland from us."
"You're going to grow up just like him!"
"Isn't it not fair that your dear father is still stuck in prison for doing the great thing that he did for us? We should be celebrating with him right now, not mourning is absence!"
This is what will happen to these poor, innocent children. They'll be raised and indoctrinated with hate, fear and prejudice. They'll be encouraged to take more life in murderous plots, just like their fathers did. The very same women who in all likelihood supported, encouraged, and cheered on the fathers who are sitting in jail will be the same women, along with other relatives, who will raise these children to hate Israel, despise Jews, and desire to kill and murder more people, in revenge for their fathers' mistreatment or just because it's the right thing to do.
I don't believe for a second that this is not the unspoken ulterior motive. If these women were already successful in helping groom their husbands to become terrorists, I have no doubt they will attempt to do so, using their husbands' absence as a motivational factor.
True, I wonder about why someone such as Yitzchak Rabin's assassin was allowed conjugal visits - shouldn't all murderers be deprived in this fashion as part of the punishment they are receiving in jail?
Part of me says yes, they should. Someone who takes another's life without just cause should lose privileges, just as they stole everything from the person(s) they killed.
However, the one difference I can see between the two criminals is that Rabin's assassin was a one-time wack job. He didn't grow up in a culture that celebrated and taught murder of other people as a cherished life value. He wasn't indoctrinated from preschool with lies and propaganda, all with the intention of turning him into a celebrated killer and martyr.
In all likelihood, as someone who became convinced of his crazy plan, he never confided in his wife or any relatives or associates. He deserves to be punished, rightly so, but his wife, innocent of all wrongdoing should not. She suffers enough for the crime that was thrust upon her and shattered her life in a most unexpected, and unwelcome fashion.
The women who are pleading their case about being denied conjugal visits with their terrorist husbands in jail were in all likelihood, part and parcel of the lifestyle that led their husbands to shed Jewish blood. They knew what their husbands intended to do, probably knew it was possible they'd be killed in the bombings they planned, or shot by the IDF defending innocent civilians, or caught and tried for their disgusting crimes. They don't feel an ounce of remorse for the lives lost by their husbands' actions, and I bet they'd encourage their husbands to do it again, given the chance to take more innocent Jewish lives. They educate their children to call their fathers a hero for what they did, to grow up to be just like them and do such courageous things like they did.
And that's why they don't deserve to have conjugal visits, or to bring more children into this world with their convicted terrorist husbands. They too, deserve to be punished, in their own way, for encouraging and supporting acts of terror and murder, for they are accomplices to the murders their husbands committed. There may not be enough evidence to convict these wives in a court of law, but I think this denial of access to their husbands' semen and thus more children from them, is a just enough punishment. Their continued loyalty and devotion to men who willingly and happily spilled innocent blood of men, women, and children who had done no wrong, is a testament to their guilt and reason enough to be denied conjugal visits.
I sincerely hope that these alleged claims are false, and that the Israeli courts do not give in to their ridiculous demands.
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Monday, December 17, 2012
The Shanda of "Chrismukkah"
*RANT ALERT*
This article on CNN, which is titled "Celebrating Chrismukkah: Shalom Stockings and Hanukkah Bushes," showcases a deeply troublesome trend that is growing in America, and perhaps elsewhere in the world. Interfaith couples, seemingly more male-Jewish, female-Christian have found a way to circumvent their cognitive dissonance by "blending" their two traditions together into a mish-mash of trees with Jewish stars and other Judaica-related ornaments.
To me, this whole phenomenon is a shanda - or in English, a total embarrassment.
In an attempt to cover up and ignore the blatant incompatibility of the two vastly different, contradictory, and historically belligerent (more so in the direction of Christian --> Judaism) religious perspectives, these couples have watered down the essence of their distinct beliefs and mushed them together into an incomprehensible facade of a holiday.
It's a poorly designed artifice that consists of a bright, shiny, and attractive gilded coating that disguises the sheer worthlessness of rot within.
While attending a recent family Chanukah party, I spoke with a female cousin who is married to a Christian man. Their son, now 6-years old, is living a lift of total conflict of identity. His mother and grandmother (his maternal grandfather is no longer living) strongly encourage him to partake in Jewish activities, celebrate the holidays with our family, attend their local Jewish day school, and go to shul on occasion. However, with the lack of a Jewish father figure of any sort, along with contemptuous and contradictory opinions being espoused by his father, the boy doesn't have a source of Jewish instruction like he should at his age.
He is stifled. He has expressed on his own that he desires to come to shul every Shabbos and do other things with his more observant friends and classmates (who have a complete set of Jewish parents), but he is often prevented from doing so either because his father overtly objects, or there simply isn't anyone to guide him, teach him, or accompany him to shul.
My cousin summed it up quite poignantly by admitting with a sigh, "It's actually a very bad thing to marry outside the faith."
I've never heard another intermarried person ever admit that aloud. I hope she somehow figures out to raise her son in an appropriate Jewish way... but for now I weep for the boy.
I have another relative on the other side of the family, this one male, who married a Christian woman, and after many years of marriage, she not only has exerted her domineering influence over their halachically non-Jewish children, but brainwashed this relative into following her whole-heartedly into her world of religious observance. He now detests the rest of us - his Jewish relatives, even those who aren't observant, and doesn't come to any family functions (to which my parents invite everyone, regardless of level of religious observance or marital status), because she has warped him into finding our religious beliefs distasteful. To me, this is a horrifying example of what the Torah tells us; that marrying daughters of other religions will lead us astray after their religion.
To be clear: I have nothing against non-Jewish people. I am more than happy that they celebrate and observe their holidays and beliefs/traditions. They have their role to play in our world, contribute to the growth and productivity of society, have every right to exist, and even merit a portion in the World to Come as long as they keep the 7 Mitzvos of the Bnei Noach. We all exist together b'tzelem Elokim, all fulfilling our distinct jobs in this physical existence.
What irks me to no end are the self-deluding Jewish people (and their significant others) who think they can inter-date and intermarry and end up okay. It simply won't happen. They'll be lost to us, and their children after them will be lost to us.
Our halacha and observances will be subsumed under the general wishy-washy conglomeration that has characterized Christianity from the start, as it absorbed and adopted the multitude of local pagan practices from the peoples it engulfed as it spread around the world.
Lighting a Chanukiah next to a Christmas tree is a complete and utter contradiction and slap-in-the-face to what the Maccabees risked and gave their lives to achieve in recapturing and purifying the Beis Hamikdash. They shed their blood to remove the foreign influences from the central physical manifestation of our connection to G-d, and we light the Chanukiah to remember their sacrifice, bravery, and commitment to Torah and Mitzvos above assimilation and adoption of beliefs incongruent to our own.
The mere fact that these individuals in the CNN article can find meaning in a blended tradition shows how weak and inane their own Judaism is. If you have no foundation, then there is nothing to build on. Even if you do have a foundation - say significant Jewish day school through Bar/Bat Mitzvah age - unless you continue to build on top of that with further Jewish education, all you have is a big cement block embedded in the ground, upon which almost anything can be placed - even if it is contradictory to that which you began life with.
I've seen it happen to several of my own peers who attended the same Orthodox day school as I did, from the 2-year-olds through the 8th grade. It's as though they simply chucked everything they had learned out the window the last time they left the building. High school was a period of freedom and exploration, without any meaningful connection to Judaism, college was no better, and now a few of them have actually intermarried. One, thank G-d, got divorced recently, but another has already had a child with his non-Jewish wife.
All this makes me very frustrated and sad. I wish these wayward Jews would see the error of their ways. This is not a post about kiruv on the whole, but the crossing (no pun intended) of a line that should never, ever be crossed in the first place. In my view, these individuals can be as non-observant as they want to be (though of course being observant of Torah and Mitzvos is the ideal and should be encouraged), but they can't date and marry gentiles. If someone isn't shomer Shabbos and kashrus, but generally still cares about Judaism, even nominally, then their is hope to engage him or her and help them return to the fold. For someone who has made that treacherous decision to choose a life partner who isn't from our people, I don't know what to say or do with him/her other than say I feel betrayed.
They have betrayed their G-d, their people, their families and friends, their parents, and most of all, themselves.
No amount of newfangled, kitschy Chrismukkah traditions will ever make up for that. Fluff remains fluff - utter nonsense - without real, meaningful connection to that which we know to be absolute Truth.
This article on CNN, which is titled "Celebrating Chrismukkah: Shalom Stockings and Hanukkah Bushes," showcases a deeply troublesome trend that is growing in America, and perhaps elsewhere in the world. Interfaith couples, seemingly more male-Jewish, female-Christian have found a way to circumvent their cognitive dissonance by "blending" their two traditions together into a mish-mash of trees with Jewish stars and other Judaica-related ornaments.
To me, this whole phenomenon is a shanda - or in English, a total embarrassment.
 |
| Seriously?! Does any Jewish person in their right mind NOT find this offensive? |
It's a poorly designed artifice that consists of a bright, shiny, and attractive gilded coating that disguises the sheer worthlessness of rot within.
While attending a recent family Chanukah party, I spoke with a female cousin who is married to a Christian man. Their son, now 6-years old, is living a lift of total conflict of identity. His mother and grandmother (his maternal grandfather is no longer living) strongly encourage him to partake in Jewish activities, celebrate the holidays with our family, attend their local Jewish day school, and go to shul on occasion. However, with the lack of a Jewish father figure of any sort, along with contemptuous and contradictory opinions being espoused by his father, the boy doesn't have a source of Jewish instruction like he should at his age.
He is stifled. He has expressed on his own that he desires to come to shul every Shabbos and do other things with his more observant friends and classmates (who have a complete set of Jewish parents), but he is often prevented from doing so either because his father overtly objects, or there simply isn't anyone to guide him, teach him, or accompany him to shul.
My cousin summed it up quite poignantly by admitting with a sigh, "It's actually a very bad thing to marry outside the faith."
I've never heard another intermarried person ever admit that aloud. I hope she somehow figures out to raise her son in an appropriate Jewish way... but for now I weep for the boy.
I have another relative on the other side of the family, this one male, who married a Christian woman, and after many years of marriage, she not only has exerted her domineering influence over their halachically non-Jewish children, but brainwashed this relative into following her whole-heartedly into her world of religious observance. He now detests the rest of us - his Jewish relatives, even those who aren't observant, and doesn't come to any family functions (to which my parents invite everyone, regardless of level of religious observance or marital status), because she has warped him into finding our religious beliefs distasteful. To me, this is a horrifying example of what the Torah tells us; that marrying daughters of other religions will lead us astray after their religion.
To be clear: I have nothing against non-Jewish people. I am more than happy that they celebrate and observe their holidays and beliefs/traditions. They have their role to play in our world, contribute to the growth and productivity of society, have every right to exist, and even merit a portion in the World to Come as long as they keep the 7 Mitzvos of the Bnei Noach. We all exist together b'tzelem Elokim, all fulfilling our distinct jobs in this physical existence.
What irks me to no end are the self-deluding Jewish people (and their significant others) who think they can inter-date and intermarry and end up okay. It simply won't happen. They'll be lost to us, and their children after them will be lost to us.
Our halacha and observances will be subsumed under the general wishy-washy conglomeration that has characterized Christianity from the start, as it absorbed and adopted the multitude of local pagan practices from the peoples it engulfed as it spread around the world.
Lighting a Chanukiah next to a Christmas tree is a complete and utter contradiction and slap-in-the-face to what the Maccabees risked and gave their lives to achieve in recapturing and purifying the Beis Hamikdash. They shed their blood to remove the foreign influences from the central physical manifestation of our connection to G-d, and we light the Chanukiah to remember their sacrifice, bravery, and commitment to Torah and Mitzvos above assimilation and adoption of beliefs incongruent to our own.
The mere fact that these individuals in the CNN article can find meaning in a blended tradition shows how weak and inane their own Judaism is. If you have no foundation, then there is nothing to build on. Even if you do have a foundation - say significant Jewish day school through Bar/Bat Mitzvah age - unless you continue to build on top of that with further Jewish education, all you have is a big cement block embedded in the ground, upon which almost anything can be placed - even if it is contradictory to that which you began life with.
I've seen it happen to several of my own peers who attended the same Orthodox day school as I did, from the 2-year-olds through the 8th grade. It's as though they simply chucked everything they had learned out the window the last time they left the building. High school was a period of freedom and exploration, without any meaningful connection to Judaism, college was no better, and now a few of them have actually intermarried. One, thank G-d, got divorced recently, but another has already had a child with his non-Jewish wife.
All this makes me very frustrated and sad. I wish these wayward Jews would see the error of their ways. This is not a post about kiruv on the whole, but the crossing (no pun intended) of a line that should never, ever be crossed in the first place. In my view, these individuals can be as non-observant as they want to be (though of course being observant of Torah and Mitzvos is the ideal and should be encouraged), but they can't date and marry gentiles. If someone isn't shomer Shabbos and kashrus, but generally still cares about Judaism, even nominally, then their is hope to engage him or her and help them return to the fold. For someone who has made that treacherous decision to choose a life partner who isn't from our people, I don't know what to say or do with him/her other than say I feel betrayed.
They have betrayed their G-d, their people, their families and friends, their parents, and most of all, themselves.
No amount of newfangled, kitschy Chrismukkah traditions will ever make up for that. Fluff remains fluff - utter nonsense - without real, meaningful connection to that which we know to be absolute Truth.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
So Plastic Surgery DOES = Shidduchim?
And here I thought we (the readers and I) had concluded that the issue was moot after I wrote a post based on The Grogger's video, "Jewcan Sam."
Then there was the intensely controversial that was published in the Jewish Press right around Purim by Yitta Halberstam called "Purim and the Tyranny of Beauty: A Plea to Mothers of Girls in Shidduchim." Among the many ridiculous things written in this article, I think her comparison of the extreme beauty pageant of Achashveirosh to modern day Jewish girls is horribly misguided:
"The women of the kingdom who vied for the Queen’s throne were given twelve months to prepare for the beauty pageant – why hadn’t some of the girls at the shidduch event taken a mere half hour?"
Seriously? You want to learn mussar for our daughters from the hedonistic, easily manipulated menuval who was basically complacent with our national destruction? Really?
For a great response to this article, read Rabbi Eliyahu Fink's post.
The plastic surgeon who commissioned the "Jewcan Sam" video, Michael Salzhauer, is actually under investigation by the American Society for Plastic Surgeons for violations of medical ethics in trying to "sell" the idea of plastic surgery.
On top of all that, Dr. Salzhauer now has the gall to offer plastic surgery, pro bono (that's free, for those of us less legal savvy folks) to unfortunate Orthodox Jewish singles who can't get a shidduch because of their looks, based on the recommendations of their shadchanim!
(Link hat-tip to Surfin' the Shidduch Scene. For a complete news coverage of this ongoing sage, see The Huffington Post).
This is SICK.
What is happening to the Jewish community? Instead of working on practical solutions to end the "shidduch crisis" we're focusing on the wrong things and creating more issues than we are solving.
Everyone has their own preference when it comes to physical attractiveness, and I've been to weddings where I wonder what the guy or girl saw in their new spouse in regard to their looks. But who cares what my opinion, or anyone else's is, when the chosson and kallah have found someone they find attractive and look forward to seeing when they wake up each morning?
It seems like in today's chumra-crazy society, we're taking the machlokes between Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai regarding how to praise an "ugly" bride at her wedding (Kesubos 17a) and adding in our own redaction to the Gemara. Whereas Beis Hillel says we should praise the bride as she is seen through her husband's eyes - clearly he finds her to be beautiful - Beis Shammai says we should stick to the truth and not lie about her lack of beauty.
So instead of holding like the position advocated by Beis Hillel, we're now going to make sure we can follow Beis Shammai too, since every "homely" girl out there will be objectively beautiful once she's been "fixed" thanks to Dr. Salzhauer and others, if this practice becomes the norm.
Why are we learning the wrong things from the secular society around us, which preaches and advocates the value of physical beauty above all else, including health and happiness. All this had led to is a dramatic increase in people going under the knife, eating disorders, years and years worth of therapy and doctor visits to correct damage done to women's bodies and minds, and who knows what else!
Where can we go next, as a society, if we don't stop these shenanigans soon? Check back later this week find out....
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Is The World Really Crazy?
I know, I know - I really should expect no better from the world media with their Anti-Israel bias, especially with how readily they lap up all the drivel being spewed about the Arab Nakhba and how horrible the occupying Israelis are and have always been. But I feel like ranting, so there.
Yesterday, the NY Times decided to publish an op-ed piece by none other than Mahmoud Abbas, "the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the president of the Palestinian National Authority." You can read this garbage here. In it, good ol' Mahmoud utterly ignores recorded history, like how Arab nations decided to wipe out Israel the day it was declared a state by the UN, in favor of dishing out a superbly fictionalized account of how Palestinians have been victimized ignored, and never given a chance to have their own land (how could he forget Clinton's deal which would have given the Palestinians 95% of the territory they wanted, which Arafat rejected because of his own hatred and stupidity?).
For all this talk about Palestinians returning to their homeland, what about the "nakhba" of the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from their home countries?
Why doesn't this little gem about a 92 year old Arab woman fondly remembering the killing spree in Chevron make news? Or why doesn't anyone care to remember the fact that Arabs massacring Jews has been a favorite past time since before the State of Israel was ever founded?
What about all the garbage about claiming the Temple Mount has always been a Muslim site, and that Jews are trying to create a false history there, when in fact Palestinians have been doing the exact thing they're crying foul about for years?
Better yet, please read this. It's an historically accurate article detailing the exact nature of what Jews seem to have known all along, which th rest of the world ignores: the entire Palestinian plight is an invention created and continually carried out by the Arab nations as a means to destroy Israel.
I'm not in any way denying that there are Palestinian "refugees" who are suffering in the West Bank and elsewhere. Human suffering is unacceptable, no matter what - we Jews more than anyone else know what it's like to be mistreated, beaten, and enslaved. But, the fact of the matter remains - those truly responsible for all this mess are not the ones who get the fingers pointed at them. It's not Israel's fault, it's not the Jews fault.
I know that this post and the time I took to write it is basically for naught, but it's time that the world really recognizes the well-executed conspiracy that has been plaguing Jews and Israel for the last 63 years, and even before that.
I personally don't agree whatsoever with the opinions out there in the Jewish world that say Israel shouldn't exist and that we should support our enemies on the matter. But I do wonder if the small kernal of truth in their words has manifested in the nations of the world's bias against Israel - to the point of lying to themselves and even believing those lies.
May Moshiach come soon so that the light of Emes can shine, Bnei Yisrael will live rightfully in its G-d given homeland, and the world will stop living a life full of lies and fiction.
Update (5/19/11) - two "truthful" revisions of Abbas' NYT article can be found at Elder of Zion and American Thinker. Yashar Koach for speaking for reality, and brightening my mood a bit about all this.
Yesterday, the NY Times decided to publish an op-ed piece by none other than Mahmoud Abbas, "the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the president of the Palestinian National Authority." You can read this garbage here. In it, good ol' Mahmoud utterly ignores recorded history, like how Arab nations decided to wipe out Israel the day it was declared a state by the UN, in favor of dishing out a superbly fictionalized account of how Palestinians have been victimized ignored, and never given a chance to have their own land (how could he forget Clinton's deal which would have given the Palestinians 95% of the territory they wanted, which Arafat rejected because of his own hatred and stupidity?).
For all this talk about Palestinians returning to their homeland, what about the "nakhba" of the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from their home countries?
Why doesn't this little gem about a 92 year old Arab woman fondly remembering the killing spree in Chevron make news? Or why doesn't anyone care to remember the fact that Arabs massacring Jews has been a favorite past time since before the State of Israel was ever founded?
What about all the garbage about claiming the Temple Mount has always been a Muslim site, and that Jews are trying to create a false history there, when in fact Palestinians have been doing the exact thing they're crying foul about for years?
Better yet, please read this. It's an historically accurate article detailing the exact nature of what Jews seem to have known all along, which th rest of the world ignores: the entire Palestinian plight is an invention created and continually carried out by the Arab nations as a means to destroy Israel.
I'm not in any way denying that there are Palestinian "refugees" who are suffering in the West Bank and elsewhere. Human suffering is unacceptable, no matter what - we Jews more than anyone else know what it's like to be mistreated, beaten, and enslaved. But, the fact of the matter remains - those truly responsible for all this mess are not the ones who get the fingers pointed at them. It's not Israel's fault, it's not the Jews fault.
I know that this post and the time I took to write it is basically for naught, but it's time that the world really recognizes the well-executed conspiracy that has been plaguing Jews and Israel for the last 63 years, and even before that.
I personally don't agree whatsoever with the opinions out there in the Jewish world that say Israel shouldn't exist and that we should support our enemies on the matter. But I do wonder if the small kernal of truth in their words has manifested in the nations of the world's bias against Israel - to the point of lying to themselves and even believing those lies.
May Moshiach come soon so that the light of Emes can shine, Bnei Yisrael will live rightfully in its G-d given homeland, and the world will stop living a life full of lies and fiction.
Update (5/19/11) - two "truthful" revisions of Abbas' NYT article can be found at Elder of Zion and American Thinker. Yashar Koach for speaking for reality, and brightening my mood a bit about all this.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Aviv Gets Accepted To Yeshiva University!!!!
ASoG and I went to a panel discussion about Torah Umadda last night that was held on YU’s Wilf Campus. While that entire event probably deserves its own post, I’m going to hone in on one particular question asked to, and answered by, Richard Joel, the President of Yeshiva University.
The student moderator asked President Joel what he felt was the greatest problem that afflicts the Modern Orthodox community nowadays, and what we can do to solve it.
President Joel said one of the biggest problems we face is cynicism. People are too cynical – about everything in life, especially every Jewish aspect of their lives. It’s just “so fun” to be cynical, and thereby tear everything apart around us. Nothing is good – but everything is worth picking to pieces with criticism and nothing is ever validated in a positive fashion.
A young man from Beverly Hills, California named Aviv Kleinman recently posted a video on Youtube that features him, along with his mother, opening his acceptance letter from Yeshiva University and its Mechina program. Aviv is extremely excited to have been accepted, it was his first and only choice after all. Aviv attended a public high school, and based on his own growing sense of religiosity, decided that he would like to pursue his college education in the dual-curriculum environment of Yeshiva University where he can grow Judaically as well as pursue his degree.
You would think that people would be excited for this kid, and many are. Yet, there is also a rather vociferous group that have left vile comments on the youtube page and on the Facebook walls of various individuals who posted the video in their status. They speak about how Aviv is going to get “screwed over” by YU, how the experience will be horrible for him, that he’s wasting the 4 years of college, which are meant to be enjoyable, by attending YU. Basically, these frustrated, immature individuals are giving voice to their own aggravations, jumping at the opportunity to bash YU, at the potential expense of ruining the perception of an innocent person who truly believes in the good that can be accomplished by attending YU.
No one is telling you that your negative experiences weren’t legitimate, but what gives you the right to discourage someone else who is looking forward, with great optimism, to their undergraduate college career at YU? You want to make him feel awful, to discourage him, to make him think he was duped into attending a university that wastes the “best years of your life” because YU isn’t your typical co-ed college, rife with opportunities for raucous partying and whatever other physical pleasures you imagine represent the epitome of the college experience?
After reading numerous comments, from both sides – those that support and encourage Aviv, and those that disparage YU and tell him to prepare for the worst – I’ve come to an observation about the detractors. It seems to me that those that are so inherently virulent about disparaging YU, by and large, attended yeshiva high schools. Whether local (New York/New Jersey) or not, they didn’t enjoy their years spent in high school, and enter YU with a very closed mind. For these unfortunate students, who choose to limit their perspectives, YU cannot and will never be a positive experience for them. No matter how good things are, they choose to ignore the benefits that are handed to them on a silver platter, and focus exclusively on the negative aspects of their lives at YU.
I’m not, in any way suggesting that life at YU is perfect. Visiting the registrar’s office has almost always been an awful experience. Administration in general can be difficult to deal with. Not every single class, or every shiur I attended was worth my time. Both my honors English seminars paled in comparison to my AP English courses from junior and senior year in high school.
But, nothing is ever perfect. I think these few negative aspects do not truly invalidate my educational career at YU. I have loved being in an environment that is flourishing in Torah, where my secular classes often directly or indirectly have some sort of impact in my general religious experience. My college experience was absolutely unparalleled when compared to any other institution I could have attended. Indeed, I turned down acceptances to other, respected universities I applied to, in order to specifically take advantage of the opportunities unique to YU.
Nowhere else could I ever have taken a class in biology where one lesson was totally devoted to going through Talmudic and rabbinic sources that discuss the notion of evolution. I could never have taken a literary methodology course where the gentile professor declared that his favorite book was “Halachic Man.” Where else could I have taken, on a lark, a course in Jewish singing (courtesy of the Belz School of Music)? I certainly couldn’t have taken courses about medical halacha, bio-ethics (Jewish and not), Jewish history, Jewish philosophy and Tanach of the caliber that I enjoyed immensely – which have also helped me develop my worldview within Modern Orthodoxy.
And all that is separate from my Judaic studies. At no other university could I have enjoyed the above courses in addition to having a serious morning seder, shiur, and night seder. At any “regular” college, you are forced to use find moments of free time to learn, which may or may not exist. And even if they do, it’s much harder to make yourself be kovea itim when everything is optional versus a situation where learning is built into your everyday schedule. Yes, it can be easy for anyone to just blow off opportunities to learn, but I speak from experience, having attended a secular high school: being immersed in the Torah environment that YU provides makes all the difference in the world.
Complain all you want about the non-coed environment. Honestly, it’s much easier to get my work done and pay attention in class when I’m not distracted by attractive members of the opposite gender. Plus, there’s no shortage of co-ed social events (kosher of course, no dances of drunken frat parties) for you to meet your potential bashert – and that’s aside from the fact that at any given time there are Stern girls in our library and new lounge.
Complain about the food in the caf all you want, but all the spoiled in-towners have no clue what it’s like to live in a place without a restaurant and suddenly be able to go get freshly prepared, (mostly) delicious food 3 times a day without fail. For salad lovers like me, relishing in the ability to enjoy vegetables and various kinds of lettuce without having to worry about checking for bugs at every meal is absolutely amazing.
You think the courses you’re taking are a joke? I guarantee you that there are more involving, challenging, rewarding courses that can fit your caliber of intelligence. Not every course is the most stimulating, but I know that there are students in every class that you find boring who are actually learning and benefitting from the experience.
To all those guys out there that feed off of cynicism and take every chance they get to criticize and bash YU, yet choose to attend YU in spite of their issues, or are forced to attend YU by their parents, I honestly feel bad for you. Why? Because clearly you shouldn’t be here. YU isn’t for everyone. President Joel himself said that. There is no one model of university education, or variation of Torah-observant Orthodox Judaism, that the inherent right way for every single person out there. My rosh yeshiva in Israel would counsel certain guys to specifically not attend YU, based on his knowledge of their personality.
You folks may be stuck going to YU because of your parents or whatever, but why revel in your misery – or choose to inflict others because you don’t feel like things are going well for you? Why can’t YOU choose to make you own life better instead of wallowing in your perceived wretched situation? It isn’t emotionally/psychologically healthy for you to be so consistently negative, and why should you lash out at others who actually find the very things you despise to be not only enjoyable, but extremely beneficial to their lives as Jews?
If you have complaints, if you seen areas that could use some improvement, do something about it. Run for student office and work with the university’s administration, join or create a student group that focuses on specific issues, or even do something more grassroots based. Who knows what positive changes you can accomplish when you put in the effort? So many positive things have been done on campus at the suggestion or through the actions of students. If all you can do is sit there and mouth off, then there is little hope for you. Go talk to a tree or something that could care less, but don’t waste your energy by harming others.
Put simply: I love YU. I always have, since I first discovered it when I met NCSY advisors who went there, through my time in Israel, and especially while studying as an undergraduate here. I admire the rabbeim, teachers, and even, or should I say, especially, President Joel. I could not have gone anywhere better suited for me. YU isn’t perfect, but no college is. Deal with it. The cup is certainly more than half full at YU, it just takes the proper perspective to see it.
To Aviv: you’re going to do great. I congratulate you on your acceptance to YU and the Mechina Program. Enjoy every single moment of your time here, because it’ll be over before you know it. These WILL be the best 3-4 years of your educational experience. Savor it, don’t rush, learn as much as you can. You won’t regret it.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Criticism Of The Maccabeats And "The Purim Song"
In case you arrived at this post looking for me to critique the heck out of the video, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Rather, I'm going to address something else: the new form of revolting critical comments that people are posting on Jewish blogs (such as mine and Sterngrad's) as well as on Youtube regarding the Maccabeats and their new music video.
This is rant, so be prepared.
There is nothing inherently wrong in the way that Sterngrad wrote that there are elements in "The Purim Song" which don't quite live up to "Candlelight," such as the song choice, repeated imagery, etc. That's having a keen eye and writing honestly about what parts of the content shown in the video didn't quite work for her as a viewer. I can respect a difference of opinions like this post.
Then there are guys who like to mouth off unintelligibly, like "The Prof" and "Burnt Dreadlocks" who remark that the video or the Maccabeats are "gay," then elaborate on their opinions. Another commenter on Youtube "Lothiras" goes on long diatribes defending why he is justified in derogatorily referring to the video and the members of the Maccabeats as "gay."
None of them are in any way doing anything other than shoving both feet further and further down their own throats.
Burnt Dreadlocks wrote in defense of his claim that the Elvis curl worn by Buri Rosenberg in the video is gay by writing "Still, only a certain type of person can mutilate themselves in such a way." "Mutilate?" Someone who decides to split their tongue, insert pieces of metal under the layers of their facial skin, or otherwise surgically and irreparably remove or alter a portion of their anatomy - now that is "mutilation." Clearly, "as a native californian" he is simply overtly homophobic, reads into things, and can't keep his comments to himself.
"The Prof" who also clamored on about Buri's Elvis curl saying "Little things like that drive me nuts!" and then after I wrote that it fits the costume, "I just find the whole thing quite gay. The fountainheads did a much better job." Lastly, when I asked for clarification if he was using "gay" as a slur or literally, he replied "I mean it quite literally. I know that they obviously arent, its just the way they are singing. " Um, why?
Aside from the fact that these two commenters write things that make me suspicious they are one person, the whole discussion is ridiculous and offensive to anyone, homosexual or heterosexual - basically, anyone with a brain who can think.
What about the video seems "gay?" I don't see anything stereotypical, or anything not stereotypically homosexual about what is shown in the video whatsoever. You can say that you liked the Fountainhead version better, that's totally your opinion. But to go on and on about the fact that the Maccabeats are somehow "gay" with no legitimate cause (or at all for that matter) is beyond stupid.
The fact that the members of the Maccabeats have appealing physical features and good voices - that makes them gay? The fact that they sing as a group somewhat reminiscent of boy bands from the late 90's like N' Sync or the Backstreet Boys makes them gay? The fact that they generally depict only men (with the exception of a few little girls in this video) make them gay? Does hanging around at a Purim Seudah with little kids make them gay - is that insinuating that they molest small children?
Or are you upset because the Maccabeats are trying to be as far reaching as possible in their video's appeal to all sectors of observant Judaism and don't depict women dancing or singing? Not to critique the religious observance of The Fountainheads or their video, but are you more interested in their version because it shows women who sing, dance, and wear pants? I don't believe they had an irreligious agenda with their video - they did it for fun just as the Maccabeats have and geared their video toward a different crowd. But because the Maccabeats don't appeal to your heterosexual drive by not featuring attractive women doing things that might make you excited, you decide they're "gay?"
Utterly ridiculous.
It's particularly troublesome to see that at least some of the people making these comments are seemingly learned, religious people and yet, don't "get it." Just because the larger portion of Maccabeat fans are girls because they admittedly find them handsome and enjoy their voices, and that doesn't appeal to you - you decide to pull out your unsurprisingly limited supply of derogatory and insulting comments?
True, there were plenty of comments coming from both men and women - all irreligious or gentile (most infamously Gaby Dunn)- when Candlelight was released that suggested the Maccabeats "spice" up their videos with "hot" women or by making the Maccabeats themselves appear "sexier" to the female perspective. I can't blame those people for making these comments - they enjoyed the video for what it was, but also have a standard in their mind for what defines successful musical artists and their music videos: sex appeal.
The Maccabeats clearly have no desire to be just another group in the pritzus-filled society that surrounds and envelopes us everywhere in the world nowadays. To that, I say kol hakavod! Who needs seductive images that stimulate the sex drive when you have catchy vocal performances, beautifully cinematic visuals, and doses of engaging humor thrown in for good measure? The success of the Maccabeats has nothing to do with these baser elements that the vast majority of secular artists out there (I won't say all, since I'm no expert in current pop-music) use to achieve their fame and make their money?
The Maccabeats aren't out there for fame and fortune. As they say on their website and repeated in various forms during the multitude of interviews they gave during "Candlelight's" rise to fame, their motivation is to entertain and educate, spreading positive messages about Judaism because they are "Strongly committed to the philosophy of Torah u-Madda, the integration of traditional and secular wisdom..."
I am so very proud of what my fellow YU students and alumni have accomplished. As I wrote about in my post summing up my thoughts on the success of "Candlelight," I think all the publicity is deserved and wonderful. This is the type of news and media attention that Orthodox Jews need, and we are all truly blessed by the beautiful response by so many people out there who watch these videos, Jew and gentile alike.
My message to all the guys - and they are almost all guys - who remark how "gay" the Maccabeats and "The Purim Song" is, start thinking with your brains and not some other part of your anatomy.
Enjoy the music for what it is, listen to the overt positive messages the Maccabeats and Uri Westrich are trying to convey, and if you have nothing nice or constructive to say, please shut up.
This is rant, so be prepared.
There is nothing inherently wrong in the way that Sterngrad wrote that there are elements in "The Purim Song" which don't quite live up to "Candlelight," such as the song choice, repeated imagery, etc. That's having a keen eye and writing honestly about what parts of the content shown in the video didn't quite work for her as a viewer. I can respect a difference of opinions like this post.
Then there are guys who like to mouth off unintelligibly, like "The Prof" and "Burnt Dreadlocks" who remark that the video or the Maccabeats are "gay," then elaborate on their opinions. Another commenter on Youtube "Lothiras" goes on long diatribes defending why he is justified in derogatorily referring to the video and the members of the Maccabeats as "gay."
None of them are in any way doing anything other than shoving both feet further and further down their own throats.
Burnt Dreadlocks wrote in defense of his claim that the Elvis curl worn by Buri Rosenberg in the video is gay by writing "Still, only a certain type of person can mutilate themselves in such a way." "Mutilate?" Someone who decides to split their tongue, insert pieces of metal under the layers of their facial skin, or otherwise surgically and irreparably remove or alter a portion of their anatomy - now that is "mutilation." Clearly, "as a native californian" he is simply overtly homophobic, reads into things, and can't keep his comments to himself.
"The Prof" who also clamored on about Buri's Elvis curl saying "Little things like that drive me nuts!" and then after I wrote that it fits the costume, "I just find the whole thing quite gay. The fountainheads did a much better job." Lastly, when I asked for clarification if he was using "gay" as a slur or literally, he replied "I mean it quite literally. I know that they obviously arent, its just the way they are singing. " Um, why?
Aside from the fact that these two commenters write things that make me suspicious they are one person, the whole discussion is ridiculous and offensive to anyone, homosexual or heterosexual - basically, anyone with a brain who can think.
What about the video seems "gay?" I don't see anything stereotypical, or anything not stereotypically homosexual about what is shown in the video whatsoever. You can say that you liked the Fountainhead version better, that's totally your opinion. But to go on and on about the fact that the Maccabeats are somehow "gay" with no legitimate cause (or at all for that matter) is beyond stupid.
The fact that the members of the Maccabeats have appealing physical features and good voices - that makes them gay? The fact that they sing as a group somewhat reminiscent of boy bands from the late 90's like N' Sync or the Backstreet Boys makes them gay? The fact that they generally depict only men (with the exception of a few little girls in this video) make them gay? Does hanging around at a Purim Seudah with little kids make them gay - is that insinuating that they molest small children?
Or are you upset because the Maccabeats are trying to be as far reaching as possible in their video's appeal to all sectors of observant Judaism and don't depict women dancing or singing? Not to critique the religious observance of The Fountainheads or their video, but are you more interested in their version because it shows women who sing, dance, and wear pants? I don't believe they had an irreligious agenda with their video - they did it for fun just as the Maccabeats have and geared their video toward a different crowd. But because the Maccabeats don't appeal to your heterosexual drive by not featuring attractive women doing things that might make you excited, you decide they're "gay?"
Utterly ridiculous.
It's particularly troublesome to see that at least some of the people making these comments are seemingly learned, religious people and yet, don't "get it." Just because the larger portion of Maccabeat fans are girls because they admittedly find them handsome and enjoy their voices, and that doesn't appeal to you - you decide to pull out your unsurprisingly limited supply of derogatory and insulting comments?
True, there were plenty of comments coming from both men and women - all irreligious or gentile (most infamously Gaby Dunn)- when Candlelight was released that suggested the Maccabeats "spice" up their videos with "hot" women or by making the Maccabeats themselves appear "sexier" to the female perspective. I can't blame those people for making these comments - they enjoyed the video for what it was, but also have a standard in their mind for what defines successful musical artists and their music videos: sex appeal.
The Maccabeats clearly have no desire to be just another group in the pritzus-filled society that surrounds and envelopes us everywhere in the world nowadays. To that, I say kol hakavod! Who needs seductive images that stimulate the sex drive when you have catchy vocal performances, beautifully cinematic visuals, and doses of engaging humor thrown in for good measure? The success of the Maccabeats has nothing to do with these baser elements that the vast majority of secular artists out there (I won't say all, since I'm no expert in current pop-music) use to achieve their fame and make their money?
The Maccabeats aren't out there for fame and fortune. As they say on their website and repeated in various forms during the multitude of interviews they gave during "Candlelight's" rise to fame, their motivation is to entertain and educate, spreading positive messages about Judaism because they are "Strongly committed to the philosophy of Torah u-Madda, the integration of traditional and secular wisdom..."
I am so very proud of what my fellow YU students and alumni have accomplished. As I wrote about in my post summing up my thoughts on the success of "Candlelight," I think all the publicity is deserved and wonderful. This is the type of news and media attention that Orthodox Jews need, and we are all truly blessed by the beautiful response by so many people out there who watch these videos, Jew and gentile alike.
My message to all the guys - and they are almost all guys - who remark how "gay" the Maccabeats and "The Purim Song" is, start thinking with your brains and not some other part of your anatomy.
Enjoy the music for what it is, listen to the overt positive messages the Maccabeats and Uri Westrich are trying to convey, and if you have nothing nice or constructive to say, please shut up.
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