Yossele the Troublemaker
[First Person]
Let me tell you a little about Yossele. No, no, not the famous one who could sing a mile and even the opera-goyim wanted him to perform for them. This Yossele was a little boy from my neighborhood in Brooklyn. He sat next to me in cheider, once teaching me how to fold a paper into a flapping duck during gemura class. He was a good kid, at heart anyway, boisterous and lively and even wild in some ways. He didn’t have much of a head on his shoulders for studying, but he sure had a mind full of tricks. He hung bags of water above classroom doors, smeared ketchup on the walls and floors, and this one time he managed to lock us out of our classroom by positioning a long bench to lean against the door. A genius for the mischievous, I tell you, but nebech, no mind for even one blatt gemura. When the rebbe — which is what we called our schoolteachers — was busy teaching, Yossele daydreamed with a wry smile, scheming. Dead mice, aplenty at our school, figured in many of his pranks.
We had this one rebbe who was something of a hunchback, so Yossele put sour pickles in his desk drawer. You see, in Yiddish the hunch is called a “pickle”. With this hunchback teacher Yossele had quite a time. The Hunchback assigned Yossele to bring him coffee every morning from the samovar down the hall. Many boys considered it an honor to serve the rebbe, but Yossele detested the assignment. He suspected he was picked because the Hunchback thought of him as not of use for learning, so Yossele would spit into the Hunchback’s coffee each morning. I once explained to Yossele that since the Hunchback doesn’t know of this, it does not hurt him; but Yossele said he simply takes pleasure in watching the Hunchback sipping spittle, with a cube of sugar no less. Nu, so you see what happens when you don’t study?
Well, you think you can predict the future of a troublemaker? Let me tell you what happened to my friend, to Yossele the Troublemaker, as we used to call him.
So I told you about Yossele’s mice and ketchup, but you should know that Yossele was a good boy at heart. He had dark hair and fair skin with eyes as black as the Hunchback’s hat and a wiry frame that fit him just right. He clambered over roofs like a cat, like a cat I tell you! And he could shimmy up a Brooklyn telephone pole faster than any Bell wireman. You know the space between the Moshkovitz and the Hauser house on 49th street? Yes, where Mendele the Chazir sleeps; well Yossele was able to climb up to the roof of the Moshkovitz house bare-handed. No gray squirrel, not a single of those little mokoshen could match Yossele’s agility. But listen to me, this is not the impression I want you to remember him with. I tell you all this because I know you like to hear these stories, the generation you are. Yossele was more than that. Yossele the Troublemaker had a heart and a mind, maybe not for studying, but his heart was good and his mind active for many things, not only pranks. My friends, years later you wouldn’t recognize him. An interesting story he is, I tell you.
Yossele came from what we called a tzibrochene shtib, a broken home. His father was said to be a genius, but the kids all laughed when he visited the school to get Yossele out of the principal’s office. He had an unkempt beard with wild payess, funny-looking eyes, and to finish it off, his beaver top-hat had a floppy brim and was sometimes slightly squished at the top. Some of the kids asked Yossele if his father cooked the Shabbos chulent in his hat. It was said their home looked like an animal farm. Well, I never did see that farm, but from what I know now, I can tell you that many a Yiddishe mother would sign up for that kind of farm if Yossele, in his final form that is, was to be an inhabitant.
We separated at age fifteen. He was sent to a yeshiva in Israel while I went to study in Britain. Every so often I would hear about him. At first, they were just rumors. They said he had turned serious, a charge I could scarcely bring myself to believe. It was said Yossele had been seen walking with his eyes on the ground ahead of him, wearing an Israeli kaftan with a wide-brimmed hat and long payess. A while later, a boy who had transferred to my yeshiva from Israel mentioned he had studied in the same beis medrash as Yossele, and he confirmed the rumors. I asked about Yossele’s mischievous grin I had come to love. Gone. His shtick, gone. His liveliness, only for gemura, the boy said. He himself, the boy reported, had witnessed Yossele the Troublemaker sittingover his gemura for four hours without interruption.
I would have traveled to Israel myself to verify this astounding story, had I been able to, but I had to settle for tales and hearsay. Who would have dreamed it? The boy whose only concern was finding the next best hiding hole for a dead mouse, whose daily pleasure was to watch a man sip his spit, this boy, this Yossele the Troublemaker would turn out to be anything but trouble. What can I say, life is unpredictable, and so I guess it was only fitting that I too, his friend but complete opposite, I, the consummate Good Boy, would turn out nothing like they predicted.
It is all in the stars, some astrologers will tell you; they even predicted the birth of Moishe Rabeini and warned the Pharaoh about him. Now, while you may not give much credence to that story, for me, it really was all in the stars. It happened on a dark, cloudless night; one of those nights where you can spot faint twinkles even in the Brooklyn sky, and I was defending my iron-clad beliefs against a man who claimed to have a doctorate in physics. I wasn’t entirely clear on what a doctorate in physics was, but I carried on the discussion with some gemura-based physics. The man pointed to the stars and asked me, if light traveled at such and such speed, how could the universe exist for five thousand seven hundred and fifty-three years when we can see stars that are millions of light-years away? Nu, what can one say to that? That was the beginning of the end for me. Soon after I was shown the stars, there was no more chümish or gemura for me, and the payess and the levüsh didn’t last long either. But this is not about me. I am telling you this just for the irony of this change, this substitution of fortunes, if you will, between Yossele the Troublemaker and myself.
And so it happened that I was visiting Brooklyn again. It had been many years since I had seen the stars on that dark night, and many years since I had stepped foot in this noisy city. I had spent time in distant continents and far-away cities, gaining an education, a profession and a worldview light-years from the innocent boy that used to ride a red and black one-speed bicycle on the sidewalks of the loping, rectangular streets of Borough Park. I walked the familiar streets, smelled the fresh rye bread from the bakeries on Fourteenth Avenue, heard the buses honking, the garbage-trucks holding up traffic behind them. I watched young mothers strolling around town with baby-carriages holding multiples of infants and toddlers; young men scurrying to and fro, talis beitel secure under their arms. I peered into the faces, tried to see past the bushy beards and wizened faces, to recognize an old friend, a classmate, a neighbor, but they all seemed much too young. The day was warming and I walked a short distance to Prospect Park to sit amongst the trees and sift through the thoughts overwhelming me.
The park had not changed much from how I remembered it from my many lonely walks through its winding paths. Geese paddled lazily in the lake and sparrows flitted about in the reeds on the southeastern side of the lake. Ah, the memories. I regretted the loss of contact with the friends of my youth. Nostalgia flooded in; I felt lost, alone. Nisht du in nisht dort, not a genuine article of my new world and far from the old. I looked up and around. A chassidish family was approaching along the walkway nearby, the woman’s head covered with a shpitzel, her white blouse and long, navy skirt covering the rest of her and she was pushing a double baby-stroller. A man walked beside her, gesturing as he spoke. I froze. That voice! Matured as it had, I knew that voice, knew that wiry frame and those nimble fingers. Yossele! My Yossele!
There was no hug, but he smiled and stepped away from his wife and children and we shook hands heartily. We talked about our youth and years apart, about Israel and Britain, about yeshivas and universities. He told me about his wife and two children and I told him about my latest case-studies. And so we sat on the roots of a tree near the lake and talked about his children’s sleeping habits and grades, and I looked into his serious, twinkle-less eyes; I watched his mouth for those up-curled corners I had once loved, but they had been rubbed away by years of seriousness and marriage, and I listened to his voice. He spoke effusively but seriously. I longed for a tinge of the long-gone mischievousness in his tone. And when it was quiet and I remembered the energy and liveliness of his youth, I looked at him long and hard. Yossele averted his eyes uncomfortably. We walked alongside the water. Soon we reached a little creek and we looked at the water flowing downstream. We were all grown up. Men. We were men now and no longer talked about useless things and silly thoughts, no longer spat in coffees or made flapping ducks out of paper. We stayed a while longer, silently walking alongside the water.
Printable Version
I love the way you write, I felt like I’m in the story like in a dream, I felt deprived when the story came to an end. It just spells out one thing, GREAT WRITING!
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Gosh, I love how you figured out exactly what I had 2 weeks ago – No, I didn’t go the exact same path you went, put in some perspective we share a common route. I also differed from my childhood neighbors, when most of them grew out of their fun and fell into the random Kollel Yingeliet with no point and future what so ever, I got my self some credentials and growing in many ways. 2 years after I didn’t see one of them, with whom I was very close, and had kinda like the ‘Yosele’ relationship with him, I found him on the street next to our parents homes, where we both grew up together. We spoke, got to know what each other’s doing in these days… After a half hour awkward conversation he says ‘Ok, I’ll see you again in 2 years, you’ll have your whole business up, and I’ll walk with a carriage with 10 kids around me…’
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Ben:
Each and every one of us has a diamond within us and regardless of how “black” that diamond (disadvantaged background) is, everybody can shine. No excuses!
I love this story. Thanks for posting it!
BTW, every question has an answer. The star question isn’t really a decent reason to “go off”. I would answer it as follows. Seeing as Hashem was able to create the entire world, do you really think it’s beyond His capabilities to have created the stars with their light already reaching the world? Or perhaps their light travels faster higher up but slows down as it becomes closer?
Both the above are just as plausible as the big bang. Nobody can prove either of them, yet they are all “possible”.
Strange how people insist that Hashem proves Himself to be true, yet happily swallow other equally inexplicable theory. Although when one considers that the alternatives come don’t imbue one with obligations, it’s real easy to see why they have such a pull.
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“Every question has an answer.”
???
However, in this case there is indeed an answer. And the answer is: The world is older then 6000 years.
Strange how people insist that today’s rabies and gedolim are mistaken, yet happily swallow any nonsense from previous generations. Although when one considers that the nonsense confirms some cozy feelings and dearly-hold beliefs, it’s real easy to see why they have such a pull.
Here are some more answers:
1. God in his infinite ability, created special angels which are composed of tachyons. They absorb the light from the stars, then travel faster then light and release the light near earth.
2. All the stars more then 6000 light-years away, don’t actually exist. We only see them because God pulled a huge projector screen around the solar system and projected the stars on it from the inside.
3. There are two kinds of light. Light generated from within our solar system has the regular speed, light from outside are much faster. I believe the scientists have not yet measured the speed of this outside light.
4. Time runs faster outside our solar system due to relativity. See Einstein.
5. There are two worlds. The one we are in is only about 6000 years old. What we see from the stars is a higher dimensional (spiritual) world which is indeed much older.
This answer is my favorite. I heard it from Reb Yoelish the Satmar Rav.
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Frummer,
“Or perhaps their light travels faster higher up but slows down as it becomes closer?”
No, this is quite impossible. To understand why you need to learn a bit more though. Try it, you might be enlightened.
“Nobody can prove either of them, yet they are all “possible”.
Yes, everything is “possible” (with the quotation marks). It is also “possible” that I am a figment of your imagination, or that you are a figment of your imagination. The question is, which of the infinite “possibilities” are worth worrying about?
“Strange how people insist that Hashem proves Himself to be true, yet happily swallow other equally inexplicable theory.”
No, the theories are not inexplicable, it’s just that you are too ignorant to understand the explanation.
“Although when one considers that the alternatives come don’t imbue one with obligations, it’s real easy to see why they have such a pull.”
Quite wrong. The theory of gravity, radioactive decay, germ theory, Newton’s mechanics and many others translate into more onerous obligations and more devotion to the minutia of their laws than any God theory ever did. (Prayer is cheap, radiation shields and sterile operating rooms and snow tires are expensive. God is forgiving, nature — as translated by modern theories — never is.)
The reason they have more pull is because they are actually… true. And truth, as we know, is the divine personified.
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BD:
Hashem and science just don’t mix, but are only a contradiction, unless you need them to be. Anyway, the idea of Hashem is that He is above science. In any event, because He is “kol yochol” He doesn’t need to conform to the laws of science, again, however, unless you need to bring Him down to your level.
I’d prefer to try to reach His.
The facts you quote which oblige us, are limited to simple behaviours, washing our hands after the toilet etc etc etc. They do not lend themselves to a pervasive way of life (although if they do, there’s clearly something wrong with you). Believing in Hashem obliges one 24/7/365. I are sure you will agree your comparison is somewhat moot.
If you don’t mind, I’m going to refer to the big bang again.
That is just as unexplained as is Hashem. There is no explanation, only conjecture, and that’s the key word, conjecture.
Belief in Hashem needs that too, but it also has a timeless advantage, time and mesoireh.
When the day arrives when you can prove a negative, i.e. that Hashem doesn’t exist, then we will be in trouble. Until then, He’s a better bet than the big bang.
Actually, scrap that. If and when man does manage to scientifically explain the big bang, I will still be able to argue that Hashem caused it to occur. In fact who says that He didn’t indeed start it all with a great big bang. We simply don’t know.
So, I’m back to where I started, science is no contradiction to Hashem. In fact, the more baffling and complex science is, the more it demonstrates His amazing power.
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Frummer,
“He is “kol yochol” He doesn’t need to conform to the laws of science, again, however, unless you need to bring Him down to your level. I’d prefer to try to reach His.
Yes, I’d prefer to be above the laws of science too. Fortunately, I know how to separate fantasy from reality, so I don’t bother spending much time and effort trying. Do let us know when you manage to fall up the stairs though, with or without the help of Hashem.
“The facts you quote which oblige us [...] do not lend themselves to a pervasive way of life (although if they do, there’s clearly something wrong with you). Believing in Hashem obliges one 24/7/365.”
Not so. My whole lifestyle is predicated on trying to appease Nature and staying away from the disastrous consequences of ignoring scientific theories. It governs what and when I eat, what I do and when I do it, and how I behave every minute of every day.
I spend lots of time trying to keep my children from sticking objects into electrical sockets, and I spend lots of money on trying to keep them (and myself) healthy.
Just now I kept myself from walking out my third-story window to enjoy the beautiful view, because Gravity, the prissy little bitch, refuses to bend her laws for me. The only way I manage to fly is by careful application and use of yet another set of scientific theories — those of fluid dynamics.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to refer to the big bang again.”
I wouldn’t mind it if you were actually capable of an intelligent discussion on the subject. As it is, you are just too ignorant of the subject to have any meaningful dialogue with. (If you are really interested in some fascinating physics, try to read — and understand — Lawrence Krauss on the subject.) However, in the end it wouldn’t make one whit of a difference, would it?
“Belief in Hashem needs that too, but it also has a timeless advantage, time and mesoireh.”
A theory that is older than 15 centuries and refuses to change upon discovery of new and increasingly convincing information suffers from a great disadvantage, not advantage. How you imagine otherwise mystifies me.
“If and when man does manage to scientifically explain the big bang, I will still be able to argue that Hashem caused it to occur.”
Yes, as I said above, not one whit of a difference. So why the smokescreen?
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JL, or maybe the world was really created five minutes ago and you were created with all your memories of a life that never really happened.
Ben, nice writing and story. It reminds me of the seriousness that I see in my married Kolel kids. Except for family, which I admit is nothing to sneeze at, all the lustre and beauty of life gets sucked out of em.
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BD:
Sure gravity is preventing you in some ways, but there is nothing stopping you from speaking loshon horah for example, other than the fact that Hashem exists.
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BHB,
Five minutes? That would be impossible. It is written that creation took place about 6ooo years ago.
Frummer,
I once had a friend who loved to talk loshon horah all the time. Nowadays he doesn’t believe in god anymore. Although he wouldn’t admit it, I think it’s because he can talk more freely now.
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I’m rushed. Even though some of u might b trying your best to dismiss my point with sarcastic dismissals, each and every one of u know exactly what I mean.
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Hashem created the light on the first day and the stars on the fourth day. The light was created before the stars, so one can see stars that are billions of light years away even though the universe is 5770 years old.
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Frummer — You’re right that one can’t prove a negative. We can’t, say, prove that, as BD put it, one can’t fall UP a flight of stairs. Which is why the gravitational theory is just that, a theory. One might one day discover evidence that it IS possible. Nevertheless, we accept the theory as true since all empirical evidence currently available is consistent with it.
But the bigger issue is that you seem intent on having a discussion in your own little echo chamber. You persist in declaring your faith in God (or Hashem, as you seem so fond of calling Him), Judaism, and a way of life and a value system that you find personally meaningful and true. Howevwer, you couch it in terms that make it sound like an argument, when really you have no argument at all. You profess your faith while pretending there’s some logical basis for it. If you were merely professing your personal and highly subjective inclination towards such belief, that would be one thing — as spurious as I might find such faith to be. But your attempts at arguing your position, with a complete lack of understanding of the scientific matters in question no less, inevitably invite the acerbic responses and sarcastic dismissals — since you really allow for no intelligent discussion. And the entire conversation becomes rather pointless.
I have no real beef with your personal beliefs (as baseless as I might find them), but your pretense at justifying it to others by dismissing well-established scientific findings makes a mockery of your arguments and makes you appear — excuse my bluntness — a blabbering buffoon (and for that you have my heartfelt sympathies).
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There’s this very firm belief among so called enlightened people that science contradicts the fact that there is a G-d and that the more proof there is for “science”, the less the likelihood that there is a G-d.
Hence you guys doing your very best to memorise Einsitiens, Newtons and Hawkings. It’s kinda like an all in one comfort blanket and protective shield.
You take me for a thick Chossid who doesn’t have a clue about an of the above and you know what, I don’t blame you. If I’m the village idiot, my reasoning has no validity. It’s a great defence tactic.
However, the so called “intelligent discussion about scientific matters” you so want me to engage in, is an absolute waste of all our time because, as I’ve said, science is not a contradiction to Hashem, so where’s the point in putting it against Him? Each and every molecule and DNA structure, including the rules of physics which bind them together, that exist within our cosmos was put there by Him. Isn’t He just amazing?
I sure can understand why that irks you. I can also understand why you have to stoop to base tactics such as sarcasm and ridicule. Your comfort blanket is losing it’s powers.
But the fact remains, Hashem created the world, including all the science contained within it, and He is not a contradiction to science. As in the words of Sherlock Holmes. “Elementary, Dear Watson. Elementary”.
Dear Friends, you will have set aside all your lomdishe arguments. If you really must get rid of Him, you will have to fess up to the real reason. He is simply too much bother and trouble, and, to top it all, He’s really, really old fashioned.
If clear-cut argument such as the above makes me a “blabbering buffoon in my own little echo chamber”, then I am proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one.
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“….smelled the fresh rye bread from the bakeries on Fourteenth Avenue…”
You had me believing that this was a portion of your soon to be released memoir; until I came to the sentence pasted above. Since there NEVER was any such bakery on 14th avenue, I realize that it is from your forthcoming novel. That’s good news, because now I won’t have to wait so long for its release.
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To an old time Boro Parker. Sure there was. There was Mandelbaums bakery on 14th & 45, right next to the candy store.
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Frummer, I’m a proud believer in UFO’s. An extremely proud one at that. There is no proof AGAINST them, and it doesn’t contradict science. I should probably start a religion so people can dedicate themselves to this UFO fact. Oh, and if anyone ever says that they don’t want to sacrifice their lives for it, I’m sure its all because their fear of loosing their comfy blanket.
The reason people use science as an counter-claim to religion isn’t as much its contradictions, as it is the total useless-ness of some ’super-man’ once you have a thorough understanding of biology and physics. Its like finding out the trick behind the magicians seemingly miraculous and impossible feat of turning the three rings into one or whatever. You feel foolish for ever thinking the magician had any more qualifications then you. Once you really learned biology, the simplest and most straightforward answers for observed phenomena, you have no NEED to believe in a Superman, Santa, or the tooth fairy. It all just makes sense without them.
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An old time Boro Parker at 7:28 am, wrote:
there NEVER was any such bakery on 14th avenue
Baal Habos on at 7:56 am wrote:
Sure there was. There was Mandelbaums bakery on 14th & 45, right next to the candy store.
Sitting here naked in the mikva, I sit corrected.
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I’m a proud believer in Jesus Christ, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one, proud to be one.
Is that not convincing enough that Jesus is the Messiah??????
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baal habos,
yes, that was einhorn’s candy store.
hayu yamim.
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some of you commenters are killing the post with your totally irrelevant comments on god and whatnot. can’t you hold your baggage in until the right time and place?
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>The day was warming and I walked a short distance to Prospect Park to sit amongst the trees and sift through the thoughts overwhelming me.<
That's quite a walk!
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From 12th and 40th to Park Circle is less than 25 minutes, according to the walking directions in Google Maps.
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Wonderful, the thought of a naked guy in a mikva telling me “I’m right”, really makes my day. Thanks for sharing.
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Hey Ben,
I remember the pickles in the drawer of AB and the benches behind the door, as well as the boy of your previous post. It’s curious that I’m not the only one of that class that turned out unpious.
Contact me at supergartel@gmail.com, and we’ll share memories…
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Frummer,
You present no logic.
You present no facts.
You haven’t constructed a single argument.
You ignore anything you don’t understand.
You have no idea of what science is or how it’s done.
You denigrate anything which doesn’t support what you believe.
You uncritically accept anything which could possibly support your beliefs.
You display a classic ratchet mentality.
All you have is a mechanical “I believe!”
That isn’t a sign of spiritual strength, great intellect or learning. It’s detachment from reality that borders on clinical insanity.
And it has nothing to do with the rather touching article.
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Todd:
“All you have is a mechanical “I believe!””
Our belief is that we have to believe. Facts are facts, they cannot be “believed”.
Accepting a fact is moronically easy.
But it does take great personal strength to believe and trust in the face of an absence of hard facts.
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Todd,
You are right us believers are certainly at a disadvantage. It is virtually impossible to prove a believe. However, I think it is somewhat egotistical to assume that one has adequate knowledge to dismiss a tradition handed down for thousands of years and has been believed by ingenious people such as the Rambam who was learnt in almost every discipline. The Rambam did not shy away from the debate and one should make sure they fully understand his position before dismissing it. Just because we currently do not have great minds to debate these perplexing issues does not equate that the religion is a farce. I think that many dismiss Judaism because it’s inconvenient and consequently try to find proof for their agenda.
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Forget about Mother Teresa, Paul Rusesabagina, Oskar shindler, Martin Luther King, or Rosa Parks.
Forget about Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, or Abraham Lincoln.
You see that bucher over there walking fast with his eyes down? Now that’s what I call great personal strength!
He didn’t better the world or change anyones life, he didn’t discover any facts about medicine to save millions of people, he didn’t sacrifice his life or his little comfort zone for any scientific advancement that now allows you and me to live healthier, more fulfilling, and longer lives. He doesn’t even do brain surgery or even nursing. As a matter of fact his most enduring unselfishness was exhibited yesterday when he gave his own coffee to his chavrusa and then made a new one for himself in kollel, and even that happened out of the alarmingly high levels of boredom he experienced.
But he “believes and trusts in the face of an absence of hard facts”. Isn’t he just amazing?
Do you know what super-human strengths is needed to go along with what everyone around you is saying? To stay the way you grew up and believe that your little community is the only right way to live? To believe in WHATEVER your rebbi tells you no matter how ridicules/superstitious it is? To not accept moronical facts that are easily observable?
If this doesn’t earn him a noble award, what will?
Just go over to that bucher. Stop him in the middle of his purposefully swinging walk. Stop him for a minute and ask him why he lives the way he does. Why he looks different, dresses different, and lives different. Why he has pios, let’s his beard grow, why he only wears black and white. See the shock on his face as you shatter his perfect illusion of a world starting at 13th ave and ending at 18th. Notice his mind churning for a minute or two before exclaiming with triumph that of course he believes, because his father believes! And his father isn’t a philosopher or either knows the facts, he is also a blind believer! Find out how questions, exploration, curiosity, is not only not encouraged in his educational institution, but is ridiculed and forbidden. He might even be one of the bright ones who will vigilantly tell you that he trusts a great scholar from 1000 years ago who was on his side and that he is sure the rambam already covered all these questions somewhere. Who is Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Aristotle, or Marie Curie anyways? There were other wise people around? I mean, he did hear of Albert Einstein, but you see?! Albert Einstein even said he would’ve been religious if he could turn back time, on his deathbed. His rosh yeshivah told him so himself!
Not only does he not believe in but he has never even heard of quantum physics, the theory of evolution, titanic plate movement, Genetics, and DNA! But yeah, he has learned half the shas and believes in unseen half people, that the clouds open up to take in rain from heaven, that the sun has a tunnel for the nights, and the perfect arrangement of millions of fossil species is a fraud by thousands of scientists the world over making clay bones in their basements.
Not only does he not believe in but he doesn’t even know about the ecosystem, how environmentalists save thousands of species, the UN, the red cross, Foundation for AIDS Research, Human Rights Watch, or the Salvation Army. But yeah, he hates the freedom democracy and technology has given us cause it made us impure and he would love to go back to the good old ghetto days when the goy hated us. He laughs from the suckers who give their hard earned taxes so he can live off section 8 and Medicaid and have 12 lechtiga kinderlach. He hates the anti-semites who give tickets and put people in jail for molestation and money laundering.
“But it does take great personal strength to believe and trust in the face of an absence of hard facts.” Says frummer.
“It takes great fear and dictatorship to manipulate thousands of people into not thinking about their options, rights and liberties.” Says me.
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shauly
Yep. You are a genius! Most goyim or secular jews grow up to be great contributors to society….its only the chassideshe buchor who is utterly useless.
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Uber, first off thanx (blushing here), its in my genes!
Second, if I may answer you in the name of frummer, the difference between the chassidisha bucher and the modern human is, that the chassidisha bucher shows “great personal strength to believe and trust in the face of an absence of hard facts” while the secular person is “Accepting a fact moronically easy”.
Ok. Granted. Maybe they have a few minor differences like freedom, education, honost intellectual disscussions, and the choice to be who they really are.
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My dear friend,
I too agree that the chassideshe system has many flaws – I know of them because I grew up within it. However, to assume that the modern person has all the freedom is naïve. They too are confined to the confines of their society. They are also expected to behave I a certain way. They too struggle with a wide range of problems. We critics of the chasideshe system would likely be the ones criticizing the secular system and idealizing the chasedehe system…
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Uber Chochem: Still, one’s a member of a cult and one isn’t.
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Please keep on writing and posting what you write.
I recommend that anyone reading this get a free blog and just sit down when you have a little time and write.
Express your thoughts. Pick a name. No one will ever know who you are. Write and let your thoughts be released.
It may be one of the most liberating and exciting things you do.
Write about anything but especially the things you enjoy.
http://www.jewishdailyreport.wordpress.com
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Nicely done, Shauly.
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Great post, Shauly!
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Shauly,
It takes great personal strength to sit and learn in yeshiva, when one could be working and making money.
Also, while the world needs Albert Einsteins, Martin Luther Kings, great doctors, great scientists, the world also needs great Torah scholars.
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No, Betzalel. It doesn’t take great strength. It takes conformity, ignorance, blind obedience and fear. That’s why there are such hideous consequences for stepping out of line or leaving. If you leave you lose your spouse and children, your support network, your parents and everything you know. If you break the rules you don’t just suffer. Your siblings and cousins will have trouble marrying.
That’s why the chumras keep coming. That’s why frum “education” is designed to keep people from every having an alternative, integrating into the real world or learning anything except dogma.
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Todd,
I guess that’s another way of looking at it. I’m a baal teshuva. I’m Orthodox Jewish by choice. It took a lot of soul-searching for me to come into this way of life.
If you’re born into it and you are forced to keep it by pressures from your community, there is no soul-searching involved; you are only doing it because you don’t know any other way. This is bad.
One’s religion must be by personal choice.
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Betzalel: Only problem is that’s not what the Torah says/implies!
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Frummer is hardly a mechanical believer.
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