For the Russian sins of suspicion, hyper-vigilance and rigidity

Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: Russian BTs from a female perspective:

I have a few diverse and unconnected points to add which are all really separate posts (for whatever it's worth).

One: This stereotyping of Russian BTs has some truth to it, but its about as accurate as joking that all American BTs are granola-crunching ex-Dead Heads. I've known plenty of Russian BTs who are sensitive, deep, soft-spoken and don't even know how to drink vodka. Even coming from a common culture, different personality types always emerge. What I will say is that without exception, anybody who spent any amount of their formative years in the Soviet Union is, to some degree, emotionally disturbed. Some over-compensate and re-adjust better than others, but no one walked away from that place without deep emotional scars. What I'm talking about is not the Russian cultural idiosyncrasies of pretentiousness, stubbornness, bravado, etc. but the symptomatic characteristics of post-traumatic-stress-syndrome from living in a totalitarian society, namely suspicion, hyper-vigilance and rigidity. I would be interested to know if the old Russians who had some vestige of cultural connection to pre-Soviet Russia were possessed of these same foibles. It is rather hard to know, just like one wonders if being a pugnacious ingrate was a common trait amongst American Blacks before they were concentrated into the industrial ghettos.

Further, I would postulate that many of today�s Russian BTs are a different breed than those of the lameds and mems. In those days, the BTs were revolutionaries who practiced defiance through dabbling in Yiddishkeit. There is absolutely no comparing pre-perestroika Refusenik iconoclasts to today�s �BTs-by-default� who have comfortably fallen into a pre-set sub-cultural framework. Most of today�s Russian BTs (I�m not talking about the Chabad House mekurovim all over the country, but rather the sirtuk-wearing card-carrying Lubavitchers) are messianist, which suits their post-Soviet disorder on two counts. One, it reinforces their need to be distrustful of authority by sneering at the premise of a centralized system. Two, it meets an even more deep-seated, unspoken need to aggrandize their leaders into a generalissimo. [file this under mentalblog.com: The dog days of Brighton]

Now, for my second point:

Just so you can sleep a wee bit easier tonight, I will tell you that from reading the young lady's post, I gather that she is not so young. This is no wild-child girl hell-bent on throwing away her innocence. She is nearing middle age and her Russian BT 'friends' are not elterer bocherim with yellow lapel pins. They are a bunch of Chabad House mekurovim also in their 40s, probably divorced from non-Jewish wives.

However (my third point):

While writing about her personal indiscretions amongst Russian BT men, the poster reveals much more about the sub-culture of which she speaks than she is aware.

What is of interest to me is not whether or not they have 'bad breath and rotting teeth,' but that she describes a social network of so-called 'baalei teshuvah' who seem to engage regularly in behavior that exemplifies wanton prikus-oyl. So superficial is their brand of �teshuvah� that one could behave like a shikkurer goy and still identify as baalei teshuvah. Indeed, Tzemach, file this under the post 'Woodstock in Uman', for they are two outbreaks within the same epidemic. Once upon a time, Jewish outreach was a cottage industry. The purveyors were either authentic (if not eloquent) communicators, or if not, then at least, possessed of some sense of accountability. Now, (thank G-d), Judaism is available as never before to the masses. But with that comes the Lord of the Flies syndrome I once referred to on this blog (see mentalblog.com: The gym that was once 770).

Woodstock in Uman

Forward.com: Unrest Brews at Rebbe�s Resting Place.
Forward Multimedia Presentation: Rosh Hashanah in Uman, Ukraine.

NoteMesh: collaborate to graduate

Neat Wiki idea: NoteMesh-collaborate to graduate.

Russian BTs from a female perspective

Chava commenting to mentalblog.com: To the chicks of Crown Heights:

From a female perspective, I find Russian BT's males to be most unappealing. They brood, brag, and booze too much. They don't groom, earn, or humor me enough. They bore me with their paranoia; they're possessiveness and petty jealousies, and their precious egos. They're quarrelsome, misogynistic, pseudo-intellectuals with bad breath and rotting teeth. Russian BT males, they measure their religiosity by the amount of vodka they drink. Who would want to go out with, let alone marry one?

The dog days of Brighton

On the subject of mentalblog.com: Murky, Sparky and Barky.

About four years ago I organized a trip to a pro-Israeli demonstration in Washington DC with the Sparky. I suggested using the parking lot of the Conservative Temple Emanuel in Newton as a staging ground for the buses. It was a central location with safe and ample parking. I was told by Sparky that he would have nothing to do with the Conservatives!

No, I am not the frumak who suggests that Sparky should have asked for a heter to do the fundraising gig in the SANCTUARY of the same temple, nor am I am shpizt to complain that he doesn�t have Chabad in big enough letters on his invitation. But what was wrong with the parking lot four year ago?

Nothing is more suffocation for the Jewish fabric of Boston than the financial monopoly of CJP. Nothing exemplifies that wasteful, totalitarian, Kafkaesque calamity than the redistribution of Boston�s attention towards the oligarch supported Lubavitch feudal lordship of Dnepropetrovsk.

Now let me explain few metaphors related to dogs. Dog�s primary social function is to sniff asses of other dogs. This is how one dog gets to know another dog. And the suffocation mentioned in that post means that when you have nothing to say, speaking in public is like depriving people of life, stealing the very livelihood of their existence in a house of worship.

It is five years since Murky relinquished the material upkeep of the Mosad he spent his life building, and five years later the Shule continues to be an unmitigated disaster. The only time there are any signs of life in that Shule is when Polonsky is visiting from Israel. I know nothing about the School but I do have my reservations based on the experience.

A big man knows how to make room for the light. This is what the Rebbe wanted. A person who can�t speak coherently in any language should take the money he raised and put it to use making sure the spiritual needs of Jews are met. And this means sharing the spotlight with a person who lives and breaths Torah, not the operator dreaming about the next fundraising gig.

Pygmalion in Birkenstock sandals

Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: The split brand:

I just got a fantastic idea for a mentalblog musical based on My Fair Lady (based on GB Shaw's Pygmalion).

Henry Higgins (Berl), an arrogant dikduk professor, brags to Colonel Pickering (Faruq), that he can teach any girl to speak "aza heimishe Yiddish" that he could pass her off as gezhe - even Eliza Doolittle, a Machon Chanah girl who plays guitar and wears Birkenstock sandals. After overhearing this, Eliza offers to pay the professor for "elocution lessons" so that she can score an FFB shiduch. Pickering bets Higgins that he cannot make good on his claim.

At first Eliza makes no progress, but just as she thinks the idea is hopeless, suddenly she "gets it." (By George, She's Got It!)

Higgins takes her on her first public appearance at a l'chaim at FREE where she makes a good impression with her snobby, aristocratic Russian attitude, only to shock everyone with her gauche baal teshuva-isms such as "Lubovitcher chasids" and "yeishus-ness". Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the gezhe anyway, is somewhat proud of Eliza for deflating their pomposity.

The bet depends on Eliza's passing as gezhe at the Duchman chasunah, which she does successfully despite the presence of a discerning Jewish genealogy expert (Schneur Zalman of NY), who is completely taken in.

But Higgins's yeishus-ness and ungrateful boasting of his success leads Eliza to walk out on him, leaving the seemingly clueless Higgins mystified by her ingratitude.

Sanhedrin blew Shofar on Shabbat

parshablog: Why the New Sanhedrin Blew the Shofar On Shabbat.
Life in Israel: Did you blow the shofar on the 1st day?
TheSanhedrin.org: View topic - The Sanhedrin's blowing Shofar on Shabat.
The actual details please?

To the chicks of Crown Heights

I love Gezha girls. Culturally I have more in common with them than with the American BTs. Hence my bitterness at the discrimination. I love their understated style and natural, real sense of self and modest beauty. I detest fake acting of the American BTs and the suffocating neurotic masculinity of the Russians. This is especially pronounced amongst women BTs. BTW, just before the Rosh Hashona I met the grand dame of them all from Bat Ayin, floating down Kingston Ave. sporting a broom.

Despite their emancipated style many Gezha and FFBs girls of Chabad still have to prove themselves. Time and again smarter than their brothers they have to shout twice as loudly to be heard. Fast talking Brooklyn chicks can do dozens around you but they are overcompensating too much to my taste. Graduating to Beis Rivka professorship they often know how to talk to children only, unaware they do not switch the manner with adults. Having infantile parents and growing in a culture that celebrates childish modality doesn�t help.

Here is a hug to all of the Gezha chicks, I know how you feel!

But for real, I am disappointed about the lack of historical reference amongst the young Chabadniks in general and the girls in particular. Sorry, your rudimentary knowledge of the Russian alphabet and a summer in Zhitomir doesn�t count. You are an extremely stupid when it comes to the historical context of the Jewish people. I don�t care if you father is a Rosh Yeshiva, it makes matters only worse. Do not be overly obsessed with literacy; this is traditionally overrated value. Do not feel trapped. Your beautiful layered eyes should swirl around the soft tones forever�

Lucy in LA has nothing to hide

Responding desperation

A GONZO STATE OF MIND: Mimamakim...

The situation in Lubavitch is just as bleak. While there are great Lubavitch individuals, all the institutions have gone to hell. Subsequently, the sense of community is completely lost. There are no rallying causes anymore, just the individual relationship with G-d. The only institution that seems to be healthy is the shlichus system, which, we all know, remains intact only in form. The content is diseased, possibly beyond cure, infested with lawsuits, hatred, animosity, corruption, and negative competition.

The split brand

berl, crown heights commenting to mentalblog.com: The eye of the hurricane through the rear view mirror:

"The brand has split."

That's probably true, but I am not at all sure about the statistics. The heavy presence of the yellow-flag-sporting dark-skinned Israeli guests here during tishrei makes a certain impression, to be sure. But I doubt it is fully representative even of the Israeli Chabad reality - after all, the other kind of Israeli Lubavitchers do not make the pilgrimage to CH for the tishrei holidays in the post-gimmel tammuz era one of the ikkrei hoemunoh. And �yellow-fever� is most definitely not spreading among the American Lubavitchers. In fact, the opposite is true; especially since the tzfatim have turned off many otherwise meshichist-leaning American bachurim.

But as to the �split of the brand� - I do not see how it can be avoided. This split is more than just ideological or theological. It goes much deeper and touches upon that which can�t be argued or �explained away� - the very core existential questions that define one�s being. These days I can sometimes look at another Lubavitcher and know that we have nothing in common at all. The truth is, I had similar feelings in 1988 at the Rebetzin�s levaya as I looked at the throngs of bachurim pushing their way to stare at the Rebbe at this moment of his unspeakable tzaar. At that time I could afford (?) not to dwell on these thoughts. This is no longer the case today. Do I speak only for myself? I doubt it.

Just A Guy: Yes, the divide is steadily widening. While it seems that most Israeli Chabad youth today are indoctrinated into the yellow dogma the very opposite is occurring to their American counterparts. I just heard a bocher from a long time Mishichist family cursing the Tzfatim to damnation. So while the Yellow Taliban continue on its way to dominate Chabad in Israel most of the Americans simply have had enough. The shuls and shteibles across Crown Heights were JAMMED with people who had enough of the 770 freak-show. Look at the size Beis Shmuel has grown. There are now a group of younger, frumer, recently married guys that put a new shul together last year Rosh Hashonoh and continued in the back room of NCFJE. They just moved into where Beis Shmuel davens and had 60 couples for Rosh Hashonoh. There are more and more Minyonim opening up in Crown Heights for this very reason. Soon there will be no more normal people in 770 at all and then they can really bark at the moon! The gaboyim have zero control of the place as was clearly seen at the fiasco by the aliyos on Yom Tov.

Bus 67 detour

Reflections.

Underground surrealism: Rebbe is poring wine while a JEM flick of him doing the same is running in the background.

Life and death situation.

Inevitably someone in Crown Heights will ask me about the number of hits this blog gets. I find the question perplexing. It is all about content not the number of hits. But then again Lubavitch culture is all about obsession with participatory exaggeration, "hamoney am" junk.

On the subject of detour, every time I visit 770, I always see Hazanchick, Butman and asserted Gabays talking in a small circle with a sense of conspiratorial agitation. I have to say that this is the most annoying comical little 770 vignette, it's ridiculous. They just need few Poltoraks to complete the buffoonery.

The Youth - lifeless and tired, mumbling written words. When I got off the bus 67 in Crown Heights, the first person I run into was Matisyahu coming out of the Lefferts mikvah with a towel, wearing a Yechi yarmulke. I wished him a good year.

The eye of the hurricane through the rear view mirror

Taking Chaim Yavich Express No. 67 from Ohel to 5767.

I found it interesting that they have the Rebbe�s wrist watch on the bimah.

The seider vet zein azoy, there will be the following schedule. First there will be a revelation of the Rebbe Melech Hamoshiach, takef u meyad mamash. Then we will Daven Maariv. Then Havdolah. After Havdola there will be halukas of kois she brocho �me yado hamleyo uvepsucho�. The congregation starts chanting �Ad Mosay�.

The debate about the future of Chabad is academic. Although many prefer not to talk about �what�s going on in the basement�. It seems that due to their numbers and the energy mechichiten are unstoppable. I don�t see how legal arguments about the ownership of the building can change this fact. I have never seen so many people in 770 when the Rebbe was alive. Certainly all the known messiahs did not have the number of believers just ten years after. The movement simply no longer exists as a unified ideological entity. The brand has split. There are now Chabad intellectuals who rationalize that the messianic idea is a binding human condition that unites Rome, Teheran and Jerusalem!

It occurred to me that people who always considered the Rebbe to be inanimate object are merely continuing with the approach. The trust of most vulnerable Jews have been outsourced by the Rebbe himself to these very people.

I have been told that Crown Heights became more cosmopolitan in the recent years but I saw a much more homogenous neighborhood. People are tired on RH but there was a certain bland washed out uniform expression on many faces. It feels draining. It�s a shut down, expressionless, monotonous grind. The machine is everything. Paradoxically while nominally embracing outreach, Chabad continues to repel discontented, at least around the headhunters of Eastern Parkway it is all about black silk marching in step, chanting with infantile certainty. The childish subconscious cruelty was once again vivid.

For Sephardim this comes naturally.

So it no surprise that the father wears Yechi and his son Na, Na. It is the same marketing segment and target audience. Just like a cross was a tangible sign of the believers there is a Hebrew sea of yellow pins waving.

Shana Tovah

Heartfelt greetings to friends who shared their wisdom so generously. May G-d�s angels SPEAK fondly of you and may all the lists be burned. No more seals, no more fate ledgers, just the breath of eternity. Next year as an experiment let�s bench all the casuistic lawyers who moonlight as the leaders of Jewish people (secular and religious). Let the geeks relinquish the crown to dancers and poets. Let�s see who can provide a better direction at the end of the year. Long live rhythm, down with the written maze.

L�Chaim to the last sane mentalblogers on earth!

1909, Jewish New Year - Praying on the Williamsburg Bridge (Tashlich). Bain News Service.
The soundtrack from Once Upon a Time in Americamusic by Ennio Morricone. I want to dedicate this score to the young man on the bridge.

Oriana Fallaci passed away

Nafka Mina: Oriana Fallaci and Benedict.

Street fight in Russia

Fight between two gangs of soccer fans in St. Petersburg.

Un-human for the purposes of the narrative

THREAD: mentalblog.com: Archetypal rendering of the same figure.
FILE: mentalblog.com's bookmarks tagged with "Tony.Montana" on del.icio.us

Bearded man in derby hat amid group of Jewish boys. George Grantham Bain Collection

Tony Montana: Of course the struggle of the morality of the few against the corruption of the powered class is timeless, but it used to be a tribal struggle. What's uniquely modern is the lonesomeness; the feeling that there is nowhere to turn. Although, come to thing of it, Avraham "The Ivri" was also a "last sane man on earth."

Tzemach Atlas: The people you call �the corrupt powers-that-be�, are they a different species from the Everyman?

Tony Montana: The corrupt powers-that-be are, for the purposes of the narrative, un-human. They are either absurd buffoons (Gilliam's Brazil comes to mind) or animalistic or robotic. The everyman, as it turns out, is not only the last sane man on earth, but the last man on earth (Usually, if he finds a girl, she is also inhuman, although his heterosexual relationship with her is sometimes necessary as it is often seen as redemptive).

Tzemach Atlas: In the end of the movie Little Murders Alfred and the men from the family of his in-laws regain their sense of self by becoming killers. Does it mean that a path for redemption for the Everyman is to join "the corrupt powers-that-be"?

Tony Montana: Little Murders finishes with an apocalyptic ending. There is no redemption for the Everyman. His soul dies. Also, another variation of this is Repo Man, Shadows and Fog, and Taxi Driver where the Everyman is not redeemed but is able to escape into an alternative reality/fantasy. The Graduate, which is cut from the same atheistic hippy cloth as Little Murders, also ends with no redemption. After the victory at the church, Ben has nowhere to go, there is no safe place left on earth. They sit emotionless on the bus as if they could ride forever and will never come to any destination.

Tzemach Atlas: How does alienation affect an Everyman-Powerman?

Tony Montana: Do you mean an Everyman who is also a Powerman? The two are antithetical. The Everyman cannot be a Powerman. The Powerman is not an individual man; it is a group of men who are not men at all but a single machine.

Tzemach Atlas: Are Everyman and "the corrupt powers-that-be" the only societal groups? Is there in-between category?

Tony Montana: There is an Everyman who by definition is singular and alone. He has no Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote. (Didn't we speak about Quixote on this blog a while back? And, by the way, THIS is what makes the story uniquely modern.) Then there is the power structure that, as mentioned, is not human. They are an entity. They look human but they are not. (BTW, in the horror genre, the last sane man on earth is re-created as The Last Non-Monster on Earth, as in The Thing (Carpenter) and the zombie genre.) Then there is the third class. They are not human like the Everyman or machines/animals like the power structure. They are "dehumanized humans" who perhaps were once humans but not anymore.

Regarding this third group, the struggle of the Last Sane Man on Earth is that he is conflicted between ending his loneliness by joining the ex-humans and retaining his sanity which is already tenuous. Why hang on to a sanity that is a) anyways crumbling and barely functional, b) only brings on the acutely painful knowledge of his loneliness and c) invites persecution? The Everyman seems to be aware that by joining the zombies, he will finally have a respite. In many stories, this is an open parable of "coming of age"; to become an adult means to become de-humanized. But why bother remaining a child when there are no other children to play with?

As Neil Young sings in Sugar Mountain:
Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though youre thinking that youre leaving there too soon.

The world of childhood is a fantasy that spits you out from its substanceless dream-state into the substantive nightmare of adult reality. The Everyman finds out that either way he is doomed to loneliness: to be the only adult in an unfulfilling childhood world or to be the only child in a soulless adult world.

Only in Hollywood do we find redemption from such a plight, as in Deep Cover, or, lehavdil, in the Rebbe's teachings.

Every Jew is a last sane man on earth. He must realize that the whole world as he sees it is false and that "In truth, there is nothing in the world but you and G-d." (elucidated in Reshimos, 48.) The power structure is the seemingly unbreachable system of concealment and its minions. The quest is to end the loneliness by actually casting off the cosmic darkness and revealing the core of order and truth. In doing so, the Jew brings on a personal (but nonetheless objective) redemption which joins with that of others (who are also the only one in the world) to bring on a universal redemption. The de-humanized are given back their humanity and the Jew is no longer alone in the world. Indeed, the only way to complete the cosmic refinement process is to see to it that every other Last Sane Man on Earth will also reject the lures of the power system and insist on clinging to the truth.

I often think about the fact that the Rebbetzin was quoted as saying (call it apocryphal or not, it still smacks of truth), "My father had one chosid, the Rebbe. Now whom does my husband have?"

The central ill of exile is the fragmentation of reality, the disruption of unity. The quest for redemption is nothing other than quest for the end of loneliness.

Tzemach Atlas: The open Meshichism chronologically is understood in the context of the Rebbe struggling with the utter complete loneliness after the passing of his wife.

Tony Montana: The Rebbe's open messianic talk actually began in 1950 with the passing of his Rebbe. And maybe it began earlier, as he relates that since his childhood he envisioned the redemption. Indeed, it looked like more and more Jews were being sucked into the machine and that soon there would only be one Jew left.

But I don't wish to speculate as to what the Rebbe's personal motivations may have been. I'm talking about his teachings. Redemption is the complete reversal of fragmentation and isolation by way of exposing the core which binds the universe as one.

Tzemach Atlas: Alfred in the Little Murders is already inhuman; in fact only by becoming a murderer his regains his sanity. It is an inverse caricature. The Rebbe as Everyman is a contradiction because he had power and he left the dehumanized machine after his passing. You can't possibly suggest that he used other people to cheerlead for his personal redemption. One can see the collapse of the tribal as universal condition but one can also claim that the collapse of the Everyman tribe of Lubavitch is the consequence of the systematic fascistic dehumanization of every single institution in Chabad under the banner of redemption. Europe struggled with this problem. Can Everyman be a Powerman. Many though Napoleon was such a man. Germans, Nietzsche understood Hitler in those terms. But really can power coexist with humanity? If the tribal is no longer, do we have to follow a tribal script to personal redemption?

The Last Sane Man on Earth

Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: Archetypal rendering of the same figure.

I fear that we are so disconnected already, very few of us can consciously relate to the universality of our alienation. That's why it works better to communicate the idea through storytelling rather than through expository writing.

There's a genre of storytelling called "The Last Sane Man on Earth." The idea is simple: the world is crazy and only one man knows it. The model for the story is the Kafka novel The Trial. Deep Cover, Little Murders, and Repo Man are all essentially remakes of that. Woody Allen's mediocre but intoxicating Shadows and Fog is an open knock-off of the Trial. The funniest versions of the story to date are Neighbors (Avildsen) and After Hours (Scorcese). But its all the same story.

It's not a uniquely Jewish story, but it is very Jewish and usually told by Jews or about Jews. As the old folk saying goes, "The Jews are just like everybody else... only moreso." So, if the blight of modern man is a nagging sense of alienation and loss of self, the Jew is bound to be totally lost.

What did the Pope actually say?

On the subject of mentalblog.com: Muhammad over Pope in two rounds. Full text: Catholic World News (CWN).

Horenstein family tree

Menachem commenting to mentalblog.com: Horenstein mystery:

I recently saw the various postings on the Horenstein family and wanted to comment.

I am related to the Horensteins through my 2nd greatgrandmother Tzirul (born ca. 1823), daughter of R. Gur-Aryeh (ben Shmuel) HaKohen Horenstein. Over the years, in the process of researching my ancestry, I have learned a great deal about this illustrious chasidic family and I recently wrote an extensive article on them. Titled The Remarkable Radomysl Horensteins, the article is currently in press, and should appear in both English and Hebrew in the next issue of Sharsheret Hadorot, the Journal of the Israel Genealogical Society.

I see that questions were brought up concerning R. Menachem Mendel HaKohen Horenstein�s siblings. My listing shows three siblings: Sarah (Sala) and Rochel (each had a child) and Leah (who died in her youth). He also had two half-sisters, Dora Leah (Dotzia) (who had children) and Sarah (Sala).

I have put together an extensive Horenstein family tree. If anyone has a specific question concerning the tree, please e-mail me and I would be pleased to help.

In response to Schneur Zalman of NY: Earlier this year there were questions and comments on the Schneerson-Horenstein marriages. I have listings for four:

1. Shalom Noach Dulikaza, son of Sheina Bracha Schneerson, daughter of R. Yosef Yitzcock Schneersohn of Ovruch, married Hilda Horenstein, daughter of Israel Yakov Horenstein and Chaike Horenstein, about 1891.
2. Chaya Muscha Schneerson, sister of R. Shalom Dov Ber (the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe) married Moshe HaKohen Horenstein, son of Gur-Aryeh HaKohen Horenstein and Taube Horowitz, in 1892.
3. Sheindel Schneerson, daughter of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe (R. Yosef Yitzcock Schneerson) married their son, Menachem Mendel HaKohen Horenstein, in 1932.
4. Finally, my records list a Moussia Schneerson who married Moshe Horenstein (born 1869), son of Zalman HaKohen Horenstein and Ester Hinda Landau � but I have so far been unable to establish her ancestry. (Any suggestions???)

Also, if Schneur Zalman of NY is still reading this blog, I would very much appreciate a copy of the photo of Gurari HaKohen Horenstein that you acquired through Horenstein family members in Israel. (By the way, my father once said that anyone whose given name is Gurari is a cousin and, indeed, that is generally true.)

My particular interest is in tracing the family further back in time to learn about the ancestors of my ancestor Tzirul. Despite considerable research, including contacting many family members, searching texts of rabbinical genealogies, and reviewing Ukrainian archival documents, I have been unable to substantiate the family�s yichus claim of descent from R. Naftali Ka�tz, the Smichat Chachamim (1649-1719) due to my inability to identify a few generations between R. Shmuel HaKohen (Horenstein) and the Smichat Chachamim. Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

How to Make a Hollow Book

WikiHow: How to Make a Hollow Book.

Reincarnated dog

There is this story in Ynetnews: Haredim convinced: Reincarnated dog begs forgiveness. The most unexpected is the conclusion. If the dog was so holly why remove the dog instead of adopting? Obviously the Haredim are so afraid and allergic to dogs that even if the dog is your own father he still has no place in neighborhood... (via Shmarya)

Archetypal rendering of the same figure

Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: Little Murders.

To Berl: It's all in your imagination. There's nothing scary about me. I am warm and fuzzy.

To Tzemach: The reason I told you to watch the movie is because it touches upon some of the themes that have been emerging from the blog lately. (BTW - I notice that every time the blog dies and comes back, it is reincarnated on a higher level. There's a certain cyclical nature to the topics, you revisit the same ideas; but on a deeper level. Whereas a year ago, the blog was about the breakdown of societal structures, it now speaks to the alienation of the individual that lives within those broken constructs.)

Little Murders is indeed a dark film (and that's why I warned you NOT to watch Jules Feifer's other screenplay Carnal Knowledge, because it is even bleaker). The reason I told you to watch it is because of your response to Deep Cover. Deep Cover speaks about moral ambiguity in the language of the early 90s gangsta genre. The Everyman is black, strong and emotionally detached from himself. Little Murders is essentially the same Morality Play as expressed through the filter of another now anachronistic genre, the early 70s absurdist dark comedy. Thus, the Everyman is Jewish, weak, and emotionally detached from himself.

The theme of emotional detachment of the Everyman within a society that has completely fallen apart gets re-casted every decade or so, but is essentially always the same.

In the 80s, the archetypal rendering of the same figure is in Alex Cox's punk sci-fi comedy Repo Man. There, the Everyman is white, working class, shallow, and emotionally detached from himself.

In any case, I think it is important to study how art perennially revisits the theme of the individual who is robbed of meaning, who is made coarse and lonely, by a world where there is nothing to hang on to: no family, no culture, no law and no religion. All semblance of order has been perverted.

This is really the question that chasidus addresses as well. How does one live in a false world and not suffer internal fragmentation and estrangement from the self. Organic (read: G-dly) law and order remains hidden deep below a superimposed false construct of immutable natural principles.

The danger is not that the Everyman will join the corrupt powers-that-be. Indeed, they will never have him except to use him temporarily for their own needs. The danger is that a lifetime of being conditioned to the brutality of amoralism, he will lose his own sense of outrage to the comfort of survival by apathy.

In Little Murders, Alfred loses his soul to the madness. In Repo Man, Otto escapes this reality for a new one. In Deep Cover, there's an obviously tacked-on Hollywood ending (yes, it is the only "studio" film of the three) where John brings the outlaws to justice. And as sophisticated as we'd like to think we are, we appreciate the Hollywood ending because it means that redemption is possible.

unleash our souls

My Obiter Dicta: He Who Shakes.

Religious-secular pow-wows

Ben Chorin: Religious-secular pow-wows:

But by far the most horrendous such gatherings are the ones organized by do-gooder pseudo-multi-cultural types. This was brought to mind by a meeting being organized by the Israel Democracy Institute, a wildly over-funded organization dedicated to building a broad consensus around a self-serving elitist agenda. That�s quite a trick if you can pull it off and they�re pretty good at it. The purpose of this particular meeting is to find RZ �leaders� who will �encourage discourse� that will heal �the rift� in Israeli society. For those who missed the subtext, the word manhigut (=leadership) is shorthand for �people who can be bought with a bit of kavod�, the word shesa (=rift) is short-hand for �the shvartzes are escaping the plantation� and the word siach (=discourse) is shorthand for �let�s screw around with their heads until they�re convinced that our agenda is good for them�.

Muhammad over Pope in two rounds

My Obiter Dicta: De Furore Mauriorum Domine Libera Nos.
P.S. Rabbi Shlomo Amar is a moron. What an idiot.

Separated at birth: Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Kazakhstan's Chief Mufti Absattar Kazhi Derbisalli. Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006. AP - Sergei Grits.

Gandalin comments: The title and uniform of the Rishon le Tzion are those of a "Chochom Bashi," and were bestowed by the Ottoman Emperor. So why expect anything better from someone who may be nothing more than the "Head Dhimmi In Charge"? Centuries of dhimmitude have undoubtedly left their mark in what might be called a "golus mentality."

Matisyahu take two

Ok, I got hooked on the Jerusalem song from Matisyahu's Youth album and finally decided to get copy. Alas there is nothing to listen to except the superb tune. The rest of the album is terrible. Kara was absolutely right - mentalblog.com: Matisyahu at Paradise in Boston. Youth is dreadful. Sorry, this is not music.

Little Murders

Tony, I watched the movie. There are brilliant flashes but it is less coherent as a whole. I don�t think I will write anything profound on this subject. It leaves a dark aftertaste, just like some of your posts, Tony.

Jerusalem on 9 kavim of beauty a day

Jake in Jerusalem commenting to mentalblog.com: Exodus from Jerusalem:

There is more confusion in this article. Yes, some of it is alarmist, but some of this alarm is well-paced, though not analyzed well in the article. The Jewish population of Yerushalayim is growing rapidly. The Arab population is growing quickly, too. The ratio is favoring Arabs, though.

The problems for Jews are largely employment and housing. There are rather limited employment opportunities in or near the city. Housing is a major problem. In those neighborhoods that are favored by Galut Jews, prices are set by the ability of those people to outbid each other - and this is quite considerable - making those neighborhoods unaffordable to most Israelis. Other neighborhoods are becoming overbuilt, dirty, pockmarked with illegal construction and generally unpleasant and unattractive. The only place in the world that received 9 of 10 Kavim of beauty seems to be surprisingly lacking in esthetics. ("Israeli architecture" seems not to have been invented yet.)

The net result of this is that many Yerushalmim have decided in recent years that they are going to have a better life elsewhere and hence the exodus.

The Arabs live under different circumstances (and I'm surprised that no one has written about this yet). Even though I have not confirmed this with Arab Real Estate agents, I would have a guess that an apartment in an Arab neighborhood might cost a third of what the same apt would cost in a J 'hood 5 minutes walk away. The Arabs have different employment problems but they probably DO have opportunities in Yerushalayim in jobs that do not attract Jews. They also have the same bureaucratic problems with building permits as the Jews do (don't let anyone tell you that it's easier for Jews!).

The result of this is that housing in Jerusalem is dramatically cheaper for Arabs than for Jews. It may also be more affordable for Arabs, but this is a function of income, which I don't have hard figures on now. I'm not surprised that Jews leave Yerushalayim more than Arabs.

As in other instances, Jews are committing more "financial contraception" and then they wonder why we life is so difficult.

Rein family is looking for the Chabadnik who gave Chitas to their son

HNN is reporting: Rein family is looking for the Chabadnik who gave Chitas to their son before his was killed in his tank in Lebanon. Saran Baniya (sp? Meaning?) was killed in action 19 Menachem Av. The Chitas was given to the soldier about 5 days before his was killed (14 Menachem Av). (I am having trouble translating accurately)...

Who is afraid of human-to-human intimacy?

Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: The Cow Whisperer on Kenmore Square:

OY GEVALT!

It should be opgeleigt to anyone who considers themselves a disciple of the Rebbe that when you speak to a Jew, you should perceive that you are speaking to a neshomo. But I guess if a room full of neshomeis is something that intimidates you, then you have to see them as cows.

As you said, Tzemach, this dehumanization of mushpoim is antithetical to true Chabad ideology. And yet, as you also point out, it has become far too commonplace in "chabad" shlichus culture. If real human interaction is so daunting to you that relating to other Jews as Jews makes you cringe, then, please, don't set yourself up as a community leader.

There's a maaseh of a chosid who committed necrophilia and came to one of the Rebeim for a tikun. As is known, in order to give a tikun, the Rebbe must find the petitioner's fault within himself. How was the Rebbe to find any connection to such a heinous deed? He said, "Sometimes I say chasidus afila ven ich vais ez di oilem hert nit."

If a mashpia without a lebedikke mekabel is necrophilia, then what is it when a mashpia who is afraid of real human-to-human intimacy turns his mekabel into an animal in order to muster up the bravado to ram his hashpo'oh into him? I guess it's called bestiality.

And we all know that in Torah, when a man commits bestiality, they kill the ox, too. Why kill the ox? He didn't sin. He just stood there and chewed grass while some sicko had his way with him. But the Torah says we must erase the memory of this Jew's degradation, lest people point and say, look, this is the ox that caused so-and-so to stumble. So too, after the demeaning act has culminated to its climax, after you've had your way with this beast, after you've made them your mindless animal who will do as you say and nod along to your banalities... well, then you kill it and throw its meat to the dogs. Who wants a constant reminder of one's own inability to engage in respectful and sincere intimacy hanging around the Chabad House?

I'm thinking of making a motivational poster that shluchim can hang up in their offices. It'll have a cartoon picture of a guy in a trench coat and sunglasses holding his crotch and it'll say:

If you see your mushpoim like children... it's pedestry.
If you treat them like animals... it's bestiality.
If you like them to just lie there cold and lifeless in order for you to be able to "mashpia" all over them... it's necrophilia.
If you forget that you're supposed to be the mashpia and start letting them be mashpia to you, putting on a polo shirt and khakis to go bowling and to auto shows together... that's being gay.

If anyone from the mentalblog family would like to contribute some more lines for the poster, I will certainly cut you in on the royalties.

P.S. I, Tzemach Atlas, wrote a year ago in the mentalblog.com: Music to the goddess of Ellis Island post: It is Erev Rosh Hashona. I want to dedicate more music from the same score to Dispel Fantasies who yearns with us to "Talk" and feel beoyfon hamechaber with Atzmoos Umehoos.

Exodus from Jerusalem

Haaretz: Jerusalem's Jewish population declining due to 'exodus'.

Jerusalem, if I forget you,
fire not gonna come from me tongue.
Jerusalem, if I forget you,
let my right hand forget what it�s supposed to do.
-Matisyahu

The Cow Whisperer on Kenmore Square

On the subject of.: mentalblog.com: Premeditated advice on Kenmore Square: I once heard from The Next Lubavitcher Rebbe that before he went out on Shlichus he received the following advice from Reb Volovik: "You can conquer your shyness when speaking in front of many people by imagining that the people are cows", he meant it literally. Hirshel told me that this advice served him well and indeed he imagined his audiences as chewing, dumb cows. I often think that although not everyone is able to articulate this style so clearly it is certainly the oratorical style of choice for many Shluchim. The esoteric obscure themes are hard to explain and then many of the speakers don�t have the complete grasp of the subject. The best these Shluchim can hope for is to put listeners in a trans. This cow whispering is as far from Chabad as North Pole from Patagonia but it works. Podium and us, absolutist style of speech. There is no one who perfected this style as masterfully as Rabbi Posner. The immature audiences of green horn freshmen are conducive to speaking not listening. Over time the cow whisperer adopts rude, patronizing, brash style suitable for hording a flock of domesticated bovines...The wall, the Green Monster, Encyclopedia Britannica instead of Wikipedia, shouting down instead of interacting.

�does it make sense to read stuff like this and then reply?�

Ex-haredim receive college scholarships

Jerusalem Post: Ex-haredim receive college scholarships.

Even those who come from the best yeshivas, such as Ponevezh, stopped their [secular] education at somewhere around the fourth grade level, she said." They learn nothing about history, civics, literature, and geography - not even Bible as we now it.

Harun al-Rashid

Wikipedia: 14 September, Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi.

Moshe Ya'alon: Olmert and Halutz must resign

Jonathan Lis, Eli Ashkenazi and Ari Shavit, Haaretz: Former IDF chief Moshe Ya'alon: Olmert and Halutz must resign.

Premeditated advice on Kenmore Square

On the subject of mentalblog.com: No new Shule in Boston a year later. A tangentially related story. I was sitting in a restaurant last week. Next to us were a family - father, mother and two boys. The older boy looking about 15 (he was 17 actually) had tzitzis and a black yarmulke. The conversation turned to the coming scholl year. It became apparent then that the parents, a nice supportive family, were struggling with the desire of their older boy to go to Yeshiva, despite his limited knowledge and background in Judaism. They simply could not find an appropriate place for him. I was then astounded to hear that evidently Rabbi Posner recommended to the boy to go to Chanoch L�Naar in Crown Heights. This was a decent sensitive boy BT from a perfect Brookline family. I was stunned. I think I succeed in telling them how inappropriate that place is for their son but I left disturbed and worried. Worried for the future of yet another pure Jewish soul pushed as a sacrifice to the idol of partisan ideology. After all we have been through how can this still be happening? There is no end to this post, just another aspect of the total collapse, but why take it out on a pure idealistic soul? Did the Rebbe sent people to do this? It is forty years since the start of the Baal Tshuva movement and there is still not a normal BT yeshiva anywhere in Chabad and no one is responsible�

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Battle of Ad Decimum

Wikipedia, Sept. 13: Battle of Ad Decimum.

Gandalin comments: Belisarius is a magnificent character. The novel by Robert Graves is superb. The painting by Jacques Louis David heartbreaking. The treachery of the Emperor Justinian the Unjust and of the Empress Theodora, a burlesque dancer who was the daughter of an Ursari, is beyond belief. The talents and dedication of a Belisarius would have served Byzantium well at Yarmouk.

Jacques Louis David, Belisarius Receiving Alms, 1781 Oil on canvas, 288 x 312 cm, Mus�e des Beaux-Arts, Lille

"Belisarius, a general under Justinian, was one of the greatest military commanders of his time and the spearhead of Byzantium's attempts to rebuild the Roman Empire. His very successes, however, made him many enemies. Incriminated in a plot against Justinian, his eyes were put out on the Emperor's orders in 561 A.D. According to the historian Procopius, Belisarius, stripped of all his possessions, was reduced to begging in the streets of Byzantium."