American mystic Hyman Bloom

Stephen Vider, Nextbook: Hyman Bloom rose to fame, and fell into obscurity, with his eerie paintings of rabbis, ghosts, and demons.

FILE: mentalblog.com's bookmarks tagged with "Hyman.Bloom" on del.icio.us

mentalblog.com links

the Seforim blog: The Origins of Hamentashen in Jewish Literature.
the Seforim blog: R. Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen, King of Poland for a Day.
the Seforim blog: "Research Refutes Thesis of Unified Diaspora in Ancient Jewry"
אין מױל ארײן Only How Many Days Until Peysekh?
Menachem Mendel: Families and Ancient Synagogues.
English Hebraica: NYU's Hebrew Professor George Bush.
The Karlin Gazette: SEMINAR IN PINSK.
A Flower named Blue: If you want a lover.

a worthless human being

There are some people around me that I think are worthless. Yes they perform certain function for themselves or for others but in general I can’t find anything redemptive about them. This is how I define a worthless person:

1. Inarticulate: Can't formulate a coherent paragraph with beginning, middle and end.
2. Uncreative: There are no sign that the person was able to accomplish anything as a result of artistic, scientific or business effort.
3. Unfriendly: The person is a hermit and avoids direct human contact.

Judaism as an antithesis of cool

Perhaps the most far reaching problem with Judaism today is that it is no longer cool. I was sitting eating a kebab last night. In front of me was a sparkling pretty girl talking to a bocher who is a machgiyach in the place (he was mesmerized). She looked very Jewish and she spoke excitedly about Mashiach and chalahik problems of coffee in Starbacks. She looked about 28. I was listening with interest, particularly because the girl was so expressive and because I can hardly imagine a Jewish woman to be so excited with Judaic questions, even amongst the BTs. I asked the girl where she was from and she explained to me that she is from Lynn, she is Greek and she is taking classes to convert to Judaism. She said that the class with the Rabbi G. (the biggest bore in the universe) is the highlight of her week. And get a load of this: she can’t wait to move to Boston closer to the orthodox shules.

Why I am describing this because in theory this should be the attitude. But in reality Jews today are robotic, jaded and cynical. Judaism is an uncool chore. To be associated with the expression of Jewishness is an unseemly act. Most of the Jewish contemporaries of that Greek girl are either mechanically robotic and primitive or jaded. They approach Judaism with the enthusiasm of filling out their tax returns, like a tediously unpleasant but required exercise. It’s uncoll to be a Jew today. Look at the teenagers, you can’t full them.

Schneur Zalman of NY comments: I think this is a case of where the grass is always greener on the other side. Of course many Baale Teshuva and potential converts are more starry eyed and view Judaism without the financial and material culture that has overwhelmed Orthodox Judaism. To them Judaism is a spiritual system, little do they know what it really is ---- money, honor--- ego, ego -- and more money with power. Eventually they either leave orthodoxy, become part of the establishment where honor, ego and money are the chief players or drop out to live very lonely lives. This is especially true of converts.

Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air

The Jewess Scarlet Johansson rides the same red thunderbird:

In the still of the night, in the world's ancient light
Where wisdom grows up in strife
My bewildering brain, toils in vain
Through the darkness on the pathways of life
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
Tomorrow keeps turning around
We live and we die, we know not why
But I'll be with you when the deal goes down

We eat and we drink, we feel and we think
Far down the street we stray
I laugh and I cry and I'm haunted by
Things I never meant nor wished to say
The midnight rain follows the train
We all wear the same thorny crown
Soul to soul, our shadows roll
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

The moon gives light and shines by night
I scarcely feel the glow
We learn to live and then we forgive
O'er the road we're bound to go
More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours
That keep us so tightly bound
You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I followed the winding stream
I heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joys
I know they're not what they seem
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain
You'll never see me frown
I owe my heart to you, and that's sayin' it true
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

shlichus post mortem

The number of Shluchim in California or the kingship of Cunin has as much relevance to the Jewish question as the proceedings of local trade union chapter on the direction of an industry (as Schneur aptly commented). The bottom line remains the same. There might be better or worse parnosa situation for the individual people but it has not significance in the broader Jewish context. Specifically as long as there is no viable example community practicing this particular religious credo, as long as there is no community large enough to develop and advance the culture, the described local events have no bearing.

Let me paraphrase, you can go out and change others or you can built your own community hoping it serves as an example to follow. I do not believe in the first model. In the context of absence of any larger community that is an example of what is being preached, the entire Shlichus enterprise seems disingenuous if not deceitful.

nothingness

Biblical Judaism is an active dialogue between G-d and individuals. G-d communicated in words, curses, promises and most importantly in real material actions AKA divine interventions. I think the Rebbe was acutely aware of this, he knew that all the beautiful abstractions notwithstanding if there is no tangible intervention from the presumed Above, than there is NOTHING. As individuals we distract ourselves from the collective nothingness by personal events, markers AKA achievements. But what do you do when there is a perfect storm of collective nothingness colliding head on with a personal nothingness? How do you hold on?

It's inconceivable it could happen to you

It's unbelievable, it's strange but true,
It's inconceivable it could happen to you.
You go north and you go south
Just like bait in the fish's mouth.
Ya must be livin' in the shadow of some kind of evil star.
It's unbelievable it would get this far.

It's undeniable what they'd have you to think,
It's indescribable it can drive you to drink.
They said it was the land of milk and honey,
now they say it's the land of money.
Who ever thought they could ever make that stick.
It's unbelievable you can get this rich this quick.

Every head is so dignified, every moon is so sanctified,
Every urge is so satisfied as long as you're with me.
All the silver, all the gold, all the sweethearts you can hold
That don't come back with stories untold, are hanging on a tree.

It's unbelievable like a lead balloon,
It's so impossible to even learn the tune.
Kill that beast and feed that swine,
Scale that wall and smoke that vine,
Feed that horse and saddle up the drum.
It's unbelievable, the day would finally come.

Once there was a man who had no eyes,
Every lady in the land told him lies,
He stood beneath the silver skies
And his heart began to bleed.
Every brain is civilized,
Every nerve is analyzed,
Everything is criticized when you are in need.

It's unbelievable, it's fancy-free,
So interchangeable, so delightful to see.
Turn your back, wash your hands,
There's always someone who understands
It don't matter no more what you got to say
It's unbelievable it would go down this way.

the russian problem

Again I don’t I might to be speaking about this town only, but I can’t get over my observation that in Boston every single semi observant Russian Jews is a numb, moronic attitude cripple. Its like an epidemic. I know we spoke about this in (mentalblog.com: For the Russian sins of suspicion, hyper-vigilance and rigidity). I am still amazed, not a single normal Russian Jew. I think the kasha and intensity brought about by the need to reconcile Jewish, Messianic, American and Russian civilizations turned them into a comatose unresponsive robots. Frankenstein monsters indeed (mentalblog.com: Indoctrination and intimacy). They speak in formulas and exude constant anger. Infants emotionally they distract themselves from human interaction. I am starting to think that Judaism in this case was a lab experiment that went terribly wrong.

Steg's hesped of his father

The Hall of the Goblin King: hesped at the levaya.

emotional geniza

I always wondered what happens to our emotions after they pass. Surely the emotions are as real as any material presence in this world. But yet the products of our physical efforts remain but the emotions become invisible with time. Jews bury their books like the dead, the products of creative imagination are preserved, photographic images are put in geniza to be forgotten but where do you put the emotions? Surely the feelings resonate in the crevices of our souls; perhaps they transcend the material world as the common folklore indeed sings that the love is eternal. I sometimes dream about traveling in a library of emotions. Say there is an amazon.com for books, surely there must be one where they store all the feelings?

Erez Levanon

Photos by Reuters - YonathanWeitzman.

Meir Rhodes - Bat Ayin Israel: Erez died as he lived, as a tzadik. He died kiddish a shem. I wouldn't demean his death with blame. The community of bat ayin drew together in grief and comfort. They in the hills live and grow. In the place where the macabees fought and bar kokba lived a new voice will emerge. Don’t despair, organize. We are small in size but strong as is our King David.
The family was left without resources. If you choose to help checks can be made out to:
FRIENDS OF FAMILIES HEVRON
686 Empire blvd.
Brooklyn NY, 11213
Note: “Levanon family”

A Simple Jew: More On Erez Levanon, HY"D

Erez Levanon walking Bat Ayin children to school. Photo via Lazer Beams: "Keren Erez" - the Erez Levanon Fund.

The battle for the neshomos in California

Sidney commenting to mentalblog.com: Tic-tac:

There are three hundred guys in kolel who may be, are, more qualified then his family. This is where the anger comes from. He couldn't give a damn about the shlichus, he cares only about having his family around him.

I am sure that if he covered the expenses of each shaliach who is hired by a present shliach he would be a hero. But that's not how it works. He hires a shliach, puts him in someone elses back yard, pays his expenses, in this case of his family, and says tough luck, I'm the boss. So what’s the big deal we need to spread yiddishkiet, kinas sofrim tarbeh chochmah! Wishful thinking.

This is what happens. Shliach "A" makes a neshamah who after a long time scuttles the car on Shabbos and walks to shul its a ten minute walk, no bigee, until the new guy shows up sets up shop two minutes away. What should Shliach "A" tell his guy don't go there? So the neshama starts to attend the new place now he is the big shot he can maybe daven for the umud, he is now a "Shliach". In no time at all the neshama who can barely read is a "Shliach" and needs to now decide if his five hundred a month support to shliach "A' should now be shared with his new home. So he is a nice guy he asks his mashpia Shliach "A" what he should do. What do you think Shliach "A" is going to say? Of course, you need to support where you daven.

This is a best case scenario. In the worst case which is probably more common than less. It's not one but three or four of your neshomos, not enough for a minyan in the new place but enough to ruin your minyan. The new kid on the block is an idiot and turns your neshamah off. These things have happened.

There is a reason why Rav Moshe paskened that you can't open a shul in an area when it can harm a present shul. So why not take Rabbi Cunin to a din Torah? You ask. For that answer see the Naparstek story.

It's because Shliach "A" taught him the importance of sacrifice for hafotzah for sharing etc., he sets himself aside to help the new Shliach. Now he spends less time farbrenging on shabbos he is not as in tuned with what's going on with his mentor, and Shliach "A" has no choice but to encourage him all the while.

Sure this neshama will always refer all of his personal shailos to his spiritual mentor but what that means is that the older shaliach gets to do all of the hard work, family therapy, helping sort out chinuch issues etc.

This is when things are good, when we're talking about a neshama who is already committed. What happens when the neshama is not so committed? Or if the new Shaliach has another job during the week and doesn’t pay attention to his new place or its people.

Let's see. The neshama shows up for some inaugural tephilos that don't have a minyan, so he misses krias hatorah or worse he has to wait an extra hour until they convince someone to come off of the street to make a minyan. This goes on for a couple of weeks. One week his wife says, honey can you come home at a normal time so that we can have guests? Mind you, the new guy doesn't have time or whatever to make calls before shabbos in order to have a minyan. So instead of taking a chance at being number nine or ten and leaving everybody in a lurch he doesn't go to the new shul that week.

He davens at home or worse he goes to the old haunt. Now he gets a guilt trip "we almost had a minyan". The next time his wife asks about having guests you can be sure that he stays home rather than have to deal with the guilt. I have heard of guys not going to shul simply because they weren't missed. Each Rabbi assumed that the neshoma was at the other minyan. This may sound like an oversimplification but under these kinds of circumstances these things are known to happen.

Why all of the noise? Because contrary to some of the opinions I have read in your blog the Shluchim I have met truly treat their neshomas like their own children and just like you don't want some shnook to mess with your kids and you guard them; so too in Shlichus. The Shliach should have a choice as to who he entrusts his neshomas with and when it is ok to let them "go".

No one in front of me and nothing behind

A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin's eyes
I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies
I'm well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can't win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street

I hurt easy, I just don't show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I'm in love with a woman who don't even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I'm not that eager to make a mistake

Moscow Damask axis in Jerusalem

Demonstration against the Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in Jerusalem February 27, 20007.(Reuters - Mahfouz Abu Turk)


Hamas' leader Khaled Mashaal presents a photo of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to the head of Russia's Council of Muftis, Ravil Gainutdin, during their meeting in Moscow Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007. (AP - Misha Japaridze)

YouTube star Shmuel Tennenhaus

I find his videos geeky and tedious but evidently there are people on YouTube who like to watch him. New Hot Properties: YouTube Celebrities - New York Times.
NY Times Photo Shoot (much more interesting than his videos):

I hate to put this next to RAYATZ video, Absurd!

Video US citizenship proceedings of RAYATZ

I think they colored the film. Particularly Rebbe's grey coat is colored for sure (it actually looks blue). I think SSD wrote that the coat was colored. (Look at the beginning of the movie the Rebbe’s coat and hat is black/blue but in the end when Rebbe is leaning towards RAYATZ the hat is clearly light grey. Morons at JEM couldn't even do a complete cover up.) OK, this is the second of Kramer films that JEM released. How many films Kramer made? I know there is Bar Mitzvah film and Lakewood film. Four? Did RAYATZ have a red beard? (Via Zuravitzer:)

When I was in Italy going to the American embassy to enter USA TNLR told me then specifically that it is Osur forbidden for a Jew to swear with a raised hand, etc. I actually told the clerk in the embassy that I am not going to swear 'for religious reason'. For all I know he could have kept me in Europe but he said OK. And I see that RAYATZ is clearly swearing his allegiance to the state with a raised hand.

Zuravitzer comments: The footage was first released in 1999, in a video called "America is no different" it included footage from 7 videos, and a beautiful booklet to accompany it. A list of the chapters:
1. The Rebbe's arrival in NY 9/17/29 - 6 min 40 sec
2. A gathering in honor of the Rebbe's departure from NY 7/15/30 - 3:55
3. A Melave Malka honoring Rebbe's emissary, Itche Der Masmid 11/18/33 - 3:00
4. The Rebbe's arrival in NY 3/14/40 - 8:10
5. The Rebbe's visit to lakewood, NJ 4/16/40 - 7:15
6. The US citizenship COLOR 3/17/49 - 9 min
7. The Rbbe's funeral 1/25/50 - 4:40

Carol Kestenbaum and Nicole Schiffman

AP - Seth Wenig
The New York Sun: Bodies of Murdered Women Flown Home to Long Island.

Russian Nazis in Israel

On the subject of mentalblog.com: In Tel Aviv they called her 'a stinking Jew'. Haaretz: Israelis run anti-Jewish Web sites:

"A group of about 15 teens who believed in the Nazi ideology coalesced around Leonid. One of their favorite activities, Irina says, was attacking Haredi. "Nazi skinheads hate the religious, especially Haredim, for them the Haredim are the ugly Jews ... On weekends we'd meet in the parks, drinking and smoking and listening to Nazi music," and then they would go out in search of dossim [a derogatory Hebrew term for religious Jews], Irina related. "On Hitler's birthday we'd met at a cemetery and celebrate," she said."

Tic-tac

(via Aussie Echo)

A reader emails: Last Night our esteemed Rabbi B.S. Cunin announced he is placing 36 more Shluchim in Ca. come high come low. "Either you do it or I'll do it for you". (Everyone knows what that means)

If you took a vote last night of all the Shluchim and asked, who agrees with this decision, the overwhelming response would be, it's crazy. But of course with all the intimidation of Cunin, no one would have the guts to open their mouths. NEVER (everyone automatically thinks, Naparstok). And watch more copy cat idiot Head shluchim will probably follow suit when they hear of this BRIGHT idea, vain poitzeh peh. G-d forbid for anyone to know Chabad is fallible. Your Average Shliach lives in a suppressed world, afraid to even think in terms of questioning the corrupt and crooked leadership.

Would the Rebbe agree with making life even more difficult for the present Shluchim? Was it the Rebbes position to undermine Shluchim who are already covering certain territories. Does it make any logical sense to create even more fierce competition and distrust amongst the Shluchim when each is fighting for survival (which by the way,this fierce competition is shared with the Baalei Batim who are approached for support, so the Chilul Lubavitch is passed on to the public)?

The Rebbes answers to the above questions are clear. The Rebbe was clearly against this type of activities, of undermining our own and intruding into other territories, even when al pi halacha there was no problem, a bi there is Sholom. As far as logic I'll leave that to you.

You know why Bochurim are in Phuket and roaming the beaches of Bondi or Miami beach. Because leadership stinks, all the way up and all the way down. It's a total hefker, and that should be the worse of the "sins". There are no more any standards and it's each is on his own, kol d'alim gevar. You do what you can to get by.

The comment that the Rebbe takes it on his shoulders is a most ridiculous statement. Is that a reason why you go to Prosteh places that Halacha says is forbidden? Because it's on the Rebbes shoulders?

Leadership has only one thing in mind, power and money. Ego and Natzchonus. There is no leadership directing the boat to any positive destination.

It's true we must reach out to every Jew. Does the end justify the means. any means? Like putting in 36 more Shluchim on top of struggling Shluchim?

To reach more Jews is it right to compromise current Sholom even further. Because you're at war and you need a push, and the current army is in disarray. Wouldn't it make more sense to bring more order and focus on your current soldiers than to jam a couple more soldiers to the front for more confusion?

We need New Leadership. Current leadership just doesn't exist, they're corrupt and outright CRAZY.

iconography

Hats and jackets hang in a class during a special prayer calling for the death of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yaakov Batsri of the Sukat David School in Jerusalem said the prayer was linked to the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim. (AP - Oded Balilty)

Smile

Smile is the best cosmetic. Smile elevates a person, adds beauty and shines through the eyes (btw, it’s interesting that a natural smile is the first casualty of a plastic surgery, how illogical…). Smile hides the natural ugliness of a person. Cover this smile and the grotesque caricature rears its unsightly head.

Fellini's 8½ Rumba

LOVE as a redemptive force

One can hardly avoid interpreting love as a redemptive force. The Holy Grail of Kabbalah is the mysterious perfect union. The prayers are Yihudim (Unions). I know a lot of people who have lived 20 -30 years or the entire life under the spell of an unfulfilled love. The redemptive promise that broke the life force of hope. We leap from the elusive redemptive meaning of our lives to the messianic dream that brings triumph to the bitter, tortuous struggles of world. And just like in real life the mythological prerogative dictates that the love must die, the unfulfilled yearnings, the life long quest for resurrection, return to the paradise, the promised land of perfect kisses. It would not be a coincidence then that in the heart of every meshichist in the world is a dreamy playful creature with flawless skin that once said "NO". But the love lives forever.

Jesus' burial site found

israelity bites: Bones of Jesus & son uncovered in Jerusalem? Airing new evidence.
TIME: Jesus: Tales from the Crypt.
Ynetnews: Jesus’ burial site found - film claims.
Simcha Jacobovici.

Cooltarian manifesto - live cool or die

Freedom has been superseded by coolness as the highest goal of life in America. I would like to announce that I am not longer a Libertarian but a passionate Cooltarian! I am cool and I want to be amongst cool people. Being cool requires an effervescent detachment from clichés. Being cool requires staying clear of demonstratively uncool establishments like shule basements full of the remnants of the Jewish century. Being cool requires bright colors and sarcastic laughter. Being cool requires riding horses and wearing of the red jackets on a fox hunt.

Split narrative at Sutton place

Reuters - Lou Toman

So I decided to fall into the morning Minian at Sutton Place Synagogue in Manhattan, a rarity for me (and judging by the results of that day I will not try this again). I was invited to a breakfast afterwards. As I was eating my bagel with whitefish salad I was listening to the conversation at the table. It was a running commentary on the news. Our narrative is split. A tribe requires a common mythology to be unified. I am painfully aware of how fragile and broken is the mythological imagery binding the remnants of our people. It seems that the only unifying force today is the evening news and we are bound forever at the alter of Anna Nicole Smith.

that is life

Somehow the words we use have the opposite meaning. So when someone tells you "that's life" it actually means that the flow of life and energy is being constrained as death takes the proverbial stage. Yes the second act is always possible but goes beyond of what is commonly known as life.

Putin as a mafia don

Charles Krauthammer: The Putin Doctrine:

"He is a more modest man: a mere mafia don, seizing the economic resources and political power of a country for himself and his mostly KGB cronies. And promoting his vision of the Russian national interest -- assertive and expansionist -- by engaging in diplomacy that challenges the dominant power in order to boost his own."

blog break

The energy of posting and commenting is down. Taking a break. Later…

AP Ariel Schalit.

Shout to Yaffe

Agudas Achim.

Is depression a survival mechanism?

Los Angeles Times published an interesting article claiming a new trend in the science of depression. The suggestion is that depression is an evolutionary developed mechanism to signal a crisis in need of attention. The mind, as it evolves.

A show projected

OK, let me try this logic.

What is outside of us is beyond our control. A show projected on our souls by the Almighty G-d. We have no control over that show and the only area where we do have control is what we do, our mood and our thinking process. So there is a premise that obsession by Chabad with the way they are portrayed in the media stems from the noble concern about people who would read it and will be turned off from the righteous path. But I assert that the media is an inconsequential show. They only thing that counts is your own communities. The only thing that counts is how does it feel to walk down Kingston Ave. at 4 PM on Sunday.

P.S. In McLunian terms, namely that we view the world in a rear view mirror, by the time we can formulate something the reality is long gone. Bloggers can see it right after it happened; MSM takes a year or two to catch up. The distance from the event is so vast it is literally history only. And the reality is happening now, it is so intense and overwhelming to our senses that we can not understand it, write or reflect about it.

Levi Okunov Fall

In Tel Aviv they called her 'a stinking Jew'

In Tel Aviv they called her 'a stinking Jew' – Ynetnews: "Here is a phenomenon that none of the authorities in Israel want to deal with: Anti-Semitism by people who have come from the Soviet Union, and who use the word 'Jew' as a legitimate curse. Number of incidents is on the rise". (via Jake from Jerusalem)

Daloy Russian and Ukrainian goim (this includes the ugly Ukrainian figure skaters with shtreimels), daloy Jews who marry them, daloy Rabbis who megayer them, daloy Sochnutt for bringing them in!

mentalblog.com links

BBC NEWS: Argentina's last Jewish cowboys.
the Seforim blog: Haredi Story "borrowed" from Shai Agnon Story. (plus a link to Mundshain article on the bottom).
Hirhurim: Suffering from Success.
Israellycool: Shmuley Spears Britney.
LUKE FORD: Messianic Chabadnik Ariel Sokolovsky Condemned.

MSM does Chabad

On the subject of the Israeli newspapers taking on Chabad politics. Ynetnews The empty chair by Neta Sela is a well written article. The reporter actually attended pivotal events and spoke to people of the alleged substance. Some of the observation are to the point and accurate:

"Even the biggest messianists were well aware that they could not ignore Rabbi Kahn’s fighting words. "In recent days we heard what Rabbi Yoel Kahn said," Rabbi Ginsberg began, "that, God forbid, our faith has no basis." "The same Kahn who declared a year before gimmel tamuz (the date of the Rebbe’s death) that anyone who thinks, God forbid, that something will happen to the Rebbe should throw his tallis into the ocean. That anyone who thinks that the Rebbe, the King, the Messiah, can die should get up and leave. This is what I heard with my own ears and this is what others heard." continued Rabbi Ginsberg, "He is the person who said that it isn’t so certain that the sun will rise tomorrow. But that our Rebbe will live forever—that is true. He screamed this from every possible pulpit."

And then there is this in Haaretz The Lubavitcher Rebbe as a god by Saul Sadka who actually emailed me before the article was published that his “opinions on Chabad have largely been formed by lurking on [this] the blog over the last few years”. Unfortunately I have to conclude that Mr. Sadka has learned nothing by reading mentalblog.com! Given the above admission my initial displeasure from the lack of any references was changed to relief from not being associated with the embarrassing light weight tirade. How can any half serious person pen this garbage: "electrician-cum-rabbi M. M. Schneerson"??? As bizarre as the references and religious authorities he invokes the article. This is just another reason why MSM is incapable of formulating coherence beyond worn out clichés. A shameful example of 'Shmarya journalism' when Viki Polin-like character is used to agitate, all for the sake of some sick desperate attention, humanoids not a worth a piss.

The only positive that came out of the article is that as Sadka emailed me they dug up in Haaretz archives and republished the Messiah Flesh and Blood article on Professor Menachem Friedman's work. This is exactly the same article that I transcribed and published in this post mentalblog.com: The Lubavitcher Rebbe was a graduate of ESTP in Paris.

Photo Nir Calderon

And then there is this in Israel. The chair is transformed from the chariot of the Rebbe’s spirit to an abstract religious object. Why not if you can have 770 in Milano? Still the replication of the wrist watch and the becher is "strange". I wonder what the original Kabbalah man Ginsberg has to say about this.

agitation and exaltation

Do online interactions have to vacillate between agitation and exaltation? What about emotional range? Can we express feelings other than love and hate?

Shluchos on candid camera

mentalblog.com Grammys

AP - Matt Sayles


AP - Matt Sayles


Reuters - Mario Anzuoni

A telegram from Moussia Shneerson

(BTW that's Moussia, not Mushka)
Mimi Notik's father remembers: LIVE FROM THE HILLTOP: Our Rebbetzin.

Jews in Pop

VIDEO IS DELETED
I don't know about those British people but how about Neil Sedaka, Nora Jones, David Lee Roth, Arlo Guthrie, Dinah Shore, Gene Simmons of KISS, Sammy Davis, Jr.?, Barry Manilow, Michael Bolton, Harry Connick, Jr. and French accent of Serge Gainsbourg, Joe Dassin, etc… Can you think of others?

Baghdad expedition

AP - Karim Kadim


AFP - Saba hArar


AP - Marko Drobnjakovic


AFP - David Furst


AFP - David Furst


AFP - David Furst

Vici Polin unplugged

The 'upholder of the moral code' is interviewed on Oprah. A shocking glimpse into the purveyor of the Awareness Center. Thank you Yori Yanover of USA Jewish Stupid Email Tricks: Vicki and the Devil. (via Canonist: Vicki Polin as "Rachel" on Oprah)

Russian rockets in Iraq?

Defense Tech reports regarding the new weapon that downed 5 US helicopters recently (one today, 7 soldiers killed): New Weapon Targeting Copters? It is likely that the weapon is the same retched Russian rockets that were used against Israeli tanks in Lebanon last summer: mentalblog.com: Antitank missile systems of the Lebanon war.

The puppeteer Dovid Taub

Forward.com: Inspired by Henson — and Schneerson. Watch Jono's Psychedelic Elephant:

Itche Kadoozy Show Parsha Report by Dovid Taub & Jonathan Goorvich.

Sulzberger is not sure NYT will have a print edition in 5 years

NY Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger answers questions in Davos: Our goal is to manage the transition from print to internet – Haaretz.

Question: Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says.

Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet.

"The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we're leading there," he points out.

The Times, in fact, has doubled its online readership to 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition.

Sulzberger says the New York Times is on a journey that will conclude the day the company decides to stop printing the paper. That will mark the end of the transition. It's a long journey, and there will be bumps on the road, says the man at the driving wheel, but he doesn't see a black void ahead.

Asked if local papers have a future, Sulzberger points out that the New York Times is not a local paper, but rather a national one based in New York that enjoys more readers from outside, than within, the city.

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