No one to maspid Reb Chaim Grade in the Vilna Shul

Israel Rabinovitch with Chaim Grade in Montreal.

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to mentalblog.com: Lolita Inna Grade: While Darya has unilaterally passed judgment that Grade is the better writer ( I wonder if she has read either of these authors in the original Yiddish), most Yiddish literary critics as well as literary critics in general are not in the business of saying that one writer is better than another. Few critics would say that Phillip Roth is a better writer than Bellow or Malamud or Mailer.

They are all regarded as fine writers. Each may have his own appeal and strong points. Many Orthodox Jews like Grade even though his religious and theological views were more at odds with orthodoxy than Singer's (see the short novel by Singer called Der BAAL Teshuvah).

That is also the case in Yiddish literature . Men like Chaim Grade, I.B. Singer, IJ Singer, Sholom Asch, Joseph Opatoshau, Der Nister and others were all fine writers. It is not the role of a critic to say who was the best or better than the other. As far as the consort's non Jewish origins, may I add that I worked as assistant librarian at the YIVO Institute (1974-1976) under the late Vilna native ,Chief librarian Miss Dinah Abramowicz Aleho Hashalom a personal friend of Grade (she introduced me to Grade at the opening of Nachum Alpert's exhibit)) and it was Dina who first revealed to me the strange background of the consort. In addition the first translator of Grade Curt Leviant wrote a thinly disguised short story in MIDSTREAM magazine about 10 years ago which shed , shall we say light on her background and personality.

My point in all of this is that Mrs. Grade has done much to prevent her husband’s literary legacy from being published either in Yiddish or English. In addition she has done nothing to include Grade's many friends in this legacy (she has not proposed the creation of a Grade archives or a reprint of a new edition of Grade's already published works) and frankly because of her Grade is basically a forgotten figure in the Jewish world , known to a few of us who have a strong interest in Yiddish literature or in Vilna.

Essentially Grade predicted this in a poem he published in GOLDENE KEYT prior to his death. "Mir vet men nit maspid Zayn..." he lamented that no one would be maspid him in the Vilna shulhuif and that there would be no one around to recognize him for what he was. To his wife he was Grade (she claimed this name stemmed from the French word grenadier from Bonaparte’s armies) was a universal figure who could just as well have written a novel set in Colonial or Puritan new England. Indeed there was no one to maspid Reb Chaim in the Vilna Shul. Alas, Alas!

mein shteitele Belz

This dude is lying, he is not from Belz, he sings in Litvish with a russian accent.

radloh selfportrait

Sevenfatcow: it hurts to say this, but. A nice selfportrait by Radloh.

P.S. I guess the image of abandoning your wife and daughter and getting hooked up with shiksa rung a bell on the Shemtov cow.

Lolita Inna Grade

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to mentalblog.com: Inna Grade on I.B. Singer:

Mrs. Grade is most probably not Jewish. Grade married her in Moscow during the war when she was about 14 years old. No one has done more to prevent the writings of her late husband from either being published or being published in book form (those that were serialized in the Yiddish daily press in the 1950's-1970's) She kept Grade's death secret long enough to prevent an honorable funeral and has spent time and money re-translating material that Curt Leviant has already translated.

I her introduction to one of her translations she condemns those who see Grade as only a Jewish writer, rather she portrays Reb Chaim as a universal writer with a universal message. There is more to this story, but Mrs. Grade should be embarrassed to even utter a word about the state of Yiddish literature.

Once and for all Mrs. Grade should be exposed for what she really is. And more importantly for the role she has played in destroying the historical legacy of her great husband. I would write about this, but in the process Chaim Grade will come across as not much better than the person she paints Singer as being...

Remember Grade fled Vilna leaving his wife and young baby there, Mrs. Grade No.1 was a nurse, Zionist and daughter of the famous Polish-Lithuanian Klepisz rabbinical a bas Horav. Without knowing of her (Mrs. Grade No1’s) fate, her husband took up with a teenage girl in Moscow during the war... and supposedly married her too. Well I guess writers (and especially Yiddish writers) get a special heter for such things. Now that teenager is passing judgment on the persona of other Yiddish writers and preventing her husbands works from seeing the light of day.

Mrs. Grade's father was supposedly a surgeon doctor - officer in the army of ... Admiral Denikin during the Russian Civil War. Anyone who knows anything about that conflict knows that the esteemed admiral was a nasty anti-Semite responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian Jews and the upheaval of whole communities. This was true of all the so called White Armies and Ukrainian nationalists fighting the Red Army. I have yet to hear of a Jew serving in the armies of Admiral Denikin, yet as an officer. But when her father died, that was the description of him published in the Jewish Week, an officer in the White army of admiral Denikin yemach shmo. Mrs. Grade as far as I know also had no knowledge of Yiddish till after her husband's life.

Who is Noah Feldman?

On the subject: mentalblog.com: At once a Lithuanian yeshiva and a New England prep school:
Luke Ford points to the two year old article in the WSJ by Steven I. Weiss ‘Noah Feldman’s puzzling compromise between religion and secularism’ "…Mr. Feldman offered his services pro bono to the city of Tenafly, N.J., in its fight against Orthodox Jews who wanted to have an eruv..."

For many Jews who lack intellectual curiosity liberalism is the new religion. And strangely enough Maimonides is the school that cultivates these characters in spades. So in some way he is attacking the school that is the very embodiment of his own credo.

Ben Chorin I was planning to write some reflections on Jews in America but that disingenuous article by Noah Feldman has set me off in another direction.
My Obiter Dicta: Noah Feldman: Second Take (Tisha B'Av 7:40 PM)
Hirhurim: Don't Turn Your Back On Your Community And Then Badmouth It In The New York Times.

Three Who Sought Happiness

A new Chabad recovery blog, finally f.re.e. Eve, Noah and Sarah - Three Who Sought Happiness.

tisha b'av links

Reburial of the Jews found in Pogulansky forest near Dvinsk.
Dvinsker Beis Hachaim. Tzion of the Rogochever next to Ohr Sameyach.
HNN: קריאת מגילת 'איכה' ברחבת הכותל המערבי בליל תשעה באב
HNN: כפר חב"ד

Набери номер и послушай

1 — Благословение Ребе Короля Мошиаха.
2 — Выступления Ребе на русском языке.
3 — Лекции и уроки.
4 — Песни на русском языке.

TNLR on cruise control

On the subject of mentalblog.com: emotional modality b'nusach Brunoy:

More I think about this more it seems truly unbelievable. Here is the man who spends years developing Torah derivative theory around his own emotional handicap. And then tells it as a profound revelation to the open mouthed bnei aspergers. No wonder his opening line in delivering the speech last week in Newton, MA was: “We are gathered here in Toronto”, it is an unchecked and unrelated, abstracted from humanity and humans cruise control. I completely hate this; nothing halved or mixed about my revulsion.

Trouble down under

Rabbi Yossi Engel embroiled in two scandals in Spirit of David Adelaide Hebrew School in Australia. Probe into 'fake' Hebrew classes in Adelaide. (via FailedMessiah.com)

Matisyahu no longer a Lubavitcher

miaminewtimes.com: Matisyahu Tonight at Sound Advice Amphitheatre.

Is part of a quest for you?
"Well, yeah, because my parents aren’t even Hasidic. This is my journey. My initial ties were through the Lubovitch sect... I went to a Hasidic school for two years in Brooklyn. At this point, I don’t necessarily identify with it any more. I’m really religious, but the more I’m learning about other types of Jews, I don’t want to exclude myself. I felt boxed in." (via THE LIFE-OF-RUBIN BLOG)

Rammstein and Tatu – Moscau

pizza mirage

TNLR: Let's go to see the building.
TA : I don't want to, I have mixed emotions, mostly negative. I would not go. I worked on it for four years and I can't see it. Did you build something?
TNLR: When I was in France I went to Brunoy again. There in the attic was a room I built for myself. I was very emotional when I saw it. It's in the old part of the Yeshiva, now off limits due to safety concerns.

Leonard Cohen - The Letters

Dear Heather Lyrics, Leonard Cohen - The Letters:

You never liked to get
The letters that I sent.
But now you've got the gist
Of what my letters meant.
You're reading them again,
The ones you didn't burn.
You press them to your lips,
My pages of concern.
I said there'd been a flood.
I said there's nothing left.
I hoped that you would come.
I gave you my address.
Your story was so long,
The plot was so intense,
It took you years to cross
The lines of self-defense.
The wounded forms appear:
The loss, the full extent;
And simple kindness here,
The solitude of strength.
You walk into my room.
You stand there at my desk,
Begin your letter to
The one who's coming next.

Michael Richards off to Cambodia to be with the Nithyananda Swamiji Rebbe

latimes.com: Michael Richards finds inner solace in Cambodia - Los Angeles Times

"Richards, 57, and actress Beth Skipp traveled to remote temples before visiting Angkor Wat on a tour sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Nithyananda Foundation. The sect adheres to the teachings of 29-year-old Hindu monk Nithyananda — an avowed "enlightened Master and modern mystic" who's referred to by his followers as "swamiji."

Richards initiated as a mason. Photo: © 1999 -The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

...

who is defending the defensive emotions?

I once complained about reflective repetitive responses and memorized mental formulas. I still hear it often from my friends in conversations. These formulas were and are the source of great desperate disappointments for me. Then someone told me, it was a way for these people to through defensive barriers. This was an epiphany for me. It still annoys me a great deal but I am more tolerant to people responding in mental stutter. So let me say this - every single statement that is not in real time, a new life light born this very second, is then by definition a defensive emotion.

At once a Lithuanian yeshiva and a New England prep school

Noah Feldman wrote a long article about nothing in the NYT Magazine: Orthodox Paradox:

"The yeshiva where I studied considers itself modern Orthodox, not ultra-Orthodox. We followed a rigorous secular curriculum alongside traditional Talmud and Bible study. Our advanced Talmud and Hebrew classes were interspersed with advanced-placement courses in French literature and European political history, all skillfully coordinated to prime us for the Ivy League. To try to be at once a Lithuanian yeshiva and a New England prep school: that was the unspoken motto of the Maimonides School of Brookline, Mass., where I studied for 12 years".

UPDATE: mentalblog.com: Who is Noah Feldman?

defensive emotion

Sidney commenting to mentalblog.com: Sinas Hinam, your hate for nothing, your love for free:

Seems to me that the two answers posted don't answer the "chinom" question. Infighting usually means different "opinions" about a given subject hence a reason. The reason is not "chinom".

I think that the "chinom" was not attributable to the Rabbis or leaders, they might have hated but it wasn't for "free" it came at a cost. That cost was legitimacy. But, the amcha who had no idea why either side held what they did, why did they hate? That's CHINOM.

For example. There are chasidim who hate "meshichistim". Fine! They can chazer maamorim they learn the sichos they are educated, therefore they have opinions as to what they think the Rebbe wants. Then there are the amcha who have no or a very limited idea of what the Rebbe wants or said about a given subject, let alone this one, who hate "meshichistim", why? Just because "that" Rabbi said what he said? Guess what, there are equally learned Rabbis who says different. Why do you hate? and vice a versa.

The same can be said for the average litvishe baalhabos who despises and ridicules chasidim in general and chabad in particular. They have no idea what chasidus or chasidim are all about. I have spoken to many of these ignorants, man are they dumb. When you start explaining to them what a chasid is all about and what chassidus teaches they get this look of, huh, I didn't know that! I hate to say it, but even for the few of them that learn daf yomi it's lo pogah vlo nogah a chasid who learns half as much as them is a gaon and a tzadik.

Ignorance is "FREE" being educated costs. Thats why the "oilam is a goilam"

I don't chas v'shalom mean anything bad. I just want to make the point that if before one took a side on an issue he found out for himself why the other guy holds what he does he will at least erase the chinom part of his hatred.

berl, crown heights שנאת חנם means 'hatred for naught (without just cause)', not 'free hate'. See ויצאה חנם אין כסף

"Often an object of hate is a convenient target for all the negative projections." The Aramaic translation of חנם is מגן (MaGoN). Curiously, it is the same שרש as the Hebrew word mogein - shield. In the contemporary metrosexual vernacular שנאת חנם can thus be termed as a defensive emotion.

Inna Grade on I.B. Singer

The New York Times: Dissent Greets Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial:

"I profoundly despise him," said Mrs. Grade, the 75-year-old widow of the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade. "I am very sorry that America is celebrating the blasphemous buffoon."

"I despise him especially because he is dragging the Jewish literature, Judaism, American literature, American culture back to the land of Moab," she said, referring to the biblical region where Lot and his daughters began an incestuous affair. "I profoundly despise all those who eat the bread into which the blasphemous buffoon has urinated."

Darya Petrovna comments: The bitterness felt towards IBS is hardly just a case of sour grapes on the part of Mrs Grade, who resents the fact that her husband, Chaim Grade, who stands head and shoulders above IBS as a writer, did not get a Nobel.

IBS was a salacious panderer who stopped at nothing to gain popularity with the know-nothing American Jewish (and not only American or Jewish) crowd, people with neither the commitment nor temperment to seriously explore their own heritage, literary or otherwise. The chintzy and licentious vision of the traditional Jewish life conveniently supplied by IBS was at once gratifying to them and salable to friendly non-Jews whose approval they sought. Thus, when the time came to honor the Yiddish literature that was fast passing from the stage, IBS was the best-known and opportune candidate who could serve as a proxy for the entire tradition. In the eyes of the world, this epigone came to epitomize the entire East European Jewish heritage. This sentiment was not shared by those who knew better. I personally witnessed a number of aficionados of Yiddish literature express shock and disbelief when the Nobel prize was awarded to IBS.

Without a doubt, not all literature is destined or needs to serve "higher" ideals or purposes; this canon has died with the the "isms" of the twentieth century. Here, however, is a writer who presumed to speak higher truths and pretended to have something to say to the Jewish people and the world - a fact without which there certainly would be no Nobel for IBS. It is precisely in that role that he is denounced as a slanderer and fraud. This Nobel is no honor for Jewish literature or people.

emotional modality b'nusach Brunoy

So I am driving to Gurkov with Hirshel Rabiski, telling him about Bitull Kepshuto and the implications for the crushed emotions plus the adventures of the Sinas Chinom. If ability to listen is of any value I often have the feeling that Hirshel is immune to the ideas and thoughts of other people. So he responded by his Kamza Bar Kamza essay. I heard this from him before but it never registered till last week. He said that he was developing this idea for two years, particularly at the backdrop of his conflict with R. Zaltzman in Toronto. I will try to paraphrase the discourse. Gemoro Gittin at the bottom of 55 b says that the Temple and Jerusalem was destroyed because of what happened with Kamza and Bar Kamza.

A Jew made a feast once. There was a person this Jew really liked his name was Kamza and there was a person he really disliked named Bar Kamza. This Jew sent his servant to bring Kamza to the feast. The servant made a mistake a brought the Bar Kamza instead. When the host saw Bar Kamza he asked him to leave. Bar Kamza to avoid the embarrassment pleaded to pay for the meal, but to no avail, then he offered to pay for the half of the feast, then for the entire feast and still he was asked to leave.

Bar Kamza was humiliated and angry that the Rabbis present at the feast did not interfere on his behalf. In anger he went to the Roman Ruler as said that the Jews were planning a rebellion and the Roman should send to the Jews and animal for sacrifice and see what happens. Bar Kamza brought the animal to be sacrificed and on his way cut the leap of the animal making it ceremonially unfit. The anger that followed refusal by the Jews to honor the Ruler cased the chain reaction that destroyed the temple and the Judean kingdom.

Hirshel was searching for one unified (his standard method) explanation that ties together all the question in this passage. In his opinion he found one. He says that the problem was half feelings, not a complete emotion one way or the other.

1) The name of the man who hosted the feast is not mentioned because by evicting a Jew he erased his own name.
2) Kamza should not have waited for the invitation. By waiting for the invitation he showed that his love for the host of the feast was not a complete and unconditional.
3) Bar Kamza decided to attend the feast. His hate for the host was not complete. If he had a complete hate he would have stayed home preventing the entire problem.

Hirshel conclued that incomplete split feelings is the root of all evil in the world. He found reinforcement for his idea in the names Kamza, Bar Kamza. Kometz is an “O” sound that unlike an “A" sound with the open mouth is sound with lips half open. Further Kometz is offering with two fingers extended (like a Hawaiian greeting) or an incomplete grab so to speak. Ad can the essence of the hypothesis.

PS Hirshel Rabiski is a representative of the Bittul K’Pshuto shool of Chabad. (See mentalblog.com: inability to feel b'nusach Brunoy). The central premise of this school is not just negation of any feelings but the assumption that there is a modality of feelings, an on and off switch for hate and love, a good hate and a bad hate. Naturally this school of thought considers undefined mixed emotions is the primal wickedness.

But I claim that a range in general is an attribute of a developed faculty and person whose emotions are undeveloped naturally attempts to categorize the feelings in black and white.

Hence in the recent discussion the commentator tried to define what is bad hate and what is good hate. From where I stand there is hate sheb’hesed, hate sheb’gvura, hate sheb’tipheres, etc. Baal Shem Tov came to teach us that when the light hits middos it sparkles like a kaleidoscope. In real life at any given moment I can feel conflicting emotions about the same people. The introduction of stark modality is an attack on our humanity.

There is an dditional bonus to the Hirshel premise. It obfuscates that the onus is on the rabbis who turned a blind eye on the humiliation of Bar Kamza. On a personal level I would say that the 3rd Temple was destroyed after the Lubavitcher Rebbe turned a blind eye on the discrimination of Baal Tshuvas in his own community. And perhaps Hirshel himself has what to hide in that department.

PSS This also explains why Hirshel counts amongst his most fervent chassidim individuals whose emotional range resembles that of an average mouse.

Mass court rules against the Congregation Tzanz of Brighton

On the subject of mentalblog.com: Congregation Tzanz of Brighton is on ice. The clouds of darkness thicken over Brighton, MA. The spirit of Chabad in Brighton fizzles out.

Материалы к биографии николаевского раввина Шмуэла Шнеерсона

On the subject of mentalblog.com: Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The time to mess with the truth has passed.

lechaim.ru: РАСПРАВА НАД ДУХОВНЫМ ПРАВЛЕНИЕМ

28 июня 1941 г.
НАШЕЛ, что ШНЕЕРСОНА Шмуля Зельмановича, будучи раввином, поддерживал связь с разными еврейскими организациями за границей, имел нелегальную связь со своим братом – ШНЕЕРСОНОМ Иосифом Ицковичем, проживающем в Варшаве и являющимся агентом иностранной разветки; имеет также связь со своим братом, осужденным за к-р деятельность. На почве своих религиозных убеждений, проводит антисоветскую националистическую деятельность среди еврейского населения, направленную на отрыв еврейского населения от трудовой деятельности и настраивая против мероприятий партии и правительства. У себя на дому организовывает нелегальные сборища клерикального элемента.

На основании изложенного

ПОСТАНОВИЛ: ШНЕЕРСОНА Шмуля Зельмановича, ПРОЖИВАЮЩЕГО В ГОР. Николаеве по ул. Плехановской № 73, ПОДВЕРГНУТЬ АРЕСТУ и ОБЫСКУ.

9 days

9 days, is it a difficult time only of you know about it, or is it a difficult time for everyone?

Sinas Hinam, your hate for nothing, your love for free

There is this jingle that states that the destruction of the 2nd temple was because of the Sinas Hinam or worthless “free” hate. There are two problems with the statement:

1) This is a grotesque oversimplification of the global cataclysm that determined the course of the world civilization for the millennia. Certainly there were many factors that predetermined the outcome. Perhaps it was the taliban fanatics that refused to compromise with the Romans. Perhaps it was the religious strife itself. Is there a way to have a value judgment without being castigated to the category of people with the finger on the nuclear chain reaction? What did Rabbi Yohannan felt towards the zealots when he was carried from Jerusalem in a coffin, hiding in his heart the plan that mapped the future of the people? Did he hate the zealots? How does one supposed to feel towards the meshichiten lead by Rabbi Akiva that undermined forever the remnants of the Judean kingdom?

2) The second issue with the “sinas hinah” is the linguistic pare itself. Why sina is hinam “free”? I can just see a group of OU rabbis on a convention, scratching their yarmulkas, thinking how they are going to sell the hurban to Jews. Suddenly one of them has a brilliant idea to hire a Madison Ave. PR firm, the same firm that was responsible for creating the byline “just do it” for the Nike. Next thing you know a bunch of metrosexuals roll in with the laptos and pull the “sinas himan” out of the context of the Talmudic conversation. That’s it they exclaim: “Just “sinas hinam”. You kill two birds with one stone - distract Jews from the factual contemplation of the hurban but even more, in an underhanded attack of the geeks you will castigate the importance of any feelings! You will take the strongest feeling one can experience and you will declare that it is nothing, worthless, hinam. Great! Applauded the Rabbis.

But seriously there is a clean hate, the one that shoots like an arrow and there is a hate for other reasons. Often an object of hate is a convenient target for all the negative projections. How to hate and love cleanly is the greatest mystery but no, this is not why the temple was destroyed.

Boston Gurkov

So I get this call around noon that Hirshel is in the Bostoner Beis Medrash and he asked to convey a message to me that if I am in the mood, then I should make my way there and we can get on each other's nerves. OK, Hirshel doesn't have nerves so that would be me. Hirshel says that Boston is Gurkov and he already was in two places and didn't find him. We went to my house and after about an hour of detective work we were driving to see Reb Moishe. Reb Moishe was going over a Rambam when we arrived.


He was in good spirits. Some of the recent past has receded but the emotional life's highlights flow to the top and ring clean and true. "We were going over Russian border and there was a visa for a Rochel. So Berl Shemtov got dressed up as a girl when we crossed"


"I met the Rebbe in Europe. He had a nice moderne hat. And there was this three year old who later became my wife. Yud Beis we were upstairs in 770 and Rashag was asking for pidyonos. Yudel was 18 and I was 17, I think. Rebbe told me dain plaz is in Boston so I knew then it was farfalen. When I had "Church and State" dispute with my school the Rebbe wrote that I should talk to “Samech Samech”. I didn’t know what it meant and then somebody told me it means Soloveitchik Savitzky.


I have a Shule in Brighton Center, I built it. You know my legs can't walk there and then they through me out arois gevorfen". Alz vos demRebbe hot gezogt hot mekuyam veren, chuz me Moshiach. Rebbe said we will daven Maariv with Moshiach, it was Shabbos." Hirshel: "nit alz...mi hu yehudi"


The man: "My grandfather was from Vilno, he was smart, he run away from the cossacks and he davened every day on the Bluehill Ave".


Visit Reb Moishe here. Ask for Gurkow with the W.

A shriveled star still shines

2,500 miles across diamond found in space. Diamonds.net: 10 Billion-Trillion-Trillion-Carat Diamond.

Salt Lake City hosts the Jewish genealogy conference

deseretnews.com: Availability of European records will be discussed.

The great Battle of Grunwald - Tannenberg

The Battle of Grunwald (or Battle of Tannenberg) took place on July 15, 1410 with the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ranged against the Knights of the Teutonic Order. It was the decisive engagement in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War (1409-1411) and one of the greatest battles of medieval Europe.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania at its peak in 13-15th centuries (note the Chazar Kahanate bordering to the South):

Agent Orange in Brighton

So I am looking outside of my window and some dude on an adjacent golf course is spreading pesticide on the grass to the side of the asphalt. This is not even on the golf greens, just to the side of the parking lot. Why does it bother Americans that much to have their grass without blemishes of some other wonderful plants? Why do the bastards demand diversity but not for the grass? Why do the have to exterminate the poor dandelions?

But more to the point, that Pesticide has in it the Agent Orange chemicals. Is it that important to have an ethnically cleansed grass at the cost of forever poisoning the earth with carcinogenic agents? Stand up for the tall flowers! Stand up for plant diversity! Thus spoke Tzemach.

spay-neuter bill withdrawn in California

San Jose Mercury News: Lawmaker plans to withdraw controversial spay-neuter bill:

"SACRAMENTO - The state lawmaker pushing a bill requiring most pet owners in California to get their animals fixed will withdraw the measure today in the face of intense opposition, an aide said this morning."

I don' t know the about the Third Reich but in America animals (including domestic) get a raw deal. The routine castration is shove it under the wall to wall carpet suburban American shame.

P.S. On the subject of castration, they found a record of Nebo-Sarsekim, from the book of Jeremiah. Telegraph: Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament.

Muslim Dunkin' Donuts owner can sue over pork

FOXNews.com: - Muslim Dunkin' Donuts Owner Can Sue Over Pork, Appeals Court Says:

"LOS ANGELES — A discrimination lawsuit filed by a Muslim Dunkin' Donuts franchisee who was not allowed to renew his contract with the chain because of a refusal to sell pork products can proceed, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday."

I don't get it. There are Kosher Dunkin' Donuts franshises. I know there is one in Flatbush and there is one here in Brookline.

say good night to the bad guy

Frum commenting to mentalblog.com: chemical explorations AKA nsiyoh toyvoh b'nusach Reb Zalman: A nice story. LSD for sure has a greater spiritual potential than booze. And it goes well with radical mysticism. Moving on to LSD would have further advanced Chabad along this path.

Tony Montana: You have NO idea what the hell you are talking about. I am not even speaking to you. But since somebody might actually be considering what you wrote, I will address the general audience.

Firstly, the purpose of alcohol was NEVER to advance spiritual discovery. It was to numb the ego into submission so that chasidim could relate and bond without inhibition at a FARBRENGEN. Alcohol was NEVER used for the purposes of davenen or hisbonenus.

Second, LSD, TCH and other such "mind drugs" are perfect for self-absorbed introspection, building extensive and ornate inner worlds made of crap. Alcohol has the OPPOSITE effect, to draw a person out of his consciousness. The real chasidim of old didn't need a drug to get deep. They needed a drink to keep them from becoming too much so.

Cows that burp less seen helping in climate fight

Yahoo! Cows that burp less seen helping in climate fight.

"LONDON (Reuters) - Manners aside, getting cows to burp less can help reduce global warming. Using modern plant-breeding methods to find new diets for cows that make them belch less is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said on Monday."

Could someone please put the seven fat cows on that diet?

PETA does a second cut on Rubashkin cows

Watch more videos at PETA.org
(via FailedMessiah.com) not again... What happened to how important it was to do shechita munachas??? The bastards are not flipping the cows!

PETA:
* Cows remained conscious for as long as two minutes after their throats were cut open.
* A worker ripped into a conscious cow's throat with a metal hook in order to make the bleeding process go faster.
* Cows were handled improperly, resulting in fear and stress just prior to slaughter.
* Workers removed identification tags by mutilating live cows' ears.

IDF rescues golden eagles in Hevron

BBC NEWS: Israeli troops rescue rare eagles. A 30-strong platoon of elite Israeli paratroopers has taken part in a mission to rescue a pair of rare golden eagles in the West Bank town of Hebron.

chemical explorations AKA nsiyoh toyvoh b'nusach Reb Zalman

zoroastroyid commenting to mentalblog.com: Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi as an Icarus:

This is what i heard from maharil b'atzmoy:
Once in the sixties, the phone rings in mazkirus. I answer it & it is Zalmen on the line. He asks me to ask the Rebbe for a brocho for a "nsiyoh toyvoh" since he is going on a trip. So I ask him: zalmen, avu forstu? & he answers that where he is going he does not know -- all he knows is that he is going on a trip. when I asked him mai hai, what do you mean that you don't know where you are traveling, he explained that there is this new kind of chemical drug called LCD or LSD -- I don't know exactly what he called it -- & that when you take it you... so I answered him: zalem, du bist gut meshugeh in kop, I can't (I think maharil may have said, I won't) ask the Rebbe for a brocho for this -- all I can do is ask the Rebbe for a brocho oif refueh shleymo far dayn kop, az szol dir nisht shatn in kop, in gezunt. vkach haveh.
ad kan shoma'ati.

To note that in Ralph Metzner's 1968 book "The Ecstatic Adventure" pp. 96-123 there is an article by Reb Zalman about his LSD experience with Timothy Leary. This is actually a revised version of his talk to the American Association of Rabbis (or something or other) conference of 1966(?), around the time of his infamous Commentary piece. In "The Ecstatic Adventure" he both recounts the experience & compares & contrasts it with the besht's aliyas haneshomoh. To be fair, Reb Zalman downplays the acid trip as a mere temporary experience, but not having a kiyum, whereas the besht's aliyoh was transformative for the future after the trip. (ayin shom)

In the essay, titled "The Conscious Ascent of the Soul," he recounts how a few weeks before he was at a gathering of his master (i.e. farbrengen with the Rebbe). during the singing the Rebbe asked for him & told him to say lchayim two times, one for the meditation and one for the retreat." in all he made four lchayims. I just found the chapter with this essay online.

Also, I heard from hatomim Charlie (Chazkl) Roth that he & Zalman were at Tim Leary’s house in Massachusetts, & that they tripped, & that they sat underneath the big tree in his backyard & sang the alter Rebbe's Nigun together. This seems to have been a different occasion than the experience described in this essay.

Ovadia Yosef’s beemer on eBay for $110,000

someone named "texanlubab" selling this thing:


P. S. and here is the Bar Kochba Sela.

Congregation Tzanz of Brighton is on ice

Religious stance of temple at center of Superior Court lawsuit. The Jewish Advocate: Divide over Bnai Moshe vote threatens synagogue's future.

I think I need to comment of this.

Many conservative congregations across the country are dying. The lack of direction and lack of commitment by its membership is beyond the control of Mass. Superior court, the board of directors or even the liberally inclined sisters who want to jump the mechitza and do a table dance on the bimah.

The demographic changes and the real estate dynamics made Brighton MA the zip code for the losers complemented by the sprinkling of black hat holdouts. This also is beyond the control of Mass. Superior court, Lubavitch Inc. or the JTS.

In a tragic twist, the biggest Russian speaking (and I mean Russian speaking figuratively here) morons, some of them even Jewish, take to the stage to speak and represent Russian Jewry in Brighton MA. Once again this is beyond the control of Mass. Superior court. More like the Murphy Law at play really. But one would be inclined to look at CJP for having a hand in this. And to add insult to injury, CJP is riding into town on a white horse to solve the problem. What an unbelievable baloney sandwich! Is their a vomitory in Bnei Moshe, I need one as we speak?

Finally, this would have never gotten to this point if I was more involved in the process, I am certain of that.

P.S. From the onset Bnei Moshe Chabad business strategy was to corner the market on Bnei Aspergers. Guinness records are in danger or is it Smirnoff records?

Meanwhile the competing shop across the street sprung into action. I mean you can’t make it up. For years D. Rodkin would tell people, when asked about hiring an English speaking Rabbi, that he can’t find a person who shares “his philosophy”. Oh, this is great. The same week that Moshe Lieberman opened a shop in Bnei Moshe, I mean that very week Rodkin suddenly gave up his philosophy and hired Shtifel brothers. Now you go and ask the hastily departed Rabbi Shtifel how he enjoyed the experience. Ask him. May G-d bless Brighton Massachusetts!

Sarkozy jogging is "right wing"

Times Online: More Rimbaud and less Rambo, critics tell sweaty jogger Sarkozy:

"Is jogging right wing?" wondered Libération, the left-wing newspaper. Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his “undignified” pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, and other great men, said Mr Finkelkraut. “Western civilisation, in its best sense, was born with the promenade. Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation."

Wait, where did I hear this before? But of course, the patterned frumie think that comes from the same source, inline with the French commies. theantitzemach: Shluchim Running Marathons: Am I out of touch?

earth and ashes

I got a call yesterday that they were going to put into the ground a Jew who was 95 years old and who had no family. They were asking if I can come to make a minyan. Ten Jews showed up at the Baker St. Cemetery. This was the most exquisite funeral any of us witnessed. People were crying as if they were saying goodbye to a close relative. There was this amazing feeling that since the man had not a single soul who would come to his funeral, we all assumed the roles of his closest relatives. He must have been a big man. We lifted a beautifully smooth, plain pine casket and lowered it into the grave. I ended up saying kaddish, I though about the story of this man’s life from Russia to Boston. Rabbi Pozner was as genuine as any Rabbi I have seen at a funeral, he spoke about the earth and the ashes under the bright New England sun.

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mentalblog.com links

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