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Of Making Many Books

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12) A pdf version of this essay  can be downloaded here [*] Years in brackets refer to an individual’s or book author’s year of birth Thought experiment for the day: Anyone born 1945 would be pushing towards 80 and mostly past their prime. So name any Charedi sefer written by someone born post war that has or is likely to enter the canon, be it haloche, lomdus, al hatorah or mussar. Single one will do for now — IfYouTickleUs (@ifyoutickleus) July 27, 2022 A tweet in the summer which gained some traction asked for a book by an author born from 1945 onwards that has entered the Torah and rabbinic canon or is heading in that direction. I didn't exactly phrase it this way and some quibbled about 'canonisation'. The word does indeed have a precise meaning though in its popular use it has no narrow definition. Canonisation, or ‘entering the canon’ is generally understood to

Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

Original Scarfe Cartoon…

Netanyahu-Scarfe-Cartoon

…and Hamodia’s take on it

Scarfe, hamodia style

For goodness sake, they’re wearing a tichel

Methinks that the JAA (Jewish Acronym Alliance) ought to demand an immediate retraction of this notorious distortion of this notorious ad, Rupert Murdoch’s counterpart at Hamodia Newspaper Ltd must issue an unreserved apology and the Hamodia’s editor should be seriously considering his position.

And as for Gerald Scarfe’s chareidi counterpart, if only we had one…

Comments

  1. Seeing that there is no news from the previous H saga -- no news i good news.

    I always new our Rov is innocent.

    And his brother been very quiet lately b''h.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Ashbourne Man" can't spell or write. Doesn't sound like a GG-er. Some very strange games being played on this blog by someone with a very troubled mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're delusional02 February, 2013 23:06

    Ashbourne Man,

    Your Rov is guilty as hell, crawl back into your Ashbourne hole.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's a very good cartoon rebuttl of the Scarfe cartoon at the Algemeiner (not the Deutscher Algemeiner; this is an American Jewish online paper):

    The Business of Hate

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Ashbourne Man
    Yes S>B> Your holy Rov is 'innocent'
    Who are u kidding?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, this blanking-out is what you all must mean by a "whitewash". Now I understand.

    A bigger kasha is that the cover of the Magazine section of that paper features an uncensored version of the Statue of Liberty which commits three terrible aveiros:

    1. It represents a woman
    2. She is uncovered above a elbow
    2. It is actually a statue of Libertas, a roman idol

    Seriously speaking, it's almost impossible for a paper to have a halachic policy on representing women without doing something stupid.

    The alternative is no easier. If they did show pictures of women, they could only depict those dressed according to our halachic standards. They would have the horrible dilemma of having to blot out a modern-Orthodox woman standing alongside a Chareidi woman, for instance, and been seen as passing judgement on the way women in certain communities dress. It's far easier to be too frum and blot everything out and suffer the ridicule.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very apt title. The lyrics:

    "We don't need no education
    We dont need no thought control
    No dark sarcasm in the classroom
    Teachers leave them kids alone"

    are incredibly apposite.

    This is our community: where women's cartoon faces are blanked out, and serial molestation takes place regularly. The hyper tznius activism does more damage than good. With idiocy like this, it is more self-evident that tznius nowadays is the product of sanctimony and a desire to impose control on others, and has nothing to do with female modesty.

    It only encourages the attitude that women are devious sex-creatures whose purpose on earth is to seduce men into a life of sin. Of course such a viewpoint then makes domestic and sexual abuse more forgivable.
    I promise you that nobody felt a stirring in their loins at the sight of their faces. Such censorship is more about feeling religious than being religious, and exemplifies typical Charedi thinking where it is commonplace to impose religious standards on others.

    Yes, we are all just bricks in a wall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Antiauthority/Halpern03 February, 2013 08:29

      This could be the best blog written in the last few months, in respect of both the English and its impeccable intelligence.

      It shows clearly that, by following it to happen, authority is imterested far more in its self-perpetuation rather than working for the benefit of the community it should be serving.

      However, I am convinced that there has never been a better time for North West London to set up its own Beis Din authority : a) it cannot perform worse or more shamelessly hopefully than its Stamford Hill counterpart, and b) we have the Dayonim, Rabbonim, and lay leadership who are much more naturally transparent - apart, of course, from such individuals as the Halperns, who might find life in Stamford Hill more to their liking; it'll certain be more to our liking.

      Delete
  8. @Troll Slayer

    Indeed, all the tell-tale signs of a troll. Well done, sir, good catch! Those that replied have been caught in a troll trap.

    For future reference, and for the many here who are new presumably to internet arguments:
    In Internet slang, a troll (pron.: /ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal discussion.

    I think much of the audience are getting bored of the occasionally back and forth and are itching to goad people into more vicious personal attacks like in good days 2 months ago when feelings were running high.

    We've had a few half-hearted attempts to renew the "MH" bashing, and a few lone trolls who think the wider kehillah still care about what former DC mispallelim are doing. We don't.

    Good Troll Indicators:

    1. Including a street name in your name. (Every single one of the 3000 comments here have been anonymous. It would take an idiot of the highest degree to remain anonymous but post under their street address).

    2. Posting a comment that favours one side without any supporting facts (e.g. "X is going to burn in hell for what he's done". "Y is a tzaddik.")

    3. Posting the same thing over-and-over at great length and refusing to back down without adding anything substantial to your argument. This may be unintentional trolling or just pigheadedness. If you didn't make your point the first time well, don't repeat the mistake a second time.

    4. Atrocious spelling or writing.

    Sometimes, I suspect trolls write bad trollish posts and then "reply" under a different name in order to spawn discussion.

    Of course, it's possible some troll posts aren't malicious or bored, but just terminally thick. Either way, they should be a ignored.

    ReplyDelete
  9. http://www.jewishcommunitywatch.org/open-letter-from-deputy-d-a-benny-forer-addressing-manis-friedman/

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am quite shocked that the editor passed the cartoon as is, without insisting the pair of feet at the bottom of the wall be shod, or - at the very least - covered in 50 denier tights. How could they determine that the feet on display are masculine? What a PIRTZA!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. i am quite surprised that he has stopped attacking the kehilla it must be that there is no more news

    ReplyDelete
  12. @Ashbourne Man

    Brother has been very quiet:
    --- has only invested £55k to hold back crucial and vital evidence for the Bes Din Tsedek to create a fair judgement!

    ReplyDelete
  13. sad state of affairs03 February, 2013 11:57

    Apology for the cartoon in the Sunday Times editorial today:

    Last week we published, as we have almost every week since 1967, a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe. His works are brutal and bloody and his opinions are his own, not those of this newspaper. The Sunday Times has always understood and reported the legitimate security concerns of the state of Israel.

    It is one thing to attack and caricature a leader — and it is as legitimate to attack Israeli leaders in cartoons as anyone else. But it is another thing to reflect in a caricature, even unintentionally, historical iconography that is persecutory or anti-semitic.

    The image we published of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, which appeared to show him revelling in the blood of Palestinians, crossed a line. The image would have been a mistake on any day but the fact that last Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day compounded the error.

    We realise that we caused grave offence, however unintended, which detracted from a day that marks one of the greatest evils in human history.

    The Sunday Times abhors anti-semitism and racism of any type and we would never set out to offend the Jewish people — or indeed any other ethnic or religious group. The publication of last week’s cartoon was a very serious mistake.

    We apologise unreservedly.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This image has been magnified up by around 200%

    I have looked at my battered copy of the hamodia and their cartoon was so small the blurring was almost imperceptible.

    This is a childish issue masking the very serious issue of blatant mainstream anti semitism.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Me said

    If the Hamodia image was so small and the masking almost unnoticeable, why do it at all.

    Like many things nowadays, we charedim concentrate on the side issues and ignore the important ones. It's more about chitzoinus than pnimius.

    What irritates me over the years is that we like to blame the "moderne" or "freie" for all our problems, especially in Israel, when in our midst there are serious problems in basic concepts of yiddishkeit and behaviour. Stop blaming others and let us examine ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Shayele asked

    If the Hamodia image was so small and the masking almost unnoticeable, why do it at all.

    Probably because the people who complain are vocal. We all know the type, the ones who act for kvod Shamayim.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Our blurring of the faces of the maltreated women in Scarfe's cartoon is part of our commitment to protect the identity of the victims of abuse.

    We also decided to republish the cartoon using a lighter shade of red so as not to arouse any of our readers with any preetzusdik colouring.

    We considered placing the UOHC helpline in a speech bubble emerging from one of the screaming mouths but felt this would be inappropriate as the victims would obviously be davening to Hashem at such a time of distress.

    We ensured that the suffering victims portrayed in the cartoon were of tzfardi appearance so as not to cause undue distress to our own community.

    We encourage our kehilla to be dan l'kaf zechus and consider the possibility that Netanyahu's cappul fell off during his physical exertions, and that he is wearing vest-tzitizis with the strings tucked into his trousers.

    We are constantly mindful of our Kehilla's religious sensitivities and thank them for their continued trust in us.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Our blurring of the faces of the maltreated women in Scarfe's cartoon is part of our commitment to protect the identity of the victims of abuse.

    We also decided to republish the cartoon using a lighter shade of red so as not to arouse any of our readers with any preetzusdik colouring.

    We considered placing the UOHC helpline in a speech bubble emerging from one of the screaming mouths but felt this would be inappropriate as the victims would obviously be davening to Hashem at such a time of distress.

    We ensured that the suffering victims portrayed in the cartoon were of tzfardi appearance so as not to cause undue distress to our own community.

    We encourage our kehilla to be dan l'kaf zechus and consider the possibility that Netanyahu's cappul fell off during his physical exertions, and that he is wearing vest-tzitizis with the strings tucked into his trousers.

    We are constantly mindful of our Kehilla's religious sensitivities and thank them for their continued trust in us.

    ReplyDelete
  19. @Spokesman - Seeing as gay marriage is now being touted as a serious possibility, it was highly inappropriate to depict Netanyahu with what appears to be make-up. Such suggestive imagery can poison the minds of the readers and exposes them to the aberrant practices of those that have cast off the yolk of Torah.

    ReplyDelete
  20. lo sossuru achrei levavchem03 February, 2013 22:39

    Thankfully webchaver did not allow me to view the obscene playbunnies in the original cartoon. Maybe webchaver can have a feature of displaying a mechitza to separate the men from the women?

    ReplyDelete

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