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Happy

I think this one actually best expresses the issue that bothers me the most.

The Paperclip, The Thumbtack, & The Toilet Plunger

Shloime the Website Builder of Chelm presents…

God’s Not Mad, He’s Just Judging You

One word:

Eluuuuuuuuuuuuuuul

Suffering: Understanding the Ununderstandable

Spot the meme.

Also, double negatives are so not not cool.

Love Thy Neighbor and All That Jazz

Remember to love thy neighbor, especially if they are not Jewish/religious and are showing signs of becoming such. It’s a kiddush hashem y’all!

Bliss

It’s been a while. Can you tell I’m angry?

I guess this one has been too painful to even make fun of until now.

I think this claim is probably the most pretentious and disappointing claim I encountered in Judaism.

Let’s leave aside the whole Rav Arush bullshit about women being the robotic result of your spiritual state – whatever they are going through is just a result of your actions. How do they have free will? We won’t bother with such trivial questions.

No. I’m sure many of you will dismiss him as extreme as weird. I’m talking about stuff much closer to home.

Kiruv rabbis. “Relationship experts”. Spending a vast amount of their time promising people ideas for a better future.

Sharing gems that are either repackaged pop psychology or “ancient Jewish wisdom” like the following gems.

  • Nidda is like a honeymoon every month.
  • Jews have been respecting women for generations
  • Don’t spend too much time talking to your wife
  • Let’s go from never touching a woman to having sex with her in one evening
  • Women are just little girls, don’t take them too seriously
  • Men are the spiritual leaders of the home

The irony? These people’s relationships often suck just as much as the next person. And the hypocrisy is overwhelming.

But it Works for Me

I struggled for a long time with the clash between my own values, own way of doing things, and own personality, and the confines of Jewish law.

  • What if I don’t like to be surrounded by other men three times a day as we supposedly talk to God?
  • What if I’m not comfortable with the role I have been assigned in Judaism based entirely around my gender?
  • What if I don’t connect to all the laws and don’t feel like they are making me a better person, and yet they are seemingly the most important part of the religion? (Judging by the amount of times the Torah harps on about them)

I know there will be those that argue that Judaism has a spectrum within you can fall. You can find your own mojo. 70 faces to the Torah and all that.

I disagree. Yes, there is some leeway, but it all falls within a spectrum that has very specific boundaries. Cross those, and you’re definitely breaking some law.

You will definitely breaking the rules, and they’ve got to deal with the guilt, or grapple with the self doubt about whether you’re really working hard enough, or the need to go ask some other dude if you qualify for a pass.

So yeah, do I feel like religion is great for some people? Yes. I think it works really well for Myers-Briggs SJs of the world who love structure and rules. But for the poets, the dreamers, the free spirits, I don’t see how this one-set-of-boundaries–fits-all model works.

Mark Twain Loved the Jews! Do Yous?

Torah! Oh Torah! It’s the absolute truth
It’s better than coke or ice cold vermouth
The Torah’s our guide to tell us wrongful from rightful
To make the right choices, now ain’t that delightful?
Because you can’t ever just trust your own teensy brain
To make moral choices, that would be a strain

Our purpose in life is to bring the world light
Though the present day sucks, our future is bright
Soon Messiah will come and set the world straight
Then we’ll have even more rules, now isn’t that great?

Us Jews are the best, though as a nation we’re small
Us Jews are the best, although we’re not very tall
And yet, despite that, look at the impact we’ve had
A disproportionate impact we’ve had, I might add

We’ve taught the whole world about the right things to do:
If people annoy you, do not fling them with poo
Avoid conflict and strife, sanctify life
Have love for thy neighbor but don’t covet his wife
Nor his ass for that matter
Or that bacon cheese platter

Then there’s also Shabbat, and as you might recollect
Shabbat is a time for us to all disconnect
With smiles spread wide and our heels all a clickin’
It’s family time!
And who doesn’t like chicken?

So with all of these lessons and wrongfuls set right
You can tell it’s the Jews who’ve been spreading the light
And just thinking of that should fill you with delight
Making you the very most proudest of Jews here in sight

Look at all the prizes we’ve won! Awards of all sorts!
In science and finance and writing (but not sports)
Look at all of the movements we’ve started!
The ideas we’ve had! The seas that we’ve parted

But wait, there is more! There’s the people who hate us
There’s so many fucking darn people who hate us
And so, as you know, we’re special there too
No one is hated as much as the Jew
For thousands of years the world’s been full of haters
They hate us more than they love tots on their taters

But then there’s a few who stand out from the rest
Those tiniest few who think Jews are the best
Mark Twain is amongst them, you should read what he wrote
And Jefferson too had this one awesome quote
There was also some poet was it Shelly? Or Keats?
Who had nice things to say, but I forget the deets

So really we’re simultaneously special for both
We’re loved and we’re hated from the south to the north
And if being loved doesn’t fill you with pride
Then surely there’s knowing you’ve got nowhere to hide
While the non-Jews of the world try to murder you dead
I hope that some pride finally goes to your head

So there you done have it
It’s simple to see
That being a Jew is the best thing to be
(Paul Johnson will tell you, you don’t have to trust me)

Current Weather in Hell

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