Strange Tales of Hassidic Jews

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Jon, remind me again why you haven't drowned in your own vomit (ex machina), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

OH MY GOD DO NOT EVEN START ME

I haven't even read this thread fully yet but GAH

Half of my customers at my store are hasidic or orthodox mostly from Kiryas Joel and/or WIlliamsburg (The rest from Monsey, Lakewood, NJ, and Borough Park)

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:20 (eighteen years ago) link

tky rsmry: what is your job?

Jon, remind me again why you haven't drowned in your own vomit (ex machina), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link

That said, I am dying to go to dinner at Satmar house, just to see who has our china.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:23 (eighteen years ago) link

The local newspaper always has some article about 'issues' going in KJ.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:25 (eighteen years ago) link

One of my coworkers is fluent in German, so she can understand when the ladies are talking in Yiddish to their daughters or on their cellphones.

I have gotten to the point where I can make out a little bit of Yiddish too.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link

local politics = fun with 'bloc voting"!!

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:34 (eighteen years ago) link

One of my customers has a son and daughter-in-law in Montreal! I bet they're slocki's neighbors!

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, when all day your hasidic customers tell you 'gee it's so hot in the store with your broken A/C, I feel sorry for you guys!' you know it's bad.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Here is one of my favourite strange Hassidic tales:

On this, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav spun his parable:

Once upon a time, the king said to his beloved chief minister:

- When I look at the stars, I see astrologically that everyone who eats of this year's crop will go mad. So advise me, my friend, what should we eat this year?

The chief minister replied:

- My advice is, Your Majesty, that you give an order that enough of last year's crop be readied for us and so we shall not eat at all from this year's.

The king asked again:

- What is the advantage of your decree? What profit will there be for us if we are the only ones who are sane and everyone else is mad? They will all say that we are the ones who are insane not them. And if you are thinking to prepare enough from last year's crop for the others, our barns do not hold sufficient stocks for that.

- And so, what would your advice be, Your Majesty? - asked the chief minister.

The king replied:

- My advice is that we have no choice but to eat from the year's new crop and to become insane together with the whole world. But I would like the two of us to be different from other people and at least to know that we are mad, while the others will not know.

The chief minister asked:

- May Your Majesty teach me how we are to do that?

The king:

- For that, too, I have an answer. Let us engrave on our foreheads a mark and sign of insanity. Whenever I look at you and you look at me, we will know that we are mad.

moley (moley), Thursday, 14 July 2005 01:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Here's an actual amusing tale: the coolest Orthodox woman I know (and really, she's not all that Orthodox, since she wears jeans and no wig and is a percussion for the Symphony, but she used to be married to a Hassidic rabbi until he committed suicide [!]) was saying how the synagogues divide the men and women into different sections for prayer (of course). However, the women have a little booth of some sort that they can go into that somehow functions like a two-way mirror interrogation room, i.e. the men can't see them but they spy on the men picking their noses and falling asleep and whatnot!

Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 July 2005 02:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Local politics, bloc voting...

New Square, NY is a hasidic village north of NYC. Out of the 1412 votes cast in the 2000 Senate elections, 1400 went to Hillary Clinton.

http://www.detnews.com/2001/politics/0105/04/a05-220310.htm

you better believe it (you better believe it), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:41 (eighteen years ago) link

This picture illustrates what a generic synagogue layout looks like:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/worship/images/synplan.gif

The rabbi stands at the bimah, and the Torah is located inside of the ark. In my experience, where in the illustration it says women's seats are usually seated men as well. The woman form a second ring around the men, usually behind a lattice screen, or they can also be on the next floor level, seated above the men and looking down. I've never seen an actual mirror though.

bam! (you better believe it), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:52 (eighteen years ago) link

in the lubavich headquarters in Brooklyn they have the mirror, but i'm pretty sure it extends along the whole border between men and women, not just one spot.

AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:25 (eighteen years ago) link

you all have a distorted view of hassidic and orthodox jews...rememeber that they are also human beings and nobody's perfect...we all make mistakes...to every bunch there are a few bad apples don't let those spoil the whole group

don't be so judgemental, Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh Aaron, it's true! Here's an article about the inventor.

you better believe it (you better believe it), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link

i think that's what they use at the "bostoner rebbe's" place in boston, but i cant remember clearly.

AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link

you all have a distorted view of hassidic and orthodox jews...rememeber that they are also human beings and nobody's perfect...we all make mistakes...to every bunch there are a few bad apples don't let those spoil the whole group

tell shakey!

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 14 July 2005 14:30 (eighteen years ago) link

also, people can choose not to be Hasidic or Orthodox Jews, and it is possible that someone might disagree with their ideology (while still thinking they are lovely people as individuals).

DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 14 July 2005 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link

You all have a distorted view of hassidic and orthodox jews...rememeber that they are also human beings and nobody's perfect...we all make mistakes...to every bunch there are a few bad apples don't let those spoil the whole group

I'm not finding fault with any particular group of people! I'm just saying that coming from the culture that I was brought up in, having women sit behind a mirror and fucking through a sheet is pretty strange!

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link

(And I do need to work on my grammar. You all know what I meant.)

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Having women sit in front of a camera and fuck a machine is pretty strange too but like a billion people will pay to watch it on the internet.

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:32 (eighteen years ago) link

if a billion people are doing it it is, by definition, not strange.

I have major issues with the theology and political ideologies and practices of a lot of orthodox sects of pretty much every religion. (I'm sure there all very nice people though)

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link

there = their

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:49 (eighteen years ago) link

I think the sex through a hole in a sheet thing is an urban legend.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:50 (eighteen years ago) link

aaargh they're
fuck it

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm fairly certain the "sex through a hole in a sheet" thing is pretty much just a distortion of various customs and terms relating to the sanctity of sex on the sabbath, the shekhinah, women being "veiled", etc. I don't think there's any actual teaching saying "insert penis into vagina through hole in sanctified white sheet on the sabbath cuz God says so".

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

if a billion people are doing it it is, by definition, not strange.

Bullshit.

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

its simple math. A billion people is not a minority. I don't see how this point can be argued.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link

BECAUSE "STRANGE" IS SUBJECTIVE, NUMBNUTS.

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I am not arguing with numbnuts on the internet.

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:04 (eighteen years ago) link

"strange" = deviation from the norm. Visual sexual stimulation is ubiquitous across humanity. it is the norm. ergo, pornography is not strange.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I am not arguing with numbnuts on the internet.
-- n/a (nu...), July 14th, 2005 12:04 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:11 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm fairly certain the "sex through a hole in a sheet" thing is pretty much just a distortion of various customs and terms relating to the sanctity of sex on the sabbath, the shekhinah, women being "veiled", etc. I don't think there's any actual teaching saying "insert penis into vagina through hole in sanctified white sheet on the sabbath cuz God says so".

Snopes agrees with you.

j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Shakey, I can argue that a billion people is a minority. There are 6 or 7 billion people in the world.

Also, it doesn't matter whether or not the majority of people in a culture do something, it can still be considered deviant if it strays from the norm. Norms are developed, and though they change over time, there's often a lag between what a culture considers a norm and how the majority of people act. Then there's always hypocrites, too.

matlewis (matlewis), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

well this is all just semantics at this point, but the "billion" number was not thrown out by me and was obviously arbitrary. I think it was just used to connote "a huge amount" of people. An actual survey of the number of people who enjoy seeing other people engaged in visually recorded sex acts would indicate the number is way way WAY higher than just a billion. Porn is ubiquitous across human cultures and has been since man learned how to record images. It is the norm.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 July 2005 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I may have told this anecdote on ILX sometime before, but here goes again:

Driving around Williamsburg a few years ago with some friends of mine, looking for some elusive restaurant or record shop or some such (don't remember). Being a Manhattan snob, I know precious little about Brooklyn and am familiar with its neighborhoods in the same way I'm familiar with the neighborhoods of, say, central Cambodia (i.e. not at all). In any case, I do know that Williamsburg, along with being the then-home of both my beloved Cop Shoot Cop and Peter Luger's Ass-whupping, vegan-troubling Steak House, is a veritable hotbed of Hassidic Judaism. In any case, we're driving around looking for this place, and we keep noticing little pockets of Hassidic Jews gathered on street corners in seemingly synchronized patterns. Then we'll travel blocks and blocks where we don't see any, then turn a corner and again there'll be droves of them. I comment on this, and my friend Rob turns around and says:

"Yeah, it's like now Hassidim, Now Ya Don't!"

We laugh so hard we have to pull over.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 July 2005 17:30 (eighteen years ago) link

The hole in the sheet thing is a total myth

Hassidic Judaism teaches that the husband and wife both must be naked during sex.

foreplay is mandatory

one of the laws is that the husband has to make sure the wife has an orgasm before he does

hassidim have very hot sex

i know

because i am one

:)

actual hassidic jew, Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:21 (eighteen years ago) link

how did you find us, actual jew?

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Another strange Hassidic tale:

Once upon a time, three men were confined in a prison. There were no windows in this prison, no light seeping through any chinks in the wall, no glimmer slipping quietly beneath the door. It was pitch-black in there. So dark, not even the darkness could see.
Now, two of these unlucky fellows, they were very learned, very intelligent men. Great teachers, admired and followed by many. The other, poor soul, he was a simpleton. He knew nothing, nothing at all. He couldn't put his clothes on, he couldn't feed himself, nothing. So, one day, one of these learned men made a decision: he would teach this poor fellow! There, in that darkness. He would teach this poor soul all he needed to know: how to dress himself, how to feed himself, button his buttons, hold a spoon, everything.

He worked hard. But that other fellow, that other learned man? He did nothing, nothing at all. Shameful.

Finally, one day, the hardworking teacher had all he could take. "Friend, I do not understand! Why do you just sit there, waiting? How can you do nothing for this poor simple soul?"

The other man listened, thoughtful. Then, finally, he spoke. "My friend, I understand that you have been working hard. I understand what you have been trying to do. Now, understand me. In my waiting, I have been working, too. You see, in this darkness, I fear: though you teach this poor soul, you will teach him nothing. No matter how many years you try. In this darkness, he can learn nothing of value at all. And so, I sit here thinking. How might I break a hole in that wall? How might I let the light in to this prison? When that happens, my friend, this man can learn for himself all that he needs to know."

"Others think that tales are a good remedy to put one to sleep; I maintain that stories are useful to awaken people."
- R. Nachman of Bratzlav

moley, Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Sounds like a great porn title:

Hottt Hassidic Sex! Volume One

xxxpost

Product of Australia / Kate (papa november), Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:30 (eighteen years ago) link

YOU PEOPLE ARE FULL OF S**T! GET A LIFE

ABCDEFG, Friday, 22 July 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Do you have to not spell out s**t the same way you can't spell out G*d?

Truckdrivin' Buddha (Rock Hardy), Friday, 22 July 2005 16:00 (eighteen years ago) link

m***e

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 22 July 2005 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...
I was in the duty free area of Ben Gurion Airport recently. There was a Lubavitch stall there. I was astonished by this on any number of levels. Firstly, it suggested that here in the airport you could join up with the Lubavitchers more cheaply than outside, as you wouldn't have to pay any tax to do so. The idea of a religion being able to tout their wares in such a formal manner also struck me as being a bit odd.

DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 26 August 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I just walked by what I assume was a Jewish household (its Saturday here, in a heavily hassidic neighbourhood) and from one home emanated the most GORGEOUS female singing I've ever heard. It was like the Bulgarian Voices, this lilting, acapella plaint in multiple voice. I actually stood still and listened a while. Wonderful! I wonder what it was all about.

Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 27 August 2005 08:28 (eighteen years ago) link

That's really odd, I thought hassidic men weren't supposed to listen to women singing (or more accurately, women aren't allowed to sing around men/men aren't allowed to listen to vocal music featuring women)...? Is there an exception?

Laurel, Saturday, 27 August 2005 16:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Come to think of it -- Trayce, is there any possibility it was a boys' choir?

Laurel, Saturday, 27 August 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

It sounded pretty like adult women, but in all honesty I cant be sure they were a jewish group; the singing certainly wasnt in english though.

Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 28 August 2005 08:48 (eighteen years ago) link


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