Garnel, Goebbels, and even more Goodies

The Jewish community is going crazy about the riots in Beit Shemesh and some of the awful fighting that’s going on there between national religious (and even MO) folk and hardcore UO types (and even some moderate haredim. This sort of fighting is not entirely new, but it is probably the case that most of this fighting is usually between the crazies and the police, army, and non-frum Israelis. It’s interesting to see this fighting take place within the larger frum world, and to watch MO folk like Garnel nearly suffer aneurysms as result.

Garnel reports that

On Shabbos morning I was speaking about the situation with a friend in shul and what he said really shocked me. He told me that this was civil war, Jew on Jew, just like in the time of Chanukah. He felt that these extremists were the new Chasmonaim and that responsible religious Jews had a choice - line up with them and stand up for Torah or line up with the Hellenized Chilonim. It was that simple for him. When I pointed out that there were plenty of religious Jews lining up with the Chilonim because these Chareidim are no Chasmonaim but just barbarians looking for an excuse to cause trouble he dismissed me by saying that any religious Jew who sides with a Chiloni is already Hellenized and no longer really religious.
"Including me?" I asked.

At that point he realized he had crossed a line and tried to backtrack but the damage was done. I don't think I'm going to learn with him for a while.

It's been nice to watch Garnel literally shit his pants over the Beit Shemesh madness and the riots and insanity that are happening there. Modern Orthodox and charedi fanatics are practically killing each other over there, and it's the best Garnel to do to refrain from strangling a few extremists himself. 

It’s nice to watch Garnel suffer this way. It’s nice to see the shoe on the other foot. Payback’s a bitch. He harassed the fuck out of me for months when I started this blog (starting with this mess of evil) followed by months of ruthless flaming. As an arrogant theist, he relished the opportunity to rub my face in my supposed lack of morals, my “sense of my own divinity” (I shit you not), and my extreme lack of morals and sexual self-restraint. He didn’t know the first thing about me, mind you, and all of this “information” was gleaned from a few generic paragraphs from this blog. In other words, he acted like a monster troll from hell, and it’s nice to see the doc served a taste of his own medicine.

He never misses the opportunity to ridicule those to his left. Atheists, Avi Weiss-type MO folk, and just random secular people are all subject to his wrath. Of course, he mostly doesn’t criticize his own MO types, and only rarely and extremely cautiously criticizes UO and Meah Shearim types (he has been seen to invoke the pathetic and cowardly “the rabbis don’t know what they’re signing – it’s all the work of askanim (activists) more times than I like to remember, an argument even honest, mentschlach types like Brooklyn Wolf are sadly not immune to). To see the shit finally hit the fan and fighting break out between different factions of Orthodox means the battle lines have been drawn, and he has to finally take his perverted gaze off those to his left and focus it on those to his right. He finds himself in a similar position to me: being insulted and devalued because of his status to the left of some crackpot. It’s not a fun place to be.

Anyway, the fighting has been going on for a little while, and we will see if and when it ends. Yossi Sarid has a slightly-extreme piece in Haaretz about halacha’s poor treatment of women. I think some of his points are quite strong, while some may be slightly overstated. Either way, I think his points are worth discussing, and angry attacks on his character are really uncalled for. Rabbi Fink discusses it with some reasoned criticism of it. Rabbi Hoffman from Vos Iz Neias has a really unfair article in which he practically calls Sarid a Nazi (he says, “with these unbecoming lies and fabrications how are you any different than the greatest of the anti-Semitic writers and orators that history has had to offer?”) which is particularly offensive in light of the use of Nazi imagery by the Beit Shemesh extremists recently. Here is an article from Daat Emet on the subject of women in halacha. Oh, and for those of you expecting a condemnation from rabbis, here’s a condemnation of the secular government by the world’s second most famous haredi rabbi. Yes, I’m sure he has no idea what he’s signing and it’s all forged by people. While we’re at it, I heard the Brooklyn Bridge is going on sale this afternoon.

Meanwhile, I’m doing okay. I haven’t blogged in a few months, and I may get more active in the future. No guarantees though. I recently found a new OTD blog, which looks really promising. The writer has a mature, thoughtful voice and I’m sure you’ll enjoy his take. Here’s a post I particularly enjoyed. Here’s another new blog that I haven’t really had a chance to read yet. Here’s another.