A Rebbetzman Among the "Ortho"s

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Last week I went to the Jerusalem Zoo,

And 2 days ago I went to Meah Sha'arim!


Differences?


Orthodox Jews RARELY throw their poo at you...



Rarely.



Meah Sha'arim is a small community in the heart of Jerusalem, several streets where the people all look... Amish. Right out of a 19th century European shtetl, it is a community filled with Orthodox and "Haredi" Jews.

Haredi (חֲרֵדִי) comes from the word "charada," meaning FEAR or ANXIETY, which is interpreted as "one who trembles in awe of God" (from Isaiah 66:2,5).
The men all dress in black, wear hats, fringes/tzitzit and most have beards. The women are in long skirts, long sleeves and hair covered (if they are over 18 or married-- the former is nearly always the same as the latter). They follow the Bible in the strictest sense.

Moses summed up his presence in Egypt, a Jew among idol worshipers, with the famous
"I was stranger in a strange land..." (Ex. 2:22).

And so was I... in Jerusalem.


Irony!!!!!



I thought, "I am a (relatively) enlightened Jew. I went to 13 years of Jewish day school, graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary, taught Hebrew School and I'm living in Israel... and these folks STILL seem effin' weird to me!"

But y'know what... it's all relative.

I probably looked odd in their eyes.

Because people feel comfy with what they know.

But it's a big world. There are Haredi Jews in Jerusalem, Masai warriors on the African veldt, short people, tall people, blind people with food on their faces (to be expected), and me... and we all gotta make it work.

It's like Harrison Ford's character in "Witness", an undercover cop living amongst the Amish.

(In this analogy I'm Harrison... naturally).

In one scene, he has trouble milking a cow, and an older Amish fella incredulously asks, "You never had your hands on a teat before?"

Harrison answers, "Not one this big."

Ha!


Amen, brother!


... What was my point?

Oh yeah...

Cow boobs are hilarious...



and to each his own.

So be polite, try something new, grab a teat, see a Jew.





But please do not feed the monkeys.

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