The Pragmatician

I don’t get many opportunities to come into contact with the secular and non-Jewish world.
I don’t exactly live in a secluded place far away from civilization.
I cross path daily with gentiles but rarely exchange more than a word or two.
I studied a couple of ears amidst mostly non-Jews, but I haven’t remained in contact with anyone and my co-students were young and unmarried.

My whole concept of how average, poor and rich non-Jews live comes from television.
Although a little naïve in general, I’m not to the point where I believe that TV series and even ‘reality’ shows portray real life accurately.
Young fathers are never quite as patient as in sitcoms and women are hopefully nothing like they are represented on dramas and as desperate as shown in ‘reality’ programs. And sadly kids are rarely as street smart and wise as depicted.
A repeated theme though caught my attention as almost every show, by different writers, have a recurring line that bothers me greatly.
When moms address they children and refer to that child’s father they always do exactly that.
‘Your father’….
In my sphere a mom talking to her child will say ‘Daddy(tatty, pa) is very proud of you’.
Never ‘Your father is very proud of you’.

When I first noticed a TV mom doing that, I started paying attention and see if this was a one-time line.
But it wasn’t, and it weren’t just the divorced mom’s talking like that to their two year old and 18 year old it was every mom, even the happily married ones.
As if they needed to confirm over and over again that the men in question was indeed the child’s father.

“Mommy, can I play outside?”
“Ask your father”, she answers.

Is this just the language of a few writers, or is this common in this world I know so little about?

• My favorite kosher restaurant has got to be in the Kanyon Malcha in Jerusalem.They have little boots one next to the other with so much choice from different brands and vendors.There’s both a dairy and fleishig side.So much choice, rapid service and affordable.

• My ideal restaurant would have an all you can eat buffet with chicken as main course in various shapes and sizes.Marinated, grilled, boiled etc...Naturally the desert would have to have chocolate in it.

• Restaurant experiences are usually pleasant for me but if I have to pick a worse one I'd have to pick a recent experience where in a newly opened restaurant there was absolutely nothing on the menu that spoke to me.

For lack of time to write a decent post, I'm just copy- pasting something I got in the mailbox.


A woman was walking down the street when she was approached by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked her for a couple of dollars for dinner. The woman took out her bill fold, extracted ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money,
Will you buy some wine with it instead of dinner?"
"No," I had to stop drinking years ago, the homeless woman replied.
"Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?" the woman asked
"No," I don't waste time shopping, the homeless woman said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."
"Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?" the woman asked."
Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless woman. "I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!"
"Well," said the woman, I'm not going to give you the money.
Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my hubby and myself tonight.
The homeless Woman was astounded. "Won't your hubby be furious with you for doing that?
I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting." the homeless woman said,
"That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine!
Image from here

I haven been so busy, but with fun stuff for a change.
Have you all been able to enjoy Chol Hamoed?
I hope you all had a fantastic Chag.
enjoy the last two days.

Prag

ps.will be posting and commenting again asap.

With apologies to Chasidishe Shaigitz

A Texan, a Frenchman and an Israeli are on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean when the engines stop functioning.
The plane crash lands on a Pacific Island and the three are immediately captured by a tribe of cannibals and taken to their village.
The Chief tells the captives that these cannibals are civilized and they have a custom on their island that before they eat anyone, they grant that person his or her last wishes no matter what they are.
He asks the Texan, "What is your last wish?" The Texan replies: "I want a 2 inch thick steak with all the trimmings, cajun fries and a case of ice cold Bud."
The Chief motions to some of his tribesmen who immediately run off and and shortly thereafter, come back with the steak, the fries and the beer. The Texan eats his meal and he is thrown in the pot. The Frenchman is asked: "What is your last wish?"He replies: "I'd like a case of Dom Perignon and I'd also like a big plate of escargots cooked in the French manner."
The Chief motions to his tribesmen who immediately rush off and bring back everything the Frenchman asked for. He eats and drinks his fill, and he is then thrown in the pot.
The Chief turns to the Israeli and asks, "And what is your wish?"The Israeli looks the Chief squarely in the eyes and replies, "I want you to kick me in the ass as hard as you can."
The Chief is bewildered and asks the Israeli again, only to receive the same reply.
"I want you to kick me in the ass as hard as you can."
The Chief shrugs his shoulders, asks the Israeli to turn around, and kicks him as hard as he can, straight in the ass.
With that the Israeli pulls out an Uzi kills the Chief and all of the other cannibals. The Texan and the Frenchman get out of the pot, look at the Israeli and say, "My G-d. If you had that gun all along, why the hell didn't you do anything sooner?"
The Israeli replies: "What? And risk being condemned by the UN, the EU, you French bastards and the State Department for "overreacting" to insufficient provocation?

All the personas in the previous post are one single person.
It starts with the I-persona, a regular good Jew but imperfect as we all are.

I: What am I going to do? I know I sinned!
Evil inclination: “Don’t say anything to anyone”, I reply as composedly as I can.

I.E. Don’t repent, as long as no one knows what harm is there?

Good inclination: “Are you nuts?” he snaps

If you do not (confess) repent you’ll always be hounded by your past sins.

Evil inclination: It will and I’ll help you...

Take the easy road!


Who will he listen to?
That’s the principal pre-Yom Kippur question?
Do we really intend to make Teshuvah or still hide behind our rationalizations and excuses?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Yom Kippur went well B’H, didn’t have any headaches and didn’t feel too weak towards the end like I do sometimes.
The Davenen was terrific; I slept a little before Minchah and managed to remain standing throughout Neila.
For the moments when the Chazzan was completely solo, mostly during the repetition of the Amidah, I brought along two books with stories about Tzaddikim.
Luckily this year I remembered to bring more books along as in previous years people would borrow the books from me, leaving me with nothing but my thoughts to keep me busy.

How did it go for all of you and more importantly what did you break the fast with?