The Pragmatician

Dear friend,

Let me know if you've enjoyed the posts.

I still regret the movie we chose to watch yesterday!

I plan to write a new post every day and never get to it.
Consequently I've decideed to put this Blog on hold.
I don't want to close it down completely yet.
Blogging has been an amzing experience and I thank all of you who made the time to visit, read and comment.

I will contnue to read all your wonderful blogs and hope to pick up The Pragmatician when I'll get a chance.

I will continue to read my emails so feel free to write at any time.

Thanks to all

Vos Is Neias reports about the many Jews from far and wide who traveled to Lizhensk (in hostile Poland!)for the Yarthzit of Rabbi Elimelach from Lizensk.
This reminded me of and old post...

Those who grew up in frum, close knit Jewish communities know how many meshugassen (follies, strange customs) there are.
Some have a basis in Halacha (Jewish law), and some were generated many years ago, based on circumstances, superstitions and customs adopted by various Rabbis.
Some I find funny and enjoyable, some I find strange at best and ridiculous at worst and some can just not be fathomed by my pragmatic mindset.

We all know the grass is greener by the neighbor, but there’s an insightful mussar story (story with a moral), that envisions everyone throwing his pack of t’zures (troubles) into one big container, and then choose another one.
When selecting another pack , most people will want to pick up the one their threw in originally rather than any other, teaching that everybody is given the challenges that fit their level of strengths, and that the tribulations of others, which are not always known or visible, will seem much harder to bear.

Since exchanging is not an option, Jews will resort to prayer and beg H’Ashem for help, for the tiniest insignificant worry to matters of life and death, a Siddur (prayer book) and a Tehillim (psalms book) is always within reach
And so it’s a common occurrence that a text message is being passed from one person to the next with a request to pray for someone, usually a person the receiver of the text message doesn’t know, but that does not matter.
Praying has almost scientifically been proven to be effective and many wonderful stories can attest to the fact that prayer, recited by oneself or by others on one's behalf, helped them, physically, psychologically and metaphysically.

Besides praying, many Jews, especially Chassidim, finding themselves in dire situations will appeal to a Rabbi to pray on their behalf.
It is believed that a righteous person’s prayer is more powerful, and that their blessing can bring about salvation to any predicaments.
Some people go to a Rabbi to ask for a blessing or for advice in all matters. Naming a child, moving to another house or country, which material to learn etc…
Others will visit the Rabbi’s only in situations of need, such as illness and the like.

In recent years a trend has developed to visit graves of Tzadikkim(righteous ones) of the old days, whether it’s in Poland or in Russia, or in Israel. Often these trips are coupled with visits to concentration camps. Long time readers know how I feel about these.
People will drive for hours and fly miles to visit a grave, pray at its sight and leave.
Some particular graves are renowned to help in specific cases, one is great when you need a Shidduch, another one is great for a Refuah Shelemah (getting healthy) etc..
Unfortunately, praying at a grave is no guarantee for anything, and many having spend money and energy, come only to feel their last hopes are now crushed.

Personally I don’t participate in these travels.
I’m not saying I don’t believe it is of any use, but I can’t help but think it’s sort of unreal.
Prayer is available to all, and if one does have the belief that a righteous person’s prayer is more effective, then there are plenty of live ones where one can appeal.
Visiting graves, as a tourist-thing-to-do beats all the other meshugassen I know.
Visiting them in such hostile countries as Poland for the purposes of praying less so, because I understand the visitors are often driven there by despair.
Yet I’m still of the opinion that deceased people are in another world, hopefully better one, and that prayer is to be directed to H’Ashem and not inadvertently to Tzadikim that are no longer with us.

What is your opinion? Do you visit gravesides to pray and invoke the merit of the deceased? Do you feel it’s useful to pray at gravesides or is H’ashem just as close in our homes and Shuls as he is by the Kevorims and in countries where Judaism hasn't been practiced for the last 40 years?

Thank you all for your emails, I’ve been very busy lately and as such am not able to visit all your great blogs.

I miss my usual daily interaction with all of you.
Hope to be able to write and comment soon.

I’ve noticed that many J-Bloggers are fans of Calvin and Hobbes, evidenced by the fact that many use a picture of one of the characters as profile image.

As European, where until recently Calbert&Hobbes (Dutch names) were totally unknown, I got to know this fantastic comic strip in an unusual way.

It arrived from a friend in The US, a little torn and with occasional random lines drawn with color pencils.
I wondered out loud why he would think that would be of any interest to me.

The cover had a picture of an amateurishly drawn kid and a walking tiger. It was titled ‘It’s a magical world’.
This was the only reason I even bothered to open it as magic always fascinated me. (don't like Harry Potter though)

I read through the first few comics, closed the book right away, and got on my way to get my friend the book ‘giving presents, for dummies’.

For some reason a few lines from the book flashed through my mind afterwards.
Not knowing how to interpret it, I took the book out of the trash and gave it another shot.
While reading, subconsciously I started nodding along thinking, “that is so true”, “that is so insightful”, that is so funny and eventually giving in, burst out laughing!

I urged friends and family to read this book that made me smile and laugh again and again but no avail.
Whatever prejudices I had against those two poorly drawn creatures, theirs were stronger.

After apologizing for the dummies book I begged my friend to send me some more.
To my great sorrow he told me that the cartoonist of C&H had retired and advised me to read every book slowly and carefully.


A video, a little crude but fun.
Online Archive with many C&H comics.