Category Archives: Etiquette

Updated: Rude, Rudderless Rabbi

Christianity, Etiquette, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Religion

Religious correctness at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, as it is known to Jews, is policed by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. The rabbi “is responsible for religious decorum at the site.” More like religious indecorum.

“Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross,” reports the Jerusalem Post.

Naturally, “The pope wears a cross in all public appearances.” The Pontiff “is slated to visit the Western Wall on May 12 after a meeting with Muslim religious leaders …”

I wonder if these Muslims will emulate Jewish rudeness and request that the Pontiff remove his cross on entering the Dome of the Rock. This is the Muslim community’s opportunity to put Jews to shame. (I say this as a Jew who does not wish to see Jews qua Jews put to shame.)

“My position,” the boorish rabbi told The Jerusalem Post, “is that it is not fitting to enter the Western Wall area with religious symbols, including a cross. I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a church.”

A boor and a bit of an idiot is Rabbi Rabinovitch, because it is not up to him to feel anything at all about the religious attire in which individuals wrap themselves on entering a church. It’s up to the proprietors of that establishment: Christian worshipers, their ministers, and other religious leaders. I bet they would not think to turn away worshipers or visitors, in tallit or turban, from entering their place of worship.

What a shame Jews must be embarrassed by this chap.

As I said, if Palestinian Muslims have any sense, they will seize on this bit of Jewish misbehavior to show their hospitality to “Benedict the Brave.”

Update (March 18): I spoke to my father, Rabbi Ben Isaacson, who resides in South Africa. He agreed with my assessment of Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, and went even further. Dad invoked the term Chilul Hashem, a pretty severe tack to take.

The idea is that a Jew’s behavior amounts to desecration of G-d when he brings shame on the community of Jews, and increases the likelihood of retaliation or negative reaction to Jews by his immoral acts. (“King Con” Bernie Madoff is beyond redemption in this sense.)

I Googled the Chilul Hashem concept and found this elegant explanation and argument. My father’s interpretation seems to approximate Rashi’s (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105 C.E.): “Why is it a chilul Hashem if others perceive us as acting immorally? The challenge is not against G-d but against us. Do we profane G-d’s Name because the non-Jew assumes that the Jew is acting pursuant to the Will of Hashem and thus Hashem must support such behaviour?”

Great logic all along. As you can see, one can be a non-believer (me), while being as Jewish as they come in so far as cherishing the wisdom and logic of this tradition.

Updated: Oinkbama: Anti-Occident & A Bit Of A Pig

Africa, Britain, Etiquette, History, Politics, The West

Writes Iain Martin of the London Telegraph:

“President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn’t granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already.”

This bout of rudeness was preceded by another, after–or some say before—the inauguration: “the White House sent back to the British Embassy a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had occupied a cherished spot in President Bush’s Oval Office. Intended as a symbol of transatlantic solidarity, the bust was a loaner from former British prime minister Tony Blair.”

Because they dislike Churchill, the usual, libertarian suspects have applauded this bit of bad manners with the customary childish glee. Without going into Second World War revisionism, one can disagree with many of Churchill’s decisions during the offensive, while at the same time recognizing what defender of the West Diana West put so well:

“It seems that what we are seeing in the return of the Churchill bust is less a personal vendetta against Churchill the man and more an open breach in the Western continuum out of which a new orientation toward the Third World will become increasingly apparent. Having achieved a Washington-like apotheosis in the American imagination, Churchill serves not only as the preeminent symbol of resolve, courage and faith against the enemies of Western civilization. He serves as a symbol of Western civilization, period. One of President Obama’s first acts as president was to consign that symbol to a box and send it packing.” [Emphasis mine]

“Like the symbolic repudiation of Churchill, Obama’s Marxist attack on free markets plays to the same factions of the radical left he once set out to ingratiate himself with as a young man.”

“When the native hears a speech about Western culture, he pulls out his knife,” wrote Frantz Fanon, the seminal theorist of anti-Western Third Worldism Obama mentioned above. When a Marxist, Third World-tilting president of the United States sees a bust of Winston Churchill, he sends it packing. He may have proven once again to the Left that he’s no sellout, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t just alienated an awful lot of the American people.

Since the media downplayed and excused OinkBama and his Mama’s poor taste, the American people were none the wiser.

Diana furnishes the perfect postscript: “I have to hand it to the prime minister for giving Churchill-dissing Obama the perfectly targeted dig with the gift of the complete set of the official Churchill biography by Martin Gilbert.”

Update (March 6): Oinkbama’s tacky behavior when hosting a foreign dignitary–the prime minister of Britain—conjures the MTV show “Cribs.” Hip-hop gangsters show off their incredibly gaudy homes, and their CD and DVD collections. Then they send the cameraman packing.

Updated: Oinkbama: Anti-Occident & A Bit Of A Pig

Africa, Britain, Etiquette, History, Politics, The West

Writes Iain Martin of the London Telegraph:

“President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn’t granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already.”

This bout of rudeness was preceded by another, after–or some say before—the inauguration: “the White House sent back to the British Embassy a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had occupied a cherished spot in President Bush’s Oval Office. Intended as a symbol of transatlantic solidarity, the bust was a loaner from former British prime minister Tony Blair.”

Because they dislike Churchill, the usual, libertarian suspects have applauded this bit of bad manners with the customary childish glee. Without going into Second World War revisionism, one can disagree with many of Churchill’s decisions during the offensive, while at the same time recognizing what defender of the West Diana West put so well:

“It seems that what we are seeing in the return of the Churchill bust is less a personal vendetta against Churchill the man and more an open breach in the Western continuum out of which a new orientation toward the Third World will become increasingly apparent. Having achieved a Washington-like apotheosis in the American imagination, Churchill serves not only as the preeminent symbol of resolve, courage and faith against the enemies of Western civilization. He serves as a symbol of Western civilization, period. One of President Obama’s first acts as president was to consign that symbol to a box and send it packing.” [Emphasis mine]

“Like the symbolic repudiation of Churchill, Obama’s Marxist attack on free markets plays to the same factions of the radical left he once set out to ingratiate himself with as a young man.”

“When the native hears a speech about Western culture, he pulls out his knife,” wrote Frantz Fanon, the seminal theorist of anti-Western Third Worldism Obama mentioned above. When a Marxist, Third World-tilting president of the United States sees a bust of Winston Churchill, he sends it packing. He may have proven once again to the Left that he’s no sellout, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t just alienated an awful lot of the American people.

Since the media downplayed and excused OinkBama and his Mama’s poor taste, the American people were none the wiser.

Diana furnishes the perfect postscript: “I have to hand it to the prime minister for giving Churchill-dissing Obama the perfectly targeted dig with the gift of the complete set of the official Churchill biography by Martin Gilbert.”

Update (March 6): Oinkbama’s tacky behavior when hosting a foreign dignitary–the prime minister of Britain—conjures the MTV show “Cribs.” Hip-hop gangsters show off their incredibly gaudy homes, and their CD and DVD collections. Then they send the cameraman packing.

The Hassle of Hasselbeck

Conservatism, Etiquette, Pop-Culture, Race

In an uncontaminated culture, Elizabeth Hasselbeck would be seen and not heard. Alas, this lefty is the conservative movement’s brain trust on a show called “The View.” To be fair to the woman, Hasselbeck is no stupider than her co-hosts. Whoopi Goldberg, from the few snippets I’ve endured, is the best of a bad bunch.

Hasselbeck has contributed the sob and the wide-eyed stare to Socratic debate; when words fail, she weeps, splutters and uses extravagant gestures. I told you she’s brilliant.

Following Jesse Jackson’s calling Obama by the “N” word (yawn), a debate has ensued as to whether it’s ever appropriate to use the word (yawn). Hasselbeck took sanctimony to a new level and—wait a sec, while I wipe the tears—began bawling on “The View”:

“How are we supposed to move forward if we keep using words that bring back that pain?”

CAN’T WE JUST GET ALONG? (Note how crying–sentimentality–is confused with authentic compassion and imbued with virtue.)

I’ve had my fill of so-called “black pain,” which I hold between the tongs of quotation marks for a reason. But this lily-white woman weeping in empathy is even more nauseating than suffering the sight of Sean Hannity and Al Sharpton at a love-in on Fox News. (Yet more thoroughbred conservatism on show.)

In any event, I am fully on the side of Whoopi and other blacks who’ve briefed the bleeding hearts wanting to (just about) ban the word as to the proper etiquette of its use. Blacks use it among themselves and in what Obama termed the art of hip hop. Whites should probably steer clear.

As a Jew, I have been known to say the odd outlandish thing, such as, “Around 11:00PM I am seized by an Auschwitz hunger.” It’s outré (bad, Ilana). Still, I think it would be a tad ruder if a non-Jew said that. Jewish-related comments, when uttered by a gentile, could be experienced as impolite if not hurtful.

What’s the big deal? It’s common sense.

However, by the same token, if whites can recognize and respect that blacks have different cultural references, blacks should accord whites the same courtesy (that’ll be the day). That’s the real issue here.

It’s all about etiquette, courtesy and reciprocity.