Take, for example, the almost simultaneous deaths of Mother Theresa and Princess Diana in 1997. This blogger happened to be in Delhi at the time, in Mother Theresa's adopted country. Hard to say anyone noticed her during the media assault about Diana and Dodi Fayed.
In 1991 everyone watched the Gulf War I and pretty much ignored the collapse of the Soviet Union (yawn).
In 2003 everyone watched Gulf War II and pretty much ignored the SARS virus (too depressing, no footage).
And in November 2010, as SWAT teams raided kollels in Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh and Bnei Brak, seizing forged ID cards and arresting rabbonim, the haredi community of Bet Shemeh was preoccupied with far more important matters, namely, the construction of a staircase between Maapilei Egoz St. and the Kirya Haredit (or Haredis or whatever). Truly profound.
Chadash Asur eagerly perused the remaining 72-odd pages of Chadash (or Chodosh or whatever) in search of some buried reference to the events of the week. Apart from an editorial about farm animals that could have been a reference to anything, C.A came up with a small item on page 47 about some unexplained police raids during the week, but mostly about a slapstick police raid on the wrong kollel. The NKVD can't tell Belz from Telz, apparently.
Here, then, is the extent of Chadash's reporting of the events which rocked the haredi world this week:
In Chadash Asur's rather twisted mind, this self-censorship evokes the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's description of the only way to escape the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal:
A rather large creature that likes to eat things.
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it thinks that if you can't see it, it can't see you. Therefore, the best defense against a Bugblatter Beast is to wrap a towel around your head.
8 comments:
Brilliant quote from the heilege HGTT"G!
BTW - the yeshiva raided in Bet Shemesh is the Kollel of Slonimer hassidim (yes, the same community that highjacked a state-funded Beis Yaakov in Emanuel and illegally prevented frum girls from Sefardi homes to attend their self-declared de facto hassidic school that instituted a 25% quota on Sefaradiot even though 90% of the yishuv is comprised of Sefardic families and engaged in this unlawful and deplorable activity ostracization since the isolationist sect did not have sufficient funds to open their own school, which to my mind is legitimate inasmuch as Shas operates its own pure-Sefardi Maayan HaHinukh HaTorani Educational Network; my apologies for the run-on parenthetical).
I am sure the millions of shekels embezzled from this forgery will be used all l'shem shamayim and only for the best interests of the Slonimer Beis Yaakov girls to preserve their special sensitivity to Ahavas Yisroel.
BTW (#2) - isn't Chadash published by hassidim? My guess is that Degel and other Litvish newspapers gave this story a lot more attention.
>> My guess is that Degel and other Litvish newspapers gave this story a lot more attention.
If they deliver haShavua this week I will let you know.
CA - are you telling me that you don't have Degel HaTorah delivered to your doorstep every morning?
When I get enough hits to install AdSense maybe this blog will have the dough for subscriptions to Yated and maybe the Hebrew Union College Annual.
Was there any coverage of the Bar-Lev ménage à trois at the policemen's banquet?
@BRS
The editorial about the farm animals might have been a reference to that, but like I said, it could have been a reference to anything.
Not exactly what I could call behavior that is 'Neki Kapayim u'Bar Lev Asher Lo Nishba l'Mirma'...but halachically speaking far less problematic (unless, of course, "Shin" and/or "Mem" is/was an eshet ish) and nowhere as big of a Hillul Hashem as the SWAT team raids on Kollelei Torasam Umanusam. But you don't need my insignificant opinion on this matter; just ask R. Eloshiv, Shlit"a.
UPDATE: haShavua didn't have anything in their news column, but there were a couple columns in the investigative reporting page that didn't pull any punches. Not bad at all. Glad I didn't call this blog "haShavua Asur". At least until next Friday. Gutte Voch.
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