Things That Make Me Crazy

In this week's episode of Things That Make Me Crazy, the list has grown exponentially.

I am obsessed with watching my disaster fund take several huge hits in the space of a single week. This makes me a little squirrely because I am the daughter of a depression-mentality mother. Let's just say the lesson, always have something put aside for a disaster, stuck.

The fridge decided to have a cosmic event last week. It's 16 years old and showing its age. I explained to the fridge guy what was going on, and his response? The thing is 16 years old; this is a harbinger.  Harbinger? The guy said, harbinger???? Yeah...and then he suggested I look into replacing it now instead of when it's a catastrophic event. He also suggested that since the temperature controls were working to not do anything until I decide what I ultimately want to do. You don't wanna know what a new fridge that will fit into the space is gonna cost. It's ugly.

my roof-line

I may live in a townhouse, but we have a condo-type home-owner's-association and not only do they take a hefty monthly fee to keep the pool clean and the roads plowed (not in the same season, thank G-d) but the HOA insures our little house clusters. Or did. Mostly. Even though our shared home-owner's insurance policy has gone up like an express elevator and we don't even know what the final figure for this year is yet, it does not cover the roof. And guess what? We need a new roof because, as we just found out, our insurer is leaving the HOA business and no insurer will insure a roof over 20 years old. It hailed today big time down the road from us....but no hail here...which means we're paying $63K for the whole roof.] Thankfully, I'm only shelling out for the section over my unit. Had the hail hit us.....well, that would be a bucko of a different color. Or not

Let's not even talk about the deductible...or that we have no idea how much HOA insurance is gonna cost this year, even though we've been warned it will be a significant increase.  We'll all figure out how to pay for it; for some it will be easier than others. Somehow, we'll all figure it out. It's just stuff. Still, in the larger scheme of things, it's costly, but we still have a roof over our heads and that's saying something when tomorrow it's gonna be pushing 100°F. 

The next stuff is much bigger. 

Yossele Rosenblatt

Last week, a guy I didn't know died, but he was a high school classmate of several of my cousins, When his high school classmates learned of his death, and that his family could not afford a Jewish funeral... the kind with a plain wood box with no nails, or anything else. This is the great-grandson of the great Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, a man thought by many to be the GOAT in the world of Hazzanut!  As a kid, I listened to Yossele Rosenblatt on scratchy 78 rpm records because my grandmother adored him. He was her hero. He was the voice of prayer in her head and mine. How could it be that this great-grandson would be unable to have a proper burial?

His classmatestook it upon themselves to use Go Fund Me to raise the money to bury him with dignity. Which also allowed for someone to take on the responsibility for kaddish and El Moleh Rachamim during shloshim...the 30 days following the funeral. The sages tell us caring for the dead is the greatest mitzvah because it can never be repaid. And it's what Jews do for each other. We take care of our own. 

That was the least crazy in my week.

On the other hand, if you've ever heard Jews talking about having a Plan B, know that it's the most serious conversation we Jews can have. The question shrouded in that expression is where will you go when the shit hits the fan? We are not like the Jews of Austria or Germany or even Poland. We're not going to wait for the roundups to begin. Most of my friends are renewing their passports, making sure their kids and grandkids...and great-grandkids have up to date documents. Some are checking on where they can get a sponsor if necessary, or where it's safe to go. Israel, at the moment, may not be that place. This is serious talk. 

And on so many levels it just sounds crazy....but it's not.

We can no longer afford to live in our bubble. While OPPENHEIMER and BARBIE have captured the weekend's box office, another film is out there picking up steam. THE SOUND OF FREEDOM has captured significant box office attention since it opened July 4th weekend, but for an entirely different reason. The film, starring Jim Caviezel is being hailed as great stuff by conspiracy theorists everywhere, including QAnon. The film, actually made before COVID in 2018, is chock full of antisemitic tropes, including blood libel. Shira Li Bartov of The Times of Israel wrote:

Caviezel attended a QAnon-affiliated conference in 2021. During the event, he said that Ballard could not join because he was “saving children as we speak, because they’re pulling kids out of the darkest recesses of hell right now, in dumps and all kinds of places. The adrenochrome-ing of children.” 

The adrenochrome theory has roots in a blood libel canard leveled at Jews since the Middle Ages, said Rothschild. The myth that Jews use the blood of Christian children in rituals was used to justify the torture, imprisonment and murder of Jews for centuries, even taking a role in Nazi propaganda, before it was adopted by QAnon.

So, keeping on with the crazies, today, Elon Musk has renamed Twitter and replaced the bird with an X. To a whole lotta people this was a total dog-whistle. 

[Side Bar so you understand the X part: Do you know where the pejorative term kike originated? I didn't know until today. It probably comes from Ellis Island. In The Encyclopedia of Swearing, Leo Rosten posits:

The word kike was born on Ellis Island when there were Jewish migrants who were also illiterate (or could not use Latin alphabet letters). When asked to sign the entry-forms with the customary "X", the Jewish immigrants would refuse, because they associated an X with the cross of Christianity. Instead, they drew a circle as the signature on the entry-forms. The Yiddish word for "circle" is kikel (pronounced KY - kel), and for "little circle", kikeleh. Before long the immigration inspectors were calling anyone who signed with an 'O' instead of an 'X' a kikel or kikeleh or kikee or, finally and succinctly, kike." ]

In recent months, Twitter has become increasingly open to antisemitic posts and slurs, many of which are barely masked as such. One cross-post, Hannah Pearl Davis posted her Anti Jew Song dedicated to white supremacist leader Nick Fuentes. I won't post the link to the song, but you can read about it in the Jerusalem Post. Hannah Pearl Davis is an "influencer" who is anti-feminist, anti-equality, and supports Fuentes as well as the controversial kick-boxer Andrew Tate. She may sound like a moron, but she has close to 2 million followers on social media. 

Ah, social media....the new world war platform. I'm not telling you anything you didn't know, but if you want to spread malicious misinformation faster than the speed of light? Well, you know how to post, don't you? Just put your fingertips on the keyboard....and lie.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm still researching left/right violence,  but I'm also debating whether or not to see OPPENHEIMER. My dad once told me Oppenheimer was a disgrace to Jews everywhere."Because of the bomb?" I asked. "No," he answered, "because he turned his back on being a Jew."

It wasn't about being Jew-ish. It was about being counted as a Jew. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I have an up-to-date passport and now I have

a Known Traveler Number.

I am all set to go.

What about you?