Thursday, November 30, 2006

Menorahs Everywhere!


Menorah That!

A response to mentalblog: menorah special in Ukraine

Same Menorah, different head of State. There's also the round vs. rectangular Menorah issue. Otherwise it basically looks the same. But Rabbi Saks is a quasi-Chabad BT so maybe there is that underlying wish to belong.

I guess immitation is the best form of flattery after all.

COL

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where did this new minhag come from, to give menoras to non-Jews ?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

What else would you give him, a Knish?

I know it's been done מימות פרעזידענט רעיגן

Milhouse said...

Give him a mezuzah! That tradition goes back to Rebbi.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

TA

ahh, yes, but what resale value does a Knish have?

Milhouse

with a Mezuzah you run the risk of him/her chucking the scroll and keeping the case....

Anonymous said...

so just give the case

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I'm not giving anything. If I do I'll think about your suggestion.

Anonymous said...

sorry, it's off topic.

http://www.njop.org/html/hgvideo.html#vid

Anonymous said...

Why isn't a chossid farbrenging on tes-yud kislev???

Anonymous said...

those chasidishe lines from toras shalom on the side of your blog almost make me vomit, please take them off. Learn to distinguish between chol and kodesh.

Anonymous said...

R'Jonathan Sacks a quasi-Chabad bt?I know he was not a regular yeshiva bocher but I think he was always frum.He is not Chabad but had a relationship with the Rebbe and e ven wrote a book based on the Rebbes sichos.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous (1:05am)

I'm sorry you feel this way, really. Try some Alka-Seltzer, pal.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Anonymous (2:41am)

You speak because you know, or you're just assuming so?

I happen to know that he was a member of a Chabad Shul in London for many years. I did say quasi.

Anonymous said...

He writes in Torah Studies that is was the Rebbe who encouraged him to study to be a Rabbi (in a yechidus).

It is told that the Rebbe personally paid his way in the Rabbinical College he went to.

Maybe someone else can provide more info.

Mississippi Fred MacDowell said...

>Where did this new minhag come from, to give menoras to non-Jews

It's cheaper than the old minhag, of giving a sepher Torah, which goes back at least to the 3rd century Roman emperor Severus and continued well

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Fred:

why then would they scrape together all that cash in the old days, when it could be used for better purposes, especially to buy a Sefer Torah which may end up being desecrated by the non-Jew, or at least not be cared for properly?

Mississippi Fred MacDowell said...

Jews were despised minorities who had to foster the best possible relations with the authorities that they could and sometimes that meant presenting them with special gifts, like a sepher Torah.

I don't think there really was a concern that these siphrei Torah would be ill treated. Only complete philstines would ill treat beautiful handwritten manuscripts. In fact, you can sort of gauge how boorish a person or a society is by how it treats beautiful objects like that.

Milhouse said...

Re: chucking the scroll and keeping the case, I don't think Rebbi gave Ardeban a case, just the scroll itself. If there had been a beautiful case, Ardeban wouldn't have complained about the cheapness of the gift. And obviously Rebbi knew him well enough to trust that he wouldn't chuck it out or desecrate it, especially after he explained how valuable it really was.