A Megilla reading in front of 1414 President Street in Crown Heights for a Jewish cop on duty.
Photography By Levi Corp. (Shmais.com)
A Lubavitcher Chossid, dressed in his Shabbos finery save for festive headgear, takes the time to read the Megillah for a lone cop on duty during Purim. On the street. That's right, instead of delievring more and more Mishloach Manos to people who could care less if he brings them wine and a piece of cake he tips the scale in our favor by filling the world with one more Mitzvah.
typical chabad narishkeit, that's what i think of this picture.
ReplyDeleteWhat could be better? I know him personally and can tell you that he A.N. is a chassidisher Yid and a mentsch!
ReplyDeleteMottel- The megilah reader or the cop?
ReplyDelete-Anon: Az a Yid is m'kayim a mitzvah d'rabanin - u'deoraisa- vos ken zayn shlecht? Du bist dach di na'ar!
ReplyDelete-Dovid: The Megillah leiner.
First comment is from a very cynical person.
ReplyDeletebeautiful
ReplyDeleteYou meant to say "instead of delivering shalochmunes to some of the thousands and thousands of families who really could use that extra piece of cake or some chocolates for the kids, he takes time to annoy a cop who may or may not be Jewish, doesn't care for a minute about his mumbling and very likely despises this and every other member of the "smelly mafia" a/k/a "the beards" by reading him from a scroll, contents of which would definitely make this copster way less sympathetic to yiddishkeit".
ReplyDeleteThe real mitzva here is keeping the cop busy so that he is not writing tickets, which is what they enjoy ever more so when the target is a "beard", as they've admitted more then once.
I think it is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHow did the cop "klap" haman? did he shoot off a bullet or two?
UD - did the cop not want the megilla read? was he not listening?
ReplyDeleteUD, please post your address so all of us on this blog can give you mishloach manos if you need them so badly that you begrudge someone a megilla leining.
ReplyDeletePurim caption: Wait officer! I have my deductions right here. Don't arrest me yet.
UD
ReplyDeleteIn real Yiddishkiet you have to force down torah umitzvohs down peoples throat "ad Kdie Hakoah"
UD
ReplyDeleteIts not Tomchei Shabos, most people I know its a hassle and they do it for hashems sake.
In 5 years, Aish and Orah will use a photop like this for there Propoganda.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when he gets a call on his radio half way through?
ReplyDeleteHe leaves the na'ar with his brochos levatolos.
as apposed to what the megila actually says to do.
ReplyDeleteFor those na'arin and otherwise who may not know, this cop (although I can't vouch for the initiative in dialogue at hand) is a sweet t'mimus'dike Yid, talks with the chevre around Judaica World, etc. He wants to do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd b'yod'ai u'makirai ka'amina - the Chosid being m'zakeh him is gohr a Chassidishe Yid, with a "flamm feier" for vos di arbeit mohnt, one whose "hanochos" and erliche chassidishkeit b'emes could be held in high esteem, yes, in other circles as well.
(I'm not trying to be "glett" him, aderaba - he would loathe such! - but rather that others can appreciate vos geit fuhr da.)
I'm not here to say if he did the right thing or not, but mishloach monos and the same as all other mitzvohs d'rabonon of purim is l'harbis rayis unlike chanuka when the main thing is pirsuma nissa. so instead of reading the megillah he could have do the real mitzvah's drabonon and be marbbe rayis by sending cake, wine and choclate to his friends and being home with his kids as it is also part of purim: Mishpocho umishpocho.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he found lots of time to be marbeh rayus as well. But this cop would not have heard the Megillah were it not for a yid who remembered he was Jewish and spent half an hour devoted to one Jew on Purim.
ReplyDeleteAnon. 12:59
ReplyDeleteSo hearing the megillah is not the "real" mitzvah of Purim? Kimdumani that the chiyuv of Shalach manos is to one person, and matanos l'evyonim is two people. Anything more is hiddur mitzvah. Freg ich dir, his basic chiyuv vs. my hiddur which is first?
Yom Tov is not about me feeling good, even in a kedusha'dige way. Yom Tov is about what G-d wants. In Lubavitch it is easy to see if it is about you or about Hashem. If you are willing to give up your comfort, your kedusha'dige growth and mutche zich begashmious (I see what shluchim go through to impact noch a yid) so that another should have epes a kesher lahavaye u'letoraso, bistu oif a veg. Otherwise, hostu gedavent un gelernt but it is all about you (takeh a fine and learned you but still you) and not about the aibershter.
Laniyus da'ati in other kreizen where the focus is on their own kehilla, it is harder to know if your avodah is real, or it is stam tzu patchen zich oifen boich az ich daven un ich lern.
Of course being busy doing all day Assei Tov is a very good thing and that's why to be a Chabad Chossid is so geshmak you just have to do for yidishkeit and say Havaye Atzmus Vchulhu Vchulhu. But being Chagas you don't have all those things which take you away from realy thinking of connecting to the Eibishter then the only thing it is still left is just to do Sur Merah and connect 'purely' to the Eibishter.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteSitting and eating Gefilte Kroit is not what the Reb Elimelech meant by Hizdachachs Hamidois.
anon 5:13
ReplyDeletewhen your busy all day with aseh tov there is no time to do rah to be sur from... derech agav it is a vort from the kotzker (chagas anybody?) who said that I want chassidim to be to busy to have time to do aveiros. IIRC in a recent Heichal habesht there was an article by a chagas chossid which avodah comes first and it seems to be a machlokes among the chagas rebbe's.
Mendel
ReplyDeleteDer kotzker was ostracised from the Chagas world,
Maybe for that statement?
Laniyus da'ati in other kreizen where the focus is on their own kehilla, it is harder to know if your avodah is real, or it is stam tzu patchen zich oifen boich az ich daven un ich lern.
ReplyDeletebut in my kreizen ???????
"he takes time to annoy a cop who may or may not be Jewish, doesn't care for a minute about his mumbling and very likely despises this and every other member of the "smelly mafia" a/k/a "the beards" by reading him from a scroll, contents of which would definitely make this copster way less sympathetic to yiddishkeit"."
ReplyDeletereading megillah to a JEWISH cop is a waste of time????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
is that what you learned in cheder?????, smelly mafia, the beards??? hope u don't teach that to your kids!
The cop may or may not be jewish by blood. He surely doesn't care a bit, as if he did, he would've heard megila in the morning like hundreds of thousands of those who do care did, some of them cops just like him.
ReplyDelete"smelly mafia" and "beards" are the mildest of the terms by which NYC cops refer to the jews. Read their own forum.
Natchalnik
ReplyDeleteyou never fail to surprise me. There's always another notch, another rung lower.
So I guess he's one of the guys on the police blogs, right?
I don't think people were as judgmental with you, right? so why the Ipcha Mistavra" at every step?
The cop is a religious jew and wanted to hear the megilla and was unable to earlier in the day for various reason so his COUSIN read it for him (after spending most of Purim driving his FAMILY around delivering SHALACH MANOS) so basically if you're going to judge someone at least find out the facts first. As the wife of the megilla reader and cousin of the cop; i am appalled at the stupidity going on here.
ReplyDeleteTzig - NYC cops, whenever they get a chance to speak anonymously, are viciously antisemitic. There is no other social or ethnic group they detest more then the frum Jews. They have no shame to admit that they will go after cars they can ID as belonging to the "beards", or that they will give the maximum runaround and the least amount of protection they can get away with. In CH, they can't care less when there is an assault on a Jew, and yet they turn over the whole town at the slightest hint of the opposite.
ReplyDeleteNow that the wife of the kind gentleman cleared things up a little bit, we can accept that this particular cop is a "good" one; fine. That doesn't change the fact that NYPD rank and file's attitude is far from friendly. Just ask some of the "alte chassidim" from the old country what they think about the "good cops" ...