Comments on: Shabbes

By: Haish Hagadol

Haish Hagadol — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:31:09 +0000

Okay, the clip and blog beat any travelogue on Israel I’ve ever seen.

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:57:22 +0000

Perhaps you’re right that I shouldn’t have brought Islam up in the first place. I think I was lashing out because Israel was blamed for the sewage spill. But I can’t share your opinion that my comment was a generalization. Did you ever read how people were killed in internet cafes in Gaza because the internet is somehow un-Islamic? How about honor killings? The entire Shia-Sunni rift has left how many dead…all because of a different interpretation of the religion? I love seeing the signs that say: “Kill those who insult Islam”. This sentiment is extremely wide-spread.

By: themiddle

themiddle — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:46:59 +0000

Mario, leave the Muslims out of this, and especially generalizations of that sort.

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:29:04 +0000

Let the anti-Semites spew their crap. Everyone knows that if it were Muslims trying to enforce a religious deed, people would be shot, stabbed, blown up or all of the above. At least Jews just ‘chant’. No one gets hurt.

By: Rafi G

Rafi G — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:40:05 +0000

ck – thanks for the info.
I would say first of all it is not a big deal. I myself only called it funny.. nothing more.

Aside from that though, you are right that it is an agreement between the stallkeepers and this group of people, so who cares. But most people do not know that is the situation.

By: ck

ck — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:33:24 +0000

This happens every week just outside the apartment I share with Michael in Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s central shuk.

The market borders a haredi neighborhood and my understanding is that while cars can drive unmolested, the haredim and the stall owners have a deal whereby the haredim will shop there as long as no work is done on shabat or holidays.

It’s a deal that’s taken seriously and enforced by this little rag tag group of haredim. The stall owners themselves willingly comply and when told to close down for shabat they always do without an argument – these are guys who will argue about a shekel with a customer – but when a haredi tells them to shut down, they comply because they know what side their bread is buttered on.

This prohibition on work applies to Arabs working on behalf of the stall keepers too. Which makes sense. It doesn’t apply to municipal workers who on Friday night wipe down and clean the shuk.

I dunno – they are annoying but I certainly don’t find this sooo appalling. The haredim and the stall owners have a deal. No work on shabbat or we’ll shop elsewhere. The stall owners agreed to this deal. So what’s the big deal?

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:37:45 +0000

“Jews suck boar balls. The greatest canard in human history has been perpetrated by such slanderous and parasitical slime. They seek only the enslavement of non-jews, and when the US(israel’s bitch) turns Iran to glass lets hope Iran gets one good shot into the heart of the beast-Isael. ”
-DMdmz

This was one of the more colorful comments left on UTube. It is unfortunate that those assholes have the power to shape public opinion on Jews. It just goes to show that we need to be so careful about putting stuff like this into context for those aren’t familiar with spectrum of Jewish society. They are like the looney uncle that either needs to be hidden away when there is company, or apologized for in advance.

By: A. Engel

A. Engel — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:15:05 +0000

Julia, #14, what revolting anti-semitic comments? People are pointing out the overly zealous haredim and their harassment of possible non-jews. What, please, what, is bigoted about that? Talk about the boy who cried wolf, no wonder people do not take accusations of anti-semitism seriously anymore.

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:11:24 +0000

I can’t figure out what is more disturbing – these Charedim chanting at non Jews, or the revolting antisemitic comments on YouTube in relation to this video.

By: Chutzpah

Chutzpah — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:39:19 +0000

I was thinking it sounded like the locked unit of a psychiatric hospital pre-Cuckoo’s nest.

By: Esther

Esther — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 01:50:48 +0000

Seriously, it was like something out of a horror movie. Except instead of horror, like eating of actual brains, it was cacophonous droning that was annoying. Is there such thing as an “annoying movie” subgenre? Personally, I’d rather have my brain eaten by a zombie than listen to this cacophonous droning.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:42:03 +0000

They would be really useful though for when your non-Jewish friends ask you what you are up to on a Friday night.

“Want to meet for a drink?”

“Shabbes….shabbes…shabbes…brrrains…umm, I mean…shabbes…”

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:48:45 +0000

“They’re not Jews, they’re Arabs.”

Wait, so they choose to spend Shabbat yelling at non Jews for doing work? They actually CHOOSE to spend Shabbat yelling at non-Jews for not doing something they’re not supposed to do? What? Do they spend their weekdays yelling at non Jews for eating pork? What sad, little people.

By: Chutzpah

Chutzpah — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:05:12 +0000

They probably can’t make it through the Kabbalat Shabbat service because of their Autism.

By: CR

CR — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:33 +0000

#7 – “Interestingly, by harassing workers until they finish, the Charedim miss Kabbalat Shabbat.”

Well, what good is fulfilling a mitzvah when you can do an averah and embarrass your fellow man – all at the same time?

By: michael

michael — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:52:37 +0000

They’re in the shuk every week. They show up by the dozens around half an hour before Shabbat starts, and move from vendor to vendor, blowing horns in their faces and screaming if they’re still closing up shop. Sometimes they’ll congregate around a particular vendor or group of workers, as you see here. I’ve seen them surround a locked and shuttered restaurant which had music playing inside and start banging on the roll-down steel shutters and hollering like something out of Dawn of the Dead. They also show up frequently as Shabbat ends to harass the people working at a local bar who tend to start opening up about half an hour before the official end of Shabbat. Interestingly, by harassing workers until they finish, the Charedim miss Kabbalat Shabbat. Which, along with the fact that it’s mostly young guys and mostly the same characters, leads me to believe that although they wear Charedi garb, they’re the same type as young, male, testosteronal punks universal to almost every human culture. They can’t blow off steam by loitering or getting hammered off cheap beer or, y’know, masturbating, so they harass Shabbat violators. Or at least people they perceive to be Shabbat violators.

By: Rafi G

Rafi G — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:40:01 +0000

what is so interesting about it is that the people they are screaming shabbes for so long are Arabs…

By: themiddle

themiddle — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:34:09 +0000

Weird.

By: Yaaziel

Yaaziel — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:26:49 +0000

surreal to say the least. And somewhat hypnotic a chant…

By: Esther

Esther — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:18:12 +0000

How much more so is Emily right, then. If someone stood around yelling at me for something I wasn’t (and why are they there, anyway? Was it a “Shabbes!” ambush?) that’s just harassment.