Sephardic Heritage Update 1019
David Shasha
Friends,
We begin this week’s newsletter with some helpful Trump Tikvah YEEZUS Intersectionality. We already know that the YEEZUS has partnered with the Orange Pig, though at some point he decided that he would go for his own presidential run – which is not the way to ingratiate yourself with the Lysol. In any case, among the many plaudits for his new album, denigrating his late mother the English Professor, there is one notable entry from Tikvah Tablet The Scroll. It is the perfect wingnut whackjob synergy that marks today’s Poptrash Idiocracy world.
Two of the most important examples of the new occult literalist strain in Jewish and Biblical Studies are books from Christian extremist Dru Johnson and an important synthesis of all the harmful trends in what has become known as Analytical Jewish Theology from Rabbi Shai Cherry.
Johnson believes that there is a coherent “philosophy” running through all the Biblical documents. He emphatically denies Rabbinic Midrash and the Open Text of the Jewish tradition, but this makes perfect sense when you realize that he is a Christian fanatic. What makes less sense is the way that turncoat Trumpscum Jews like the deplorable Yoram Hazony have made common cause with such Jesus for Jews advocacy. It is yet one more example of the depredations of the New Convivencia.
Rabbi Shai Cherry’s book Coherent Judaism should actually be called Incoherent Judaism, as it turns classical Rabbinic Judaism upside down in order to promote both the New Talmudism and the occult New Age mysticism of the Analytic Jewish Theology. It is another emphatic rejection of Maimonidean Jewish Humanism and the rational theology of the classical Sephardic tradition.
In a very revealing interview with Bret Stephens’ SAPIR Journal, our dear friend and ace Sephardi-hater Jonathan Sarna demands that Jewish scholars not engage in political opinion-making. According to Sarna, who is committed to White Jewish Supremacy and the HASBARAH echo-chamber, it is unseemly for Jewish academics to opine on the issues of the day by deploying their intellectual arsenal. I believe that is what we would call CHUTZPAH.
In his comments to the Sarna interview, fellow HASBARAH macher Gil Troy is even more explicit and even more emphatic that Jewish academics tow the Neo-Con HASBARAH line and present the White Jewish Supremacy without exception. It is not that politics is bad, it is that the wrong kind of politics is bad.
Moshe Simon-Shoshan’s Lehrhaus article on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik provides an outstanding example of how the Modern Orthodox devotees of the man they arrogantly call the RAV twist themselves into pretzels when they try to present the Anti-Maimonidean conservative White Jewish Supremacist as a Liberal thinker. It is a prime example of what PILPUL looks like: how faulty premises are presented as definitive “facts” when in reality the situation is not at all what it seems. Soloveitchik remains a Jewish reactionary whose ideological views are rooted in the same unthinking atavistic occult as the rest of the Ashkenazi Orthodox. Do not be fooled by the Kantian patina, the RAV is a fierce opponent of Jewish Humanism.
Cnaan Liphshiz presents us with the case of Schneersohn-Christ messianic Rabbi Mendy Chitrik who is apparently taking charge of Turkish Jewry from that messianist perspective. He oversees Kosher supervision in the country, and has made his role as a CHABAD emissary a prominent one in the attempt to ensure that White Jewish Supremacy continues to dominate the Middle Eastern landscape, as the classical Sephardic heritage continues to be erased by the Ashkenazim.
A pair of articles from the great Maureen Dowd reminds us that tone-deafness and bad decision-making is not limited to the Right Wingers.
First, we have a critical recounting of the Andrew Cuomo fiasco, replete with details on the former governor’s hubris and bullying mien. Let us not forget that, once again, Democrats take care of their own when malfeasance occurs. We do not let our politicians get away with it; as is the case with the Trumpublicans and scum like Rapist Gaetz and Rapist Kavanaugh.
The second article is perhaps even more important, given the adulation that continues to be lavished on Barack Obama. Dowd discusses his 60th birthday party and the bad optics it presented. As we saw this week with Obama’s rosy view of the future in another one of his empty-platitude speeches – this one at the groundbreaking of his presidential library in Chicago – it seems that the former president is living in his own alternative reality where all the money he has accrued has made him forget the actual suffering of average Americans, and where Donald Trump is not really a threat to our future. It is all very Mr. Rogers.
A very interesting piece by Reggie Ugwu takes a critical revisionist look at the mogul-rapper Jay-Z who, like Obama, lives in an alternative reality where the 1% climate is always balmy and comfortable.
A million miles away from such an alternative reality is the music of the Zouk masters Kassav’, whose leader Jacob Desvarieux recently passed away. In Jon Pareles’ New York Times obituary, we learn a bit about that wonderful music and the central place of Kassav’ in Antillean culture. For those unfamiliar with the band and its music, I would recommend the following recordings which provide an excellent introduction to their seminal work:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00022UOMU/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_24
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001YIJP6M/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_17
And the LP that introduced me to the band, "Vini Pou," one of their very best:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000ZH2U6/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_14
As we continue to agonize over what is happening in Haiti, it is worth recalling the great art of Desvarieux and his band.
David Shasha
Religious Humanism According to Tikvah Tablet: The YEEZUS is Your Man!
By: David Shasha
The Biblical Authors Should Count as Philosophers
By: Dru Johnson
“The Rabbis Had Too Much Free Time on Their Hands”
By: Rabbi Shai Cherry
The Misuse of Expertise
By: Jonathan D. Sarna
Do Jewish Studies Courses Require Warning Labels?
By: Gil Troy
Exhuming the Rav from His Procrustean Sarcophagus: The “Mesorah Speech” Reconsidered
By: Moshe Simon-Shoshan
This Rabbi is Tweeting His Unusual 3-Week Jewish Heritage Road Trip Through Turkey
By: Cnaan Liphshiz
Andrew Cuomo and the Quislings of Albany
By: Maureen Dowd
Behold Back Antoinette
By: Maureen Dowd
Is Jay-Z Still Necessary?
By: Reggie Ugwu
Jacob Desvarieux, Guitarist Who Forged Zouk Style, Dies at 65
By: Jon Pareles