Not a day goes by that my in-boxes are void of some sort of message telling me that I am making a Chillul Hashem (e.g. desecrating God’s name through my comedy). Whether via an angry email, Facebook message, Tweet, or comment on one of my blogs – people seem to be pretty much at ease with telling me that I am making fools out of The Jewish People.
I usually hit said people back with a message asking for specific elucidation backing up their seemingly random claim (rather than simply accepting their hate filled emails claiming that I am an Anti-Semitic hate monger that creates Chillul Hashems). Assuming that they respond to me at all – a rarity in and of itself – I usually receive some half-assed note from them explaining that their “email was typed in a moment of rage.” Upon their self-realization of the fact that their ‘moment of rage’ caused them to judge their fellow Jew without giving their victim the benefit of the doubt (rendering them hypocrites), they usually follow up with explaining that “I am in the public eye and should not be discussing such issues or poking fun at fellow Jews.”
I have been pondering what it is exactly that might constitute the creation of a Chillul Hashem. Is there some sort of continuum demarcating growing levels of provocative invective that,at the breaking point, symbolically flash a red ‘Chillul Hashem’ alert? Can anyone really quantify just what a Chillul Hashem is, or is it completely subjective; i.e. “One persons Chillul Hashem is another persons sense of humor?”
I am pretty sure that most of those claiming that I am a walking Chillul Hashem crafter are those who do not have an ounce of humor present in their mental-constitution. Try telling such people that Jews continue to survive, eons after they should have been wiped off of this earth, through their ability to laugh at themselves. Y’know what you’ll hear back? A non-sequitur that might go something like this: “What you have just claimed is a Chillul Hashem because it denies the very existence of God.”
Relating heretofore unknown cases of sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community to the masses also seems to be high on the list of the ‘Chillul Hashem Label Flingers’. Head over to any of the Ultra-Orthodox “news” sites and take a gander at a story revealing a recent molestation scandal (when the accused is one who dresses in the traditional garb); you’ll notice that many of the comments below the piece attack the fact that the story was reported at all, as publicizing it produces a Chillul Hashem. I know what you are thinking; that the abuser him or herself created the Chillul Hashem, and you’re absolutely right. The Chillul-Hashem-flinging crowd could not possibly come to terms with someone who looks like them doing such horrible atrocities though, and if these evil events are to be written about for all to see, it is somehow not those who committed them who must be desecrating the Jewish people and God, it is those who speak about the perverts and their terrible actions that become those who are desecrating God and His people. How twisted is that?
It seems that everything I write desecrates God’s name, at least according to a certain demographic whom I can only assume are the types that – one may say – have sticks permanently shoved up their asses. As a humorist/satirist/cynic, I have assumed a responsibility to accept these people with open arms; after all, teasing out some of the levity of day-to-day religious life and putting it on display has always pissed off a default segment of my brethren – it’s simply the name of the game.
Humor is kind of like the news, it’s rarely positive. When it is, it’s frankly not that interesting. My humor is not informed from a personally negative perspective, but when people read it, they are free to mold it into any which way that they desire.
- Is talking about Leib Tropper in a public manner a chillul Hashem?
- The latest Charedi riots are a huge chillul Hashem
- To make a kiddush Hashem or just do the right thing – that is the question
- The most abused expressions by frummies: “By”, “Baruch HaShem” and “Be Well”
- Are you getting pissed everytime someone says “Im Yirtza Hashem By You”
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
“Humor is kind of like the news, it’s rarely positive.”
that is too true, i cant even think of one joke that shows someone in a good light. but maybe thats just because it is 1:00 am.;)
Your face is a Chillul HaShem!
Seriously, everything is a Chillul HaShem if you know how to look at it juuuuuuust right.
Humor is just another way of admitting, and overcoming, our inconsistencies, pitfalls, weirdnesses, phobias, neuroses, etc. Even Chazal and Tanakh liked to have a good joke now and then:
Tanakh: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/bibhumor.htm
Gemara: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/HUMOROUSCASESTALMUD.htm
Maybe your questioning the boundaries of Chillul HaShem is a Chillul HaShem? It’s kind of the same way my friend has a beef with the Chofetz Chaim: You’re not allowed to speak Loshon Hara about Lashon Hara…. It’s one of those little ironies in some people’s views that take things to a whole new level. Of course in this case, it’s mostly people reading, misunderstanding or not seeing the whole picture, and knee-jerk reacting to their incomplete perception of your humor.
Basically the same way we get most Chumras….
This is a subject that Alan Derschowitz deals with in his book “Chutzpah”. It’s worth reading. Most of the time, he says, the fear is creating a “shanda for the goyyim”, do use the Yinglish phrase. Derschowitz discusses at length how he grew up in the ‘don’t do anything to embarrase us’ mentallity, but has superceded it and look where he is now? As the title of the book indicates, he proposes that “Chutzpah” is the answer.
Chutzpah in itself is a hard cocnept to define. Audacity, gall, nerve, there are many words that can fill it. It can be a bad thing, but it can also be admirable. The classic Yiddish elucidation is “a child who kills his parents but then asks the judge to have mercy on him because he’s now an orphan.”
To them, I will say that the Jews didn’t get where they were without Chutzpah. Whatever denomination you are, there are tons of examples of people who got where they were by standing up and being Chutzpanim, from Moshe Rabeinu to Mordechai to Theodore Herzl to the Ba’al Shem Tov, et al.
In your case, I would defend you as being very poignant satire on the Jewish world in its various forms. Of course, not everyone is going to be satisfied with your content; hell, even Mordechai, the man who saved the entire Jewish community of the 127 kingdoms of Persia, was only loved by most of the community–yes, he saved the Jewish world, but there were STILL naysayers, people who say he should never have gone into politics but remained in the Bais Midrash all day. No matter what you do, there will be those opposed to what you do and how you do it.
Final note: Yes, the term Chillull Hashem is thrown around way too loosely for its own good. That picture you have up there, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss talking to Ahmadinejad (sp?), now there’s a potential chalilah. For those who haven’t seen the movie Religulous (by two fellow agnostic Jews, Bill Maher and Larry Charles), Rabbi Weiss succinctly makes an ass of himself in that movie.
Hesh “Chillul hashem” is just a frummies way of saying “your embaressing me or us” or “you are making me feel uncompfortable” Nothing to do with god!
A good example of a chilul Hashem caused by a website is the whole treife hot dog incident. It was only because of VIN and YWN that the mainstream media ever heard about it (while Vos iz Neias reported it about an hour after it happened, the Post didn’t publish anything until about 5 days later). The NY Post and CBS then had a video originally posted by VIN that definitely did not show Jews in a good light.
The Chillul Hashem in the Hotdog incident isn’t the media reporting FACT, it’s the people at the restaurant acting like lunatics. Seriously…how do people get this concept confused. Reporting TRUTH and FACT is not a Chillul Hashem, it’s journalism. When we seek to supress the TRUTH and the FACTS because they are uncomfortable for us to deal with and still claim to be following emes that’s when we enter into Chillul Hashem territory.
Wait was the whole hot dog thing a false report??? I had no idea – I guess its a good thing I didn’t write about it then.
Come on – Tex when does the media or “news” ever report fact. If you ever go on a newspaper reading binge like I did when I worked for a politician you can clearly see everything is skewed – I read 3 papers a day and they all said something different about the same story.
The majority of the response to the hotdog incident was based on the video. What “slant” did the video portray? Bottom line, calling the journalists out for reporting the news while failing to call out the people involved in the story is a huge case of missing the point, if you ask me.
I guess it’s a very secretive society. The more things are hushed up, the happieer they are.
Texgator,
Where in the Torah are there special provisions for the media? The final story that VIN posted (after several revisions that completely altered the original story) may have been true, and it may have been helpful to the Jews who read Vos iz Neias, but it definitely helped promulgate a chillul Hashem by collecting the story for the mainstream media.
The story the mainstream media presented was factual. A treife hotdog was served, possibly by mistake, and the crowd responded violently to this, attacking the store owner, who then responded by threatening the customers with an electric knife. That happened, as is shown in the video. The Chillul Hashem is on those who committed those acts….not the journalists who reported the story. Why is this is hard to understand?
SF2K1:
I very much like the line of self-referentialistic thought you introduced to this conversation.
“Can anyone really quantify just what a Chillul Hashem is, or is it completely subjective; i.e. “One persons Chillul Hashem is another persons sense of humor?””
You know there is a LAV (one of the negative prohibitions) “V’Lo Sichaliu Es Sheim Koshi” ” and thou shall not desecrate My Holy Name.
The way I understand it is that god is tellling us not to act in way that desecrates God’s name. Pretty simple.
Poking fun of the torah or belittling Gods ways, I think, desecrates God’s name. So when frum jews act in a way, whatever that might be, that brings a bad light onto God’s name or his torah, is considered a Chillul Hashem.
Doesnt sound like rocket science to me.
If someone tells you that you are making a chilul hashem, you’re doing this correctly. They will only tell you this if you hit the nail on the head with your satire, which for some odd reason embarrasses them.
What I find amazing is that papers like Hamodia will publish articles about not frum people who perpetrated crimes, such as Madoff and the like, but find it lashon hora and chilul Hashem when the perpetrators are “religious”. Does anyone know if lashon Hora only applies to religious Jews?
CinF, Lashon Hara actually only applies to Jews, lol, but no distinction between religious/non-religious anymore than anything else.
Hesh, no offense, but who’s filling your head with such rubbish. When a guy like Bernie Madoff cons billions, how could your blog/humor be considered a chillul Hashem?
Batya from Shiloh – your logic is flawed. I’m not saying that this blog is a chilul hashem, but there could be multiple chilulay hashem on different levels.
While it can be argued that your commitment to telling it like it is can result in you saying things on the internet that some might call a chillul Hashem, you also provide an outlet for many people to deal with feelings of their own, both in allow folks the opportunity to comments and by knowing they’re not alone in their feelings. Anyone who gave you grief for speaking out against people molesting children needs some serious help. It’s clear that you are so in love with Yiddishkeit, even when you poke fun at its idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies. Your words represent you and who you are. I’m sure you’re aware of that when you choose them, and as long as you’re being honest with yourself, I don’t think you’re chock full of chilluls Hashem. Human? Sure. But you’re not out to harm anyone. If bringing an action to light is harmful, those doing those acts might want to reexamine their courses of action before repeating them. Your heart is in the right place.
Ha, I thought the “hot dog” incident was referring to the Camp Sternberg one with the girl and the frozen frank! Oopsie…
Since you’re not a student of Torah in any shape or form, rules of applying of Hillul Hashem to you can be quite liberal. Considering the type of yeshiva you went to, you can probably be even classified as tinok shenishba.
Most of what we write isn’t Chillul Hashem. But it is Chillul Gedoylim.
Chillul Hashem is used to mean “making Jews look bad,” and its opposite, Kiddush Hashem, is used to mean “making Jews look good.” Originaly these terms had more specific meanings. Kiddush Hashem meant dying in the name of God, rather than accepting other Gods. I’m not completely certain, but I think Chillul Hashem was the opposite, worshiping other gods.
CA I will take it as a compliment – since I am a certified Am Haaretz and have no idea what you are talking about.
My new slogan should be – Frum Satire: Not necessarily frum and not necessarily satire!
Chilul Hashem is supposed to be the opening topic of my lesson tonight. Seems Maimonedes had a few words to say on the topic.
Here’s a Chillull Hashem: When I have to explain to non-Jewish coworkers of mine who live in Brooklyn not to judge Hassidim as a whole by one former Hassidic employer who used to visibly treat non-Jewish employees worse than Jewish employees. In my 5 years working with goyyim, I’ve found myself doing more of that than I’d like to brag about. I hate to EVER sound like a self-hating Jew, but even I find myself being pushed to the limits when I TRY to explain this shanda to the goyyim.
I guess my litmus test would be the “ohr lagoyyim” approach. Those who accuse you of creating a Chillull Hashem: do they think that their actions are giving Jews a good name to the rest of the world? IMHO, asking if Frum Satire gives Jews a bad name would be like asking if Dave Chapelle, Richard Pryor, or Bill Cosby give black people a bad name; if George Lopez gives Mexicans a bad name; to really stretch it, if Borat gives Kazakhstanis a bad name.
Not necessarily frum may be true. But satire it is. Honestly, I actually like the stuff which is satire as opposed to… hmm… not satire, I suppose. There is a difference between poking fun and saying: “Heheheh, stupid Jews put a box on their head and think it’s like an antenna”. (Actually, I think it was a little funny. Maybe because I said it. Which is another thing…) Ignorance is not always funny.
There is a very clear lithmus test of what is a Hillul Hashem. If a self-hating Jew reads this, will he become even more self-hating? If an ignorant fool reads this, is there a chance he will think bad about Jews, Torah, gedoilim or Hashem?
I don’t think this danger exists regarding posts on cholent breath or everyone loving a kaddish sayer (or bima politics, or how to trip up a BT) — but all the stuff on shomer negiyah and rabbonim is actually too close to real appikorsis for an appikoires to recognize as “satire”. (Said by a true former appikoires.)
At the end of the day, as Jews, we are not here to enjoy ourselves. We are here to make this world G-dly. Chazal would joke before starting a shiur.
Isn’t humor what makes the Jews so special? You are definitely a kiddush Hashem. Keep on truckin’
Ok, retards….anything that is mechalel the sheim of hashem is a chillul hashem.
Fizzle, Humor is NOT what makes the jews so special…the torah is. This blog is the farthest thing from a kiddush hashem I’ve ever seen.
Anything that is against the torah or is not in done in the manner of the torah and is then displayed toward anyone (even another jew) is a chillul hashem….making this website 100% a chillul hashem. The way things are discussed here that should be kept in the privacy of ones home (i.e. tznius and you know what im doing about…just look at the keywords), talk about lack of davening…lashon hora, etc…is all a chillul hashem. Thank you mr fried for showing the world everything us jews are NOT about. And i agree with your new slogan…cuz you are definitely an am ha-aretz, definitely not frum (i’ve seen you daven, or lack therof).
I also agree with CA…you are definitely considered a tinok shenishba.
Me, I’m not even going to address the points you made. You lost all credibility at the outset of your post when you called all commenters “retards”.
@Me,
your “Us & Them” attitude gives Jews a much worse name than anything on this blog. I’m constantly dealing (at work, in school, other personal relationships) with people who believe that Jews have this elitist attitude that they’re smarter/better than everyone else. Comes part in parcel with the “chosen nation” mentallity.
As a child, my father was constantly instilling in me that nothing makes Jews look worse than this elitism. He would constantly castigate me if I even tried suggesting any of this “chosen nation” crap. I hated him for it growing up frum, but now that I’m out in the world, I thank him for it. Think about this next time you say “Anu Ratzim, v’heim Ratzim…” If a non-Jew were to read a translation of this formula recited every time we make a siyyum, they’d probably emerge thinking worse of Jews than they did before.
You can learn all the Torah and do all the Mitzvot you want, but it is your actions and your attitude toward the rest of the world that either sanctify or violate G-d’s name. I close with the words of Akavya ben Mehalalel. “Ma’asecha Yakrivucha, Uma’asecha Yarchikucha.” YOUR ACTIONS will bring you closer, and YOUR ACTIONS will distance you.
And yes, even G-d has a sense of humor. If you don’t believe me, look at Taanit 22a, where R’ Boroka of Huza is told by Eliyahu HaNavi that two Jesters are gauranteed Olam Haba because they cheer people up. Even G-d recognizes the need to be in good spirits.
I guess its a good thing I have no idea what a tokin hanishba is. But I do have countless emails and messages saved from people who found my blog to be very helpful at getting them through hard times or hope that frum Jews have a sense of humor and so on…
Well, Hesh, a big problem in today’s Jewish society is that most people have no idea what exactly a chilul hashem is. The way I understand it, a chilul hashem is when you do something that leads even one person to say “G-d’s people are not keeping His Torah.”
I think the best way to understand this is to first cite 3 cases of “assumed chilul hashem” which, when analyzed closely, will be easily determined to in fact not be a matter of chilul hashem:
1) The Frum Satire blog has faced accusations of creating a “chilul hashem,” with its hard-hitting satirical look at the issues facing the “frum world”.
2) Some haredim appear to believe in covering up tales of abuse and the like that have taken place in the haredi community, with the reasoning that it would be a “chilul hashem” to publicize the matter.
3) A couple of years ago, there were demonstrations against the Gay Pride Parade that was supposed to take place in Jerusalem. The reform movement, as well as many other Jews, lashed out at the demonstrators, and claimed that the anti-Parade demonstrators were creating a “chilul hashem.”
Now, to analyze these chilul hashem accusations:
1) With regard to the Frum Satire Blog, I’m not positive, but I think that when people accuse you of creating a chilul hashem, what they actually mean to accuse you of is loshon hara. Obviously I don’t think your blog is lashon hara, or else I wouldn’t be reading it. But those who believe that you write lashon hara should simply stop reading it, as it is forbidden to listen to or read lashon hara. But if that is what your detractors believe, they must stop reading it, as well as just about every newspaper in the world, including the haredi papers, as by definition, newspapers publicize facts.
2) With regard to abuse in the haredi community, once again people are confusing “chilul hashem” with “Lashon hara”. The chilul hashem was the action; the abuse itself. The only argument that could possibly be made against publicizing it is that it’s possibly “lashon hara.” Of course, even on that ground, in my opinion, though I am not a rabbi, I don’t think something can be called lashon hara once it has already been made public. Regardless, the publication itself is certainly not a chilul hashem; the chilul hashem already occured at the time of the action.
3) In the case of the Gay Parade, the claims of the demonstration being a chillul hashem, were just a display of ignorance on the part of the Reform Movement and others, as the demonstrations were neither a chilul hashem, nor lashon hara. On the contrary, the Parade itself was a chilul hashem, as those marching were, in effect, shouting to the world that “G-d’s people are not keeping His Torah”. In that case, for the Jewish community to have remained silent and allowed it to pass would have been an affirmation that indeed, the people are not keeping the Torah, and this would have been a chilul hashem of epic proportions.
There is only way to rectify a chilul hashem. And that is to create a Kiddush Hashem. And that is what the citizens of Jerusalem decided to do, as every faction of Jews in the city came together and, in a tremendous display of unity, raised their voices in protest: Haredi, National Religious, litvish, chassidic, traditional, sefardi, ashkenazi; they all came together and said “Not in our name.”
p.s. please forgive the length of this post, I was just trying to acieve clarity, though it took longer than expected.
Voiceof Reason thats a pretty intense and well said comment – although I am sure I must talk a bit of loshon horah on here maybe I’ll use this comment as a response next time I get hate mail.
Thanks