#and apparently Judaism now so

[absoluteocellibehavior]

*sees the headcanon of Jewish Detective Noel* *sighs* *cracks open the modern religions textbook again*

[vivitalks]

what's up fellow jews, i have a question for you all here in the midnight hour of our chametz-free holiday:

reblog to get this in front of as many jews as possible <3

[quasi-normalcy]

.

[thathilomgirl]

After more than a year of work on this, @0hana0fubuki0 and I are finally able to present our translation of the Religion chapter featured in the TPN Western Literature Analysis book by Kei Toda!

Disclaimers: 

The translations aren't perfect and the wordings picked might not match the desired nuance of the author, as the main translator is not a native Japanese speaker. If there are things that are unsure by the translator, they will be addressed later at the bottom. 

From what I can remember, this book was published at least a few weeks/months before the Mystic Code fanbook and 3rd light novel got released (and based on Part 3, also possibly finished before the last few chapters of the manga were out), so certain observations written here may or may not have been made obsolete by any new information revealed in these specific sources.

Names and terms used within the series follow the Viz English translation, and mentions of the manga’s timeline are double-referenced with the fanbook. 

The ESV translation is used for the Bible verses mentioned in-text. 

Another thing to note is that Kei Toda is looking through this topic as a Western literature/culture scholar, and not necessarily as a theologian.

[menlove]

adhd autism combo is hell bc often i have to read things that are about my special interest for school bc it's literally my major and the focus of my capstone. but bc i Have to read it my brain just absolutely kicks and screams and wails.

[jewishcissiekj]

Sorry Rosh HaShana brought up a lot for me then going online and seeing DC's upcoming stuff was... not nice

[90th1k1k0m0r1]

…

[yiddishknights]

you seem like the right person to ask about jewish knights and judaism in general in arthurian legend

Hello! Apologies for how long it has taken me to respond to this! Throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period, there were a number of Arthurian texts written by and for Jewish people in Jewish languages. The one I specialize in is an Old Yiddish text called Vidvilt, which is part of the Fair Unknown tradition and based off an earlier German text called Wigalois. This text was super popular in the Yiddish-speaking world for about three centuries or so and was reworked and reprinted a number of times. I already discussed some of those adaptations a while ago in response to this ask.

Predating Vidvilt, there was a Hebrew Arthurian text written in the 13th century which is now commonly known as Melekh Artus. This was based on Old French sources and tells the story of Arthur's birth and Lancelot's affair with Guinevere before breaking off unfinished. The most common edition of the text used today is the one by Curt Leviant, though I just read a fascinating article in the latest issue of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society calling into question some of his transcription choices and the conclusions he draws in his analysis of the text.

I also recently read that a fragment of an Arthurian text in Judeo-Catalan was recently discovered, but I'm afraid I don't know much about it as yet other than that it's apparently a late medieval adaptation of Jaufre.

Chivalric romances of both Christian and Jewish origin were extremely popular among medieval and early modern Jews in general. There were a number of non-Arthurian knight stories that were very popular as well; for example, the most famous and influential work of early Yiddish literature was a chivalric epic called Bovo d'Antona, and a survey I read of the literature in Jewish households in early modern Italy shows that the most popular non-religious work among Jews at that time was Orlando Furioso.

It is worth noting that, even though some of these texts were written by and for Jews, that doesn't necessarily mean that the characters in them were Jewish. Jewish writers generally tended to modify their Christian source materials by gliding over or obscuring references to religion, rather than depicting Judaism directly (the reasons for this are complex and could constitute a whole paper, so I won't get into it here). That being said, medieval Jewish knights did exist in real life, too! There are a few medieval historians who do research into exactly when, where, and under what circumstances Jews were allowed to bear arms, but it definitely wasn't exclusively a literary thing.

[cobragardens]

Notes on the Scene in Job's Basement

Crowley is not tempting Aziraphale here. He's experimenting on him.

Getting Aziraphale to sin, or even getting him drunk, is not Crowley's intent in this scene. Eating food, taking pleasure in food, drinking alcohol, and even being drunk are not sins in most of Judaism or Christianity (and they're certainly not sins in British Christianity, regardless of any church's doctrine). When Aziraphale turns down alcohol, Crowley just suggests he try food instead; so it's not important to Crowley what Aziraphale tries, but it is important to him that he try something.

This scene is also the first time (chronologically) we see that Crowley likes to drink and likes to be drunk.

We know from

and from

as well as from Book Omens and Word of God that angels have no instinct beyond curiosity pulling them toward eating or toward gender. From this we can reasonably presume they have no instinct toward Beverages either.

That means that in this moment--

--Crowley is very likely the only metaphysical entity he knows on either side of the divide, or even knows of, who has ever experienced a physical pleasure.

And he probably has some Lingering Questions about it, like we all did the first time a physical pleasure blew our minds. Like,

Is it this strong for everyone?

Is there something wrong with me?

Am I going to hurt myself if I do this, like, a lot?

And it's not like the poor creature can ask anyone, because the answers for humans aren't necessarily going to apply to him.

So when he sees an opportunity, Crowley gets that one angel he knows who'll talk to him to try a human thing, and then he watches to see if physical pleasure hits the angel as hard as it hit him.

And that's why he looks so creepily pleased when it does.

Apparently it is this strong for everyone and there isn't anything wrong with him. Now he can relax and get sloshed without worrying, and he even has someone to talk to about how rad human stuff is.

A Dip Into Speculation

We know because we're shown this isn't the first time Crowley has gotten drunk that, watching Aziraphale, Crowley understands what he's seeing. I think it's really interesting that Crowley doesn't laugh at Aziraphale at any point during this scene, and he doesn't correct the way he's eating, either.

Maybe it's because this is what it was like for Crowley the first time. Maybe he got so drunk he passed out and woke up in a puddle of his own sick. Maybe he got so drunk he passed out and didn't wake up at all, and there was Paperwork and he had to get used to a whole new corporation just when he'd got the hang of having legs in the old one. Maybe somebody had to show him how to use a fork or whatever they had going on for eating utensils in Ancient Mesopotamia. I distinctly remember having to learn as a small child to chew with my mouth closed. There is every possibility Crowley doesn't consider the way Aziraphale is eating to be worthy of ridicule because whatever Crowley did the first time was worse.

Maybe he wants to leave Aziraphale set up for later embarrassment over his table manners. Aziraphale was a judgy bitch about the wine.

Or maybe it's something like Let him have this one. There can be rules to it later; let him just enjoy it, once, like a little kid with both fists in their birthday cake.

Maybe it's desire. There is some textual evidence for this. Once Aziraphale learns to eat properly, the way he does it is very attractive, and we know Crowley loves watching him do it.

I don't think it's overreaching even to interpret David Tennant's physical performance of Crowley watching Aziraphale eat as one of sensual or erotic pleasure. I mean--

I'm not saying it absolutely has to be erotic, but it's not a reach, or even a full extension of the elbow, to read it that way.

There's another meta somewhere [I'll link it when I find it again; if you know this meta, please drop it in comments!] that discusses how this exchange in Job's basement is filmed like an erotic scene.

Like Crowley, we all want to kiss this face.

Aziraphale isn't eating prettily, but he's eating lewdly, ravenously, desirously, and it's lit like romantic sex, not like gluttony. Whether that's funny or poignant or hot may depend on the viewer. Here's how Crowley's handling it:

Srs tho, any frame of this scene could have been painted by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Or maybe--and this is my favorite of the available interpretations--maybe this is what it was like for Crowley the first time and he doesn't interfere because he wants Aziraphale to come out of this as someone who's had the same experience Crowley's had so Crowley won't be so totally alone in having had it.

[mariacallous]

Salman Rushdie has just published Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. In August 2022, he was giving a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey, rushed the stage and stabbed him 15 times. It was astonishing that Salman survived. He lost the sight in one eye and sustained terrible injuries, but he’s still with us and he’s still writing, and unlike Hadi Matar, he’s still worth hearing.

We think of fanatics as stalkers with an obsessive knowledge of their targets.  Like the antisemites who compile lists of Jews in the media or the homophobes who so focus on the details of gay sex they might almost be closet cases

Most terrorists and bigots are not like that. They are like soldiers in an army who kill and hate for no other reason than tradition or men in authority have told them to kill and hate. If we were less fascinated by the pseudo-glamour of violence, we would see them for what they are: dullards and jerks.

In Knife Salman is almost as angered by the sheer lazy stupidity of his wannabee assassin as his violence.

“I do not want to use his name in this account. My Assailant, my would-be Assassin, the Asinine man who made Assumptions about me, and with whom I had a near-lethal Assignation … I have found myself thinking of him, perhaps forgivably, as an Ass.”

The ass “didn’t bother to inform himself about the man he decided to kill. By his own admission he read barely two pages of my writing and watched a couple of YouTube videos”.

That was enough, apparently, along with a little light indoctrination in the Levant.

We know from Matar’s mother that her son changed from a popular young man to a moody religious zealot after visiting her ex-husband in the Hezbollah-controlled town of Yaroun in Lebanon, a mile or so from the Israeli border.

“I was expecting him to come back motivated, to complete school, to get his degree and a job. But instead, he locked himself in the basement. He had changed a lot. He didn't say anything to me or his sisters for months.”

Salman quotes a wonderfully perceptive line from Jodi Picoult

“If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

Rushdie is openly contemptuous, as he has every right to be.

“I see you now at twenty-four,” he writes, “already disappointed by life, disappointed in your mother, your sisters, your father, your lack of boxing talent, your lack of any talent at all; disappointed in the bleak future you saw stretching ahead of you, for which you refused to blame yourself.”

This has always been the way. Readers old enough to remember 1989 when the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Salman’s execution for writing a blasphemous satire of Islam’s origin story in the Satanic Verses,will know that Khomeini had not read it. Nor had the furious demonstrators in the streets or the regressive leftists and Tory ministers who upbraided him for the non-crime of causing offence.

Those of us who had read the book pointed out that it was a magical realist fiction which contained sympathetic accounts of the racism Muslim immigrants in the UK suffered. Indeed, the Tories of the day loathed Salman, we continued, because of his confrontations with official racism.

But after a while we fell silent. Pleading with his enemies felt demeaning. It gave them undeserved credit, as if they were reasonable people, who could be swayed by evidence rather than just, well, pillocks.

In Knife Salman attempts an imaginary conversation with his persecutor.

OK, he says, Islam, unlike Judaism and Christianity, holds that man is not made in God’s image. God has no human qualities, it says.

But isn’t language a human quality? To have language, God would have to have a mouth, a tongue, vocal cords and a voice, just like a man. The terrorist’s understanding is that God cannot be like a man, however. So, God could not have spoken to Gabriel in Arabic. Gabriel must have translated his message when he came to the prophet.

The angel made it comprehensible to Muhammed by delivering it in human speech which is not the speech of God.

Thus, the version of Islamic instruction Matar received in his basement when he switched from playing video games to listening to Imams was an interpretation of a translation.

“I’m trying to suggest to you that, even according to your own tradition, there is uncertainty. Some of your own early philosophers have suggested this. They say everything can be interpreted, even the Book. It can be interpreted according to the times in which the interpreter lives. Literalism is a mistake.”

For a while, Rushdie says he wants to meet Matar again at the trial, as if he wants to have the argument in the flesh.

He tells a story about Samuel Beckett, which could only have happened to Samuel Beckett.

Beckett was walking through Paris in 1938 when he was confronted by a pimp named Prudent, who wanted money from him. Beckett pushed Prudent away, whereupon the pimp pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest, narrowly missing the left lung and the heart.

Beckett was taken to the nearest hospital, bleeding heavily. He only just survived.

You will never guess who paid for his treatment. James Joyce, of course, he did.

Anyway, Beckett went to the pimp’s trial. He met Prudent in the courtroom, and asked him why he had done it. This was the pimp’s reply: “Je ne sais pas, monsieur. Je m’excuse.” (I don’t know, sir. I’m sorry.)

But the more he thought about it, the less Rushdie had to say to his enemy. The idea that you can have theological arguments with a man who wants to kill you for writing a book he hasn’t even read felt ridiculous.

Although popular culture is full of stories about murderers, and true crime podcasts top the charts, killers and fanatics are nearly always less interesting than their victims. More often than not they are just thick. Nasty and vicious, but thick first of all.

We are about to see the stupidity of fanatics deployed on a mass scale. Two thirds of Republican voters (and nearly 3 in 10 Americans) continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and that Joe Biden was not lawfully elected. They think it because that is what Trump told them to think.

Islamists told Matar that Salman was an apostate, and that was all he needed to know. Trump told Republicans the election was stolen and ditto.

If Republicans were consistent people, they would not vote for Trump in 2024. What would be the point? They would have every reason to fear that the deep state would rig the 2024 presidential election as it rigged the 2020 presidential election.

But they will vote for him because, once again, that is what he tells them to do.

In the end there is a limit to how much attention you can pay the vicious and the stupid.

They are not interesting enough, as Rushdie concluded with marvellous disdain as he contemplated the life sentence Matar will face.

"Here we stand: the man who failed to kill an unarmed seventy-five-year-old writer, and the now 76-year-old writer. Somewhat to my surprise, I find I have very little to say to you. Our lives touched each other for an instant and then separated. Mine has improved since that day, while yours has deteriorated. You made a bad gamble and lost. I was the one with the luck… Perhaps, in the incarcerated decades that stretch out before you, you will learn introspection, and come to understand that you did something wrong. But you know what? I don’t care. This, I think, is what I have come to this courtroom to say to you. I don’t care about you, or the ideology that you claim to represent, and which you represent so poorly. I have my life, and my work, and there are people who love me. I care about those things.”

[germiyahu]

That "racism of low expectations" point can be applied to more than Westerners patting their little Jihad Meow Meows on the head by the way. I think it also applies to American Jews, usually assimilated, acting like Israel is this Entity and not a country made up of mostly Middle Eastern Jews, people. When they do acknowledge that Israelis are people who aren't just acting in the interests of an all powerful governmental animus, they act like all Israelis are bloodthirsty frat bro soldiers wreaking havoc in Gaza because they think it's fun.

Because what is this? This tweet was in response to the chaotic backlash against Jonathan Glazer, who espoused a nearly identical sentiment. That sentiment being: Israel is using our Jewishness for some nefarious political purpose. It's not fair! We didn't sign off on GENOCIDE! How dare they use us to do this!

Israeli Jews are seen too unenlightened, too religious, too much of an embarrassment, to much of Diaspora Jewry. And yet at the same time their Jewishness is not even considered to be part of the political calculus of Israel at all? These not in my name types truly think Israel is a shadowy cabal of like 20 old white men (ironic) getting off on destroying lives and using as shields these poor innocent Americans and Brits, famously two peoples who've never twisted or corrupted the legacy of the Holocaust before.

They obviously have very hurt feelings that Israeli Jews dare to be Jews, to invoke their own Jewishness, Jewish values, to justify military action. They're not even really doing that? They want the hostages back. That is the primary concern if you poll Israeli citizens right now. And that's been the case pretty much every day since the pogrom. That's it. That's why they're saying Never Again. If that offends you as a Jewish person really let that steep. Really sit with your emotional reaction to Jews having a trauma reaction to traumatizing events and relating other events of Jewish trauma throughout history to that event. Ask yourself if it's appropriate to insinuate that they're using their Jewishness, sorry just YOUR Jewishness apparently, to make you look bad?

Israeli politicians have invoked the Holocaust outright, as a comparison. Because clearly the country whose "white" population is mostly made up of the descendants of Holocaust refugees has no business doing that? That's an affront to your name and your values?Again, why do you think everything is about you? Why do you think everything Israel does is even in your name in the first place? Is it American Brainrot Disease again?

You think Israeli Jews are so incapable of rationality and of yearning for social justice (they just want their family members back) that you erase them from the conversation. Israeli leftists are not real and are not working with Palestinians as we speak, and certainly aren't advocating for a ceasefire more successfully than anyone on this continent! Israeli politicians who speak to their constituents and use the shared cultural language of being Jews are trying to brainwash and influence Americans, because they have no constituents. Israel is just a bunch of racist politicians and a mercenary army that's trained to kill children specifically.

Like this is getting so annoying. It's clear they wish they could just excommunicate all Israelis, because they're Bad Jews. They want to take away their Jewish card, because that's not what Real Judaism stands for! And then they get offended when non secular Jews around the world dare question their Jewish identities in response to this behavior. Which I'm not condoning for the record, but how about you practice what you preach for once?

[jewishbarbies]

I (a non Jewish person) just learnt now that the word people are supposed to be using to refer to people who wish for the extermination of Palestinians is not “Zionist” but “kahanist”. I just learnt about kahanism today and learnt that it is something that is shunned.

That makes me think… maybe it was deliberate that the rhetoric of Zionists being wicked and evil deathwishers is being spread. As propaganda maybe. Because it’s very apparent that most (not all, but most) Jewish people are Zionists, I think about 80-90%. So when people say, “we hate Zionists, not Jews”… don’t they still just hate Jews?

Makes me think that since hating Zionists is the basis of the pro Palestine movement, then the Pro Palestine movement was always eventually going to turn vehemently antisemitic at some point. Because it’s literally based on hating belief in the existence of a Jewish homeland.

And while Zionism and Judaism are not the same thing, you cannot talk about Zionism and its history without acknowledging its roots in Judaism, since it’s quite literally the belief in a homeland for Jews.

So in that sense, while Zionism and Judaism aren’t the same thing, the concept of Zionism cannot be separated from Judaism since it literally stems from it.

So that means that the efforts of the pro Palestine people to completely separate the ties between Judaism and Zionism are in vain, because when talking about Zionism, it’ll eventually lead back to Jews.

So I think the pro Palestine movement would’ve turned out as antisemitic as they are no matter what. Because their movement isn’t founded on loving Palestinians, it’s founded on hating Jews.

Maybe I have a tinfoil hat on, but I think the perversion of the concept of Zionism was deliberate. A quick google snoop session (especially prior to the misinformation after the 7/10 attacks) would have given you quick and clear definitions of Zionism and kahanism and their ideologies.

So why is Zionism being so demonised and kahanism barely talked about? Makes me think that this misinformation mishap was intentional.

Idk I’m dumb

oh it was definitely intentional. the russian and hamas bots have been having a field day with the disinformation and antisemitism since the second news of oct 7th hit social media. it’s intentional, because hamas and its allies want jews to be hated worldwide as much as they themselves hate jews so that the world will want us dead too. who would think twice about killing jews when everyone believes jews are evil white colonizers who wouldn’t hesitate to murder children? it’s like the slippery slope of “pedos belong in wood chippers” to “anyone I don’t like is a pedo and therefore belongs in a wood chipper”. the west didnt invent it but damn are we good at it, and hamas knows this.

the houthis, hezbollah, they all know how easy it is to manipulate our views based on the content we consume and how trigger happy we are. all they have to do is point in the right direction and leftists don’t hesitate to fire. to these terrorists, all of us are the same, there is no difference between zionist or kahanism or anti zionism. jews are jews. and they want all of us dead. why would it matter if only one group of jews wants all muslims dead when, in THEIR eyes, all jews deserve death anyway? so now to leftists a jew is a zionist and a zionist is a bloodthirsty, colonial child killer. it was 100% intentional.

[warnersister]

Alfie Solomons x Jewish!Reader

“If you’ll have me”🧸🕍

Click here for the request

Summary: the oddly timed belated visit to his synagogue gave reason for Alfie to keep visiting (Jewish reader)

Alfie felt the need to reconnect with his religion, reconnect with Judaism. Reconnect with the community he’d began to stray away from as his unlawful business thrived. Reconnect with his home, with his family, with his truth.

That’s how he ended up at the local synagogue at two oclock on a Tuesday afternoon. He’d inhaled deeply and relished in his transparency, how God could see straight through him yet still welcomed him into this place of worshiped. And Alfie relished in the fact that for once he couldn’t hide, for once he couldn’t argue it with guns. Alfie felt bare; he felt truthful; and he felt free. He felt proud adorning his faithful yarmulke on his head.

But something felt pure, strong, innocent. Something radiated out of the room that wasn’t only Alfie opening his arms to religion once again. It was something purer than he could ever fathom, something addictively bright. Something powerful. Something that drew him closer like a moth to a lamp. Something like you.

Alfie’s eyes immediately darted to you the moment he’d entered the holy house - how could they not? You were the only other person besides him daft enough to be there at such an odd time. You were sat rather centrally in comparison to the room, only a few ways back from the front and mid-row: head bowed. And if Alfie listened closely and tuned his reiteratively ringing ears enough, he could hear your whispers of prayer and they sounded like bliss.

Alfie approached quietly, noticing how the blue taints to your dress contrasted with your surroundings, and how the shade made your skin appear vibrant and more radiant. He noticed the bracelets encapsulating nimble wrists. He noticed your eyes closed, and lips endlessly muttering promises he couldn’t quite make out.

Eventually, his presence became more apparent as he wasn’t necessarily stealthy with his painful limp and wheezy breathing. You looked up at him, connecting your eyes; entrancing him with the siren-worthy whirlpools that stared back at him. But as quick as the connection was made, it was gone as you quickly returned to your familiar mumblings.

You’d ended your prayer and raised your head, basking in the silence as you stared straight ahead of you. Alfie cleared his throat. “Seat taken, love?” He asked, motioning to the bench space beside you. You looked back at him and smiled gently, shaking your head and offered it him “no, no. Please, sit” and Alfie perched himself gently beside you. “Bit of an odd time to talk to God, no?” He asks, staring ahead; similarly to you to mirror your actions. You snort slightly. “Could say the same thing for you.” And he nods in response, thoughtfully appreciating your correct comment. “Plus I’ve not been for a few months so I thought a few minutes alone wouldn’t really hurt.” You shrug. “Oh I’m sorry, did I interrupt?” He asked, turning to look at you, figure towering you slightly. You just shook your hair again. “Not at all. The weights off my shoulders so the time must’ve done some good” you say to him. “What brings you in?” You ask. “Business has kept me away. Need some time to rekindle.”

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing needing to confess, anyways?” He asks and you giggle slightly. “Well, I’ve got to explain why I’ve not visited him for a while.” You look upwards. “But my grandfather just passed and I thought now was a better time than any to start revisiting Judaism.” You explain to the man. “Oh, sorry for your loss sweetheart.” Alfie never said that, but he felt a serious pang in his heart at your saddened expression. “No need, he wasn’t a good man. But it was a good reminder.”

“Well if business has kept you away for so long why are you available at two on a Tuesday?” You ponder, cocking your head to the side in an amiable fashion. “Well business isn’t as busy, and I’ve done a lot of bad business recently. Plus my sciatica’s been playing up recently, must be a punishment from beyond.” He jokes and you hun thoughtfully. “You know I have just the remedy for that.” You tell him and he raises a brow. “Oh yeah? And wha’s tha treacle?” “Chocolate hamantaschen cookies, they always do the trick.” You promise.

“Oh,” he stokes his beard, reminiscing, “i haven’t had one of those in years.” He admits. “Where do you suggest I get one?” He enquires as you begin to stand. “Theres a bakery at the corner of this street. Theirs are alright.” You tell him and he smiles slightly. “I’ll give it a go for you.” He swears and you nod. “Well I best be off, those cookies won’t bake themselves.” You say, beginning to walk away when Alfie practically jumps out of his seat. “Your bakery is it, darlin?” He asks, quickly catching up to you to which you giggle and nod. “Well I need to be trying these cookies now then.” “Doesn’t seem like to have to” you turn back to him “seems like your sciatica’s magically disappeared.” You raise an eyebrow, unimpressed. He grins and taps his nose, replacing the hat on his head “the lord knows.”

Alfie found himself frequenting your bakery once a fortnight. But he didn’t really string together when once a fortnight became once a week. Or when once a week become once daily. Or even when once daily became twice daily, open and close. Or when he started walking you too and from work: but he did, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eventually, Alfie had managed to taste every bake before it entered the storefront market, giving you his input as you chuckle and tut, wiping the crumbs from his beard and wipe the strawberry jam that had gone missing ten minutes ago from his lips. He also found salvage in the synagogue - your presence a more convincing one that made him go at least once weekly, always at a random time on a random weekday, but you still bowed your head and prayed. But now something had changed, you now spoke louder as the burly man next to you would simultaneously bow his head and swear just as you would. He'd then ask if any of those cookies were ready yet and would always burn his mouth after taking one straight from the tray and placing it straight in his mouth.

*Ring*

The bell in the storefront chimed and you moved from the back of the bakery to the front to answer your customer, instead you were face to face with three men, pistols in hand: talking quietly in brummie accents. "Can i help you gentleman?" you ask, wiping the flour on your hands onto your piney and resting them on your hips. "well aren't you a pretty thing?" the youngest one quirked with a smirk on his face. you roll you eyes but the apparent leader begins to speak, the red-haired one distracted by the odd bakes available in the glass display case in front of him. "we'd like you to give a message to Alfie Solomons." he tells you and you cross your arms and shake your head as you feigned confusion "doesnt ring a bell, sorry."

the man smiles slightly. "alright sweetheart, tell Alf that he has some business in Birmingham to attend to right away seeing as he isnt in his office, seems like a know where he has been" he instructs. "Tell me yourself Tommy boy." the familiar voice barks out roughly from the doorway and you exhale slightly at his welcome presence. “Excuse me missus?” The red haired once removed his cap and requested your attention. You looked over to him and hummed. “Can I have a box of those ones with orange in the middle? My young’un loves ones like that.” He admits, sheepishly. You smile and nod, telling him to cost and going to box up the goods. Tommy smacks the back of his brother’s head “fucks sake Arthur”.

“How dare you, come to my missus’ business, demanding her to send a message to me? If she wasn’t here I’d have murdered the lot of ya, yeah? So I suggest you take your saggy little shitty business back to Birmingham, yeah? And make sure my wife doesn’t see it again? Hm?” Alfie seethes. “Thought you didn’t know him?” Thomas narrows his eyes at you and you raise your brows in confusion “know who?” You retort. Alfie soon kicks the three brothers out, after a loud and frustrated conversation outside with a few “fuck yous” and some “if my mrs wasn’t watching I’d smash your heads together” but soon enough he’d just about cleared them off.

You quickly hurried outside, and called out for the one Alfie seemed to argue with the most “you forgot your desserts” he hurries back under the intense eyes of Alfie, thanking you with a sincere smile before rushing back to join his brothers walking away. “Oh my darlin’ I’m sorry-” “your wife?” You ask and he smiles widely, relaxing, putting his arms around you and pulling you into his chest

“if you’ll have me my love”

[spacelazarwolf]

y’all i found it, i found the post that originated the claim that i’m a ZionistTM and it’s even more ridiculous than i expected.

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—————————

this is, of course, the same person who labeled me a MisogynistTM for making a half baked joke reblog basically saying “jewish standards of masculinity are different than white western standards of masculinity” then cited orthodox judaism, a community i’m not a part of, as why Actually The Jewish Community Is Horrifically Misogynistic And Bad (as if i haven’t faced misogyny from jewish cis men before???????)

anyway, my post in this screenshot didn’t once mention israel. it didn’t mention zionism. it was talking about antisemitism. i turned off reblogs because people were making it about zionism and israel, which was derailing my original point. i set a specific boundary and people kept crossing it, so i turned reblogs off and blocked people who wouldn’t leave it alone. absolutely nothing about that could possibly indicate that i’m a zionist unless you think that diaspora jews setting boundaries about being forced into a conversation about israel, especially one where we are essentially being blamed for the antisemitism we face because of the government of a country we don’t even live in and have no control over (there’s a phrase that, it’s called dual loyalty and it’s been getting jews killed for decades) or if you think simply talking about the history of antisemitism and current rising levels of antisemitism is somehow “zionist propaganda” in which case you might want to get your head out of your ass and question why you’re agreeing with literal nazis. also bonus points for this person literally just blatantly blaming jews in the tags for the rise in antisemitism because we’re apparently not being antizionist enough to deserve basic human decency and safety! not even trying to hide it anymore huh!

and of course it worked like a charm bc now, months later, you have people saying this:

“the jew is trying to disguise himself as one of you to trick you!!!!!! he is actually evil and trying to manipulate you to further his evil (((zionist))) plans!!!!!!!!!! beware!!!!!!!!!!!” which is literally just repackaged antisemitic tropes that are centuries old. i’ve never interacted with the person in this screenshot in my entire life, and yet they seem to think they have insider knowledge into my Evil Zionist Plans to infiltrate the community and spread Zionist Propaganda because they interacted with one gentile witch that threw a hissy fit about being told not to be antisemitic in discourse about gentiles appropriating lillith. this gentile decided that every single jew who disagreed with them was a zionist, and when i told them it was antisemitic as fuck to call any jew they disagree with a zionist they went on about me being a “raging zionist” and “faking being queer” for DAYS. so it’s not a mystery where the person in this screenshot got the “ooh scary (((zionist))) pretending to be queer and trans to spread his evil (((zionist))) propaganda” rhetoric from. it’s word-for-word from the gentile witch who was pissed about fucking LILLITH DISCOURSE.

bc the thing is, these ppl don’t actually care if i’m a zionist. if they did, they would be engaging with what i’ve said (which is practically nothing because i knew the second the word israel touched my blog that this would happen — which is why i didn’t want people going on and on about israel on a post about antisemitism). they know that labeling a jew a zionist is an immediate death sentence in progressive circles. they know it’s the easiest way to discredit a jew you don’t like. because it doesn’t matter how many times you say “no, i’m not” you will be forever tainted in the eyes of gentiles by that accusation. that’s why they made the accusation in the first place. and so i will continue to not share any of my thoughts or opinions other than “i’m pro palestinian liberation” and “i’m not a zionist” and people will ignore that to play yet another game of Zionist Telephone to target a jew they don’t like. it’s not the first time it’s happened, to me or in general, and it won’t be the last time. i just hope people seeing this and reading this will help people understand how fucked up and antisemitic it is.

so yeah. if you see accusations floating around that i’m a zionist, this is where it came from. a situation that is textbook dual loyalty, being punished for setting boundaries on my own blog, and people who hate trans men jumping at the chance to demonize one with one of the easiest tricks in the book as soon as they see he’s also jewish. the fact i keep having to address this when the origin of the rumor is literally just antisemitism should heavily inform how seriously you take random claims online that a jew is a zionist. most of the time it’s just blatant antisemitism, and very often it’s a way to silence an unrelated conversation that person was trying to have.

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

Bunny’s Moral Crisis and Julian being Anti Judeo-Christian

I was positive I got the impression, during my first read of TSH, that Bunny was truly morally bothered by the farmer-killing. Then I started wondering, post-reading, if I was being too generous, and Bunny legit was just worried for his life and was angry that the group was keeping secrets from him (that second one is what Henry told Richard).

But I got to the part in my on-and-off listening to the audiobook where Julian tells Richard he’s wondering what’s going on with Bunny. Julian says Bunny keeps approaching him and asking to talk about morality (particularly sin and forgiveness). Julian says he’s getting concerned that Bunny may convert to Marion’s religion. He asks Richard what denomination she is, and Richard says he thinks she’s Presbyterian. Julian is disappointed and says the only Christian denomination he can gracefully accept losing a student to is Roman Catholic.

Now this scene is interesting to me for a couple reasons. Firstly, it does indicate there may be more going on with Bunny internally than the Greek class gives him credit for. If Bunny is trying to approach Julian privately to talk about ethical dilemmas, this shows some level of genuineness in his questions (Julian also believes it to be earnest questioning). But secondly, Julian’s comment about only finding the Roman rite to be a worthy foe is so, so interesting to me.

The scene shows that something more is going on with Bunny, but it also reveals that Julian hates Judaism and Christianity— making exceptions for people like Dante and Giotto. The thing that’s fascinating to me about this detail is that Julian’s statements show the central theme of the whole book: that beauty is worth something if it’s backed by things of substance (Georges Laforgue says this, and the same thing is said by Theo in The Goldfinch. This is a concept important to Tartt’s writing).

Julian has a basic respect for Catholics, because Catholicism traditionally also has emphasis on art, philosophy, and classical aesthetic beauty. And, perhaps most importantly, Roman Catholics have kept Latin as the language of the Church and Vatican. The medieval Catholic Church was perhaps the biggest patron and commissioner of artists, and from the Catholic Church came Notre Dame, Aquinas, Dante, etc. Here, Julian mentions that the Catholics make “worthy foes” for the pagans, and what he means is that there’s all this aesthetic beauty and classical study within the Catholic Church. But it’s key here that Julian hates other branches of Christianity. The scene emphasizes that the only thing he enjoys about Catholics is their specifically classical history.

The thing I like about this detail is that it is a really specific bit of characterization to show that Julian does not care about morality or the search for truth that’s at the heart of all religions and mythologies. He’s different from people like Aquinas because he does not see human art and language as a means to articulate and pay homage one’s moral beliefs. He sees art/language as the highest good in and of itself. Once you remove the classics aspects of Catholicism, Julian does not care. And we see this because of his apparent disdain for Protestants and Jews. This also reminds me of Bunny saying Henry thinks Jamaicans have no culture. Obviously, they do, but it’s not the particular kind of culture and expression Julian and Henry find legitimate.

I guess I like how Donna Tartt understands her own theme and can show how it’s applicable so naturally just in the way her characters talk. We get a lot of hints about how closed-minded and shallow Julian actually is before we get to the end of the book where it’s confirmed.

[vaspider]

just a heads up that that post abt ppl reconnecting is by a like. meeeega z*onist. i usually am like eh ppl dont need to check usernames for everyone they reblog but for that one since its like. relatatef to an extent to the post i wanted to let you know for you and the people who follow u! i hope u are having whatever the best day for ur circumstances is

You're not Jewish, by your own admission. I went to make sure, before I started talking. You have some Jewish heritage, and you might look at converting, but you're not Jewish, so let's start there. And I am going to be as patient as I possibly can under the circumstances.

You have essentially just walked into the living room of a family that you're not a part of and said, "that thing that was just said about connecting with this family that I'm not a part of? You should not listen to it because it came from a term that those of us outside this family have rendered meaningless by overuse and abuse. You should not interact with that person because I am telling you they're a Bad one of y'all, because I've determined this word is Bad, and everyone has beaten it into the ground."

How do you think that would go, if you walked into my living room and pointed at someone there, as a complete and total stranger, and said, 'you should take my value statement about one of the people in your extended family'? Do you think it would go well, whether or not I agreed with that family member, that you've interjected yourself into intrafamily discussions, especially intrafamily discussions about our family's emotional survival and connection?

Because that's what this is, to be clear. Those people? They are my family. You just came in off the street and said, "Take my word on your family. They're bad. You shouldn't interact with them."

What's more, one of the two people you're pointing at, the only two people who spoke on that post, is someone who was present, and indeed the sole official witness, at a moment in my life which rates in terms of joy and personal meaning right up there with my wedding and the moment the midwife placed my daughter, naked and screaming, on my belly. You just came in to my living room and said, "The person who witnessed your mikveh immersion seven years ago? Bad. Take it from me, person who has never spoken to you before."

Do you also walk into drag shows, point at the person on the stage, and yell, "That's a groomer!"? Because that's basically what y'all sound like when you do this: you're coming in from the outside, wielding a word you've effectively rendered meaningless against people who belong here.

I'm real fucking tired of -- literally every time I interact with any post about Jewishness at all -- someone lunging in to tell me that There Be Bad Jews, or demanding that, because I am interacting with members of my family, I answer a bunch of fucking "when did you stop beating your wife" questions.

That was literally just in the last 24h. One post about how Judaism survives because we reconnect with each other, one post about how American institutions like Chabad are being labeled 'Israeli' as a means of smearing them. Literally dealing with living as a fucking Jew in the diaspora is now simply Not Allowed To Be Spoken Of, apparently, unless I strictly validate that everyone in the thread is not a Bad Bad Zionist, which of course applies to every Jew who says something we don't like, regardless of their repeatedly-stated values or self-identification.

It's almost like the end point of all of that is Jews simply not talking about being Jewish anywhere that they might be seen by someone who doesn't like that. If we can only speak about being Jewish if our Judaism meets the strict, ever-changing ethical purity standards of a bunch of Puritan-descended American leftists, then we can't speak about our lives at all, can we?

Funny, that.

Anyway, you have self-declared Zionists in your last 30 reblogs, so like, if you want to spend time endlessly policing someone's blog, make it your own.

Nobody ever send me asks like this ever again. This is the last one I'll even vaguely humor.