11.03.2006

Live from Israel: DAVID WEARS ANTI-ASSHOLE FRINGES

Last night, upon reading the part of the my most recent post which discussed tzitzit, my roommate Eric, who wears them everyday, immediately jumped at the oppurtunity to assist me in attaining painting part of the target I mentioned yesterday. He offered me the use of one of his talit katanim today and I went for it.

The irony here is that during Hebrew today, which is my first class in the morning we watched the Israeli movie Ushpizin (which I highly recommend to anybody, Jewish or not), which is about Orthodox Jews. Anyway, I had a great morning, which (as nonsensical as this may or may not be) I will attribute to the tzitzit. The feeling I get having them on is best described as a mix of the feeling one gets wearing new shoes for the first time and the feeling one gets during a really great prayer service.

I have gotten a number of comments on them, all from fellow students. They range from "Whatever! We all know you're too Clasical Reform to believe in that!" to "They really suit you, David!" In between there have been several comments along the lines of "You just don't look right in those" (to which I said, "You don't look right in that face").

To respond to the first comment: The distinction of Classical Reform can kiss my ass. I am a Liberal Jew, Reform Jew, Progressive Jew, or whatever kind of Jew you want to call me. All I know is that Jewish practices which I find meaningful and helpful in my quest to be a non-asshole are those practices which I choose to do. I thought that wearing tzitzit might fall into that category. As it turns out, it does.

To the other extreme: Thank you.

To the middle: I don't care what I look like in them! I care what I feel like in them. On that note, I think they look really cool. That's right: COOL.

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On another note related to my target (see prev. post for more on the target), I have decided that I need to compile my own sidur.

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SHABAT SHALOM L'KULAM!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

good for you...

Sarah Wilensky said...

ahh ushpizin is most excellent. espesh the music video at the beginning. also, im glad tzitzit are going so well for you. keep being awesome. agreed about the siddur, although i would really just be adding a little and making small edits to avodah shebalev- it works pretty well for me.

Anonymous said...

let me know if you want to find a place to start...z_new_guy@hotmail.com

i miss you and i hope that eie's going great!
--zach

Anonymous said...

Wear them in good (mental, physical and spiritual) health!

You go, guy!
Lauren