Religion & Beliefs
Are Dancing Rabbis Offensive or Hilarious?
By Tamar Fox / December 10, 2007
This weekend I was in Atlanta for a family simcha and heard Rabbi Ilan Feldman at Beth Jacob give a dvar Torah about, of all things, an Israeli commercial that he’d seen on YouTube. The commercial, which you can watch below, shows a bunch of Chassidic guys bemoaning the new HDTV available on Yes (one of the cable providers in Israel, I think). They sing and dance about how bad it is, all to the tune of YMCA by the Village People. It’s pretty tongue in cheek, if you ask me, but Rabbi Feldman was incredibly offended by it. How dare anyone make fun of Orthodox Jews who have the balls to actually refrain from something, to actually say something is bad for them and then not do it! We need to be more vocal about the ways that being Jewish enhances our lives. And we should admire people who make an effort to put the things that they find offensive and harmful out of their world.
I see Rabbi Feldman’s point, and it does make me a little uncomfortable to have dancing Chassidic Jews as a cinematic punchline. (The Village People thing is just cheesy, as far as I’m concered.) That said, I’m not a huge fan of the constant bans put out by various charedi institutions. To try to rid one’s world of the things that have potential to be dangerous is not only paranoid, it can be a harmful act in-and-of itself. It’s one thing to create an environment where a television can’t contribute anything substantial, but it’s another to say that televisions themselves are the harbingers of evil. It’s one thing to say that modesty is important, and it’s another to throw rocks at women who wear clothes that don’t accommodate the community. It’s okay to say to someone, “Hey, that TV show you’re watching really seems to be having a negative effect on how you look at your own body.” It’s not okay to say to someone, “TV is evil, Gossip Girl is evil, and you and your bulimia can shove it, as far as God is concerned. Call Him when you keep shabbos.” To me, this seems like a very chanukkah-appropriate struggle. We do want to encourage people to embrace Jewish life and Jewish law. We don’t want people living lives that overemphasize the aesthetic pleasures in life. The Maccabees never seem to have found a happy medium, but I hope that we can.
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Wow, Soccer. That's really weird. Didn't you recognize me as the only girl there with purple hair?
I thought R. Feldman's outrage at the caricature of the charedim was a little out of place. The charedi world has become a charicature of itself, just a lot of people trying to be frummer-than-thou, banning everything left right and center. It seemed like it made him uncomfortable that the commercial hit so close to home, and I thought that was a little wimpy. WHy not say, "Hey, when the secular world only sees you as an institution that says no and bans things, you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere." I don't think the charedi method of isolation is particularly ideal.
Wasn't my cousin's dvar Torah awesome?Â
An argument can be made that television in some ways can promote a greater knowledge and understanding of the world. And to be closed off from such a source isn't actually an act of positive denial but rather close-mindedness and ignorance.
That said, it may be best that the Haredi have never seen Flavor of Love.
Ya know…if you dress as if you are in 19th century Poland, you kind of leave yourself open to be made fun of just a little bit.
In a way, is the commercial even really making fun of the charedi (outside of the speech at the beginning) as much as just making a joke because of the juxtaposition of some charedi guys dancing to the Village People? Because if it is mocking, one has to sort of accept that the very position of banning television is somewhat silly. Otherwise the speech at the beginning isn't so far off from reality. Umm, or perhaps I am misstranslating. That is a distinct possibility.
Though it does bring up a tree falling in the forrest type philosophical question. If you are being made fun of in a medium you don't watch, are you really being made fun of?
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