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“The best fiction is challenging” may be true in a sense but it’s also circular. What is this literature best at? Another school of literature believes in a balance of readability and “literary quality”.
To all the people claiming that they are not Joseph: That is exactly what Joseph would say.
As for me, who am I to say I’m not Joseph?
It would be appropriate as soon as the person in question has an interest in doing it.
Are you misgaber ka’ari laamod baboker each day?
It’s “The Jewish Teen’s Survival Guide” by Rabbi Dovid Hochberg. This would have been a good question for the “guy who knows everything” thread, but that’s been mucked up by people testing me on silly questions they already know the answers to, like what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
The nerve of the guy, to joke around with you! And he was Mexican, too!
Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Udall: I think of a man and take away reason and accountability.
(As Good as it Gets)
People have a tendency to label in ways that can defuse further questions. If he was “crazy” then we don’t have to examine the milieu in which the events happened to see what could have led to it.
I always wanted to write about a super hero named Talisman, whose prayer shawl is impervious to attack. He also has other powers that he uses to protect mankind, such as the ability to freeze anyone in their tracks by beginning to say Kedusha, and to detect hidden criminals by saying kaddish, which they are forced to answer.
I think that this topic suffers from a lot of vague questions and false assumptions.
1. The question is unclear what sort of “Jewish writers” OP is referring to.
2. The question is unclear as to what sort of quality OP is referring to.
3. The question (and many of the answers) seems to think that writing is something that you are either good at or not good at. But that is untrue. In addition to innate talent, good writing is the product of education, practice, and work.
4. Pursuant to the above, there are lots of reasons why frum books are not as “good” as secular books. Frum people writing for the frum market are unlikely to have a literary education. Frum people writing for a frum audience are unlikely to be able to generate the type of income that the level of work would require. The very best-selling frum books sell 20,000 copies, and those are a very specific type of book – populist fiction. If a frum person wanted to write the “great frum American novel” it would take him thousands of hours and he would lose money on it. It’s not a coincidence that even the best-sellers (Yair Weinstock type novels) are written mostly by Israelis – they find it worthwhile to put in the work for less money than an American would require.
5. Even if everything I’ve written above is false, it would be easy to understand why frum writers don’t write in the secular market. Even the most talented writers need a ton of luck to get noticed and make a living off their writing. If among 100 published frum writers, none of them happened to get lucky, it would not be anomalous at all.
Anyone who doesn’t believe in sniffing out and invalidating Orthoprax people is themselves Orthoprax.
The whole notion of Orthopraxy exists only because modern orthodoxy has chosen to cater to simpletons. This is true for several reasons.
1. Nothing, most especially ideology, can ever be black and white. And yet, frum ideology is most often presented as black and white because it has the convenient benefit of allowing for certainty among simple people, who are the only ones who can accept it.
2. In addition, this leads to a chain reaction – because simple people are the only ones who can accept it, they become the ones who determine its application. This effect led to things like the cherem on “The Making of a Godol”. The “askanim” who agitated for a ban were simpletons. Rabbanim (e.g. R’ Zelig Epstein) who signed on to it conceded that it was appropriate for sophisticated readers but were concerned that simpletons would read it. Thus, the book was banned and people who could have benefited from it lost out in order to protect simpletons.
3. The current definition of Orthoprax is also only possible in a black and white world. It’s conceivable that someone believes in literally no aspect of frum ideology and practices frumkeit despite that. But I suspect that the overwhelming majority of the so-called Orthoprax actually believe in significant portions of frum ideology. It is hard to conceive of or justify someone remaining frum despite believing that it was terrible for his children, or that there is literally no God at all. Rather, people who disbelieve to some random point on the frum ideology continuum are considered Orthoprax despite believing significant portions of the Torah and probably understanding all of it at a deeper level.
4. All frum people could benefit from a bit of Orthopraxy, in the sense that part of Orthodox Jewish belief is that we don’t understand or need to understand everything. In keeping with what I’ve written above, as compared to simple “belief”, it’s probably more meaningful to shake a lulav despite actively not believing than it is to shake a lulav because you think you believe.
Berntout: There were a lot of ways that the question could have been understood, taken in the context of the hype that internet gets in the frum world. In fact, my post directly addressed part of what you yourself wrote, “and all its negative consequences”.
PBA: I hate to take this out on you but your attitude is exactly the type of magical thinking that is putting the entire yeshiva world in danger of collapsing. Of course you are going to make lots of money starting tomorrow. You are going to show up at Google and say, “I’m a yeshiva guy with a lot of potential, pay me $160,000!” And they are going to laugh in your face. Can you program a simple code? Can you fix a broken pipe? Can you file a tax return? Can you even drive a taxi?
Like all yeshiva guys, you think that showing up and claiming that your capable will lead to everyone chasing after you and throwing money at you. The yeshiva system was able to start because our grandparents did not have that entitled attitude. They came willing to toil away in any industry, be it the garment industry or real estate or the diamond industry – all of which are strenuous, and they then had b’ezras hashem a bit of income that they could devote to avodas hashem. But this generation, like you, just believes that they can just show up. But that is not going to work. How are you going to face your children and tell them that you were not able to provide for them the way that your parents and grandparents provided for you?
Have you ever done any hishtadlus, tried to learn a skill or a trade? Tried to work your way from the ground up? NO! You are just going to show up tomorrow, the way yesterday you were going to show up today, and the way the following day you are going to show up still one day hence, until after 120. How are you going to face your grandparents in shamayim and explain to them that the kollel system is dead? Stop talking about how your going to get a job and actually something to build some valuable skills, so that our Torah lifestyle is not resting on a few delusional people’s magical dreams.
Sanity is overrated: I hope nobody is using this as a study of observant Jews. IME, nothing here is posted in earnest – it’s all a performance of what posters perceive a particular different type of person would post.
I do not understand the OP. Any hope in what regard? Hope to live a fulfilling life? Why not? Lots of people do lots of aveiros and lead otherwise fulfilling lives. As compared to other habits, it’s not a particularly huge impediment outside of the challenge itself. For example, you’re a lot better off struggling with internet porn than with a hot temper or homosexuality.
Secular frummie, advocating intermarriage is not okay on a frum board.
I think PBA went to college last week and is no longer frum.
Iron Penguin, perhaps your love of Torah has resulted in a reading comprehension failure. The topic was not about girls who are shallow because they love Torah. It is about girls who favor the *appearance* of Torah over legitimate accomplishment in Torah.
1. The world will not end if you are a better rounded, more educated settled individual with a career and unmarried at 23.
2. Except for a few super intense parts of particular programs, it shouldn’t be impossible to find enough time to date. If necessary, you can get married over one of the vacation periods.
The chasan and kallah are much happier when their guests are real men who don’t take dancing lessons.
Is there any way to vote for nobody in a way that would just eliminate the position? I think that position would win in a landslide.
You can never go wrong with Jack Handey’s deep thoughts. Here are some:
Whenever I need to “get away,” I just get away in my mind. I go to my imaginary spot, where the beach is perfect and the water is perfect and the weather is perfect. The only bad thing there are the flies. They’re terrible!
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.
I think in one of my previous lives I was a mighty king, because I like people to do what I say.
If I was being executed by injection, I’d clean up my cell real neat. Then, when they came to get me, I’d say, “Injection? I thought you said inspection’.” They’d probably feel real bad, and maybe I could get out of it.
It’s easy to sit there and say you’d like to have more money. And I guess that’s what I like about it. It’s easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money.
Whenever someone asks me to define love, I usually think for a minute, then I spin around and pin the guy’s arm behind his back. NOW who’s asking the questions?
They don’t list the tuition price because:
1. If you have to ask you can’t afford it.
2. The cost is so far beyond reason that specifics don’t matter.
3. The cost is whatever they can get out of you.
SecularFrummy – this supports my hypothesis that everyone here is actually a student at a top law school.
Live right: You guessed wrong. It’s actually very cheery – I’ve figured everything out.
— Jack Handey
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed
— Les Miserables
“We don’t go on stage because the show is perfect. We go on stage because it’s 11 o’clock.”
Heard b’shem Lorne Michaels.
You have two options – figure the world out for yourself, or lie to them.