Early this morning, someone drove around the neighborhood tossing pashkevils around, littering the streets with protest.
A short while later I saw a teenage girl walking, to school I presume. While she was walking, she bent down and picked up every pashkevil that lay in her path.
Mind you, the street was still filthy, littered with them everywhere else. One could argue that she wasn't really doing anything useful by picking up those few pashkevils. I would even say that I didn't bother picking any up (other than the one I wanted to read) because I said the whole street is messed up, my picking up a few will do nothing - it will have to wait for the street cleaner.
Yet this girl picked up every pashkevil she walked across. She must have known that she couldn't affect the whole street, or the whole neighborhood, but she didn't let that stop her from affecting her circle of influence. Kol HaKavod to her.
famous vignette of the little boy picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea, after the tide had tossed them ashore to die. When an older man stopped to ask the boy how he was making a difference, being that there were tens of thousands stranded, he nonchalantly tossed in another one and said "to that one, there is a difference".
ReplyDeleteI saw them too, and admittedly only picked up one (yeah, but I was in a hurry).
ReplyDeleteIt said, "Look who's responsible for Chillul Shabbos!" None to my surprise it wasn't written by any real organization with any contact info. I even tried Googling it.
If it had, I would have called them and said, "Look who's responsible for Chillul Hashem!"
wanna - it was a totally boring pashkevil, probably leading up to another one in which they will advertise their own business in the form of the need for haredim to support a haredi business.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of todays pashkevil it said haredim need to support a real haredi chain, after it bashed what only looks like a haredi chain but the owner really owns many businesses that are mechalel shabbos. The pashkevil concluded that we should all prepare for the upcoming "ma'arechet", meaning when they will tell us where we should shop/
More and more control
ReplyDeleteIs Barkol behind it?
ReplyDeleteOn a different note I also know dil v'zol is opening up a new supermarket at the Canyonit on Dolev. I think they are behind the campaign "Bekarov notnim yoter"
Shimon - dont know who is behind it. we'll have to wait for the next pashkevil...
ReplyDeleteI know dil vzol is opening up soon, but I have not seen that campaign so i dont know. maybe I just didnt pay attention enough to the wall signs
when yesh pulled this schtick I boycotted Yesh and only shopped Shefa. (funny, the edah gives a hechsher to shefa brand products so I guess the edah is behind chillul Shabbos too... but we then again know that Mamon is the only thing that really concerns the Edah so no ra'ya there) If Barkol is going to play this card then we should all boycott Barkol.
ReplyDeleteCaveat: I am all for Shemiras Sahbbos and very against it's desecration but am even more against some schmo cynically hiding behind "Kedushas Shabbos" et al. in order to gain a foothold in the market. THere is no greater Chillul Hashem and Chillul haTOrah than that.
The latest I have read is that Gur are opening up a chain of supermarkets so maybe they are behind this.
ReplyDeletegarfield, what was the outcome of your boycott?
ReplyDeleteThey did it again last night.
ReplyDeleteI am so infuriated by these b&%$@#$!s, who come like thieves in the night, trash our entire neighborhood with their divrei loshon hora, and what really gets up my nose is that they think this is l'shem shomayim! How ironical - one of their accusations against the target of their loshon hora is that he's "oseh maaseh Zimri umvakesh s'char Pinchas"...
I just drove past old Yosef, our loyal street sweeper, and pulled over to commiserate with him. He showed me what his hands look like from having to stoop over and pick up every one of these accursed flyers (they don't sweep so well with a broom).
Is there any recourse? Can we set a trap for these savages? If we caught them in the act, would it be halachically allowed to slash their tires to prevent them from carrying on with their mischief? I'm so angry, it's probably a good thing I didn't catch them, because I've never had such an urge to beat someone to a pulp.
SHaul - you mention his hands, but can you imagine how sore his back must be from bending over throughout his route to pick up these papers?
ReplyDeleteShaul, I share in your frustration. I picked up about 100 of them and put them in the recycling bin. They're such cowards they can't even put their real names or contact info on their flyers. Chilul Shabbos, how about chilul Hashem?
ReplyDeleteShaul, I'd join in any reasonable plan to nail these guys.
Any ideas about how to catch them? I mean, short of having a rotating mishmar to watch the streets through the wee hours for a car roaming around showering leaflets? Especially when we don't even know for sure that they'll do it again? (Though my bet is they'll do it again tomorrow night or motza"sh.)
ReplyDeleteBest would be if we can somehow find out who's behind this campaign. Any ideas?
wait till the next pashkevil and we will find out who is behind it.. when they finally say which store we should shop in
ReplyDeleteuh... are the pashkevilim sheimos? they say zachor es yom hashabos lkadsho
ReplyDeletehow can a frum person dump a posuk all over the streets?
A sefer Torah written by an apikoros has to be burnt. Needless to say it does not require geniza.
ReplyDeleteThe savages who spread this loshon hora around town are clearly not interested in Hashem's kavod or the kavod haTorah; it's just a commercial exercise in trying to wipe out the competition, cynically exploiting passages from the Torah.
So, do they require geniza? I don't know. But there's certainly room for debate.
So do you think that the Rabbonim of the community could be asked to come out with a statement against anonymous littering of the street with halachic guidelines for the masses? Maybe that would actually discourage them - if they knew people have been *instructed* to ignore them.
ReplyDeleteShira -
ReplyDeletePashkevilim are the exclusive province of those propagating ever-stricter chumros in mitzvos bein adam laMakom, almost invariably tznius, kashrus or shabbos; occasionally fulminating against the Zionists. There has never been - nor, in my judgment, will there ever be - a pashkevil permitting something, nor has there ever been one calling for more stringency in a mitzva bein adam l'chaveiro, such as stealing, damaging other people's property, loshon hora or creating machlokes in Klal Yisrael.
Yes, it would be nice if the Rabbis paskened against mass littering, but it ain't gonna happen. The day any pashkevil goes up that violates the rules I have described above, let me know and I'll buy pizza for everyone.
Pashkevil = Pashk + evil.
Meanwhile, it's Thursday, and we're probably due for another trashing of the town. Does anyone have a video camera with a LOT of memory that we could leave recording all night, to see if we can at least catch these guys on camera?
ReplyDeleteI saw some school kids picking some up yesterday. It's infuriating that this person/group feels they need to show complete disrespect for the community and the environment to make their point. Their behavior has made sure that no one will take listen to what they have to say.
ReplyDeleteFrustrated -
ReplyDeleteThat might have been my daughter - she rustled up some friends yesterday and they went cleaning up the streets, using our new paper recyclers.... :)
Shaul - talk about great timing. the city put those out just in time! you think maybe they were coordinated?
ReplyDeleteSadly, only violence will suffice. We need teams of strong boyz who will patrol the streets (in lieu of the pitiful police) and take these guys down physically, we should also have the same group to take care of the lawless, reckless RBSA or "Ayalon park" kids, they need a good old fashioned back hander to show them , they are NOY welcome here!
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would be that if there were less pashkevil throwers (and their enablers among the rabbonim) there would also be less kids in the park.
ReplyDeleteIt is this prevelant lack of mutual respect and Ahavas Yisroel that sends a mesage to our youth.
And by the way...are these pashkevil people all that different than the people in my shul who rip down the Lema'an Achai and Pesach krohn posters?
I am embarrased to be part of such an "olam"