Jun 7, 2011
A Shocking Response To Request To Put On Tefillin
Ut was recently recently reported in the news that members of the Knesset and their parliamentary assistants have been harassed recently with SMS messages on their phones. The message, sent daily and with seemingly no criteria, offered the recipient a reminder to put on tefillin.
They filed a complaint and tried to figure out who was sending the messages, but the messages kept coming. They wrote back asking to be removed, but the messages kept coming.
Yesterday a message was sent out saying the messages were sent out in good faith, but if you don't want to receive them respond in kind and you will be removed from the distribution list.
One staffer, Lior Finkel, aide to MK Ilan Gilon, decided she had had enough and decided to respond a bit differently. She put on tefillin, took a picture and sent it back to the harassing phone number.
She upset some with her statement of free expression as a form of protest. The head of the staffers committee expressed his shock calling it a provocation. "How would Lior respond if someone would put a pig in front of the room of one of the Arab Members of Knesset as a form of protest? Would she also then say freedom of expression?"
The next step they say is that they will file a complaint with the police. (source: NRG)
While her response is a bit shocking, that was exactly the point, and I can appreciate that. When people are in your face, telling you what to do, especially when it was not wanted and publicized that it was not wanted, sometimes a shocking response is appreciated.
They filed a complaint and tried to figure out who was sending the messages, but the messages kept coming. They wrote back asking to be removed, but the messages kept coming.
Yesterday a message was sent out saying the messages were sent out in good faith, but if you don't want to receive them respond in kind and you will be removed from the distribution list.
One staffer, Lior Finkel, aide to MK Ilan Gilon, decided she had had enough and decided to respond a bit differently. She put on tefillin, took a picture and sent it back to the harassing phone number.
She upset some with her statement of free expression as a form of protest. The head of the staffers committee expressed his shock calling it a provocation. "How would Lior respond if someone would put a pig in front of the room of one of the Arab Members of Knesset as a form of protest? Would she also then say freedom of expression?"
The next step they say is that they will file a complaint with the police. (source: NRG)
While her response is a bit shocking, that was exactly the point, and I can appreciate that. When people are in your face, telling you what to do, especially when it was not wanted and publicized that it was not wanted, sometimes a shocking response is appreciated.
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Ok so they send out texts telling people to put on Teffilin to people who haven't asked for them, and then one of those people does so, and they get up in a tizzy because she is a *girl*. Oh Guys get a Flipin life, really
ReplyDeleteWhat's really shocking is sending these messages. It means you assume that random people don't do mitsvot: in other words, that everyone is a rasha unless proven otherwise - except for yourself, of course. Mamash lev ra'.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, while it is customary for women not to put on tefillin, there's no real issur either. Moreover, you can see in the picture that she didn't really put them on, since they are still in their plastic boxes... I think everyone should be praising this woman for doing the right thing.
good point, chanokh, about the plastic boxes. I had not paid that much attention to the detail, and had not noticed that.
ReplyDeleteNow I wonder if that was intentional, perhaps she wanted to shock them but not actually put on tefillin as she probably "knows" women dont do that (or maybe to not give him the satisfaction of having gotten someone to actually put them on), of if it was out of ignorance and perhaps she thought thats how they go on..
hmmmm
I would think she doesn't know any better. 'שומר פתאים ה...
ReplyDeleteAnyone can see that the boxes are protective; it's too obvious. They were left on intentionally.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the comparison of a girl wearing Tefillin to a Pig in an Arab MK's room is ridiculous. The two are nowhere near the same.
For someone who just doesn't know that tefillin have to be worn on the skin, it is pefrectly reasonable to assume that the plastic cases are protective but don't need to be taken off. After all, why would you take the protection off? In such a view, since they encase the boxes, they are substantially different from the bag you put them in when you don't use them.
ReplyDeleteSo the summarry is... everyone is offended by everyone else and is very indignant to the point of threatening to call the police. Did I get that right? I haven't been in Israel very long, and yet somehow this doesn't surprise me at all.
ReplyDelete