Featured Post
Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!
(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...
Oct 3, 2023
viral spitting
Spitting can go viral when it effects the spread of CoronaVirus or the flu or other diseases. It can also go viral when it is a hate crime caught on video.
Orthodox Jews walking through the Old City of Jerusalem on their way to the Kotel were caught on video spitting in front of passing Christians. There were other videos that surfaced at the same time as they passed the doorway of a church or monastery some were spitting at the door or at the ground in front of it.
קבוצה של צליינים יוצאת עם הצלב לרחוב שער האריות ונתקלת בקבוצה של מתפללים יהודים עם 4 המינים ואז מתחילות היריקות. ספרתי לפחות 7 בכמה שניות. pic.twitter.com/YjqaknATLw
— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) October 2, 2023
Many have since condemned this sitting, including Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, among others. Some have justified it calling it an ancient Jewish custom.
There was a custom, though I am not sure if it was an actual custom or just a common behavior, to spit. It was done during davening, and it was done when seeing such Christian priests. It was understandable - we suffered greatly at the hands of Christians throughout history, until very recently. Those were ancient times. Today, in modern society, this is considered a hate crime. We Jews would not want people spitting at or in front of us just because they saw us or saw our synagogues. We would raise a ruckus throughout the world about antisemitism, hate crimes and the like. As much as we have long memories and remember the pogroms, crusades and genocide perpetrated against the Jews by Christians, and spitting on the ground is not exactly repaying them for their crimes, we do need to be better now.
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
Labels:
hate crime
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts
Nothing is going to change unless major chareidi Rabbonim speak out. Having the chief Rabbi make a machah means nothing to this crowd.
ReplyDeleteActually it is a thing. My father, a"h, told me how as a child in Poland, if Jews passed a church and no one was looking (because who wanted to get beaten up?) they would say "Sheketz teshaktzenu v'ta'ev tesavenu ki cherem hu", spit and then run (just in case someone saw).
ReplyDeleteSpitting during Aleinu is part of this as well.
Not to excuse the spitting, but let's discuss the other provocation in the video - carrying a very large cross in front of Jews in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh. Highly offensive!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you're a BT family, or have American parents etc. But this is indeed an old minhag. It is not a hate crime to spit at the ground. There was never a custom to spit at people, and I'm sure there still isn't. They can't prosecute people for spitting at the ground.
ReplyDeleteI do agree it is quite silly to do it in front of people though.
In many pre-war immigrant shuls, there were spitoons for people to use. Many Americans found them objectionable, and eventually they were removed.
ReplyDeleteThe spittoons were just for spitting.
DeleteI think Chabad still spits during Aleinu. It's a pun on the word "וריק", which can also mean "spit," and that it's the gematria of ישו.
ReplyDeleteThat line was actually removed from Aleinu because of that reason. In reality, of course, it's not a reference to Jesus at all- it's a pasuk from Yishayahu- but the Christians insisted it was, the Jews didn't want to make a big deal of it, and so lots of Jews started believing it really was about Jesus (and Mohammed too, somehow), and hence, the spitting.
My mother still says that pasuk when she passes a church, but quietly. She doesn't spit.
Here are two versions of a fascinating story from Philologos about that practice:
https://forward.com/news/1282/sheygetz/
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2021/07/the-gibberish-a-madrid-doctor-mutters-going-into-church-is-really-hebrew-dating-back-six-hundred-years/
Who says it was moved from Aleinu? All the good sidurim still have it in there.
Delete