Wednesday, June 08, 2005

HE's BANNED!!!!!

Yesterday after reading airtimedaily (I don't know how to link when
posting from email yet), my wife, god bless her, wanted to know what
the story was with Slifkin. So I took her to the zootorah website and
showed her the entire controversy.
Obviously her next question was "why would they do that to him? They
just ruined his life" So I explained to her about the monday night
council of torah sages poker game, where they decide who to ban. They
don't necessarily need a good reason, and if someone writes a book
that is often reason enough. My wife thought this was rather silly,
because she doesn't get it. She went to a bnei akiva school in toronto
and isn't yeshivish that way. She also thought that this would ruin
his life. At this point I started laughing and pointed out the Rabbi
Steinsaltz, who has been banned for a long time was just made the head
of the Sanhedrin (see Arutz 7 for details).

The fact is that getting banned by the yeshivish community is the
fastest way to stardom and fame. Boteach went on the night show
circuit. They didn't even have to ban him, his books were so far
rejected. Steinsaltz is the most read version of gemara in existence.
That certainly wouldn't have happened without a good ban. Slifkin is
now in good position to really make a difference. More copies of those
books were probably sold in the 2 weeks after the ban then he could
have expected in 2 lifetimes. The fact is that most non black hat
people think the black hat establishment is rather wacked out.

( I think they could solve the problem if they read shlomy's blog,
http://chossid.blogspot.com/, Then they'll be able to lose all that
pent up frustration.)

The fact that the establishment can ban someone without hearing his
point of view, or even reading his book is not at all odd. This is
normal. Like throwing a guy out of yeshiva because they heard a rumor
that possibly something may have occurred. And that can't happen in
yeshiva velt.

Slifkin should thank god every day that he got banned. There are tons
of other people who have been trying for years and just can't seem to
piss off the right people.

1 comment:

2R said...

That may be the answer to my registration problem...I should get the program cheremized and there'll be hordes of kids wanting "in"