A Time for Good News

Bring Danny Home: Like everyone else in the American Jewish community, Abq Jew awoke this morning (already a good sign) to this fantastic news, as reported by Shira Hanau of JTA:

Danny Fenster (L) is set to travel back to the United States through Qatar,
former diplomat Bill Richardson announced. (Richardson Center)

Danny Fenster, Jewish journalist jailed in Myanmar, is released days after being handed prison sentence

(JTA) — Danny Fenster, a Jewish American journalist who has been imprisoned in Myanmar since May and was sentenced to 11 years in prison Friday, has been released just days later, according to reports.

Former New Mexico governor and former diplomat Bill Richardson, who was in the country on a humanitarian visit, told reporters Monday that Fenster would travel back to the United States “through Qatar, over the next day and a half,” CNN reported.

Fenster’s brother Bryan celebrated the news in a tweet Monday morning. “We are overjoyed that Danny has been released and is on his way home – we cannot wait to hold him in our arms,” he wrote.

The Yeshiva World yesterday reported:

Michael Flynn Calls For “One Religion” In America

In his latest lurch to the extreme, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn called for only one religion to be in America during a speech at the far-right “ReAwaken America” tour stop in San Antonio.

“If we are going to have one nation under God – which we must – we have to have one religion,” Flynn said. “One nation under God, and one religion under God.”

It goes without saying that Flynn’s vision is not only dangerous to other religions practicing in the United States, including yiddishkeit, but is also completely contrary to the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

Perhaps more disturbing was Jewish Senate candidate Josh Mandel’s statement [We stand with General Flynn.] on Twitter supporting Flynn following his twisted comment. 

Mandel has been moving ever closer to the fringes of far-right radicalism in recent years as he attempts to win the GOP nomination to challenge Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

Now, everyone assumed

that Flynn was talking about Christianity.

Which, all things considered, is not an unreasonable assumption. 

However. Abq Jew must point out (he must! he must!) that there are other alternatives. For example - how about Zoroastrianism? As Wikipedia tells us -

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest continuously practiced religions, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. 

Zoroastrianism has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), as its supreme being. 

The unique historical features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and free will may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including Second Temple Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith.

Unfortunately, most people cannot spell Zoroastrianism. And as for practicing it - let's just say that it's gonna take a lotta practice. 

So how about Judaism? It seems that everyone in the world knows how to spell (in their own language, of course)

JEW

There are problems with that idea, of course. First of all - Judaism is not, and except for rare historical times has never been, a proselytizing religion.

Not that we don't have a lot to offer. It's just that one sticky entrance requirement that usually stops the admissions application in its tracks. From the men, at least.

So how about the almost-a-Jew consolation prize. You know - 

Righteous Gentiles who choose to follow these Seven Laws of Noah are assured (or, as assured as any of us) a place in the World to Come. Yes, it's sort of a lowest-common-denominator thing, but so what? No cutting required.

So. Per Zaid Hamid, we Jews are now in charge of the world's entire supply of ... fertilizer? 

All over the world the Zionists have now created a fertilizer shortage.
This is directly going to affect the crops all over the world.

And push the food prices beyond the reach of lower classes.

All part of the orchestrated agenda of
creating global famine and food genocide.

Abq Jew calls BS.

Blake Flayton tauntingly (15-yard penalty and automatic first down, but worth it) responds:

Yep. We did it.
What you gonna do about it?

Or, as @DeborahJSterli2 replied to Mr Hamid:

ICYMI, Zaid Hamid, Wikipedia tells us, is

a Pakistani far-right, Islamist political commentator, conspiracy theorist, writer and columnist. His byline in newspaper articles has been Zaid Zaman.

The Muslim 500 included him in their yearly most influential Muslims in the world, as a political commentator and host of TV series on geo-politics, Islamic philosophy, Muslim history, and Dr Iqbal’s vision for Pakistan.

Hamid claims that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks were part of a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists", and that it was an attempt by the Indians to stage a false flag attack, which he accuses the September 11th Attacks of being.

Hamid believes that Muhammad had declared war on India, and claims that India will be "trounced and enslaved according to sharia if Hindus don’t repent and embrace Islam."

Zaid Hamid has been criticised as xenophobic and accused of hate speech towards Hindus, Jews, Christians and Pashtuns.

Blake Flayton (@blakeflayton). lehavdil, is one of our guys. Per his Twitter, Blake is a

jew, zionist,
columnist and new media director @jewishjournal,
co-founder @newzionists

Yes, it's the New Zionist Congress. Whose website proudly proclaims 

Welcome to the New Zionist Congress.
In the name of every Jew who has lit a candle in the darkness,
we are here to build a bonfire.

VAX THE JEWS

The message VAX THE JEWS turned up on a mailbox near the Santa Fe Railyard last week, and was immediately labelled a hateful, antisemitic message. Good that we Jews are turning it into a message of hope, but ...

Abq Jew calls huh?

Abq Jew is one of the 85% of American Jews who have been vaccinated (2x) and boosterized against Covid-19, and he strongly encourages his fellow Jews - and his fellow Americans - to follow his example and help stop this pandemic.

Thank you, anonymous graffitist, for helping Jews
stay alive and healthy during these troubling times.

As we head into Thanksgiving week,
this is what Abq Jew is saying.

Future Folk! Space Worms!

A History of Returns to Netflix: Future Folk come from the planet Hondo, a planet where music doesn’t exist.  When they landed on Earth, they liked music so much they decided to stay and form Future Folk.

And, quite surprisingly, Abq Jew was completely unaware of this. Until last night, when he was scared off by Locke & Key and went searching for something just a bit more light-hearted on Netflix.

So here's the first trailer:

And here's what Wikipedia says about them:

Future Folk is a New York City-based folk music comedy duo. Founded as a live act in 2004, the duo includes General Trius (Nils d'Aulaire) and The Mighty Kevin (Jay Klaitz).

After co-starring in an Off-off-Broadway musical comedy titled Who Is Wilford Brimley?, d’Aulaire and Klaitz brainstormed ideas for an act that involved roots music from outer space. They composed songs for the project, which revolved around a fictitious planet named Hondo, and crafted costume helmets from plastic buckets and duct tape. 

After a performance in New York’s East Village, they evolved the act, expanding back stories and developing their characters with each performance. They first appeared as Future Folk in 2005 at Tonic in Times Square, performing at a party celebrating the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. 

In 2012, Future Folk filmed a feature-length movie, The History of Future Folk, which chronicles the duo's arrival on Earth and their subsequent attempt to save both Hondo and Earth from annihilation. 

The film became available on Netflix in 2014. Some time later, it apparently fell off, which might explain why Abq Jew had never heard of it.

So here's the second trailer.

You can find out more about the film on IMDb. Bluegrass Today (the magazine) reviewed the film (really!) in 2013. And, of course, there's Future Folk's website.

So here's something else interesting that Abq Jew just found out.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. 

It's the basis for a number of laxatives.

AND a nitrate ester-plasticized polyethylene glycol (NEPE-75) is used in Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile solid rocket fuel.

Just another interesting fact that Abq Jew just happened to come across while doing ... research. And knew he had to share with you, his loyal readers.

Anyway, here's Future Folk performing their hit, Space Worms.

Well I grew up on my planet farmin' space worms

Where space worms can always be found

But here on Earth as far as I can discern

There just ain't no space worms around

Mort Sahl, Caustic Comic, Dies at 94

Erudite Outrage: Mort Sahl, the comic whose caustic and fearlessly observant routines about Cold War politics in the button-down 1950s transformed American comedy and paved the way for generations of acid-witted humorists, not least Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, died Oct. 26 at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 94.

So reports John Otis of The Washington Post. Who continues:

Before Mr. Sahl, wisecracks about government and Washington were little more than glib asides with no attempt at the jugular. For the most part, comedians avoided topics that might alienate escapist-minded radio, TV and nightclub audiences and stuck to safer material about mothers-in-law or nagging spouses.

By contrast, Mr. Sahl dove headfirst into the divisive politics and tumult of his time — from the nuclear arms race to segregation — with erudite outrage, a finely tuned sense of the absurd and a high tolerance for risk. Referring to his more genial comic forebear, Time magazine described him in a 1960 cover story as “Will Rogers with fangs.”

And then tells us:

In “Seriously Funny,” a book about rebel comics of the 1950s and 1960s, Gerald Nachman explored the novelty of Mr. Sahl’s intellectual, explanatory style and his Ivy League wardrobe.

“Pre-Sahl was a time in which comedians, clad like bandleaders in spats and tuxes, announced themselves by their brash, anything-for-a-laugh, charred-earth policy and by-the-jokebook gags,” Nachman wrote. “Sahl challenged and changed all that simply by the comic device of being himself and speaking his mind onstage.”

At the end of his shows, Mr. Sahl would ask,

“Is there anyone here I haven’t offended?”

Wikipedia tells us:

Morton Lyon Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the only child of Jewish parents. His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on New York City's Lower East Side, and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. He met his wife when she responded to an advertisement he took out in a poetry magazine. Unable to break into the writing field, they moved to Canada where he owned a tobacco store in Montreal.

The family later relocated to Los Angeles, California, where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk and court reporter for the FBI. Sahl notes, "My dad was disappointed in his dreams and he distrusted that world for me. Sahl went to Belmont High School in Los Angeles, where he wrote for the school's newspaper. Actor Richard Crenna was a classmate.

Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone writes:

Sahl made the Top 10 of Rolling Stone‘s “50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time” list for his ability to riff on politics “in a way no one had heard before. Just imagine a comic digging through the headlines (sometimes in the middle of a set) looking to expose hypocrisy with the right piece of journalistic evidence – and scoring in a big way.”

He made a name for himself performing at the hungry I in San Francisco beginning in 1953, where not only did he buck the system with quick-witted monologues addressing politics and social issues head-on, but he brought a more casual vibe to the then-staid style in the comedian world, where punch lines and mother-in-law jokes ruled and suits and ties were the dress code. He preferred to appear like the youth he reached, wearing casual styles and using language that was relatable to his audience.

Sahl’s work influenced generations of comedians, including Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Jonathan Winters, Joan Rivers, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. He called out hypocrisy during his routines and no political figure was in the safe zone, whether they were Democrat or Republican.

Here is a video clip of Mort Sahl explaining politics and relationships. 

For the politics part - well, you have to be of a certain age to really get it. All the names have changed - but everything else had pretty much stayed the same. As for the relationships part - nothing ever changes.

A City of Refuge

Guilt. Shame. Atonement: Along with everyone else in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, and world film communities, and along with everyone else who has heard the news, Abq Jew mourns the sudden, tragic, untimely death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a movie set in Santa Fe.

People hold candles as they attend a vigil held to honor cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins at Albuquerque Civic Plaza on October 23
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CNN

While it is true that others have died from gunshots with much less attention, the death of Ms Hutchins has struck a deep chord with Abq Jew - a father of someone (Dov Yellin the Video Editor) of Ms Hutchins' generation who also works in the film industry. And the father of a daughter, about whom he worries all the time. 

And, Abq Jew is sure, Ms Hutchins' death has struck a deep chord with many of you, his loyal readers.

It is impossible for Abq Jew (or anyone, at this time) to determine the legal and moral culpability (if any) of anyone involved in this tragedy - the armorer, the assistant director, or the actor. 

But Abq Jew is sure that all of them - and, perhaps others - are ashamed of what happened, and are looking for a place where they can hide. 

Maybe forever.

In the Old Days, there was a place where those involved in an accidental death could run from the avenger of blood - the victim's relative, who could otherwise pursue the killer and kill him - with impunity. That place was a city of refuge, where the killer was safe from the avenger's knife.

These days - the avenger is more likely to attack the killer with a lawyer than a knife. But the principle remains the same.

In ancient times, the Cities of Refuge (ערי המקלט‎) were (originally) six Levitical towns in the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah in which the perpetrators of accidental manslaughter could claim the right of asylum.

But who could run to a city of refuge? Wikipedia explains the four categories of accidental manslaughter.

1. Complete innocence, for which no further action was necessary. 
2. Negligence, which required exile to a city of refuge.
   This situation arises when someone is killed as a result of legal activity, which the perpetrator was not required to perform.
3. Severe carelessness, for which exile is insufficient.
   This situation arises when someone is accidentally killed as a result of illegal activity by the perpetrator; for example, this situation arises if a shop owner fails to maintain their property, and it collapses and kills a legitimate customer.
4. Murder, which was subject to the death penalty. 

Chabad explains further:

The cities of refuge were only for those who killed accidentally, not knowing the consequences of their actions. If the person killed out of gross negligence—for example, knocking down a wall in a public area without looking whether anyone was there—the sin is too severe to be atoned for by exile, and the cities of refuge don’t serve as a haven for the killer.

Conversely, if a person tore down a wall in a private area that people never frequent, and a stone fell and killed someone who happened to be there by a fluke, the death is seen as beyond his control, and the accidental killer is not exiled, nor may the blood redeemer kill him.

Although the main purpose of cities of refuge was to protect one who accidentally killed, in practice, murderers who killed intentionally went there too.

When a person arrived at a city of refuge, the court sent messengers to bring him in for a hearing. These messengers also acted as bodyguards, to protect him from blood avengers. 

If it was decided that he’d murdered intentionally, he would be judged accordingly; but if the judges determined that it was an unintentional killing, the messengers would return him to the city of refuge.

So. The truly negligent killer was entitled to, and could, escape the avenger by running to the nearest city of refuge. The roadways were wide, with clear signage. All the truly negligent killer had to do was get there.

Once there, Abq Jew hears you ask - how long would the truly negligent killer stay? When (if ever) was he allowed to leave?

Here is the answer:

Until the death of the High Priest.

Chabad explains:

In his Guide for the Perplexed, Rambam writes that the national mourning that took place at the death of the high priest distracted the mourners of the family member who was killed by the refugee. 

Another explanation is that it was a punishment for the high priest, who “should have prayed that no such accident would happen to the Jews in his lifetime.”

A third explanation is that the high priest causes the Divine Presence to rest upon Israel and thus prolong their lives, whereas the murderer causes the Divine Presence to withdraw from Israel and thus shorten their lives, so he is not worthy of standing before the kohen gadol.

So what you had was - a large number of people, all the killer's family and friends, and even the killer himself, praying for the death of the high priest and the killer's release. Wikipedia adds:

 As killers were freed from the city of refuge upon the death of the High Priest, the Mishnah states that the high priest's mother would traditionally supply them with clothing and food, so that they would not wish for the death of her son.

The Talmud argues that the death of the high priest formed an atonement, as the death of pious individuals counted as an atonement.

Maimonides argued that the death of the high priest was simply an event so upsetting to the Israelites that they dropped all thoughts of vengeance.

 Chabad tells this story:

An old woman walks along the road, carrying heavy parcels and leading a donkey laden with pots of savory food. She is on her way to a city where she’ll dispense the food to the locals.

This old woman is none other than the mother of the high priest, and she’s walking to a city of refuge, a city to which a person flees if he’s killed someone.

Why is the mother of the high priest bringing food to these murderers?

This was the mother of the high priest, who went around to the cities of refuge distributing food and clothing to the refugees so that they wouldn’t pray for the death of her son, which would free them from their exile. 

Some commentators say that she hoped to spoil them so much that not only wouldn’t they pray for his death, they would even pray for him to have a long life.

Wikipedia adds:

According to classical rabbinical authorities, the cities of refuge were not places of protection, but places where atonement was made; Philo explained this principle as being based on the theory that an innocent man would never be chosen by God as the instrument of another man's death, and therefore those claiming refuge at these cities must have committed some sin before they had killed, for which their exile acts as an atonement.

Where does this leave us?

We do not live in the ancient world. There are no cities of refuge for those who kill accidentally. Avengers of blood generally attack with lawyers, not knives.

And yet the guilt and shame of causing the death of another - even, or perhaps, especially, by accident - may never be overcome. 

Can those who kill accidentally never achieve atonement?