Which, for our Christian friends, means Happy New Year though it’s usually reserved for Rosh Hashanah. I’ve got Jews on the brain because I’m sitting in a Starbucks on LaBrea in a heavily Chasidic neighborhood watching the parade of ultra-orthodox families walking by on their way to synagogue. It seems like each family has a minimum of five or six kids. I love being in these neighborhoods even though I always feel a little embarrassed on Shabbos mornings when they see me doing something as trayf as sitting in a Starbucks while they’re all going off to shul. I know that’s ridiculous—no one is judging me for not being orthodox except myself but I guess I’ll take any opportunity to experience guilt and shame. The modern orthodox families are dressed to the nines in very expensive looking suits and dresses. The Chasids are in full 18th century drag—huge fur hats on the men called streimels, long heavy black silk caftans called bekeshes, and knickers with white stockings. Fine for a crisp January day but I feel sorry for them when it’s 100 degrees out. The boys all have long payess or sidelocks and the women are all wearing expensive-looking wigs called shaitels because they’re not allowed to show their real hair to anyone but their husbands. A lot of the Chasidic families in this neighborhood speak Yiddish as their first language and it’s very cool to hear young kids running around the grocery store screaming to each other in a language that was pronounced dead a generation ago. Last night before Shabbos began I was walking on Fairfax when a big SUV pulled up and a young Chasidic boy jumped out. His young mother stuck her head out of the car and in full Shelly Winters volume shouted, “Avrumi, fix your payess!” Instead of the curly sidelocks I’ve always seen on these boys, Avrumi had long flowing hair worthy of a supermodel framing either side of his blue-eyed crew-cutted head. It never occurred to me (duh!) that these boys had to curl their payess somehow—what do they do, put them in curlers at night?? But what really struck me was this little brief glimpse into a banal daily life moment of a Chasidic family. Very rare since these ultra-religious groups keep to themselves most of the time. It was like the Chasidic version of the “Clean your room” parental wail and the boy responded by rolling his eyes and starting to twirl both of his sidelocks in his fingers to get his mom off his back.
How did I get off on this tangent? Danger, Will Robinson! Stream-of-consciousness Jewish blogger within range! And speaking of that, did you know that not only were several of the apparent uber-goys on “Lost in Space” Jewish (including Will Robinson and Dr. Smith) but of course both Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were Jewish too.
Good Shabbos to all and I wish you a gut yohr!
infomative lite funbut li li li mein yiddish ist nicht gutten. vas ist dis meaning uber goys.ist dis goys as in goyeem.
respondit en anglais sil vous plais. mais oui. todah rabah achee
shalom g.
Posted by: g cole | February 14, 2008 at 04:06 PM
since we were on star trek. lend to me your knowledge on this. my understanding of the unusual hand sign given by spock was the way a rabbi might lay hands on a person they were praying for . what jew know about this. oh and checked with Will first and although the blogger riding in on the stream of unconciousness was in range we discovered it was one of ours a friendly so we let him pass. BAROOCHOT shalom g.
Posted by: gary cole | February 18, 2008 at 09:49 AM