“Synopsis

On the first night of Passover the residents of a remote Jewish bungalow colony are turned into flesh eating zombies by matzoh with a dark history. In the hunt for human flesh, the zombies descend on an unsuspecting family in their quiet farmhouse. The loving mother (Alexandra Angeloch), father (Phillip Levine), along with their rascally son James (Adam Forrest) and naively seductive teenage daughter Sally (Sierra DeCrosta), have to tap into their deepest survival instincts to battle Hasidic zombies, killer payos (that’s right, those little curly side-burns), and antler-sporting zombie rabbis. It’s really the beginning of the end when a fairly tall but not so dark stranger (Nate Earl), who knows the situation all too well, miraculously appears. Journey through their hellish night of terror, romance, and a frighteningly non-kosher diet.”

Truly terrifying. See more here: http://www.nightofthelivingjews.com/

or buy it here: http://www.heebmagazine.com/store/view/21

• @EstherK Legality is a matter of location. Dn8 bld? Medical model/actor for diagnostic practice? Stnd on strtcrnr — for an advtsr w/sign? in reply to EstherK #
• @jaslorax u should be nice to Goldenbaumsteinowitz, he’s got the connects . . . #

• @EstherK Legality is a matter of location. Dn8 bld? Medical model/actor for diagnostic practice? Stnd on strtcrnr — for an advtsr w/sign? in reply to EstherK #
• @jaslorax u should be nice to Goldenbaumsteinowitz, he’s got the connects . . . #

• @mrskutcher First, I hope you don’t have to wax your chest. Second, – no that’s it . . . in reply to mrskutcher #

• Recent thought: Life is not a videogame. It’s not about leveling up. #
• @aplusk Yeah, can’t say as a 28 year old male the blah girls has really intrigued me at all, but I did notice the clever ad integration. in reply to aplusk #
• check out the streamys: http://streamys.org/nominees.shtml #
• And if you haven’t seen this I recommend it: http://www.drhorrible.com/ #
• This came after having tweeted about his own large nose: http://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/1324699756 . Wanna take that one back Stephen? #
• Thank you Heebonics for this Tushy-Shtup: http://heebmagazine.com/articles/view/165 #
• Thanks 2 @EstherK for leading me 2 this bit of hilarious twitter bashing: http://tr.im/hu4u #
• @aplusk Furthermore Adam comes from the Hebrew word 4 earth: adama . . . in reply to aplusk #
• @PopJudaica I believe when SI came out with all the models or b4 many articles detailed it as a major part of Israel’s new PR campaign . . . in reply to PopJudaica #
• Is it wrong to be continually impressed with ONESELF? #
• @EstherK parents on FB = limited profile in reply to EstherK #
• 4 Tweet Alerts (like google alerts) http://www.tweetbeep.com/ #
• @jaslorax #followfriday #

I don’t think anyone’s ever said to me “you don’t look Jewish;” probably because I don’t not “look Jewish” . . .

“The Hebrew Mamita” Vanessa Hidary (Def Poetry)

(Thanks to @PopJudaica for re-tweeting @gemfit and leading me to the clip above)

To frame this post (my first): I find that most of the serious questions I pose causing mind maneuvers and (sometimes angry) meditation are really not questions for others – that I will most likely never ask – they are questions for myself. I am introspective, very, and I search for many of my answers inwardly.

Lately, I have fallen into the twitter phenomenon, sucked in by the 140 character quick mind spurts that need not plumb the depths of say anything more than your average so-cal swimming pool. But I have been left wanting more – and this blog has been sitting around weeping electronic tears of loneliness . . . Then @aplusk introduced @yehudaberg to the twt‘verse with a statement along the lines of following him to the end of the earth.

On a side note, why do I follow @aplusk? Is it because he’s dreamy? Or ‘cause he has a hot wife? To answer the former, no and to the latter, no, well, no – it’s probably because for many he has served (lately for me) as a connection to a life dreamt of that few obtain – a proxy for adventure and ambition, and for that I give thanks – but I digress.

Here it is:

Where does @yehudaberg get off? My antagonist, “daily thought…its not our actions that burden us its the burden of the guilt of our actions that kill us.” I perceive it as cheap, frankly, but let me explain and I am usually wrong anyway . . . I don’t weep too much for the religious upheaval I see coming thru a sort of backwards deconstruction of religion out here in western civilization, but I do cry for the path less taken.

I went to college and before that, obviously, high school and so on, but I also went to religious school. I had a Bar Mitzvah, went to confirmation classes, then taught at a couple religious schools (poorly), and of course journeyed to Israel. (The discussion of the educational infrastructure – religious and otherwise – and its failures in the USA is for another time.)

The thing I most love about the traditions I was raised in/around (thanks to Rabbi-dad) is that questions were encouraged. What I did with the answers I received, like turning the laws of kashrut into midrash (maybe that goes too far – an argument perhaps) declaring why it’s okay to eat cheeseburgers or bacon may not always have pleased my father, but sometimes I would believe asking him these question was enough to bring some joy to him. This imagined joy would be despite my less than spotty temple attendance, but nonetheless affective in showing interest in the faith to which he has dedicated his life.

MY problem is short little bursts of pseudo-intellectualism. My questions come from my studies and from my journey. What is the foundation for the answers of a cabbalist teacher to non-Jewish students? And don’t say ah-ha yet, it’s not like that, really . . . we Jews may not be evangelistic but hey join-up, I welcome you. The future I and many others are headed for, like the Hollywood e-1337, holds a world with less institutionalized religiosity or a life of spiritualism rather than a religious one. What serves as the foundation for this future? Is it pop culture? If it is, does this new bible contain enough strength to serve as a foundation for a teacher to build upon? If pop culture even is what provides the new common language and background? Isn’t it a bit of a shallow puddle?

Jews and modern Judaism are changing; I am not particularly threatened by that, and admittedly I haven’t been to synagogue in awhile, but I am thankful for the journey that has given me that little bit of a foundation I have. I also recognize the necessity of the slow process I am involved with in this spiritual endeavor which aims at enlightenment. Not to be snarky, but why did Madonna sport a Jew-tat, and is that not a little wrong? Again I acknowledge the hypocrisy as one who eats the more than occasional treyf meal, but I have a foundation of understanding for making that decision and am not jumping into something such as the kabala fad, with feet made of clay and praying the waters don’t get muddied.

The point . . . as I said this is MY problem – so I get to have no point as I continue this exploration of mine into the diluted waters of modern mainstream Judaism. So I am not calling Yehuda Berg a charlatan (though some bloggers claim otherwise), truth is I don’t know much about him. Though I do have mixed feelings about selling your own book through twitter as a starting point . . . So to Mr. Berg I say: keep giving snippets of wisdom if your intent is pure. But to everyone else I say: question and do not follow someone into the deep end of a pool without first learning to swim.

I end with a quote from Matsuo Basho, further proving that I am a hypocrite,

“Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old, seek what they sought.”

Thoughts coming soon.

* “heavy.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.
10 May. 2008. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heavy>.