religio

[Photo: Yonatan Sindel]

In Israel, hassidic Jews associated with the Shuvu Banim yeshiva complex are protesting the arrest of their leader Eliezer Berland. Protests include picketing the police station, throwing rocks at policemen, attempting to suppress (via court order) the broadcasts about Berland's treatment of a terminally ill woman, and a coordinated assault on the house of one of the whistleblower witnesses (which led to arrest of one of the assailants). On the Shuvu Banim site, Berland is given this characteristic: "Rav Berland continues to act as the community’s powerful spiritual beacon, drawing thousands of newcomers closer to Torah and a mitzvah-observant lifestyle, while also continuing to provide guidance to thousands of Breslov chassidim both within Israel, and across the world."

This is not the first time the spiritual beacon has attracted the police's attention. In 2012, he was accused of sexual harassment and assault, fled Israel at once, switched several countries, eventually got extradited and tried and convicted in 2016. He said that he was "willing to accept any punishment in the world, including burning me and stoning me because that is Torah law", but for some reason did not insist on stoning and served the term. This time, though, it's not just him that got in trouble, but also his wife and five followers. It appears that the spiritual beacon was selling "miracle cures" to terminal cancer patients and insisting they quit regular medical treatment. Berland's "cure" included a ritual and Menthos or sugar pills; it were Berland's followers who went out hunting for marks in oncology departments of hospitals, promising cures. He claimed he took minimal payment for the rituals, but witnesses say they paid him tens of thousands sheqels for them, in some cases taking out loans to be able to pay Berland. It went on for a long while, and stayed within the "haredi" community, with attempts to get the patients back to medical treatment suppressed, until it blew up. There are at least 200 cases like that. In at least one case Berland's followers solicited more money from the family of a patient who died for "ensuring early resurrection on the Judgment Day". It also turns out that last year Berland's family already got in trouble for leeching about 50 million sheqels from the funds donated to the yeshivah, mostly spent on buying property abroad. The whole case looks so ugly that when Berland's lawyer petitioned for his release from arrest due to poor health, the judge(!) refused and told him to take a Menthos instead. The judge got reprimanded, but she only gave Berland what he gave the patients his followers preyed on.

Why am I telling you all this?

Well, because it may be very tempting to say this is abuse of privilege and these people do not represent the religion and so on. That their use of authority and appeal to deity and higher moral law to obtain money and status for themselves from people in precarious situations was an exceptional case.

But this stuff is exactly what religion *is*. Think of that.

The artist and the automation

I had some time before the Bruegel exhibition, so I looked at the two nearby rooms. So I stand in front of Titian's Danae, and my automation turns on uninvited: 'This shadow under the left breast should be deeper... and this forearm is too long... and this hand was clearly painted by an apprentice from a male model..." Shut up, automation, you are interfering with my enjoyment of painting!

(Illustrations: the Vienna version of Danae I was looking at, and Bruegel's wonderful 'The Artist and the Buyer'. Or, in this case, the artist and the automation.

The pen is mightier

When the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" came out, tourists flocked to Thailand to see the bridge that the British POWs had built.

Problem was, there was no bridge. Or rather, there was, but in the wrong place. Pierre Boule, who wrote the book which the movie was based on, did not check his facts, assuming that if the Bangkok - Rangoon railroad, building which the Japanese killed off 12,000 POWs and around 90,000 local residents, had run along Kwai, the bridge must have crossed the same river. In reality the famous bridge was across Mae Klong.

In the end, Thailand renamed the river. Now a stretch of Mae Klong a few miles long, across which the bridge runs, is called Kwai Yai - Big Kwai. I expect the tourists are happy.

(S)He shouldn't have dressed that way

The scientists and engineers landed a machine on a comet, and all the crowd is interested in is the way one of the scientists was dressed. He was bullied to tears - because he wore a shirt, painted by his girlfriend, which featured some women in swimsuits.

Apparently, he invited that on himself because he dressed too provocatively.

Trippin'

Day one. Madrid. Prado, jamon, las Meninas... No time for Facebook.

Day two. Airplane, Miami airport, Samuel Adams summer ale... No wifi for Facebook.

Day three. San Francisco, Chinatown, three hours of tea tasting, North Beach... No time for Facebook.

Day four. Oakland zoo, San Jose Rosicrucian Egyptian museum, Ethiopian food. No time for Facebook.

Day five. Disembarked at Embarcadero, walked in a big circuit along Market, Polk, Washington, and Powell, took BART to Fremont to meet with Chris, bought Silvia a new tablet, played poker... No time for Facebook.

Day six. Golden Gate park, Japanese garden, Haight-Ashbury steampunk stores, then more Chinatown, dim sum, roast quail... No time for Facebook.

Day seven. Lying in bed with a torn fascia from all that walking on uneven streets. Plenty time for Facebook now, dang it...