R. Shimon Schwab (Selected Witings 234) What ethical purpose is served by preserving a realistic historic picture? Nothing but the satisfaction of curiosity. We should tell ourselves and our children the good memories of the good people, their unshakeable faith, their staunch defense of tradition, their life of truth, their impeccable honesty, their boundless charity and their great reverence for Torah and Torah sages. . .. Rather than write the history of our forebears, every generation has to put a veil over the human failings of its elders and glorify all the rest which is great and beautiful. That means we have to do without a real history book. We can do without. We do not need realism, we need inspiration from our forefathers in order to pass it on to posterity.’
They've already written sheker books about Berland, and probably more will follow.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't help the straight rabbanim though.
There's an essay by Rav JJ Schachter where he recalls being told by an older woman, "How interesting that all these Gedolim lived the exact same lives growing up!"
ReplyDeleteBecause it's always the same. Born after struggles to conceive and lots of prayers. Very bright, recited his bar mitzvah parsha by heart at his third birthday. Finished Shas for the second time by 10 and Yerushalmi by his bar mitzvah. Spent 23 hours a day in the beis medrash. Never had a moment when he doubted his faith. Any setbacks were someone else's fault. Succeeded in everything.
Every single book is like that. If you want inspiration, write a book about a fictional gadol. If you value truth, write the truth.
A bit like the Monty Python sketch:
DeleteYorkshireman IV: You were LUCKY! We lived for three months in a newspaper-lined
septic tank! We used to have to get up every morning, at six o'clock and clean the
newspaper, go to work down the mill, fourteen hours a day, week in, week out, for
sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Yorkshireman II: Luxury! We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the
morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, work twenty hours a day at mill,
for twopence a month, come home, and dad would beat us around the head and neck
with a broken bottle... IF we were lucky!
Yorkshireman III: Well, of course, we had it tough! We used to have to get up out of the
cardboard box in the middle of the night, and lick the road clean with our tongues! We
had to eat half a handful of freezing cold gravel, work twenty-four hours a day at mill
for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our dad would slice us in two
with a breadknife!
Yorkshireman I: Right! I had to get up in the morning, at ten o'clock at night, half an
hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day
down mill and pay mill-owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home,
our dad would kill us and dance about on our graves, singing Hallelujah!
Yorkshireman IV: Oh, ay. And you try and tell the young people of today that, and they
won't believe you!
Interesting trivia - not Monty Python although two of the four men in the original skit which aired in the "And now the 1948 Show" would go on to form the group.
DeleteThere's another sketch called the Hungarian phrase book.
DeleteMany of the skits are very clever moshulim rather than just comedy.
With the Hungarian phrase book one can use it as a moshul too. A book may claim to have the correct translation or explanation, but what if it's just a fun project by the author?
There was a Gemara cited here that if you are going to lie, hang it on a tall tree 馃尣 ie make it sound credible.
Please fondle by buttocks
Deleteacross the road and turn right after the traffic lights
DeleteMy hovercraft is full of eels!
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ReplyDelete