Some Advice for 'Also A Prat'

So also-a-prat reads Winston’s book and bursts a blood vessel. He stamps his foot and throws the toys out of the highchair. Next come the minced meatballs, mashed potatoes and mushy peas splattered all over the kitchen floor. Not very nice.

Oy! I have some advice for you young man. Get a grip. You’re yelling that loud, the whole world will soon know about your infantile temper-tantrums. You wouldn’t want that, would you?

Lets get things straight then. You as a Chosssid can spend the last six months doing nothing but telling us about the uncultured, unthinking and unstimulating community you live within. You put time and effort into posting all kinds of unflattering tales that reveal the stinking side of a Chassidic lifestyle. Week after week you take pride in portraying yourself as some chosen enlightened one. But when Winston dares writes a book, based on a sociological study she has undertaken as part of a doctorate, you have the chutzpah to accuse her of starting a ‘blood libel’. (You’re words not mine).

You then go on with a very silly critique of her book that tells us far more about your own lack of understanding, of the very community you yourself come from, than of any bias on Winston’s part. Oh yes suicide. I forgot that. You’re probably right there. But I can even explain that. Not now. I’m sorry; it’s not a subject I want to go into just yet, so you will have to wait.

You’re undisciplined outburst has shown us that you still have both feet firmly within an inward looking and narrow minded community. Yes you listen to the radio (in the car only, wow) but just like any member of these ‘close-knit ’ communities, you think criticsm is fine as long as it’s self-criticism, but lo-and-behold the outsider who dares express words of negativity. Those outsiders are perpetrators of a ‘blood libel’; they have an agenda, they are in there for the money.

I shall now tell you why you have attacked Winston with such venom. Listen carefully. It’s because she is a woman and Chassidim are sexist, because she is an academic and Chassidim are anti-knowledge and because she is a secular Jew and Chassidim hate the guts of (real) secular Jews.

Read that last paragraph a few times now. Breath deeply. Get over that initial urge to strike back. Then read it once a day for a couple of years. Think about it. Let it sink in slowly. Try and understand what it says. Bit by bit you might begin to appreciate that certain values are so ingrained within your system that it might take a generation (or two) to root out.