This Is Just Too Absurd To Keep To Myself

[debka_notion]

I received the following from a Jewish dating site's email list  (I used said site for a little while, a couple years ago, and never quite managed to get off their email list).   I found it absurd on a series of levels, and thought it was too hilarious (at least as something speaking to me) not to share.  First off, I find the notion of paying someone to pray for you to be a little off-kilter.  Secondly, What makes the 8th day of Chanukah so special?  They come up with a reason, and attribute it to someone, or rather, to his book, but it's the first I've ever heard of it.  I don't think that I'm that poorly educated.  Thirdly, I think that right now, I can support Talmud Torah in Jerusalem by doing an extra chazara on my gemara for class just as easily as sending these folks money.  Fourth, it just rubs me wrong, somehow.

Comments

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a thought train along these lines:

* We need to find part-time work for our kollel bums now that funding from abroad is drying up.

* But they have no skills to offer

* What can we market as a skill? All they do is sit around "learning gemara" and davening

* Ah, let's try marketing their davening.

[flintknappy.livejournal.com]

That does sound like a plausable thought line. I have heard this before from some Jewish organizations, I don't recall offhand which ones. Usually it comes in the mail around the high holiday season and encourages you to have folks pray on your behalf before it's too late. Risky though it may be, I generally prefer to take my chances relying on my own prayers.