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

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

The idea that the last day of Chanukko is the "Final Sealing" is chasidic. I read about it in the "Artscroll Chanukah Book" when I was a kid. According to the נטעי גבריאל (a chasidic book of minhogim), chasidim wish each other גמר חתימה טובה on that day.

Paying for people to pray for you -- I don't know how old it is, but it's very common in Israel today. I guess it goes back to the chasidic idea of "Pidyen Gelt" -- pay the rebbe to pray for you, so that you will be saved (redeemed, hence פדיון) from some disaster.