Of Apples and Trees

I never liked comedienne Sarah Silverman. I never thought she was all that funny. Her humor is mostly vulgar and designed to shock people into laughing.  Most comedians will tell you that if the only way you can make people laugh is with vulgar jokes, then you’re not really much of a comedian.  But I digress.

What upsets me the most about her is her very open self-identification as a Jew. Normally when successful people tout their Judaism, it makes me proud. But when she does it – it is an embarrassment. In fact I wish she would just change her name… or go away altogether.

Of late there has been a lot of controversy about Ms. Silverman which has been generated by a political YouTube video she made. In it (if I recall correctly) she repeatedly offers to perform an obscene sexual act to elderly Republican donor Sheldon Adelson if he would stop funding Republican candidates and instead fund the Obama campaign. I saw this video a while back and was thoroughly disgusted by it.

Ms. Silverman must have thought it was funny. But in fact it was a major Chilul HaShem. It doesn’t matter that she is not Orthodox. By proudly identifying herself as a Jew in the video she has desecrated God’s name.

Ms. Silverman is an unabashed Obama supporter. There is of course nothing wrong with that. I haven’t made my own mind up yet about whom I will vote for – so in the end I may yet end up as an Obama supporter too. But in her zeal to support the President she has gone way overboard.

Ms. Silverman must feel it is her political duty to smear the President’s opposition in any way she can.  “All’s fair in love and politics”, I guess. But when Judaism gets connected to vulgarities of this nature the desecration it causes to God’s name via one of His chosen people far outweighs any benefit her candidate may get from it.

Ms. Silverman was taken to task for this by Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt, someone I have written about not long ago. I do not know him personally but he seems like a gentle man who has the same goals I do. One of which is to be Mekadesh Shem Shomayim.  In an article in the Jewish Press he gently rebuked her and suggested that she would be better served as a human being and a Jew if she would redirect her not insubstantial talents and energies elsewhere – perhaps by getting married and creating her own family.  But you could also see the anger that Ms. Sliverman generated in him with this video:

Nothing you say or stand for, Sarah, from your sickening sexual proposal to a Republican donor to your equally vulgar tweet to Mitt Romney, has the slightest thing to do with the most basic of tenets which Judaism has taught the world – that the monogamous relationship is the most meaningful one and that a happy marriage is the key to wholesomeness.

I of course could not agree more. But then came her father 75 year old Donald Silverman. He didn’t like his daughter being attacked.  Like a mother bear protecting her cubs he went to town on Rabbi Rosenblatt using vulgarities that would make a sailor blush. He really let him have it. In the process of bashing Rabbi Rosenblatt he intimated that his Judaism was alive and well – having raised his other daughter so well that she has become a rabbi. And that her husband is so well thought of that he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is mentioned in a Jerusalem Post list as the 49^th most influential Jew in the world.

He may have thought that he has countered his daughter Sarah’s negative characterization by Rabbi Rosenblatt by touting his other daughter’s achievements along with the considerable achievements of her husband. And yet his vulgar way of doing it has created yet another Chilul HaShem.

I have no issue with Reform Jews who never experienced Orthodoxy. If a Jew who proudly touts his Judaism does something great – as did Mr. Silverman’s son in law - that is a Kiddush Hashem. But just because that Kiddush HaShem exists doesn’t eliminate the Chilul HaShem made in the way he announced it.

I don’t know what kind of education this fellow had that makes him think that vulgar attacks in defense of his daughter is something God appreciates – if he even believe s in God. But I think I can safely say he did not get an Orthodox Jewish education… or if he did, he rejected it in its entirety.

The truth is that I wouldn’t be surprised if rabbis in his own  Reform Movement weren’t all that pleased with his reaction.  If I were a Reform rabbi, this is not anything I would brag about. Makes me wonder how his other daughter - the Reform rabbi - feels about it. Of course Sarah loved it, saying “Oh, dad! You’re my hero.”

Here is what else Ms. Sliverman said:

“When I was three years old, I learned to swear from my father, but he taught me with every intention to do so. It was like he was teaching a ‘cursing as a second language’ course for one.”

What kind of a father does this?!

Bearing this in mind her father’s behavior in defense of his daughter it is a bit easier to understand where his daughter came from.

Memo to Donald: I don’t know if you will ever read this or respond to it. But if you do – I am a product of the sixties. Profanity has no effect on me personally except to belittle – in my eyes - the person using it. You want to swear at me and call me names? Do your worst. I couldn’t care less.  I am quite happy – even proud - to stand with Rabbi Rosenblatt on this one. But at age 75 you may want to reconsider what exactly you accomplish in the eyes of God by defending your daughter’s vulgarities with vulgarities of your own.