tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post1807804199622662538..comments2024-01-21T02:58:08.208-05:00Comments on On the Main Line: I doubt he's a pirate, part II: Charity delivers from death!Mississippi Fred MacDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02734864605700159687noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-63523542181082623622010-09-20T14:25:57.448-04:002010-09-20T14:25:57.448-04:00but maybe a little tacky to repeat or display in t...<i>but maybe a little tacky to repeat or display in the presence of corpse. <br /></i><br /><br />Tacky perhaps, but at a funeral yesterday I counted no less than six people collecting money for charity while chanting "tzedaka tatzil mimoves".LkwdGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14676035514801548695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-33286189079588219712010-09-17T12:01:35.930-04:002010-09-17T12:01:35.930-04:00Great guess, but actually I found out what's g...Great guess, but actually I found out what's going on. I'm doing another post on it, but let's just say for now that the building depicted is still around and even has a web site.S.http://onthemainline.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-17823355430961018362010-09-17T11:02:33.137-04:002010-09-17T11:02:33.137-04:00My guess is that the "funeral home" was ...My guess is that the "funeral home" was provided for poor folks who couldn't afford to have a funeral elsewhere, hence the reference to "tzedakah," not as a swipe against any individual deceased person, but as a motto of the group that sponsored the facility -- and maybe as a sort of continuing "appeal" for more donations.Dan Kleinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-13020292234201863682010-09-16T18:41:38.441-04:002010-09-16T18:41:38.441-04:00[From my notes to Mishlei 11:4, where the "ch...[From my notes to Mishlei 11:4, where the "charity saves from death" verse appears. A little drushy, but why not - DF]<br /><br />11:4 – לֹא-יוֹעִיל הוֹן, בְּיוֹם עֶבְרָה; וּצְדָקָה, תַּצִּיל מִמָּוֶת<br /> Possibly the idea here is based upon the elementary notion of middah kinegged midah - God pays back measure for measure. Thus, since the Talmud in Nedarim describes a poor person as dead, giving him charity can therefore be seen as reviving the dead. In reward for this resuscitation, therefore, charity saves also from death.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-58945524034145926402010-09-16T11:23:45.389-04:002010-09-16T11:23:45.389-04:00I think it's taken as eternal life, ie, life a...I think it's taken as eternal life, ie, life after death. Everyone dies, so obviously tzedakah does not save from death (even though the Gemara gives illustrations where it did save from a literal death, such as the story of Rabbi Akiva's daughter who fed a poor man on her wedding day, and then stuck a pin from her clothing into a wall. Later is was revealed to have impaled a snake that could have struck her).<br /><br />Also, if the skull imagery was a reminder of mortality than the exhortation could be a way of sweetening it.S.http://onthemainline.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-40594465315612751832010-09-16T11:11:23.738-04:002010-09-16T11:11:23.738-04:00Funny thing to say on a headstone or wall hanging ...Funny thing to say on a headstone or wall hanging that "charity saves from death." Does this imply that the deceased was miserly? To my lights, it's an exhortation best expressed among the living, at a Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur service . . . but maybe a little tacky to repeat or display in the presence of corpse.Arinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-81131432620783742862010-09-16T00:05:23.139-04:002010-09-16T00:05:23.139-04:00That is truly cool. Definitely not very chassidish...That is truly cool. Definitely not very chassidish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-79753591242173071342010-09-15T18:11:11.335-04:002010-09-15T18:11:11.335-04:00Yes, it's what they did. Some of them are prob...Yes, it's what they did. Some of them are probably wigs, but not all of it.<br /><br />But not only Amsterdam. There's a nice picture of R. David Sinzheim, author of the Yad David, head of Napoleon's Sanhedrim, highly praised by the Chasam Sofer, where you can not only see that he clearly had long(ish) hair, but he even has a very nicely stylish curl in the side not unlike George Washington. (This is NOT the famous picture of R. Sintzheim you might see by searching Google Images.) This would be the early 19th century in Alsace.<br /><br />I plan to post the famous panel paintings of the Prague Chevra Kadisha in 1772. Almost everyone has long hair. I once <a href="http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-chasam-sofers-hair-to-sdei-chemeds.html" rel="nofollow">posted</a> a portrait of the Chasam Sofer painted in 1811 where he appears to have relatively long hair. However it should be pointed out that the Chasam Sofer himself criticized people who grow long "tchups" (like the gentiles) in a derashah from 1833 (pg 27). However, this isn't so difficult, because in the portrait he didn't have one. He was talking about stylish, 19th century gentile hair. In addition, this was more than 20 years later. Things change. By the 1960s squares were getting all upset at the long haired hippies, while people were still alive who remembered when wearing long hair (and beards) was still an acceptable, mainstream practice (late 19th century). In other words, it's the attitude, not the style. (Recognizing possible halachic problems with a בלורית, but it doesn't seem like he's talking about that.)<br /><br />In fact one of my early "Huhs?" was the fact that in almost all historical depictions of Jews before, but even into early modern times they are seen wearing their hair long or longer than we are accustomed today.S.http://onthemainline.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-69310383594819723252010-09-15T17:40:37.658-04:002010-09-15T17:40:37.658-04:00What's with the long hair? Is that what they d...What's with the long hair? Is that what they did in Amsterdam?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-36086111820683384682010-09-15T11:48:46.838-04:002010-09-15T11:48:46.838-04:00You mean this.
Wow Dan, you are good. You're ...You mean <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/1723-JEWISH-BURIAL-CEREMONIES-English-engraving_W0QQitemZ380228216837QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SRCH:US:105" rel="nofollow">this</a>.<br /><br />Wow Dan, you are good. You're right, it is probably the full name.S.http://onthemainline.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12600498.post-11202687170373371442010-09-15T11:37:53.738-04:002010-09-15T11:37:53.738-04:00I think I may have solved the mystery of the inscr...I think I may have solved the mystery of the inscription. On Google I found that a copy of this engraving is available on eBay for $200. A "rough translation" provided in the item description guesses that the scene was "in the home of David Espinoza Gatela," which supported my guess that Gatela was part of the name. But it seems more likely to me that the plaque marks the construction or dedication of a funeral home (I wouldn't have guessed that they had such things back then) that was "made" in 1705 when David Espinoza Gatela was the administrator -- of the home or of the entity that built it.Dan Kleinnoreply@blogger.com