Struggles with Writing

The Blindman's Meal, Pablo Picasso,1903
Oil on canvas

My sketch

  My art history class was given a writing assignment which involved, going to to a museum, sketching the artwork (hope you guys like my sketch I went a little crazy with the shading) that I want to write on and finding at least one scholarly source. I found "The Blindman's Meal", by Pablo Picasso to be a very striking work of art. One reason being is the coloring which is very dark on the most part with little contrast. Seeing as this is from Picasso's "Blue Period" the dominant color of the painting is obviously, blue.

Another reason that this painting grabbed my attentions is how different it was from most of the other works of art.The other painting were abstract and not realistic as this one however, this painting was dark yet, easy to.relate to. It provokes strong emotions. The question is, which emotions does it provoke? The "Blue Period was inspired by his trip through Spain and the suicide of a friend and, his journey through Spain. In my opinion it provokes the emotions of the imperfect person who struggles with daily life, which is pretty much every person on the planet. I guess that is what the "Blue Period" was about. Another thing about the "Blue Period is that Picasso focused a lot on the blind during that particular period. I guess that although most of us are not blind we in a way are blinded by our emotions.

  Now the reason why this post is called "Struggles with Writing" is because, 1-I have problem with making citations, 2-because I am having problems finding a scholarly art history source that covers this particular artwork. I have always had my share of difficulties with writing and this assignment is no different. I have always had a problem with writing down my thoughts and the fact that I am having a problem finding a single scholarly source does not help. Luckily this assignment is not due until May 4th hopefully I will have enough time after Passover and spring break, which end at the same time, to find something on this artwork before then.

Passover Cleaning

   Ah, no! That time of the year has come again and no, I am not talking about Easter. I am talking about Passover. The holiday where we Jews work like slaves to rid our houses, stores and, offices of products made from leaven grains. Passover cleaning for Orthodox Jews is not a joke in any manner. We cannot even use our ovens unless they are self cleaning, have the broil cycle turned on for over an hour, or we use a blow torch on it. We have to either blowtorch our utensils and cookware, or replace them with Passover cookware and utensils. We have to replace the dishes because they are not made of metal and cannot be koshered.We have to remove all leavened products from our house or ownership by selling them. Passover can be quite a burden without all the extra cleaning that many people incorporate into their Passover cleaning. What makes this holiday even worse is that the Passover food is twice the calories and not even as nutritious or tasty.

  What I always found ironic about Passover is that the Jewish people celebrate their exodus from Egypt yet, we work like slaves in order to celebrate Passover. The Jews were slaves in Egypt and were forced to work like slaves. That was until God sent Moses to be an intermediary between him and Pharoh. Moses with the help of God unleashed Ten Plagues on Egypt. At the seder we talk about how we were slaves and now we are free, but if you looked at what it takes for one to prepare for Passover would you say that we are free?

   The woman in the video, Rebbetzin Rivka Leah Zelwig, is a parody of how intensely one can overdo Passover cleaning. This woman dismantles her kitchen by using heavy power tools in order to make her kitchen free of leavened products. She even tells her daughter to remove the toilet. I find that funny because since when do people bring food into the bathroom? She even says to remove the sink, toilet, kitchen tiles and, every single feather from a down blanket. We even see her remove an electrical outlet from the wall and use power tools. One can make their sink kosher for Passover by pouring hot water over it so and we normally say a blessing after checking for leavened products that nullifies all the leavened products that were not found during the search, so that does not make sense. Also I found it funny when she told her daughter to remove to toilet, because we are not allowed to eat in the bathroom so why would the toilet have leavened products and, if so we could flush is or bleach, which is still over the top but not unusual to do, not remove the toilet.

Another example of how people overdo Passover cleaning is this article on Failed Messiah.This is something that many can relate to. I know someone who said that his stepmother's family was similar to the woman in the video. Instead of trying to clean every single electrical outlet we should be focusing on the basics to make this already strenuous holiday the simplest one can  possibly make it.Instead of treating it like spring cleaning we should focus on literally following the Jewish law. By simply doing that we are already doing backbreaking labor. I guess this goes to show that too many restrictions can lead to destroying children's toys, your property, your clothes, and many other things. This however does give everyone a good laugh about the lengths one goes to properly clean for Passover.

My Fake Rubashkin Purim Contest Entry

I found out on Failed Messiah that Sholom Rubashkin former CEO of Agriprocessors, a kosher slaughter house, who was found guilty of 86 counts of bank fraud and sentenced to 27 year in jail, was having a Purim essay contest for "the Yiddishe Kinderlach across the world" about what they learned from the Book of Esther. I am a bit too old to enter seeing, as I am 18 and have graduated high school.  However, I decided that I would write a satirical essay as a joke for my own amusement (and maybe even your amusement). 

Hadasah Chaya Schneebalg

     What I Learned from the Book of Esther

   I learned from the Book of Esther is that all goyim are evil. The goyim are our yetzer hara trying to turn us away from frumkeit. Haman is a symbol of what the goyim, even today, think about doing to us Yidden. 


   Mordecai HaTzadik is an example of what we should be. We should separate ourselves from goyim because the goyim are our enemies. Mordecai was the one who would not bow down to Haman, which caused the Jews to undergo the threat of extermination in the first place. Haman also is in the soul of every goy, because he is a descendent of Amalek. In order the Jews to defeat Amalek, we must steal from goyim whenever possible, claim anti-Semitism whenever possible, and disregard any goyish law whenever possible. The reason we must steal is because “Uni chashuv k’meis”, by stealing from Amalek, we are killing them thereby erasing their memory from the world, because we are making them poor. 


    Another way that we can overcome our yetzer hara, is to corrupt innocent Jewish children with the idea that boys should not work when they grow up, and spend the whole day learning, and that the girls should not go to a decent college and have many children. This social structure will lead to stealing from the goyishe government and more Jews on welfare which is an even greater mitzvah because of the kavanah to steal. From here we see that, since so many Jewish children are corrupting themselves with a college education that Chabad has not yet achieved its goal and needs to do more kiruv and spread its practices. You saved us from the triefe meat of Achasverosh.  It is Haman who went after you and we will do whatever we can to have you set free, because of this you are under threat like Mordecai HaTzadik. Another thing that I would like to add, is that you are obviously a reincarnation of Mordecai HaTzadik because, your middle name is Mordecai and, you are a tzadik  will save us from this golus. Another sign that you are here to redeem us is that, you had a multi-million dollar fraud going on and you showed no remorse, exactly how a true yid should react whenever he is caught. May Moshiach come soon and redeem you from prison since you are such a tzadik.