Hate with a Burning Passion

After continuing my reading of Shalom Auslander's Foreskin's Lament, I have understood the absurdity of the society Auslander criticizes. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, this memoir is a satirical piece, who's aim is to criticize the overwhelming attachment (and fear) to God of the community of Monsey, New York. However, I have now understood Auslander actually criticizes himself, as well, and what he believed in. This is revealed by the author's tone, which is lampooning, ironic, and certainly humorous.

Honestly, I've greatly enjoyed the memoir so far. Its comical take on the unreasonable beliefs of the (very) Orthodox Jewish community that abides in his hometown is enlightening and revealing. Auslander is especially critical of his father, whom he hates with a truly burning passion. So much so, actually, that he wishes him dead and takes advantage of the words of Rabbi Goldfinger, who explained, "until the age of thirteen, all of a boy's sins are ascribed to his father" (page 14). Being eight at the time, Auslander proceeds to do what every other eight-year-old would do to get rid of his father: he "touched [himself]" (page 17), he "partook of bread without first ceremoniously washing [his] hands" (page 17), and he "sat on the edge of [his] bed and carefully recited 'shit,' 'fuck,' and 'ass' a dozen times" (page 17) before going to bed. Typical, eh?

Furthermore, Shalom Auslander censures Rabbi Kahn's enforcement of rules, and his way of treating the children: "Thursday I didn't wear tzitzis. Rabbi Kahn noticed that the strings weren't dangling from my sides, and he grabbed me by the ear and pulled me to the front of the class. Speak to the children of Israel, he quoted loudly from the Torah as he spanked me hard on my bottom, and tell them to make tzitzis on the corners of their garments" (page 17). This dislike became a deep hatred towards the man, enough to overshadow the antipathy towards his father: "I touched myself- twice- and silently begged God that just this once to credit those sins to Rabbi Kahn's account" (page 17).

After continuing to show his hatred for these two men, Auslander reverts back to his original (likely) intention: satirize the belief that God will hold anything, and everything, against you. He "can't help noticing that every time [he begins] to make some progress on [his] stories about God, attacks on Israel increase, and [he feels] guilty and [stops]. [Is he] causing these attacks? Is God showing [him] what it will be like if [he pisses] Him off, if He decides, once again, to let [they're] enemies destroy [them]? [His] rabbis taught [him] that it was wrong to say God caused the holocaust; that He had simply, in 1938, turned His head. He looked away. What? Huh? Geno... really? Shit, I was in the bathroom" (pages 26-27). Criticism couldn't be put in a more obvious, or funnier for that matter, way. And that is what I've seen throughout this memoir: the criticism is so obvious that you sometimes wonder if he means what he's saying or if he's just mocking these beliefs.

 It's quite a dark book, in truth. He lampoons his childhood, and part of his adult life, but he does so in such a way that you simply love it. At least I do, that's for sure.