Satirical Suicide

After reading the first chapter of Foreskin's Lament, by Shalom Auslander, I have been captivated in a world of (what I think is) satire and criticism towards Orthodox Judaism. Auslander seemingly mocks the Jewish community of Monsey, New York, and lampoons its outrageous beliefs.

So far, I have learned that Auslander was taught to believe in the might of God, but more so the impossibility for humans to survive His cynical "pranks," if you will. A prime example of this is how when one dies, "all the souls of every sperm [you] wasted during [your] life would chase [you] for eternity through the firmament" (page 6). Hilarious. Furthermore, Auslander, finishes the ironic "endings" by saying, "That's so God" (page 7). This drives the idea of a critique towards the exaggerated beliefs of the Orthodox Jews of Monsey.

Shalom Auslander also conveys the idea that everything ends in God's delight. This is expressed through God's "Department of Ironic Punishment" (page 8), where God makes use of "the novelists, the poets, the sitcom writers, [and] the stand-up comedians" (page 8), when they die.

There is an obvious denunciation of God in this book. As an Orthodox Jew, Auslander was taught to fear God, and to obey his every command in order to not die a tragically horrible death, as most do. Moreover, he is taught that God is essentially unforgiving, as portrayed by the Moses example in which  it is explained that Moses is "who escaped from Egypt, and who  roamed through the desert for forty years in search of a Promise Land, and whom God killed just before he reached it- face-plant on the one yard line- because Moses had sinned, once, forty years earlier. His crime? Hitting a rock" (page 3).

Auslander, so far, has presented a truly comical memoir. But really, it's more than that. This memoir is much like a death wish, because if God didn't forgive Moses for hitting a rock, he'll certainly not forgive Auslander for making "[Him come] off like an asshole" (page 9).