Who Am I?

Gil Student has a humorous post on the publicity blitz due with his upcoming "500,000th hit." In it, he writes:

"A base censor, a rabbinic coward" -- Shmarya, a pseudonymous blogger

In the comments to that post, an anonymous poster questions Rabbi Student:

Shmarya is a pseudonym? I thought that was his real name.

To which Rabbi Student replies:

No, I know his real name. Maybe it's his real Hebrew name but to my knowledge that's not what he normally goes by.

In other words, even though I use my Hebrew first name, and even though my full name and the city I live in are posted on my blog and have been since day one, I am still "pseudonymous" because I use the name I was given at my brit, and not the name on my birth certificate (which itself is found hundreds of times on this blog).

This whole issue isn't really worth a post, and should have been dealt with by leaving a brief comment on Rabbi Student's blog. But I can't, because I've been banned by Rabbi Student from commenting, which is why I called Rabbi Student a base censor and a rabbinic coward in the first place.

That being said, congratulations to Rabbi Student on this important milestone. May you receive at least 500,000 more.

UPDATE: At the request of the anonymous commenter linked above, Rabbi Student has changed his post to read: "Scott Rosenberg, St. Paul, MN." He e-mailed me and asked for permission to do so. I responded by giving him permission to identify me (because my identity has never been a secrect), but wrote that I preferred to be identified as "Shmarya Rosenberg, FailedMessiah.com." That would be the normal way of identifying me, and would be the correct way to do so.

Rabbi Student did not do this. Why? Most likely because he refuses to mention FailedMessiah.com on his blog for fear that his readers might actually visit here. Just as Rabbi Student censors those whom he cannot answer, he censors mention of their blogs as well.

But this is not entirely Rabbi Student's fault. His rabbis have encouraged Rabbi Student to follow this course, for it is the course they themselves follow, be it in YU's beit midrash or in a shul in Riverdale. For you see, just as Rabbi Student censors those he cannot answer, so do his rabbis. As I have written many times, shame on them all.

Comments

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Yes, but you've now joined a group of distinguished authors of ideas and information so frightening to The Authorities that the masses must be protected from your work. Rabbi Student, on the other hand, has joined a group of censors that includes the government of China, among others. He seems smart enough to know better, and yet still acts this way - that's the real shame. Then again, he's no different than several other smart, young(ish) Orthodox rabbis I've met that seem to think about religion with a level dogma that would have had them failing out of University if such thinking was applied to their secular subjects. The right brain - left brain thing is quite evident in their behavior, and the two sides shall never meet.

[Anonymous ben Kalonymous]

Waaah! I can just see you there lying face down on the floor beating your fists & crying.

Grow up.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

You fool! It would be hard to type the post while lying face down on the floor. Besides, I'm saving my fists for better things...

[the Jewropean]

Neo-Conservaguy,

In how far has he joined the government of China?

[notasfrum]

When you say you use your Hebrew name, do you mean you use it always instead of your English name.? If so, then why? Just wondering..

[Shmarya]

The Hebrew name is difficult even for some frum people to deal with, so I use both.