Video: Rio's Orthodox And Haredi Jews Flee City

Rio de Janeiro's Orthodox and haredi Jews reportedly "flee" Rio to avoid the "danger" and "immodesty" of – Carnival, the Brazilian version of Mardi Gras.

 

[Hat Tip: Devorah.]

Comments

[SimpleSolution]

Seems like the best of both worlds, they get to get away from the sluts and drunks and get to go to on a little vacation to what appears to be a lovely resort area. I see no problems here.

Soon we will see a similar exodus here in the states where Jews flock by the thousands for a week at lovely resorts to avoid the grueling task of preparing a home for passover.

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

I wonder how many frumma men wearing baseball caps are at the Festival.

Simple, I love your logic.

Your religion sets up a rule book that is prohibitively difficult (i.e. Passover, Shabbos), then you look for every possible loophole and method to avoid obeying those rules, and you have no problem with the obvious hypocrisy of all that.

I recommend that all cities wishing to rid themselves of frumma should have a Carnivale festival every few days.

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

And anyone who does not obey all the insane rules with be murdered by God in the next Holocaust, and it will be nobody's fault but their own.

[Gevezener Chusid]

I have frum relatives in Sao Paolo. I don't think there are 7000 orthodox Jews in Rio.

I don't blame people, orthodox or otherwise, for wanting to get out of Rio during Carnaval or out of New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

[Sarek]

I think the place where they can get farthest away from Carnivale would be at the top of the mountain where the big Jesus is. I wonder if there are any kosher restaurants there, since Jesus would require them?

[SimpleSolution]

you look for every possible loophole and method to avoid obeying those rules

Not true, there are rules and one has to respect those boundaries.

If one is charged with a crime one hires a "mouthpiece", a lierlawyer to speak for them. people hire domestic help to help clean their homes, go out to restaurants when they don't feel like cooking, CPAs to have them do their taxes. It is not to avoid doing those chores it is to make ones life easier. Hey if you got the money - why not?

[Devorah the formerly frum]

As an ex-frummie, I can understand why anyone who observes tzeniut would run screaming from Rio de Janiero at this time of year.

As a dance teacher, I'd suggest that anyone who isn't as strict about tzeniut should fill in for them while they're gone. It's one of the best parties in the world and the Samba that many of the Samba schools do would be amazing even if they did cover up instead of doing it almost naked.

And... there is life after frumkeit, even for one who wants to keep a strong Jewish identity. Maybe if enough of us come to our senses, we can find a more meaningful way of connecting with Hashem than what I keep reading about on this blog.

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

Simple, hiring an attorney or a housekeeper or an accountant is not mandated by some holy rabbi in a 1000 year old book in which he claims to be speaking on behalf of God. As usual, your logic is flawed.

Please explain how a fishing line, nearly invisible, tied to utility poles, makes a busy section of Manhattan into a 'private domain' so you can carry all your stuff on 2nd Avenue and still be obeying Shabbos? The frumma I see doing so in Manhattan on Shabbos are a laughing stock.

[Sarek]

(Speaking of Brazil:"Blame it on the Bossa Nova", Mann & Weil, best known version by Eydie Gorme)

It was Carnivale when she caught my eye
She was half naked, which I do decry
She began to dance, swaying to and fro
If I didn’t run, I’d be quite the schmo

Blame it on the Carnivale with its magic spell
If I stood and stared, I’d go straight to hell
Oh it might begin with just one little dance
But all we frummies would look askance.
Blame it on the Carnivale, the dance of whores.

Now was it the moon?
No, no, it’s Carnivale
Or Hashem above?
No, no, it’s Carnivale
Now was it the tune?
Oh no, it’s Carnivale
The dance of goys.

Now I’m glad to say we did escape
So we can enjoy a clean seascape
And when our kids ask why we fled Rio
We said it was exodus like from Pharaoh.

Blame it on the Carnivale with its magic spell
If I stood and stared, I’d go straight to hell
Oh it might begin with just one little dance
But all we frummies would look askance.
Blame it on the Carnivale, the dance of whores.

Now was it the moon?
No, no, it’s Carnivale
Or Hashem above?
No, no, it’s Carnivale
Now was it the tune?
Oh no, it’s Carnivale
The dance of goys.
Now was it the moon?
No, no, it’s Carnivale
Or Hashem above?
No, no, it’s Carnivale

[SimpleSolution]

Please explain how a fishing line, nearly invisible, tied to utility poles, makes a busy section of Manhattan into a 'private domain' so you can carry all your stuff on 2nd Avenue and still be obeying Shabbos? The frumma I see doing so in Manhattan on Shabbos are a laughing stock.

Posted by: Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar | February 18, 2013 at 09:49 AM

There is no need for an explanation. One simply is grateful and uses it.

You need a suit, you do your due diligence and see one that goes for $200 and see that the store is having a sale and on Sunday it will be sold for half price. Do you seek an explanation why the same suit on Saturday and Monday goes for $200 yet if I buy on Sunday you will only pay $100 for it. No, you simply buy it on the sale day and say - thank you.

I never look a gift horse in its mouth.

The crazies are the ones who question too much. When I lived in Flatbush I happily held by the eruv there. I always thought the others who did not hold by it to be the fools.

[Feminista]

@wsc - I have often thought that if the frummies spent the same amount of time doing good deeds (e.g., raising money that actually gets used for charity, helping people inside and outside their community, teaching their kids to do good deeds), instead of looking for ways to get around their mostly self-made rules, they would be the most beloved group ever.

I am convinced that the culture of acceptance of lots of loopholes in the rules has led to the common commission of financial fraud and other crimes in the haredi community. The more I read on this site, the more I think that there is no place in the haredi community for anyone with integrity.

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

Feminista, interesting analysis, and is proven by Simple's 10:15 posting.
"Don't question" the morals or ethics or logic of anything, just do whatever you can get away with. As long as some rabbi says so, don't ask any questions.

Thinking is hard work. And I know how the frumma feel about hard work.

[Dov]

Please explain how a fishing line, nearly invisible, tied to utility poles, makes a busy section of Manhattan into a 'private domain' so you can carry all your stuff on 2nd Avenue and still be obeying Shabbos?
-------
Because the frumma think G-d is stupid. They have no respect and think he'll fall for it. They also have no respect for halacha and will mock it like this. Waht they forget is that now everything within that eruv is their "home" and they are responsible for it. All of the treif bought and sold is theirs; all of the immodest behavior that is carried on within the eruv - all theirs.

[rebitzman]

Please explain how a fishing line, nearly invisible, tied to utility poles, makes a busy section of Manhattan into a 'private domain' so you can carry all your stuff on 2nd Avenue and still be obeying Shabbos?

Well - in the Daf Yomi cycle, we start Eruvim on March the 10th...........

To the subject: ONLY issue I have with them leaving for carnival (which is - you will agree, MUCH better than screaming "shiksa!" and the parades as the go by) is that hey apparently made a big deal of it.

Just leave.

When I visit my son in San Francisco, there are parades in the Castro area I would rather avoid seeing - so I don't go.....quietly.

[dh]

Perhaps they'd like a cruise??

[clay zion]

I was in Rio...I dont think there are even 700 orthodox jews there let alone 7,000 ..Ipanema beach has very few..Leblond beach has some...

[NeverFrum]

Wow, that's perfect...so all Israel has to do is put on a festival like that 365 days a year and it will get rid of its Haredim....awesome...think of it, it would increase tourism which brings dollars to the country and get rid of parasites that extract dollars from the country.

[Jake]

For the newbies in Judaism or the wannabes.

What you are referring to as loopholes in Judaism are anything but.
It is different. Understandings of Jewish law which are legitimate.

This goes back to talmudic times. Since WW2 many of the orthodox developed the idea that if you take a stricter interpetationyou are better.

The standard of glatt meat was virtually unknown in Europe though millions ate kosher meat.

What many refer to as loopholes ate nothing more than valid halachic understanding of the law.

Many of you consider a eryv a loop hole. Well if we use what you think os a separation in Jewish law as the basis it would be. But,you need to understand how Jewish law views separation and Costco doesn't decide according to what fencing is available.

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

In other words, Jake, 'Jewish Law' nowadays is an ongoing game to try to impress God with how religious you are, and fool him at the same time by dancing around the letter of the law, and ignoring the spirit of the law. Very nice view of God and his Divine Law.

[Feminista]

It seems to me that indeed, the frum think that God and all of humanity supposedly created in God's image, are as stupid as fish and can be fooled by fishing line, whether holding bait in the water or strung around poles. I like the extension of the logic, which does make them responsible for all of the bad, unkosher stuff existing within the confines of the fishing line. I would really love to see a so-called Torah scholar (try to) respond to your arguments, WSC and Dov. Unfortunately, I would bet that will never happen.

[David]

I love the loopholes whereby people get paid to work on Shabbos (e.g. mashgiachim, caterers). Of course, you are not paying them for the hours of work they do on Shabbos, you are paying them for the 30 seconds preparation time before Shabbos.

[YTHM]

uhmm this is just advertisement disguised as "news"

[Hipster Assassin]

"they get to get away from the sluts and drunks"

seems like Shabbas in CH, BP or FB

[Hipster Assassin]

My sis lives in the Castro in SF and she is getting out of the neighborhood on Pride and Leather Weekends.

I am not sure it is permitted to say it here but the Castro (Gay and leather district has a lovely Chabbad house in their midst which sometimes collaborates with the Gay synagogue few blocks away.

[Jeff]

I am not sure it is permitted to say it here but the Castro (Gay and leather district has a lovely Chabbad house in their midst which sometimes collaborates with the Gay synagogue few blocks away.

I don't see how that could work. There would have to be a tremendous amount of denial on both sides.

[WoolSilkCotton, I am a work of art as well as a sports and rock superstar]

Jeff, SF is one of the most expensive cities in the USA to live in.

Gay guys who live there have lots of $$$.
Chabad loves anyone with lots of $$$.

Dancing in a room packed with men only, all dressed in black costume, to a fast steady beat, everyone singing and chugging vodka?

It all makes perfect sense to me.

[Simon]

I'm from Brazil, this is nothing new to me. We did not live in Rio but Carnival is televised everywhere, so if we didn't go out of town my parents would forbid us to turn on the TV for the whole 3 days. At other times we would go to retreats, camp, etc like the video said. Teresopolis is lovely, I think there was or there still is a yeshiva there (or might be in Petropolis).

Also nudity in general is much more tolerated in Brazilian culture, much more so than in the US, so Carnival is not exactly "shocking" if you are used to seeing nudity year-round. When I was a kid they would run commercials during the weeks approaching Carnival with nothing but samba music and a woman dancing, totally naked but for a heavy coat of body paint.

[Feminista]

@Simon - the reason there are no posts from guys right now is that they are all on YouTube watching Brazilian commercials!

[yosef]

Ahhh....the good old "minutiae" argument...perhaps best understood by paraphrasing R. A. Branfman: "What's the difference? There is no difference. Difference is measured quantifiably, by volume and weight, feet and inches. We're talking here of matters sensitive to the Neshama. What's the difference? There is no difference; but it makes all the difference in the world."

[Jeff]

Jeff, SF is one of the most expensive cities in the USA to live in.

Gay guys who live there have lots of $$$.
Chabad loves anyone with lots of $$$.

Now I see how it could work.

[anchell]

Simon are you suggesting that the rest of us adapt a more Brazilian ethic towards nudity, so as to lessen the stress and angst projected on and associated with the female body?

[Gold]

Posted by: anchell

Their country and their tradition. What don't you understand?

[anchell]

Gold. . . their country yada yada yada . . . to answer your question, about as little as you! i'm all smiles regarding the potential for an angst free society proported by the Brazilian ethic toward nudity . . .