Asarah B'tevet @ MindSay

Just wanted to make sure you all know.

"But Shiny -- What is Asarah b'Tevet?"

http://shiny.mindsay.com/?entry=348706
http://shiny.mindsay.com/we_will_prevail.mws
http://shiny.mindsay.com/another_battle_in_the_war_on_christmas.mws

157 people list me as a "friend" on Mindsay. That's a lot of people who read (or pretend to read) my blog posts.

So I decided to do a little experiment regarding who's been reading carefully or not.

In my entry entitled They're stealing our holiday I wrote this:

Asarah b'Tevet is a Jewish holiday which literally means "the tenth day of [the Hebrew calendar month of] Tevet." Because of the juxtaposition of the Hebrew (lunar) calendar against the Gregorian (solar) calendar, this day sometimes falls in December and sometimes in January. This year it will be observed on January 10, 2006.

Hold on -- it gets better...

The people at Target don't care enough even to wish me an "easy fast." (Actually, I prefer a slightly longer greeting, "I wish you an easy and meaningful public fast on this tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, a time of comfort to your community." But "Have an easy fast" would have even been fine. ) For them, it's more important to bow down to atheism and secularism than to recognize *gasp* religion.

So -- that was today. Asarah b'Tevet. A lot of you folks joined the bandwagon and reacted positively to my initial cause. But I wanted to see if my Mindsay brethren and sistren have memory endurance -- that is, would they remember to provide the proper greeting on this solemn day?

As I mentioned, 157 of you count me as a "friend" and probably have read my blog a few times.

And how many of you gave me the appropriate Asarah b'Tevet greeting cited above?

Only 153 of you.

I won't embarrass the four of you who, whether out of ignorance, spite or just plain forgetting didn't offer me the proper greeting. I won't have any excuses. It's simply not acceptable.  I expect far, far, far more from you folks than to accept anything less than 100% participation. We're a community and we're supposed to support each other.

Which is why I'd like each and every one of you to determine who, exactly, didn't issue the proper Asarah b'Tevet greeting. And punish them mercilessly. In fact, besiege their homes! That would be fitting considering Asarah b'Tevet is about a siege around Jerusalem!

And once you're finished with that, besiege Target! I saw NO Asarah b'Tevet decorations up whatsoever, nor did I see any appropriate merchandise. (The only exception being the "Hug Me! Spongebob" which kind of forms a siege around a youngster's shoulders.)

And for you four who didn't wish me the Asarah b'Tevet greeting and think there's still time? Too late. The holiday is from sunrise to sundown. It's over. Finito. You lost your chance until next year.

For those of you wondering -- I fasted for a while. Had a pop-tart before the sun came up, and then fasted until about 3:30ish when I just felt so blah and semi-conscious that I got myself a Starbucks latte. (But it was kind of like fasting because they used skim milk.) Perhaps I wouldn't have had this uneasy, tired feeling if I had full participation from all of you.

Finally, to sum things up -- you know who rocks? perrye.  There's a blogger who knows what deserves the highest priority...

There was an interesting op-ed piece in yesterday's Washington Post. I won't reprint it; you can probably find it yourselves.  But the last paragraph of it inspired an idea:

The author mentioned that Target stores were "targeted" because of their role in the War on Christmas -- especially since they've secularized their publicity and their store displays, opting for "Happy Holidays" as a slogan instead of "Merry Christmas."  Allegedly their "Christmas" inventory is being replaced. And this is bad because, well... you know. War on Christmas.

And then she decided to do a search on the Target website to see how little "Christmas" stuff is actually left their inventory -- especially after the secular progressives have butchered the holiday:



Yes. Only 39,169 matches on their website for "Christmas." It probably was a much larger number last year...

But it gave me another idea -- The liberals aren't only at war with Christmas -- they have also targeted another holiday.  How would the Target website fare when it came to another test?



Now, I usually don't get offended by a lot, but I'd be lying if I said that this didn't feel like a slap in the face. These folks are ruining our holidays, our country, and our way of life. if this isn't a mandate to boycott Target, I simply don't know what is.

We're at war. More than ever before. Save Asarah b'Tevet!

Read about it here.

It's coming up in the next few weeks. And if secular America has her way, nobody will be allowed to recognize this sacred day.

Asarah b'Tevet is a Jewish holiday which literally means "the tenth day of [the Hebrew calendar month of] Tevet." Because of the juxtaposition of the Hebrew (lunar) calendar against the Gregorian (solar) calendar, this day sometimes falls in December and sometimes in January. This year it will be observed on January 10, 2006.

That is, unless the atheists and the Politically Correct Police take it away from us.

Asarah b'Tevet is not a celebration. In fact, it's a day of remembrance and a day of mourning. For on this day about 2600 years ago, the Judean Kingdom (centered in Jerusalem) was laid under siege by the Babylonian Empire. Their siege was the first milestone in their capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first Holy Temple. It was the beginning of the end.

For this very reason,. the Chief Rabbinate of the Modern State of Israel declared it to serve a dual purpose -- to become a Holocaust Remembrance Day for those who perished only a few years before in Europe. (Three years later, in 1951, it was decided that a different day, the 27th of the month of Nisan, would be the official Holocaust Remembrance Day. )

And on this day, from sunrise to sunset, it is customary for Jews to abstain from eating and drinking. It's one of four "public fasts," minor fast days in which there are some revisions to the daily prayer routine. It's permissible to go to work.

You probably have never heard of Asarah b'Tevet. In fact, most Jewish people have never heard of it! But the date is commemorated in history -- one only needs to look to the Hebrew Bible to find the originating verse: "And in the ninth year of [Zedekiah’s] reign on the tenth day of the tenth month [Tevet], Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army.He besieged it; and they built towers against it all around. The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah..." (II Kings 25:1-2). After this time, of course, the Babylonians invaded officially, taking away what the Judeans held dear.

Such an important day. And the atheists and secular progressives who are trying to take over America don't want you to hear any of it.

Look no further than in our public schools. I'll bet you that if a teacher or a school administrator were to put up some display commemorating or observing Asarah b'Tevet, the bloody ACLU would be all over them to take it down. They simply want to censor what we hold dear.

But that's not the worst part about it. What's worst is the private companies who choose, over and over again, to ignore our beliefs and culture as if the holiday didn't exist.

I was in Target last year on Asarah b'Tevet. And when I finished my purchase? All I got was a smile and a "Have a nice day."

Have a nice day?!? Were they so scared into being so incredibly PC that they couldn't acknowledge that, for my people, this was the anniversary of the beginning of the end??

The people at Target don't care enough even to wish me an "easy fast." (Actually, I prefer a slightly longer greeting, "I wish you an easy and meaningful public fast on this tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, a time of comfort to your community." But "Have an easy fast" would have even been fine. ) For them, it's more important to bow down to atheism and secularism than to recognize *gasp* religion.

It is for this reason, I am calling for a boycott of all retailers who prefer not to recognize the sanctity of Asarah b'Tevet. There's a war going on in America, and to fight it we must be at the front lines.

Here's a list of retailers who do not (yet) acknowledge Asarah b'Tevet in their stores or in their advertising:

Target
Wal-Mart
Kohl's
Best Buy
The Yarn Barn
FreeCreditReport.com
Sholom Jewish Books and Gifts of Teaneck, NJ (You see? We've won a battle so far!)
7-Eleven
T.G.I.Friday
Chik Fil-A
Tower Records (they don't even carry any Asarah b'Tevet CDs! Insulting...)
The "Phone-Stop" kiosk on the third floor of the Apple Blossom Mall in Winchester, VA
The Disney Store
Night Moves Exotic Dancers, Inc.
Dillard's

We need to fight this war with our wallets, people. If they want our business, we want their respect.

Please spread the word around the web. The internet is a very important grass-roots tool we can use to take our freedoms back from the left. I've created some web-buttons for you to post on your websites and blogs; feel free to make your own if you're so inclined.









I hope you support my fight in the same way that I support your collective fight to keep the left wing from attacking Christmas. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I'm not so fond of "Don we all our gay apparel." Frankly, I don't really want to hear what kinky outfits those people are wearing...)