I grew up enjoying the comedy of Jackie Mason. He was very funny and very Jewish. I connected to that b/c I love humor and SOME of my BEST friends are Jewish!!!
"It is easy to tell the difference between Jews and Gentiles. After the show, all the gentiles are saying 'Have a drink? Want a drink? Let's have a drink!' While all the Jews are saying 'Have you eaten yet? Want a piece of cake? Let's have some cake!"But I have grown up and come to realize that life is not a joke. Humor has its place [an important place I believe - see Taanis 22a] but the meaning of life transcends this planet.
"סוף דבר הכל נשמע את הא-להים ירא ואת מצוותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם".
The whole world was created for [Brachos 6] and the entire measure of man is - whether he feared [i.e. was constantly aware יראה-ראיה and in awe of] Hashem and kept mitzvos.
Chazal say [Pesachim 49] שנה ופירש יותר מכולן - someone who learned and stopped learning hates Talmidei Chachomim even more than עמי הארץ [who passionately hate them]. The Maharal explains:
ואמר שנה ופירש יותר מכולם, כי זה יותר חמרי מה שהיה לו התורה ופירש מן התורה, וזה מורה שהוא מתנגד אל השכלי לגמרי כיון שפירש, ולכך הוא יותר נוטה אל החומרי מן עם הארץ אשר לא רצה לקנות התורה, אבל זה בשביל החומרית שבו פורש מן התורה לכך הוא יותר קשה מהכל, ודבר זה מבואר:
Someone who abandoned Limmud HaTorah is the most opposed to spirituality as evidenced by the fact that he had it and willingly gave it up. He is even worse than an עם הארץ who never learned so he doesn't know what he is missing. Torah is not on his radar. But the שנה ופירש-nik had it and threw it away. THAT is the worst.
So it is not for me to judge. Hashem is the true דיין אמת and I don't want to be a דיין שקר. But I read all of these tributes to the great gadol Jackie M. and feel compelled to make it clear that he is a great example of who we DON'T respect, DON'T want to be and DON'T want our children to be. He learned Chullin and Yoreh Deah by Rav Moshe Feinstein. Received semicha. Served as a rabbi. And then threw it all away for the הבל הבל הבל הבל הבלים of show business. Unlike most of the assimilated Jews in show business - he knew better.
He stated in an interview that marriage is stupid. Why should I make all this money and then have to give half of it away to some woman??!! He brilliantly explained.
That was his narrative of marriage!!! You get married to get divorced and give your money away. Probably b/c just abt. everybody in show biz does just that.
He didn't want children. A bother. [He fathered a girl, denied his paternity but it was proven and he paid child support]. Life, for him, was abt. stardom. Abt. getting laughs at any cost [including using foul language]. Abt. fame and fortune. Why trouble himself with family obligations??
To his credit I will say that he was unabashedly Jewish and Pro-Israel. He told it like it was [as he saw it] and shunned political correctness. His accent was beautifully Jewish. He sounded like he JUST GOT OFF THE BOAT after years growing up in an Eastern European shtetl when in fact he grew up in NY City. He was told to take voice lessons to sound more American and less Jewish and refused. A critic for Time magazine wrote that, throughout his career, Mason spoke to audiences: "... with the Yiddish locutions of an immigrant who just completed a course in English. By mail". Love it! He threw Yiddish into his performances and wasn't embarrassed at what the Goyim [or Jews] might say. There is great value in being proudly Jewish and unfortunately a large percentage of famous Jews are not. Here is one example of this. He was.
I am not angry at him and bear no ill will. I am CERTAIN that deep down he was a sad and lonely soul, desperate for love, adulation and attention [like most if not all performers]. He had a yetzer hara like we all do and instead of fighting it, he just conceded defeat from the outset. That is a recipe for misery - of which he experienced much.
May the Neshama of Yaakov Moshe HaKohen Mazza have an aliyah and a tikkun in the zchus of making so many people laugh and any maasim tovim he did in his lifetime. לא ידח ממנו נידח. There is a tikkun for every Jewish Neshama and we hope and pray that he find his.
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Quotable quotes
A Jew never laughs without looking at his wife for approval.
I've got a friend who is half-Jewish and half-Italian. If he can't buy it wholesale, he steals it!I've got another friend who is half-German and half-Polish. He hates Jews but can't remember why!
On the murder of New York deli owner Abe Lebewohl: It's almost like wiping out Carnegie Hall. A sandwich to a Jew is just as important as a country to a Gentile.
I'm crazy about the fact that the Jewish people should survive because they have so much to contribute and so many values to contribute to the world. It would be a much better world, a much more peaceful and non-violent world if we lived by Jewish values.
Jews are told that they should spend their lives helping others and when they make a lot of money it really bothers them. So, as a way to decrease their guilt, they try to help the underdog. They think, "Why should I be rich when so many suffer?" They feel better once they run to the party that claims to defend the underdog, the Democrats.
