Saturday 18 June 2011

The world is going mad

The world is going totally mad, it really is. Or is it me?  Increasingly I feel like I’m living in some kind of bizarre cosmic joke.  I’m off to Israel in about a week which, in itself, is blissfully weird.  I mean – me, why?  And, just as I was pondering the beautiful insanity of it all and staring in bemusement at my ticket, a tweet popped up on my screen. It said:

Jewish court sentences dog to death by stoning - suspects it's reincarnation of lawyer who insulted a judge 20yrs ago. http://bit.ly/jr7q5r
What the heck?  In case you can’t be bothered to click on the link, this is what it says:

“JERUSALEM — A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.
According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs.

Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.

Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer's spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism.

Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children.

The canine target, however, managed to escape.

"Let the Animals Live", an animal-welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against the head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, who denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning, Ynet reported.

One of the court's managers, however, confirmed the report of the lapidation sentence to Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.

"It was ordered... as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog," the paper reported the manager as saying, according to Ynet.

Certain schools of thought within Judaism believe in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation.”

Seriously, you couldn’t make it up.  So really it’s just too too perfect.  I am going totally bonkers and now it looks like I'm going to exactly the right place


14 comments:

jazzygal said...

Um..what can I say? Good luck in Bonkers?!! And don't do anything that may land you in court ;-)

xx Jazzy

Jo Beaufoix said...

Blimey, the poor dog and the poor kids who they deem fit to stone it?!? Mad

And my children sing that song quite regularly. Mr B felt the need to teach it them not long after they could talk.

And then Rosie Scribble decided to teach them Britney Spears songs. Maybe I should be a little worried...

Anonymous said...

Beggars belief doesn't it?! I can think of a few people I'd like to stone but a dog isn't one of them!

Incidentally, I've written about reincarnation on my paranormal blog, Marvellous Mable, today. How spooky!

CJ xx
p.s. I went to Israel in 1998. As they say on Twitter #thatisall

susie @newdaynewlesson said...

I live in Israel, I am modern orthodox, I believe in incarnation and I personally also had an issue with the events you wrote about when I saw them in the paper.

Btw-crystal-you would not recognize Israel today as the same country you saw in 1988-looks very different.

Isobel Morrell said...

My first reaction - the rabbis are going bonkers, not you! But then, every faith has it's weirdos, and this lot seem to take the biscuit!
Hope you enjoy Israel - it's an interesting place: are you working or holidaying? Either way, enjoy! But don't stray over sensitive borders: they're all very jumpy in that part of the world these days, seemingly. Isobel

Irene said...

Orthodox religions are dangerous to the general good of mankind.

Frances said...

Jane, I think that you will have a great trip.

Take lots of sunscreen, if air travel now allows it. If not so, perhaps one of your readers will tell you what sunscreen to find in Israel.

You will be travelling to a place that some think is a very, very old center of civilizations, and that others, across some ocean waters, might think to be not so old.

I cannot wait to see your reports, and also, selfishly, want you to be able to recharge your camera, and to be able to post along the way. Wish that I could be going along with you!

xo

Exmoorjane said...

Jazzy: I shall be very careful indeed...did manage to end up in police station in Egypt.. :(

Jo: I am just shaking my head in puzzlement...and that Rosie eh? Bad influence? I shall watch her.

Crystal: Yeah, me too.. :) ANd you know reincarnation fascinates me. Did you like Israel?

Susie: can't wait to meet you and would love to learn about what modern orthodox means.. I don't have a *religion* as such but a mind wide open to spirituality with heart.

Eliza: yeah, I'm sort of with you! I think.

Isobel: It's a blog trip and yes, I'll be careful...though it's not a concept that comes naturally to me!

Nora: there's a large part of me that agrees totally with that statement.

Frances: I will be taking camera (well, phone) and will indeed be writing as I go along. I wonder what I will find? :)

Anonymous said...

I have absolutely no idea what Jo Beaufoix is talking about in her comment. *cough*

Anonymous said...

What????? Really I can't believe it... from now on I will pay more respect to dogs...

F said...

Poor fugitive dog. I'm glad he got away, even if he was a lawyer in his previous life.

Yigal said...

This curious incident of the dog in Jerusalem never happened! See here: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0621/Did-a-Jerusalem-court-really-sentence-a-dog-to-death-by-stoning
and here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/06/story_removal.html

Exmoorjane said...

Yigal - thanks for posting...so even stranger still! :)

Lorraine said...

What a mad world we live in. Thank goodness the poor dog was ok. One thing I will not be sorry to leave behind when I leave this world is animal cruelty