Thread by @Adderabbi

Everyone ready for a rant about Michael Chabon and his @HUCJIR commencement speech/ @tabletmag article? Here it comes.../1

Chabon's reduction of diversity and complexity (and more synonyms) to exogamy reflects his shallowness. Shtup someone of a different color, and you're "diverse". Endogamy is tantamount to redlining. Heterogeneity is no longer a metaphor; it's literally all about genetics.

"Monocultural places—one language, one religion, one haplotype." We already covered the haplotype. Regarding language, again, on what planet are Jews monocultural? Does Chabon know any Jewish culture outside of his limited Yiddish vocab and his missions to Hebron? /3

We have long known that his exposure to Jewish culture and its remarkable diversity is severely limited. Here he is projecting his own stunted version of Jewishness on the entire experience. /4

"as the traditional Jewish wedding ritual makes explicit, it draws a circle around the married couple" - in one of many Jewish wedding traditions, which is kinda the point here. Chabon's exposure to Jewish " fluidity, muddle, complexity, diversity, creative balagan" is nil. /5

"I ply my craft in English, that most magnificent of creoles."
This is Chabon's way of trying to evade the fact that he, like most Americans, is monolingual. He has no access to other languages. But what of Yiddish? /6

"my personal house of language is haunted by the dybbuk of Yiddish"
It's a very small dybbuk and not very scary. It only knows some 20 words. Dybbuk, maven, latke, and various words for genitalia (h/t Cynthia).
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you diversity. /7

This isn't about Chabon in particular, but can we stop capitalizing Other? It's silly. Lowercase will do. But if you insist, then confronting the other qua Other is actually was makes us fully human. Brush up on your Levinas, boy. (Don't worry; it's available in English) /8

Now we get to Hebron. I don't get Chabon's fixation. Clearly it's an avatar of some sort, but I don't know what, and I suspect that he doesn't either. Is this just his way of bageling? Letting us know that he's been to the Wild West Bank and therefore has cred to comment? /9

"We tend to draw a distinction between walls that protect and walls that imprison, but that is only the same dark logic again, justifying itself, as always, in the name of security." Do you really believe this, Michael? Do you not lock your door at night? /10

The paragraph on boundaries and divisions - it's true. We separate Shabbat from the week. We even call it "Havdalah" ("separation") and thank God for distinguishing light from dark, Sabbath and weekday, sacred and profane, Israel and nations. Viva la difference! /11

It seems Chabon doesn't get that all those fusions and hybridities he loves require difference. Honey-mustard is a great flavor, but if you turn the bees loose on the mustard plant it ruins both. You are not talking about fusion, but hodge-podge. Mix the icing in the batter. /12

This is Chabon's real gripe. His article is an attack on particularism. Any particular nation. Any particular religion. Anything that makes me me, anything that makes us us. But especially Jewish particularity, the enduring source of Chabon's shame (it's mutual, Mike) /13

It's ironic that you see an eruv as a "boundary". The dynamics of eruv is that it merges many homes into one large home. It literally means "mixture". The walls of one home expand outward. And these are boundaries with no walls. Isn't that what you want. Michael? /14

Alas, that is asking too much. To really get into the weeds of eruvin demands confrontation with Jewish texts. Way out of Chabon's comfort zone. So instead of seeing eruv as a different sort of boundary-making, one that's inclusive and open to mixing and merging... /15

Chabon just sees the boundary. Inside and outside. Just like in Hebron. So sad.
He should talk to Prof. C. Fonrobert of Stanford about eruvin. Like him, she lives in the Bay Area. She can teach him a lot. /16

Also, Michael, what's the deal with "the shearing of a bride's hair"? Why drop in a custom of Hungarian Hasidim that no one else observes? (the men also shave their hair, except the sidecurls) Bageling again? /17

And on and on it goes. More and more synonyms. More and more ignorance. More and more bageling. But really it all boils down to the fact that he does not understand what an eruv is. He doesn't get that there can be a wall that is all doors. /end