CW: antisemitism, pale of settlement, pogroms, genocide, cultural erasure

I don't think goyim can really conceive of how much Jews actually hold back in our criticism of antisemitism in media, and when you hear us it is often because we see a dangerous message that you don't... Yet.

I have a complicated relationship with Tim Burton's rendition of The Corpse Bride. I love it as a beautiful piece of stop motion art, but it isn't what it should have been, he took a Jewish story from the Pale and with intention stripped it of its Jewish origins. This alone is incredibly antisemitic. The criticism you will hear has probably been "this is a Jewish story, it should have retained its Jewish elements" but have you heard why we feel strongly about this story?

The story of the corpse bride is incredibly important to me and was born from Jewish trauma and Christian violence. Mobs would routinely attack Jewish weddings, they would murder brides and they would bury them in unmarked graves by the roadside still in their wedding clothes, they reasoned that without Jewish wives there are no Jewish mother's. Jews are intrinsic to the story.

It is antisemitism to take our story, about our pain, at the hands of non-jews and strip it for "useful" parts, in fact it is heartbreaking every time.

We are often forced to pick our battles and fighting a battle over a movie that has already been released by a director with a cult following is not worth it, you only hear us speak up in numbers when the antisemitism may lead to another century of violence, because raising our voice means picking a fight, because so many of you already see our pain as inconvenient and it is exhausting to never be heard.

-anyone can reblog

Midrashic Grandma Story

In Torah it says at the start of Sh’mot, “these were the ones who went down to Egypt blah blah blah Sons of Him, Sons of Him, Sons of Him, and Serach, daughter of Asher”

And then at the end when they’re leaving Egypt it’s like “and these ones were leaving, Sons of Him, Sons of Him, Sons of Him.  And Asher’s daughter was called Serach.”

ExCUSE? said the rabbis. A woman has a name? And she is in the list both going INTO Egypt and also going OUT of Egypt 400 years later??? WHAT IS UP WITH THAT

(a woman having a name kind of bothered them more than a woman living for 400 years. that wasn’t a problem apparently. they could have been like “well it’s her great-great–great-whatever-granddaughter” but no.  IT WAS SERACH BAT ASHER, THE OLDEST JEW IN EGYPT.  Time is fake in Torah anyway)

So anyway… to answer their own question, as to why this lady appears twice, generations apart, the rabbis said, well.  What happened is, when Joseph’s brothers found out he was alive, they didn’t want to just TELL JACOB about it, because Jacob was OLD, and they didn’t want to be like “so remember when your favorite son died? Yyyyyeah, we made that up.  Actually we sold him to some dudes? He’s ok, he’s in Egypt, he’s fine, though.” Like what if Jacob had a heart attack? They couldn’t just DO that to him

So instead Asher gets his daughter Serach to play on the lyre for Jacob. “Play something soothing,” he says. “Make it, like, poetic.”

“Soothing,” says Serach, “Yes that is my specialty, I am an excellent soother.”

She goes and sits n Jacob’s tent and plays the lyre while crooning a soft song of her own composition. “Jooooseeeeeeeeph~ is alive~ yalalalai~ Joseph is alive in Egypt~ yaDAdadadai~ he has two sons called Ephraim and Menashe~ lailai~” and Jacob after about 40 minutes of this is like wait a SECOND

and he’s like “THE MOUTH THAT HAS TOLD ME THAT JOSEPH LIVES, THAT MOUTH SHALL NEVER TASTE DEATH!!!!!” and Serach is like “cool”

So she goes down to Egypt and everything.  She’s still there 400 years later.  Sometimes someone goes to her like “so this guy says he’s our redeemer?” and she’s like “did he have the PASSWORD” and they’re like “no?” and she’s like “then it’s NOT THE GUY” until finally they’re like “so this guy Moses?” “PASSWORD?” “well he said something about the god of Abraham Isaac and–” “THAT’S HIM OMG GET HIM BACK HERE”

She also tells Moses where Joseph’s bones are buried because we couldn’t leave Egypt without them.  It’s the night before Pesach and everyone is running around like headless chickens and Serach is like SHIT.  MOSES IS GONNA FORGET JOSEPH! so she goes and says “Our father Joseph was buried in a lead coffin and thrown in the Nile, go get him” and Moses is like “ok???” and goes to the edge of the Nile and like, yells over the water “JOSEPH! JOSEPH! WE CAN’T LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!” and Joseph’s coffin floats to the surface (presumably glowing with a faint supernatural phosphorescence) and Moses is like “cool”

So that’s how things went down in Egypt.  Bubbe Serach had all the Secrets that everyone else had forgotten, because she had Seen It All.  She had all the passwords so we knew who to trust when it came to fleeing the country.  Et cetera.  Pretty neat, right? Thanks rabbis

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL, for what does the Talmud say in a totally different area?

“The sages debated the appearance of the waters when the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea.  Rabbi Yochanan said, “it was like a wall of lattice.” But Serach Bat Asher became angry, and she declared, “what are you saying? I was there, and it was like glass windows!”” (incidentally, this is important to debates over mechitzahs to this day)

BUT WAIT, u say.  BUBBE SERACH IS STILL HERE??? It’s been the ENTIRE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ISRAEL.  Temples have been built! Temples have fallen! Exiles have occurred! Rabbi Yochanan has been born and grown into a beautiful ornament for the town square who also has opinions on what water looks like! and SERACH IS JUST SITTING IN THE BACK OF THE BET MIDRASH LIKE “excuse me that is NOT how it happened” while the rabbis presumably look at each other like “shit we forgot grandma was gonna be here today” and Serach is like YOU LISTEN TO ME YOUNG MAN

SHE CAN NEVER DIE!!! SHE IS STILL OUT THERE!!! LOOK BEHIND YOU, WHO’S THAT CLICKING HER TONGUE AND SHAKING HER HEAD AT THE DVAR TORAH???

IT’S GRANDMA SERACH!!!!

This is my new favorite story and I want to believe she’s still out there.