Alt+SHIFT: Life Is Difficult
Yitzchak Blau continues his Alt+SHIFT supplement series—that’s the keyboard shortcut allowing us quick transition between input languages on our keyboards. For many readers of TRADITION that’s the move from Hebrew to English (and back again). It offers a look into trends, ideas, and writings in the Israeli Religious Zionist world, helping readers from the Anglo sphere to gain insight into worthwhile material available only in Hebrew. See the archive of all past columns in this series.
Hanoch Daum, HaHayyim Hem Tekufa Kasha (2020), 232 pp.
Hanoch Daum’s autobiographical book offers a window into an important aspect of Israeli life. In place of a simplified binary between frum and not-frum, Israelis talk about being on the retzef, somewhere on the religious spectrum. Daum, a comic, television personality, and journalist, is a prime example of this. The son of a rabbi, he described his negative experience in “Yashlatz”, the high school affiliated with Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, in a previous book called Elohim Lo Marshe (2007). In this volume, he has come to better terms with his yeshiva and returns there for Yom Kippur davening. Daum happily experiences one of the yeshiva Ramim leading the Yamim Noraim tefillot and then returns to his nearby hotel and uses the elevator. He does not know if God exists but he has no patience for the aggressive atheism of Israeli TV host Lior Schleien. For Daum, Purim tells a great story whether or not it actually happened. Given the complex depiction of his connection to observance and faith, can Daum be classified as “religious”?
This book highlights the smallness of Israeli society and how connected everyone is. The author had both a first cousin and a former havruta killed in terrorist attacks. He also knows well two members of the Jewish mahteret (“underground”), convicted, one in the 1980s and one in the 2000s, for violent crimes against Arabs. Due to this work in the media and his celebrity status, we also hear about his interactions with Sara Netanyahu, Amnon Dankner, Dudu Topaz, and Uri Orbach.
Readers sensitive to off-color humor should tread carefully. Daum considers all areas of life fair game for jokes including Gilad Shalit, pedophiles, and a rapist. He defends his approach by arguing that levity and sadness can exist simultaneously in his personality. I did not find the “over the line” humor that funny but did laugh at several other things. Based on the different weight classes for sports such as wrestling and boxing, Daum suggest a basketball league for chubby guys his height. Consider this passage about a vacation spot in Israel off the beaten track:
Another way to know you have arrived at a remote location: The locals tell you about a settlement called Shetula as the place for a night out….We are talking about a settlement so close to the border that those who live there pay property tax to Hezbollah…. At some point of the way there, Waze informed us that we are on our own.
For me, the funniest bit involves a symbolic act of starting a new settlement on a hill in bourgeois Efrat. Two couples agreed to set up camp on the hill with an understanding that in all cases the army would remove them, so they’d be able to sleep at home in their own beds that night. However, it is a busy day in the Jewish state and the army never shows up to evacuate them. The couples realize that they are stuck there and make a panicked call to Moetzet Yesha who won’t help them either. In desperation, they call Peace Now and are told that the land they settled on might not be problematic.
The book includes serious insights as well. Our author was once consistently bothered by noise coming from an upstairs apartment every afternoon at 4 o’clock. One day, he can no longer take it and he heads upstairs to complain. When a young girl on roller skates opens the door, Daum realizes that she comes home from school regularly at that hour and puts on the skates, thereby causing the noise. Understanding the source, he decides not to complain since he cannot take this innocent pleasure away from a child. Interestingly, the disturbance ceases to bother him, illustrating how noise may not be an objective problem and our reactions depend on appreciating the context.
In one moving story from childhood, he and his father, R. Yehezkel Daum, travel for the Shabbat bar mitzva of a secular cousin. They do not inform the family in advance and give them a joyous surprise by showing up in shul on Shabbat morning. When the father of the bar mitzva boy passes away, Daum reacts with deep sadness. He insightfully realizes that his own already deceased rabbinic father loved this secular cousin and that the man’s death means the loss of another piece of his father.
As we saw regarding Yair Jacobi, comics can be a source of wisdom and make a contribution to the community beyond humor. Indeed, in 2024, Daum received an award for service to the reservists in the current Israeli conflict. Since October 7, 2023, his Facebook page has featured a steady stream of posts honoring our soldiers, promoting Jewish unity, and supporting bereaved families. Some comedians know how to take life seriously.
Yitzchak Blau, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City, is an Associate Editor of TRADITION.