There is a devil in me. Preparing to bake a Rosh Hashana cake for my very traditional friend, I couldn’t bring myself to make another honey cake, and will be presenting a devil’s food instead. And having worn white all day I yearn for an antithetical color. Red? Black?
Will my friend see this as “ifcha mistabra” where you take the opposite point of view to prove the point? Or will she, more likely, see my perversion as a threat to her beliefs?
This kind of question has been coming up a lot lately in my neighborhood. From the other point of view, though. Haredi institutions and a large population of religious people have moved in. Is this a problem? There was a rally the other day to raise awareness of this and I am beginning to understand what the non-religious community is upset about. It is not the presence of religious people, but the sense of the imposition of the religion experience on others. When a group of religious people pass out ice cream to the children and ask that they say a blessing over the food, it calls something into question.
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