{"id":51076,"date":"2019-10-03T14:31:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T20:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=51076"},"modified":"2019-10-03T14:32:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T20:32:06","slug":"the-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF<\/em><\/p>\n

My friend, Herb, likes to get an early start. On the golf course, he stands 20 feet in front of the tee. When he eats out, he brings a drink from home so he doesn\u2019t have to wait for a turtle-speed server to bring one. And as the months slip by before the High Holidays, he uses a similar philosophy.<\/p>\n

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No sacrifice is too much to get a head start on those ten days of awe. He even takes his wife out for supper and I don\u2019t mean kosher hamburgers.<\/p>\n

Now, besides his own fate, he\u2019s also concerned about his dear wife. Why not teach the same philosophy? No need to wait for Rosh Hashanah. She can begin this very morning. Instead of plain scrambled eggs for breakfast, she can show her bountiful love for Herb by adding sliced salami and onions to the mix. And better yet, take out the garbage (usually Herb\u2019s job). A wife wheeling out a 100-pound garbage can to the street must be mentioned somewhere in the Talmud.<\/p>\n

But the awesome and admirable thing about Herb is his concern for his wife. He shares his spiritual philosophy with her. Why restrict yourself to ten days? So little time to correct so many moral missteps since last Yom Kippur. If you only pretend to be good \u2013 go through the motions \u2013an evil heart that simulates goodness is credible.<\/p>\n

A great essayist\/philosopher, Max Beerbohm, tells a fable: An evil man lusts after a fair and virtuous maid. But everybody knows he\u2019s a world-class philandering louse. And besides this weakness of the flesh, he\u2019s a dishonorable, lying, cheating, all \u2018round nogoodnik. His reputation as a scum bag is so well known that even his na\u00efve beauty of a target is aware of his evil heart.<\/p>\n

So, how to seduce the object of his lustful attention?<\/p>\n

Ah, he\u2019s got it!! He\u2019ll wear a mask \u2013 a mask that glows with goodness. He\u2019ll also trick the world and even his creator. All who look upon him will admire the radiance of his false face.<\/p>\n

He wears it so long and he wears it so well that his villainous nature turns saintly. His real face becomes the face of the mask. \u201cThe mask worn long enough becomes the man,\u201d says Joseph Epstein, who tells us the Beerbohm fable. The ex-sinner throws away the now superfluous mask. It momentarily lies in the grassy meadow \u2013 then melts in the rays of the morning sun. Sometimes you become what you pretend to be.<\/p>\n

And maybe that\u2019s good enough.<\/p>\n

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