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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Jewish Shabbos Goy

Well if the Bear hasn't given me the boot yet then I'll take advantage and get back up on the soap box one more time.

Here's my story:

Several years ago I was asked (by someone I respect and owe many favors to) if I would help out a yeshiva in Lakewood with some web-related work. There are certain government programs that one can only interface with through the web and the Yeshiva did not have internet access in their offices so I said I would help out.

Of course no good deed goes unpunished and I am now frequently called by this yeshiva (and others!) who not only ask me to fill out government forms on line but have all kinds of questions about these government services and policies. I have told them MANY times that I have no expertise navigating these legal/governmental issues but somehow (perhaps because I can READ) I've gained a reputation as some kind of expert.

I've always been mildly annoyed by the increasing imposition these schools have been making on my time but I felt sorry for the students suffering at the hands of an inept administration. The Yeshiva has never offered me any kind of compensation and never even pay me back for postage, although I was recently informed that I merited some of the s'char earned by a particular Yeshiva boy who's paperwork I finished at 11:30PM last Thursday night.

But here's what really gets me:
According to Lakewood the internet is trief!
Sure the Lakewood internet ban is old news but it's still in place as far as I know.
While I don't live in Lakewood I am still a frum Jew and the Roshe Yeshiva, bochrim, and secretaries that call me for help all know that. So what does that make me? Some kind of Jewish Shabbos goy? Am I granted special internet filtering magic powers in exchange for my helping the yeshiva or is my neshama so far gone that a little more evil couldn't possibly make things worse.

So... should I quit? If so how?!
If quiting isn't possible maybe I could at least have some fun with this - all suggestions will be considered.

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