Could I Offer You Some Round Bears In These Trying Times?

“When everyone knows you’re a monster...” (Six of Crows Series Spoilers)

I need to just express my appreciation for the Six of Crows duology and it’s ending. Not only does the hero’s story begin and end with plague, one of which controls him and the other controlled by him, not just that. His motif, his insistence that he’s a monster. The story told by the two books starts and ends with Kaz employing the same tactic to win: when everyone knows you’re a monster, you don’t have to do every monstrous thing. He’s done some horrific stuff over the course of the books, and we, the readers, start to get comfortable with him, to understand his backstory, even excuse his behavior. It isn’t until the end of the second book that we are confronted with the idea that Kaz may be beyond saving, and not until later do we find out that yes, he is human, yes, he is worth saving. AND, his story begins and ends with an innocent little boy on the brink of death for a crime he didn’t commit, and the choice Kaz makes to spare him, so the cycle of hardening children ends with him. Anyway, the parallels in just his story are amazing, so they needed a rant. I’m sure more will follow.

It isn't letting me comment, so I'll reblog with my answers. To be clear, I'm not an expert of any sort in folklore, Jewish or otherwise, but I have some sources that might be helpful.

If you're looking for non-fiction, I would start with Rootsmetals, an instagram activist/educator. Her recent posts are all I/P focused and I think she is incredibly biased, so I wouldn't cite her on anything like that, but her earlier posts about Judaism on her website can provide a good starting point to help you figure out which parts of Jewish folklore you like best and want to research more. Here are some:

https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/ancient-jewish-magic?_pos=14&_sid=7224c01f1&_ss=r

https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/judaism-vampires?_pos=6&_sid=7224c01f1&_ss=r

https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/judaism-witches?_pos=2&_sid=fe71083eb&_ss=r

https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/the-jewish-soul?_pos=22&_sid=bf015af62&_ss=r

https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/a-history-of-jewish-dance?_pos=2&_sid=d8de33d9b&_ss=r

Once you have more specific topics in mind, you can hopefully do some digging on those!

If you're looking for fiction, she also has a book of Jewish fairytales (https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Escaz%C3%BA-Other-Jewish-Fairytales/dp/B09JVFR7R2). I also highly recommend Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes, especially the stories "Among the Thorns," "Lily Glass," and "Burning Girls," although these stories are all pretty dark, so be careful, especially if violent antisemitism is triggering for you. This author also has a page of other fiction books of Jewish folklore (https://electricliterature.com/stories-books-about-jewish-magic-folklore-mythology/).

And of course, feel free to message me or send me an ask if you want any help researching :)

I’m a Jew who is interested in learning more about Jewish folklore and Jewish folk practices, as I am super interested in Jewish spirituality and mysticism but am not at a point in my life where it would be appropriate to do anything with Kabbalah. Does anyone have any good resources for that? I’ve been trying to avoid sources that are basically Jewish things repackaged as new-age/pagan.

(In case it’s relevant for FOR, I am Ashkenazi)

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As a Jew, I love going to shul every week and smiling at everyone even if I don’t know their names and having them smile back. As a Jew, I love learning Jewish history from people who are passionate about preserving our culture and teaching Jewish history to people who haven’t had a chance to hear it. As a Jew, I love spending Friday nights after shul talking and giggling about life in the dark with my best friend because we forgot to leave a light on. As a Jew, I love playing Jewish geography. As a Jew, I love singing at Havdalah, whether it’s with my friends or my family or strangers.

As a Jew, more than anything, I love being a Jew. 💙

Why is it that the words “as a Jew…” are always followed by the most rancid, idiot takes possible?

Thank you for your contributions to society... oh wait! You have done nothing! In fact you have probably made the earth a worse place. Congratulations!

Knowing for a fact I made at least a few million folk in this world smile is good enough for me <3

Random linguistic worldbuilding: A language with six sets of pronouns, which are set by one's current state of existence. There's a separate pronoun for people who are alive, people who are dead, and potential future people who are yet to be born, and the ambiguous ones of "may or may not be alive or aleady dead", "may or may not have even been born yet", and the ultimate general/ambiguous all-covering one that covers all ambiguous states.

The culture has a specific defined term for that tragic span of time when a widow keeps accidentally referring to their spouse with living pronouns. New parents-to-be dropping the happy surprise news of a pregnancy by referring to their future child with the "is yet to be born" pronoun instead of a more ambiguous one and waiting for the "wait what did you just say?" reactions.

Someone jokingly referring to themselves with the dead person pronouns just to highlight how horrible their current hangover is. A notorious aspiring ladies' man who keeps trying to pursue women in their 20s despite of approaching middle age fails to notice the insult when someone asks him when he's planning to get married, and uses the pronoun that implies that his ideal future bride may not even be born yet.

A mother whose young adult child just moved away from home for the first time, who continues to dramatically refer to their child with "may or may not be already dead" until the aforementioned child replies to her on facebook like "ma stop telling people I'm dead" and having her respond with "well how could I possibly know that when you don't even write to us? >:,C"

You know the Grimm version of Snow White makes more sense than most versions if only because in that version Snow White was like 7 years old.

yes 2020 has sucked like a ravenous kirby but in november we finally get to vote that hateful orange turd out of office so eyes on the prize ya’lls

Happy tumblr day

just had to take a fucking second and close my eyes because i remembered that on the night of november 5th tumblr had convinced me, an outsider, that this was an actual gif of Castiel Supernatural being sent to mega fruit hell

My body is so needy, like madam I just fed you like 7 hours ago and now you want more food??? Unreal

A poodle clipped and dyed to resemble a pony.