"If there was an award for laziness I'd probably send somebody else to pick it up for me."

Humans are a funny breed. Every year in this season I get the same frantic phone calls: "I need a Selichot and please send it express mail, I need it yesterday!" I have had the Selichot listed all year and somehow people only recall they actually need one a day after Selichot started.
If only they planned just a bit in advance, they can save the world $15, but I guess everyone has his way of doing things.

Necessity is the mother of invention

After several unpleasant experiences, I was forced to put up this sign in the store. I truly hope that no one tests me.

 אזהרה
אם אתה עובר על הדברה השמינית
אני אעבור על הדברה הששית 

Awful timing?

When you pick up a phone to let a customer know a book he requested came in, you under your breadth always mutter a prayer, that your timing is right. Recently, I phoned a buyer to let him know a book he has been looking for, has arrived. I immediately noticed something was the matter, and turns out his mother had just died 10 minutes before. He was alone, and I was the first person he spoke to after getting the news, and we ended up chatting about such mundane things such as life, death, God, reward & punishment and the like. Perhaps something good came out of our talk, I do not know, but very much hope so. Sometimes we do more than sell a book when we make a call.
And yes, he called me back a week later and paid for the book

כי מלאה הארץ חמ"ס on Jewish Publishing in America

Shaul Sapir, who was editor of the Deer Amerikaner in the early 20th century, was once asked about the Jewish Publishing Situation in the United States.
He replied "כי מלאה הארץ חמ"ס "
חמס ראשי תבות חומשים מחזורים סדורים
How very true! 99% of the Hebrew books printed in America before WWI were Prayerbooks or Chumashim.

A Tattooed Kabbalist

I just picked up a collection of Kabbalistic books from an eccentric gentile. He had a variety of Hebrew tattoos on his body including אל on his neck and more but one struck me as odd enough that I had to ask. It read אבי ואמי עזבוני ויה-וה יאספני
Turns out, he was sexually abused as a child and somehow lost faith in family and all. Somehow, Kabbalah is now a big part of his life. I doubt that's what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai had in mind, but if he can get something good out of it, I'm all for it.
He gave me a nice pshat in the Zohar; whenever the Zohar states that "They came and taught us" without specifying who, it refers to aliens coming and teaching the Tanaim Kabbalah. As they say שבעים פנים לתורה

Beware a Valuable Judaica library has just been STOLEN

Some scumbag(s) have robbed a few days ago a very valuable library in Monsey, New York. The owner is currently sick in the hospital, the thieves took their chance, when the family of the sick man were visiting him and looted the library. If you are offered a collection of rare Kabbalistic and Hasidic books, be sure you are not buying stolen books.
It is very sad that in such a business, that of selling holy books, we need to be worried of such things. But a certain breed of people have proven time and again, that this business has it's giant share of thieves, forgers, scammers and their cronies. It appears the evil inclination does not discriminate between one business and another.

Hosting a Jewish Holocaust Denier in my store

What do you do when a well known Holocaust denier and "Scholar" visits your store? That's what I just had to deal with. Every so often, this man walks in to our store and stocks up on books on the Holocaust and "Palestine" for reference. Of Jewish birth, this fellow has managed to convince himself of all the classic antisemitic beliefs that you can think up. Naturally he believes the Israelis are causing a Holocaust in the Holy Land, and he has "proofs", though no proofs can ever seem to be good enough to convince him of the real Holocaust. And He believes Jews mix Christian blood in the Matzas, I'm not sure how he convinced himself of that one either. I also learned from him how the Israelis perpetrated 9/11 and that the war in Iraq was created by the Israelis just to knock out Saddam. And the Rothschilds financed the war to make more money. It goes on and on, it makes me sick to write this, so I'll stop for now.

Your first instinct when meeting such a man, is to let out your fist and send him for a walk. But on second thought, I realised that's all such a man needs, is another story to tell on his weekly radio show, about a Jew kicking him out of a store. So I let him be and tried to understand him, though didn't do too well with that either. It turns out that humans have this amazing ability to believe anything that want to believe if you give them some time. Recently, a book has been published "Pasque di Sangue," by Ariel Toaff has shocked Jewish communities around the world for giving credence to the age-old accusation, which is commonplace in anti-Semitic literature used to justify and promote the persecution of Jews. This Toaff is the son of Italy's Chief Rabbi. Give this info to a Antisemite like this and he has a party. This character is actually working on translating the book into English. There is no convincing that will "unconvince" someone like this.

I was greatly comforted after he taught me, that I am not part of the illuminati, as I am Sephardic, the Illuminati are only from the Ashkenazi Jews. The insanity just went on for a few hours that he spent in my store.

It was enjoyable to hear from him how great the Jews are, they are all rich, all powerful, control the entire world, win all their wars and how Iran really has no nuclear bombs. For a few minutes I felt really relieved, that there was no antisemitism, it was just a rouse by the elites and really all Christians love Jews, especially the Catholics. But then I remembered the millions of people who died for their religion and that all this is just a dream.
May God protect us from ourselves.

Apparently, Intelligence doesn't cure Antisemitism

In the summer of 1922 Lenard had written to the Nobel committee that Einstein was a “publicity-seeking Jew whose approach was alien to the true nature of German physics.”
Philipp Lenard (June 7, 1862 – May 20, 1947) was a German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties.

I long had the belief that the best revenge a Jew can have for anti-semitism is to succeed. The bigger the better. Who today heard of Lenard, and who hasn't heard of Einstein?

Collection of Hate Sermons by the Religion of Love

The National Library of Israel just obtained a rare collection of 39 Portuguese sermons from the era of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, Israel Hayom reported recently
Dating back to between 1618 and 1727, the collection of sermons—read by church officials prior to ritual executions of Jews—represents more than half of the 70 such texts ever printed.
During the Inquisition, the sermons were followed by elaborate ceremonies during which Jews were killed for either refusing to convert to Catholicism or still practicing their religion after converting.
“These events were a recreational Sunday activity for residents of the local towns and villages,” Dr. Aviad Stollman, Judaica collections curator at the National Library of Israel, said of the ceremonies.

It is sick to think of how low a level humanity can reach that people can be entertained by the burning of human flesh. People tend to overestimate the human mind, once exposed to a good orator, it becomes useless and swayed any direction it is led. It is interesting to note that all Auto-da-fés were carried out by the Catholic Church, perhaps they forgot a verse in the New Testament, Mathew 5:43: "You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy", or more likely, they pick and choose what to read.