Purim Pashkevils and Poe's Law
Let’s begin by defining a pashkevil:
A pashkevil (Yiddish: פּאַשקעוויל; Hebrew: פשקוויל pl. pashkevilim פשקווילים) is a broadside or poster that has been situated on a public wall or location in an Orthodox Jewish community, and most commonly within Hareidi enclaves.[1][2] Pashkevilim are sometimes distributed anonymously; however, many are posted with rabbinic endorsements or the name of an activist group appended to the bottom.
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A column in the Jewish Daily Forward claims the word as a Yiddish term (pashkevil) borrowed from Polish paszkwil, which itself came from the French pasquil, from the Italian pasquinata (as does the English term "pasquinade" for a satire or lampoon).[5] The term has also been explained as a Yiddish word mean "protest or cry for help".[2]
The lampoons were “originally published in public”. Wiktionary has an interesting further etymology of pasquinade:
From French pasquinade, from Pasquin + -ade, modelled on Italian pasquinata, from Latin pascha, from Hebrew פסח.
Wikipedia also includes this photo of such broadsides in Meah Shearim:
Circulating today on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, is one such pashkevil:
with comments such as “והלוואי שמדובר היה בפורים תורה.” — “if only we were speaking of Purim Torah. “
Some are amused, some are outraged. The poster calls on people to refrain from collecting tzedakah on Purim (which there is a commandment of matanot la’evyonim, giving gifts to the poor) from any house in which women may be present, because that would be a violation of tzniut.
It may well be that this is an authentic pashkevil, and people have seen it posted up in Brooklyn.
[Edit: plus, it specifically target bachurim and avreichim not to collect, and for baalei batim to keep women from milling around where men are present. They language seems serious, so it may be for real.]
But at the same time, I am aware of Poe’s Law, formulated by Nathan Poe on christianforums.com:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article.
Many items you find online are actually parodies, and all the time I see people reacting to such parodies by mocking the underlying group for saying such nonsense. I think that, especially when it confirms their prior assumptions, people tend to become more gullible.
(Just yesterday on social media, I pointed out how people were mocking Christianity based on a “Certificado de Heterosexualidad” issued by a satirical blog / church. They couldn’t fully understand the Spanish language and track down the source. But the same church, which sells the certificate for $500, claims that left-handed people cannot get into heaven because of Biblical repetitions of the right-hand of God, nor overweight people because of a verse in Matthew, “But small is the gate and narrow the road leads to life, and only a few find it”.)
My own bias when seeing such claims is skepticism, and that it is yet another instance of Poe’s Law. Just because this keeps happening over and over.
So let’s talk a bit about satirical pashkevilim. Most famous are those by Moshe Koppel. (Some of the image sources are down, so here is a better link from the Internet Archive.) He’s printed them up using the same printer used by those posting authentic broadsides, and posted them in Mea Shearim around Purim time, coming from Beit Vaad Lachachomim of Queens. Here is an example, where he cites לא תשים דמים בביתך, the Biblical command to put a guardrail on your roof so that “you shall not place blood on your house”, taking damim as money. Zionist money is forbidden, so you can bring your money to us and we’ll issue you replacement money that we’ll print ourselves!
Then there is this one, upset at the signs in Mea Shearim telling women to traverse the streets only in tzniusdik (modest) clothing.
Who gave women permission to go out in the streets in the first place?! What about kol kevudah bat melech penimah?
This was taken by the secular Israeli press as real, and they condemned the chareidim. He let is stew for a few days, then wrote to them that it was a Purim joke by a university professor, showing his (literal) receipts. They apologized, but a bit later doubled down, reporting that some chareidim themselves took it seriously.
Follow the link for more such funny pashkevilim, such as not drinking Israeli water or a prohibition of reading Nach.
Back in 2006 and then in 2009, spurred by local happenings, I put out two Purim pashkevilim. And a few people took them seriously as well.
Here is one, about making sure not to hear the names of women in the megillah:
and here is one about eyebrow and eyelash sheitels:
