Hollywood pariah Roseanne Barr has at least one passionate defender: fame-hungry, celebrity stalking Rabbi Shmuley. It started with a rambling sob-fest on the Rabbi’s podcast (very softball interview), and then continued with more excuses during an appearance on The View.
In response to Joy’s grilling about the infamous tweet, the Rabbi claimed that Roseanne is a “serious practitioner of Judaism and a serious scholar of Judaism.” (Say what?!) “Where is the forgiveness?” he demanded to know, adding, “Roseanne has fully repented.”
This is so wrong, on so many levels, I barely know where to start.
The Rabbi is either extremely misinformed or completely hoodwinked, because nothing he said is factual. First off, Roseanne is not serious about Judaism, has never been active in Jewish organizations, activities, or charities, and I doubt she studies Torah and Talmud on a regular basis. Her “commitment” to Israel and Judaism is so strong she willingly dressed up as Hitler, removing burnt gingerbread men cookies from an oven. Her only contribution to the Jewish community, if we can call it that, was creating a new member when she encourage Tom Arnold to convert before their wedding.
Roseanne has apologized, yes, but she refuses to take responsibility for her behavior. Anyone who likes to Tweet, and I do, has written dumb stuff in the heat of the moment. Tweeting while tired or intoxicated tends to end in tragedy. Maybe she was drinking and on Ambien; I don’t know. But I doubt she was also impaired when she took the Hitler photo, or when she disrespected America by screeching the National Anthem, spitting, and grabbing herself in a vulgar fashion.
Maybe some would call her antics shock comedy. I call it gross, lewd, and hateful. Nobody should tweet that someone is an ape, regardless of their race; it’s insulting and wrong. If she disagrees with Valerie Jarrett’s politics, that’s fine, but there is a right way to have a debate and name calling shouldn’t be involved.
Rabbi Shmuely says that he has known Roseanne for 20 years. If that’s true, why hasn’t he helped her during that time? She has been on a downward spiral for decades, struggling with addiction, severe mental illness, multiple divorces, promoting wild conspiracy theorists, attempting a failed run for the US presidency, and that’s just skimming the surface.
Should people be forgiven for their mistakes? Of course. Every year, we dedicate an entire day to repentance (Yom Kippur.) I’ll be the first one to admit that I make mistakes and I’m not perfect. But a big part of forgiveness is behavior modification. If we continuously repeat the same bad actions, we’re not truly sorry.
Roseanne is not sorry about the content of her tweet; she is sorry the Tweet backfired. Rabbi Shmuley is smart enough to know this and should be brave enough to admit it. She is wrong for doing it, he is wrong for defending it, and I’m not a fan of either one.
I have no words for her. I am not a fan, nor have I ever been.
She needs to shut up and go away, I agree He should not be defending her!
Same here, I like comedy but not stuff that’s lewd and coarse. She is not a lady.
I agree with you. As for her so-called repentance, offering yet another tired defense (this time? that she didn’t know Ms. Jarrett was black) and then insulting Ms Jarrett’s appearance sounds nothing like sincere remorse to me. She is only sorry for the money and work she has lost, so she has learned nothing and will undoubtedly do something just like this in the future. How can there be forgiveness when there is no spirit of humility and repentance?
It shouldn’t matter what race or religion someone is, it’s never, ever okay to use slurs! Roseanne doesn’t act with care towards anyone. She has always been rude and hurt many people. Look how quickly she drops a husband when someone better comes along. We should all strive to lead an ethical life. If we make a mistake, fix it, don’t waffle and make it worse with a fake apology.
Precisely. Claiming she didn’t know Ms. Jarrett’s race doesn’t make a word of what she said acceptable. One can disagree with someone’s opinions or politics without descending to the gutter, as someone should tell Ms. Barr. Although as for dropping her husbands… I am fairly certain the ones left behind are quite grateful right now seeing how she behaves. My mother always said “People become more of who they are,” and in Ms. Barr’s case she becomes more crass and thoughtless and rude and bigoted with every passing year.
I am not Jewish but I couldn’t agree with you more. Too many people, especially celebrities, think they can say and do anything they want and they will be forgiven because “they didn’t really mean it.”
I don’t think forgiveness or repentance has to be tied to religion. Any faith, or even no faith, can still want to live an ethical life. Celebs live in a bubble that’s surreal, rather than real life. The way they live and act should not be a role model for everyone else.
She should think before she speaks
The woman is a whack job and has been for some time. She and Tom Arnold built a house here in Iowa, then abandoned it. As far as converting him, who knows if she did. He is a piece of work too.
Oh, yeah, I remember when they were in Iowa, all the Farm Aid stuff? Isn’t Tom Arnold from there originally? Talk about a weird couple!