Mensch of Letters

This week: Exposure therapy for secondhand embarrassment, making dick jokes about angels, Dean doesn’t know how to destroy a hard drive, the return of Buffynatural, and the JJ Bittenbinder school of vampire hunting. References:Rat Park - Wikipedia“Prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action.” -- Abraham Joshua HeschelB’shem HashemIshim (angel) - Wikipedia Angels as Human Byproducts - Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and MysticismLast rites - Wikipedia"What happened to all the pussy in Supernatural"The Winchesters and First Aid Kits [Archived Version] Kashrut and bittul (nullification)The True Meaning of Smekday Jacob as trickster figureYou can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.

This week: Scenes that aged like milk on a radiator, the era when they cared about demon possession victims, mid-00s homophobia that turned into real bisexuality, rescuing a kid from ghost-induced drowning...2!, and Jules’s boyfriend Special Agent Victor Henriksen.(Supernatural Season 2, Episodes 10, 11, and 12)References:Real Actors on SPN [Archived Version/Picture] Dean and Sam’s Paramilitary Upbringing [Archived Version]Down to AgincourtBorscht BeltYou can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more.Many thanks to Lulavet Arnow for her help with our audio editing. She can be found on Twitter @palmliker or @spacetrucksix.Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase. 

This week: Little sibling crimes of being taller, a sprinkling of daloy politsey, Sam gets snubbed by the FBI, Elijah the Prophet is playing with your dogs, and the covenant is just Eldest Daughter Disorder writ large.(Supernatural Season 2, Episodes 7, 8, and 9)References:SPN Wiki Transcript SearchThe Usual Suspects [Archived] The Story Iscah Vaguely Remembers The complexity of reasons people could get into hunting / [Archived Version]Black DogsThe Black Dog of Meriden, CTPerception of Dogs Among Ancient JewsThe Story of King Solomon and Ashmedai Demons with “Cock-like Footprints”Robert Johnson and the Devil LegendHonorifics for the dead in Judaism May Their Memory Be for a BlessingRoanoke ColonyGenesis 32:4 - Parsha VayishlachYou can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.   

This week: The boys could both benefit from some weed, emotions are little brother nonsense, apologies to Jules' mom for ragging on philosophy, the haunted post office episode we should have gotten, and debating the merits of different hairstyles. References:The uncle who put up the headstone / [Archived Version] Death and Mourning in Judaism Dean's Amulet - Super-wiki Why do all monsters have superstrength? / [Archived Version + Picture] HH Holmes You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.

This week: A Lulav-ly guest star, worms and Worms and vurms, kings breaking necromancy prohibitions, no such thing as scars or head trauma, and the math of plane crashes vs. serial killer clowns.References:82 — Naso: Angel's on First — Kosher Queers! "ben edlund...looks like a goat that got turned into a human" / [Archived + Picture]Smile TimeThe Others (2001 film)The Book of Abramelin Exodus 30:36 Kol Nidrei SamaelJewish Naming Practices/Can a Child Be Named After a Living Person? DEATH, VIEWS AND CUSTOMS CONCERNING Communication with the Dead / Ghosts, Spirits, and Jewish wanderings in the Afterlife Jewish funeral in-fiction as protection from ghosts, etc"Sam, you go interrogate the MILF." / [Archived] Freak showJews and the CircusThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayRakshasaPardes (Jewish exegesis)Sera Gamble's Anti-Black Racism [Archived]You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Special guest Lulavet Arnow can be found on Twitter @palmliker or @spacetrucksix. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.  

This week: A living fossil of mid-00’s television, all questions and no answers, ghosts as a diaspora metaphor, what if it was more like X-Men, and everything is fresh and not yet beat into the ground.(Supernatural Season 1)References:"If they grapple with the nature of monstrosity twice a season..."The ShemaMaking hunters more than protectors of white suburbiaFridging You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Get your creative hats on, because Jupernatural Week is back! Running from October 2nd through October 9th, it's an entire week of celebrating the canon and fanon Jews of Supernatural. Draw some art, write a fic, put together a playlist, and share your favorites far and wide. We can't wait to see what you make! Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.  

This week: Clown foreshadowing, a list of impossible things, making holy water wrong, people who are unimpressed with the Winchesters, and Trivial Pursuit: Sammy’s Psychic Powers edition.(Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 21 and 22)References:Mandaic language - Wikipedia Holy water - WikipediaKey of Solomon - WikipediaJewish Exorcism You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Get your creative hats on, because Jupernatural Week is back! Running from October 2nd through October 9th, it's an entire week of celebrating the canon and fanon Jews of Supernatural. Draw some art, write a fic, put together a playlist, and share your favorites far and wide. We can't wait to see what you make! Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase. 

This week: Dean and Sam aren’t WASPs, a one-scene heist movie, Jules goes full Pepe Silvia over G-d as an author, Elijah is NOT a vampire, and it’s wildly easy to trick John Winchester.(Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 19 and 20)References:Working Class as a Signifier of Masculinity (Web Archive)(Tag Screenshot)Working Class as a Signifier of Masculinity (Original)A Swarm of Evil BeesExodus 20:4 with ConnectionsNosferatu (word)Lilith and lilin as blood drinkers You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Get your creative hats on, because Jupernatural Week is back! Running from October 2nd through October 9th, it's an entire week of celebrating the canon and fanon Jews of Supernatural. Draw some art, write a fic, put together a playlist, and share your favorites far and wide. We can't wait to see what you make! Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase. 

This week: Jules is probably not getting murdered by a daeva, Dean is Miette-coded, our new plastic surgeon OC, sometimes the solution is arson, and 19th century Wisconsin newspapers were totally on the cutting edge of photojournalism.(Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 16, 17, and 18)References:Our Town: Study GuideDaevaCross of Saint PeterVintras, Eugène (1807-1875) Nirmāṇakāya - WikipediaJewish Bedtime Prayers20 Jewish Superstitions That Will Absolutely Ward Off the Evil Eye – KvellerEvil Eye in JudaismBucky on Parade: Frequently Asked QuestionsFear, Itself | Buffyverse Wiki | FandomYou can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Get your creative hats on, because Jupernatural Week is back! Running from October 2nd through October 9th, it's an entire week of celebrating the canon and fanon Jews of Supernatural. Draw some art, write a fic, put together a playlist, and share your favorites far and wide. We can't wait to see what you make! Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.   

This week: Keeping ghosts secret except when we yell about them in public, hearteyes for THEE Cassie Robinson, Dean is totes nailing his priest impression, where are they getting entire State Trooper uniforms, and For Sale: Chekhov's Guns, Never Fired.(Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 13, 14, and 15)References:"The girl can't be on top.""Bi women are women who like men in a gay way"The Political and Social Partnership Between Africans and Jews in the United States [PDF]Parsha Shoftim, Dvarim 18:15Judaism and DreamsJudaism, Dreams, and Dream Interpretation You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Get your creative hats on, because Jupernatural Week is back! Running from October 2nd through October 9th, it's an entire week of celebrating the canon and fanon Jews of Supernatural. Draw some art, write a fic, put together a playlist, and share your favorites far and wide. We can't wait to see what you make! Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.  

This week: Is it gay to sit on furniture?, teen girls with rock salt shotguns, we have a grand old time ragging on John Winchester, Mensch of Letters does not (wink wink) condone piracy, and a sorcerer is just a wizard who’s a dick. (Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 10, 11, and 12)References:Sorcery, idolatry, and leading people astray as linked concepts History of the Hasidic Movement and Shabbatai Tzvi (who was proclaimed by some as a messiah a century earlier and whose movement heavily influenced the formation of Hasidism) You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.  

This week: Dean (thinks he) looks young enough to be a college student, a ghost leaves out of embarrassment, Sam Winchester: Tarantula Whisperer, bad anthropological practices, and garbage disposal-based nightmare fuel. (Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 7, 8, and 9)References: Kosher Locusts You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase. 

This week: The Ackles ass equation, bad puns from demons, roasting the writers’ awful takes on gematria, real and metaphorical mirror demons, and Jules has become lawboy. (Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 4, 5, and 6)References:Judaism and NumbersTefilat Haderech, The Traveler's Prayer Mirrors in the Bible and in Jewish TraditionDemon at the Doorstep: Lilith as a Reflection of Anxieties and Desires in Ancient, Rabbinic, and Medieval Jewish Sexuality [PDF]Lilith and Incantation BowlsShape shiftingYou can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com. If you like what we're doing, you can support us on Patreon! For as little as one dollar a month, you can get a special role in our Discord, exclusive access to bonus content, and more. Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.  

This week: Dean has two nickels, the timelines are already a little mysterious, a Hannibal/geography tangent, tricking vampires into going to a mikveh, and the narrative is not in the CW. (Supernatural Season 1, Episodes 1, 2, and 3)References:Life-energy gone awryLemony Snicket interview Cool Guy postObligation to teach one's children to swim“The Talmud also specifies that parents should teach their children how to swim. In the ancient world, where much travel occurred over water, swimming was a necessary survival skill. In modern parlance, this commandment means that parents are required to teach their children whatever self-defense skills are necessary for survival. In her book How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, writer Blu Greenberg recalls an ugly incident in her neighborhood in which a number of antisemitic teenagers attacked and beat a group of Jewish teenagers. The local rabbi's response was a sensible one, and entirely consistent with the Talmud's ruling. "The time has come," he in effect told the parents, "to teach Jewish kids karate."”-- Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pg 538, 1st ed.  You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com.Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase. 

Welcome to Mensch of Letters, the first, best, and ONLY Jewish Supernatural recap/review podcast. This week: our premiere, which consists of an introduction to your two hosts, Jules and Iscah. You can also find us on Twitter @menschofletters and on Tumblr at menschofletters.tumblr.com.Our intro music is Fun Tashlikh and our outro music is Szarvaszo Stomp, both by Yid Vicious, who you can find at their website yidvicious.com, where their music is available for purchase.