This Nefesh b’Nefesh video, from last month, is a lot of fun, and its set to the non-lame Eric Schwartz’s 2003 Chanukah song (and does a better job of capturing the Midrehov spirit than Max Blumenthal).
But it’s not, as its organizers claim, the first Jerusalem flash mob. (Don’t pilgrimages count as flash mobs? Riots? Sackings by the Romans? Don’t get me started.)
In any case, in the modern sense of the term, it was preceded by at least a year by Matt Harding and the goofy joy he spread around our planet with his dance:
From 3:42 to 3:45 he segues from "Tel Aviv, Israel" to "East Jerusalem, West Bank."
Okay, maybe the kids in the Old City weren’t called together by social media, in the new-fangled sense. (Most of the other gatherings, including TA, are indeed Facebook-engendered flash mobs.)
But if you’ve been to the Old City and you stopped to, well, never mind dance, just to ask directions, you know that after a couple of minutes you’ll be surrounded by the young and curious — and if that kind of word spreading isn’t social media, if that’s not a flash mob, then what is?
Enjoy the whole thing. It’s good viewing for any season.
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