nothingelsetosay

from jewishlink.news
�Rishus Cold Seltzer�: What�s Special About This Meme?
By Brooke Schwartz
| July 21, 2022
How a rabbi accidentally went viral in a two-minute Twitter video, and why his quotes continue to resurface.

The frum Twitter (jokingly, yet controversially, referred to in some circles as �fritter�) community is still preoccupied with �rishus� cold seltzer, nearly two months after a video of a yeshivish rabbi from Monsey � expressing his fervent love for the soft drink � went viral on Orthodox Twitter in late May.

Rabbi Aryeh Moshe Leiser, a resident of Monsey, New York, starred in the video using a combination of yeshivish slang, Hebrew, Yiddish phrases and English to animatedly express his heartfelt desire for an �Arvei Psachim with a Rabbeinu Dovid� (a 13th century commentator on the 10th chapter of Masechet Psachim), as well as a �riiiishus cold seltzer� (�rishus� meaning �wicked� in Hebrew) and asserting that, with these two things, he �just want(ed) to check out of life.� He specified that the seltzer needed to be in plastic cups � �no styrofoam,� he stressed firmly � followed by singing (briefly interrupted to apologize to a neighbor for the noise) and finishing, �God bless you all, and just remember: the bottom line is, it�s the horvanya (Yiddish for �strenuous work�) in learning! Blood! Sweat! Tears!�

The video instantly blew up across the fritter community, with people sharing tweets, memes and hastily photoshopped images starring the nonexistent brand of �rishus� cold seltzer and referencing quotes from Leiser�s impassioned speech. Eli Neuberger (@thevoos) tweeted: �#ElonMusk must be upset [that] more people are talking about Leiser on Twitter than they are about him,� and award-winning YU basketball coach, Elliot Steinmetz (@elliotsteinmetz) posted, �Anyone know how we get this guy to give a pregame speech next season? I�m ready to run through a wall and I don�t even know what he said.�

�Rishus� cold seltzer products even really went up for sale on teespring.com shortly after the video went viral, with the phrase printed on a pint glass, a stainless steel water bottle and a mug and the product description set as, �Perfect for Arvei Pesachim with Rabeinu (sic) Dovid. Blood. Sweat. Tears. � The products are still available on the site.

Although the original video was taken down, �rishus cold seltzer� references continue to resurface many weeks later and have even made their way outside the fritter community, with New York State Senator, Zellnor Myrie, getting involved by tweeting about wanting a �rishus cold seltzer� on a hot day in early July and a verified company Twitter account with over 90,000 followers (@DansDeals) continually referencing �rishus cold� drinks in their Twitter advertisements. Why has this one video taken such a strong hold on, and even outside of, the fritter community?

Yaakov Langer, an active fritter poster with over 14,000 Twitter followers who runs the Living L�chaim podcast network and hosts its �Inspiration for the Nation� podcast, attempted to address the meme�s unprecedented popularity, calling Leiser �a breath of fresh air,� and explaining that he fell in love with Leiser�s unaffected authenticity: �I don�t even like seltzer, and just the way he described seltzer and the exact sefer that he was suggesting, like � I wanted to be in that environment, and he described it so well and it was so authentic; I think that�s why people loved it,� he told The Jewish Link. Langer added that Leiser also provided a charming, unfiltered one-minute and 46second lens into the yeshivish way of life: �It�s very rare to see someone so yeshivish express himself in such a great way on social media � I think he didn�t realize or understand how far that clip would go, and it was just great to see someone so authentic.�

As for why the meme won�t die, Langer said that while many social media users �are faking it too much,� Leiser�s video was �as straight up as can be.� Langer elaborated, �We live in a time where there�s so much hock, there�s so much fakeness, there�s so much stupidity out there, and to have someone like him authentically professing his love for Torah and cold seltzer, it�s something that people want to see, and they�ll want to see it in 2022, they�ll want to see it in 2023, and they�ll want to see it in 2030. Instant classic legend icon � I hope he�s enjoying a cold seltzer right now.�

By Brooke Schwartz