Don't Obey

Folks, they're getting desperate, desperate for you to obey.

Their messaging is getting less subtle and more direct.

Here's a salient example, an actual billboard advertising their soft drink Sprite in Aventura, FL [1]. The sign screams in all caps:

“OBEY TIL THE LAST DROP”

(Photo credit Mendy Green)

In barely-legible letters underneath the small Sprite logo: “Obey your thirst.”

Huh? Who are they to tell me to obey anything?

And “til the last drop” is more than a little sinister. Til the last drop of what?

Sounds like they're ordering you: “OBEY TIL THE LAST DROP OF BLOOD!”

This perverse message brings to mind — להבדיל אלף הבדלות (to separate a thousand separations between holy and profane) — the words of the saintly Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, when he forged a pact with nine chassidim in 1923 to defy marxist tyranny and do everything in their power to ensure the survival of yiddishkeit in the face of the communist onslaught, “until the last drop of blood.”

So here you have the takeaway from this shamelessly dystopian ad:

Disobey! Defy their illegitimate tyranny. Insist on your G-d-given freedoms with mesirus nefesh, “until the last drop of blood.”

May G-d Almighty purge the world of these opprobrious villains “until the very last” bit. May we imminently merit the times promised by our prophets:

“And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord of Hosts: I will cut off the names of the idols from the earth, and they shall no longer be mentioned. And also the prophets and the spirit of contamination I will remove from the earth. ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ.” Amen.

Notes:

[1] In case you want to see it for yourself, it's at 2641 NE 186th St, Miami, FL 33180

[2] Zechariah 13:2