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10:13 am: Stay Ahead of the Curve

 Part of the orthodox lifestyle is this great game, called "Frummer Than Everyone Else in Shul." 

This is a fun and enjoyable activity. You and your family choose something extra to take on in frumkeit to outdo your neighbors. Then they follow your example and also take on another chumra. The ball's back in your court! The one who dies with the most restrictions, wins! 

I know that some of you readers are a bit stumped as to what to do next. Should I fast an extra hour? Should I pretend moshiach already came and not fast at all? Should I have another child even though I can't afford tuna fish for supper for my kids? Should I insist on only a certain brand of meat that has been supervised by lubavitcher shochtim? Should I buy 212 cholov yisroel instead of plain CY? Should I make my three year old wear tights in the summer heat? How about when she is two? Maybe we should insist on tznius clothes for all the Barbie dolls? Should I get undressed under my bedcovers so the walls of my room don't see my immodesty?

I know, I know what you are thinking. All of this has been done before. What new, creative chumra can I think of that is approved by rabbonim and will earn me jealous looks for my future olam habah? 

Well, lucky reader, I am here to help you stay ahead of the curve! Thank God, shawls are not just for rabbanit Keren anymore. The use of shawls for ladies has been approved by chassidishe rabbonim and in fact, these gedolim are encouraging women to wear coats on top of their tznius outfits when going out in the street so as to embrace them in modesty! Read for yourself below or see the original. 

 

 

Regarding Ultimate Coats, Rabbi Shraga Feivish Hager, Kosover Rebbe in Boro Park, writes that he has been troubled for years that when Jewish daughters go to smachos they are dressed in their finest Shabbos and Yom Tov outfits. Of course, they are going to a mitzvah in making their friend happy, especially kallos at their weddings. Nevertheless they are going through the streets or on the Boro Park/ Williamsburg bus, etc., where there are married men and bochurim. He has long been searching for a solution. Thank Heaven, the Kosover Rebbe writes, that righteous women have come up with an answer. A nice thin overcoat that will guard them well. Though it may be hot in warm weather, it is a good thing, he says. Rabbi Getzel Elyakim Berkowitz, Kiryas Yoel Dayan, in a letter written last year, also praises the new garment for street wear, especially when going to smachos.  

Maybe, chas ve shalom, you think that this rule only applies to followers of these groups. Well, that is why I am writing this for your reading pleasure.  Mark my word- very soon, every frum woman will have a special coat to wear in the summer over her regular clothing, so the shape of her body will not be seen. Overcoats are going to be the next hottest thing in tznius! No pun intended.  Buy one now before your neighbor gets one! And if you are a man, remember: you are king of your castle! You set the standards in your home! You must insist that your wife wear a coat when in the street, regardless of the temperature. Be the first one on your block! Order now! Get your reward later! In Olam Habah!

Tags: rabbis, tznius, women

08:19 pm: Not for the faint-hearted...
 
Do you ever wonder why most people who go off the derech are men or teenagers? Do you ever wonder why more married women with children are not included in those sad statistics? 

Well, now you know.  Many of them are afraid to end up like Gitty.

And what does the frum velt think of this article? They feel sorry for the little girl because she will be so confused.  They insist that her mother is an unstable liar who badmouths her community probably just because she wants attention.  What did you think they would say?  From here.

Tags: crazy, rabbis, women

09:23 pm: Am Hanivchar, again
 
There is a popular argument for the veracity of Judaism and it goes something like this. 

The Jews have survived for so long in galus. A small nation, a tiny fraction of the world's population, statistically speaking, the Jews should have long ago been assimilated or destroyed. And yet, through all the Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms and Holocausts, they still survive and even flourish! All the while, the nations who have persecuted them vanish into the pages of history books. Where is the great Roman Empire? Where are the mighty Greek rulers? All gone, while the Jews survive. Here is another version of the same.

 I am sure you have heard this argument in many forms over many years. It is quite appealing emotionally. The Jews are a small nation who defy all odds and survive. This somehow proves that they are indeed the Chosen Nation and that the Torah is true. Presumably because it is impossible for the Jews to have survived under these conditions if God did not will it to be so and the only reason God could will the survival of the Jews is because they are to be a beacon of light for everyone else.  Some people like to tack on something about how this also means that Orthodoxy is the way to go because the Conservatives and Reform movements will become completely assimilated over the next few decades. 

 So this past Shabbos, I was at a table where someone mentioned the Karaite moshavim in Israel. I looked it up a bit and found that the Karaite sect, the small minority who took the Torah literally and discounted the entire Talmud, managed to survive throughout the diaspora just fine and are now doing well in Israel. They apparently have 11 shuls and 30, 000 members, if this article is accurate.  

So now let us apply the logic of the previous argument to the Karaim. They are even a smaller fraction of the Jews. They were rejected by Orthodox Judaism itself.  They were persecuted right along with the other Jews. And hey,  despite all the negative press and extreme adversity, they survived! This must mean that the Karaite way is the Chosen Derech. Right?

Tags: chosen nation, gemara, gentiles, hashkafa, rabbis

01:18 pm: Mysticism in Halacha
 
Chapter 33 of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch is entitled: Things Forbidden Because They Are Hazardous. 

Body sweat is poisonous, according to the kitzur. It is also dangerous to smell food and then swallow the saliva in your mouth; instead you must spit it out. It is forbidden to place food or drink underneath a bed because of evil spirits. And so on. It also emphasizes that the sins involved in dangerous things are more strict than regular aveiros. There are so many halachos like this. There's another one about how if you delay peeing, you will become sterile and anytime you don't go right away, you are violating a grave prohibition.

Now, I know that there are frum Jews who are not adherents of mysticism and do not believe in evil spirits and don't worry if a drink is left under a bed. Some of these people consider themselves modern orthodox and others are yeshivish or whatever. My main question to them is as follows: 

How do you differentiate between the different simanim of the shulchan aruch? How do you say, well there aren't any evil spirits anymore under our beds, but there still are evil spirits on our hands so we must wash negel vasser in the morning? Moreover, how do you know that although some things in the kitzur no longer apply, others still do? So clearly in 2008,  the gentiles no longer milk piggies and mix in their milk with regular cow milk. And yet people argue about cholov yisroel and many maintain that it is a strict halacha and Rav Moshe gave a heter for those people who have a difficult time acquiring cholov yisroel and we cannot rely on this heter in New York and other places where CY is readily available.  I just don't understand why you can't say that this whole issur doesn't apply anymore, just like the whole issur of swallowing saliva doesn't apply. 

How do you decide whether something still applies?  Presumably, if the rabbis could be wrong about the dangerous of body sweat or saliva or delayed urination, they could also be wrong about Cholov Stam. Or you could even argue that they were not wrong, but nishtanu hateva, times have changed and neither issue is applicable anymore. Same with women's roles in the community and other hot button topics. How do you differentiate?  Do you say that all these medical issurim are just advice? It doesn't really look like it from the language of the shulchan aruch, it is pretty clear that these things, swallowing saliva, delaying peeing, placing food under a bed, these are all forbidden, not just not recommended.  

 Also, is there anyone here who actually is makpid upon spitting out saliva after smelling food?  Are there people who don't take long road trips because they will inevitably have to wait for a restroom break? I don't know any of these people. I haven't even read any debates on this topic. Why not? How do people, rabbis, whomever choose which halachos of the shulchan aruch to ignore completely and which ones to fight about tooth and nail?

Tags: hashkafa, rabbis, science

02:00 am: How to Help People Go Off the Derech, Part One

In this series, we will explore how to encourage your friends and loved ones (and complete strangers) to become more secular.

Did you know? 

There are some rabbis who help people go off the derech. If you are an important rabbinical figure in your town, you too can help people become less observant. Read and see how it is done. 

On a woman's forum, a woman writes that she has two children, the oldest of whom is two and the youngest is not yet a year old. Her birth control heter is up and they go see the rav about extending the heter.  She wants to have more children, maybe even five or six,  but doesn't feel ready just yet for another pregnancy. She doesn't want to change diapers all day and wants some space between her kids. 

 The rav says that this all is not a good enough excuse. The ideal is to be pushing a stroller while being pregnant, he says. If she actually cannot cope with another pregnancy, then okay, he can extend the heter. But if she can cope at all, in any way and is not yet bedridden, she needs to have more children and should not take birth control. The rav tells her that if someone asks their boss at work for a week off and then wants another week off and tells the boss that he's just not ready yet to return to work, the boss would not accept that as a valid excuse, now would he? The husband agrees with the rav. 

The woman is to the point where she is wondering whether this type of life is for her at all. 

Score one for the Rav. Hooray!  The woman will either leave her lifestyle, or more likely, she will have more children and will resent them and this system. She will be a harried, crazy mother who will not be able to impart any joy in Judaism to her ever-growing brood. If nothing else, at least one of her children will remember religion with misery and will want nothing to do with it.   Way to go, rabbi! 

Learn from the best and remember: you too can emulate these rabbonim. 

So, this week, try to find at least 3-4 women who have very small children and are not visibly pregnant. After introducing yourself and asking about their welfare, explain to them how assur birth control really is. If they don't want to listen, be sure to tell them that Moshiach will only come when all the neshamos are here on earth and by taking pills to prevent the bliss of another child, they are surely delaying the arrival of  long-awaited redemption. If they still don't want to hear it, let them know that pills are dangerous and have not been approved by the Association of Homeopathic Rabbis. If all else fails, explain that our grandmothers were happy to have as many children as Hashem gave them and it is only this goyishe culture that is creeping in and poisoning their minds. That should work.




 

Tags: birth control, imamother, rabbis, women

09:07 am: Judeo-Christian Values

Fred Taub, the author of this article, lives in our town and emails everyone a weekly newsletter  with links to his work. 

His basic argument here is that Islam is similar to Nazism because both groups have "a mental disorder," an inferiority complex that arises from their dislike of individuals who do not belong to their group. 

Yeah. Here's what he writes:

...This brings us to traditional Islam, meaning without Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. Throughout the Koran, there is not only degradation of non-Muslims, who are subject to the dhimmi laws prescribing persecution and special taxes, but there is also internal persecution of Muslim women to the point where they are treated as nothing more than property. In fact, Muslims will generally treat animals better than women, as Islam forbids the beating of animals. You may recall seeing a video of a Muslim cleric on Al-Jazeera television who not only advocated the beating of one’s wife, but also specified how and when it should be done according to the Koran.

Societies such as the KKK, Nazis and Islam, which have the degradation of others at the root of their dogma, are inherently incapable of achieving peace, because the hate which permeates the psyche of the followers debases the trust and cooperation needed to sustain peace with others. These hate values are also diametrically opposed to the Judea-Christian values which prescribe respect for all others, despite distortion of the Bible by groups such as the KKK.

Tags: gentiles, islam, israel, parshah

06:51 pm: Time for a Commercial Break From Our Scheduled Program
I use this blog to vent about religion. But the time has come to show some integrity at long last. 


I had a mid-life career crisis this past year. As a result, I am now booking a truck to move my husband, myself and our four children three hours away. So I can go to a tier one law school with a full scholarship, thanks to God's infinite kindness and my LSATs.

Our house is not sold nor is it rented. We will be paying two mortgages until we find some renters. Our children will be changing schools and my husband had to find another job. We will be going without my salary for three years and the budget will be tight.  We don't know anyone there. My life is in boxes and sealed in bubble wrap.
 
What else?
My two youngest will be attending a Montessori preschool with a completely secular program because there are no full day Jewish preschools where we are going. My two oldest will be attending a very modern orthodox school, more modern than most MO places. My husband is not enamored with the shuls there as there is very little chabad presence off campus. Oh yeah. He had to take a 13K salary cut for his new job, which works out to be a 39K cut over 3 years.

And with all that, he is the one encouraging me to do this. I constantly insist on taking the safe route and staying here and dealing with the school issues and community craziness. I also have offers from law schools here, but they are of a lower caliber. He tells me, almost every night,  that this is my chance, my opportunity and I shouldn't turn it down and that despite all the challenges, I can and will succeed.  

I don't deserve him. That's the simple truth. He is a better person than I am. If the situation was reversed and there was some wonderful career opportunity in Meah Shearim,  God knows I would not be selflessly pushing him onto the airplane. 

So despite all the crap that comes along with flawed people who live in the same home and whose hashkafos diverge wildly, I need to say that it is possible to make it work.  Happy 12th Anniversary.




 
 
 

10:07 am: A Story
Here's the story, in all its glory.

A woman nebech was niftar and left a house filled w yesoimim. The father as a zechus to the mothers neshume decided that the kids in the house - the yesoimim - should never say a beracha w out someone answering amen. One day, a daughter was home alone, poured herself a drink and then realized that nobody is home to answer amen. She poured back the drink and waited 2 hrs for a family member to come home. She then said a bracha and drank.
That night the mother came to her in a dream and told her daughter that her restraint of not drinking w out an amen being answered caused a ra'ash in shamayim. And that a girl in her class who has been diagnosed w a terminal illness will now be cured.
The girl awoke and shared her dream w her father. The father then goes to the diagnosed girls father and asks if his daughter is ill. The father shockingly asks how do you know this? Nobody knows. He tells the father the dream. the father says that his daughter is to begin chemo today. The father of the ill child runs to his rebbe who says do not start chemo - go for test again and they go and all is bh fine.
This story has been verified by rav yaakov meir schechter. Amazing.

From here, not surprisingly. 

So, as far as I know, there is no mitzvah to delay eating until you can make a bracha when someone else can say amen. No mitzvah like that whatsoever.  Therefore, I have just a few questions about this story. Please feel free to answer which ever question strikes your fancy as we have such an abundance to choose from.

Why would this be a zechus for the mother's soul, if it is never a mitzvah in the first place? Also, why end there? I mean, surely having ten men say amen to your bracha is better than one family member, who could even be female. So what if this girl would resolve never to eat any food unless a minyan was in her home to say amen? Would that cure all cancer in the world? What if she only ate foods that are mezonos or hamotzi and skipped the lower-level blessings all together? Would that help everyone in her class find their shidduchim as soon as possible? What if she went to the mikvah and dunked herself three times before eating anything ever? Would that help all barren women conceive? 

Moreover, who is this girl's deity? Why is He so arrogant that He demands to be acknowledged in this way and so craves people agreeing that He is indeed Lord of the Universe by saying amen? What's with the self-esteem problem? Why would He cure random people of cancer because someone else waited two hours before eating? Why doesn't He cure everyone who has AIDS and malaria because I had cholov yisroel milk with my coffee this morning? What if the poor girl eats something one day by accident and no one is there to say amen? Who will get a horrible disease? 

What if you had a parent, sadly, who was completely irrational and whimsical? One day the parent would beat  you senseless for not saying good morning in the proper tone of voice and the next day he would give you five hundred dollars for turning on his favorite television program? Wouldn't you put that parent in a nice nursing home, in a distant galaxy far, far away and let the caretakers on planet Krypton deal with him? Why are we still trying to please God, if He is so illogical and random?   

What does this story mean to you? Would you want your children exposed to a version of Judaism that thrived on miracle tales like these? 



Tags: bad things to good people, hashkafa, stupidity, theology

03:08 pm: A Heartfelt Plea
Dear People From New York And Israel Who Are Calling About Buying My Home, 

God knows I want to sell this house. God knows the market is so bad. And so I really and truly do appreciate each and every one of your phone-calls as it gives me a ray of hope in my bleak day. Having dispensed thus with the pleasantries, listen up now, all you gals and guys:

Stop. Asking. 
Stop asking me about my damn neighbors. As I have explained, my immediate neighbors to either side of me are not members of the Chosen nation. That is okay. They probably cry every night about it.  One neighbor is of a different skin color than you are, guessing by the derogatory language you used during our conversation. Even that is okay. This is a middle-class professional neighborhood. People are professors, students, teachers, bankers. Those who make the most noise are the frummies during Succos as they stay up and party and farbreng till the wee hours of the drunken morning. Your children will be able to handle it, I am guessing. Even if, as you say, they have never seen a goy before and would not know what to do upon meeting one.

A Special Note to the Woman Who Called Today: 
You were the inspiration for this post and so I thank you. But no, sadly, I do not know the exact percentage of shvartzes and other goyim on my block compared to other blocks on my street and  in my neighborhood. My statistical research interests lie elsewhere and I do not plan on conducting this type of demographic survey anytime soon. Really, you are barking up the wrong tree. 

If this little request turns out to be insufficient, I may have to take further measures. This means that my showing of the house to you may possibly coincide with the Multi-Cultural Community-Wide Greek Orgy Festival that we our hosting this year. Or perhaps we will have to schedule our Annual Wicca Initiation Ceremony during the open house.  

Here, listen to some nice music instead.

Tags: gentiles, racism

08:59 pm: Women in Judaism, Again, Sorry.

A woman sees a stain on her bedika cloth. She knows from past experience that this color is fine. She does not need to ask a rav. She simply continues her count. She needs to ask no shailah, despite the fact that she is essentially paskening for herself and she is nogeah badavar, a biased party.

This scenario is common and this course of action is accepted in all frum circles, even the most chareidi among us. 

So here is my question. If women can be trusted to pasken for themselves based on prior experience and knowledge, why can't they pasken for others or even for themselves in other areas? Many piskei halacha are just that, deciding something by comparing it to prior experiences and knowledge. Is this chicken kosher? Is this type of birth control permissible? Is this action allowed on shabbos? Rabbis don't have any special magical powers. They just look in a book and recall their experiences, like everyone else.

I know that there is an institute in which women are training in hilchos niddah in Israel.  From what I understand, it is considered very modern and many groups do not allow women to get their answers through them. Also, as far as I know, there is no such group in America. 

In any case, my question still stands. If women are too stupid to pasken for others, they certainly should not pasken for themselves and every stain needs to be brought to the rav, regardless of how he paskened last time on the very same question. If they are intelligent enough to pasken for themselves, why can't they do so for others?  If the problem is that women should not take a public role, that is also difficult to defend in this day and age. Some of those women who are prohibited from taking public roles as rabbis, end up as public speakers, doctors, lawyers, ceos, shluchim, principals, school directors and so on.

Tags: hashkafa, rabbis, tznius, women

01:11 am: Movie Review

Okay, so the critics did not much like Arranged, but I did.

It is a cute movie with a positive, interesting message. The lives of  women in any orthodox religion are probably more alike than different. The plotline is a bit unrealistic in some aspects, but the acting was good and I liked the twist with how Rochel finally met her husband. Also, if you subscribe to Netflix, you can watch the movie instantly.

Tags: movie review, shidduchim

07:31 am: Creation
 The basic concept of the first rashi in Bereishis has been explained many times before. The world was created for the Jews. Everything exists for the sake of the Torah. The purpose of the world is to combine the physical and spiritual world through doing of the mitzvos. Eveything else is props, supporting actors .

From that perspective, what is the purpose of  these people, these tribes who have rarely, if ever,  made contact with civilization? People who have no concept that Noach or Sheva mitzvos even exist. People who wouldn't know what  a Jew was if they ate one for dinner. And our Westernized culture, nevermind religions, are as foreign to them as theirs are to us. 

In that model, what are we supposed to think about these tribes and geographical locations? How are these places and people ever supposed to be supporting of what the purpose of creation is, according to Judaism? Are they idolaters if they have never met anyone who does not share their beliefs? Are we supposed to go and teach them about monotheism? Are we supposed to travel to those places and make brachos over the water in the river, ala the Baal Shem Tov? 

Okay, forget the natives. There are hundreds of thousands of species of exotic animals and plants that are never going to come into any contact with Jews. They are not going to grace anyone's shabbos table and they are not going to be used in a slideshow depicting Hashem's marvelous creations. They are not going to be made into medicines and they are not going to come into contact with humans during the course of their lifecycle. They are not, ever, in any way, going to assist in enhancing of the physical world through spirituality or mitzvos or anything remotely like that. So why were they created? Are these just accidental by-products? 
 
If I am asked to believe that all of creation has a single, unique purpose, I should expect to find that each and every detail correlates with that vision, mission, whatever, right? I mean, you wouldn't expect to walk into a company which builds computer parts and find employees designing fishsticks during office hours, right?  
 
Unless you view that whole rashi and approach to Judaism as a type of propaganda designed to enhance the likelihood that a person will follow a particular set of rules. Then it makes sense. Of course I am going to keep Torah and Mitzvos- the entire world was created for this very purpose! How could I not!

Tags: creation, philosophy

07:07 am: What's in Your Shopping Cart?
 So I need to buy some summer tops. Do you like this or this one? I personally think this one would be lovely to wear to shul.

Tags: ha-ha

02:08 pm: Select Quotes for Your Reading Pleasure

From Imamoron:

There was a girl that was niftar in bklyn. She came to her friend in her dream and told her that she is in gan eden but not her legs bec. they were never covered the right way. I don't know if this is a true story or not but there is a lesson learnt. I always make sure that I cannot see the little stuff on my legs through my panty hose. 

                                                       *********

A tzaddik saw what was happening up in hell, and once he heard a woman screaming. Then he saw that malachim were taking certain clothes out of a big vat of boiling water, and putting it onto a woman who hadn't dressed with tznius when she was alive. Whichever part of her body wasn't covered properly while she was alive was now covered in boiling hot clothes. 
 



Tags: imamother, tznius

05:57 pm: Dinner and a Movie?

This lovely article in Mishpacha magazine extols the virtues of the chassidishe dating system. At the mature age of 18, Zissy meets her intened for forty-five minutes and  they chat  awkwardly about his learning schedule. Her parents schedule a vort  to follow their next meeting and Zissy gets engaged to a complete stranger.  They meet again at the tenoyim and then again at the wedding. 

Of course, it is a wonderful marriage. They are blessed with 7 children and they live happily ever after. The system, the article explains, works wonderfully. No shidduch crisis. No burned out shadchonim. No suffering the inevitable humiliation that comes with still remaining single at the age of 23. Almost no divorces. Mammeh and Tatteh know best and if they pick out a boy for you, he is most likely your basherte. You just have to get to know him, but that can wait until after the chuppah.

Some questions, then. 

1. If going out only once before getting hitched is not more likely to lead to false impressions and inflated expectations, these posts that I constantly read on womens' blogs, the ones about abusive husbands, addicted husbands,  husbands with anger management issues, sexually incompatible husbands - those are statistical anomalies, right?  Those people who write about how they were misled by the shidduch system are all lying, probably. Or just not chassidish enough. Maybe they are yeshivish or modern orthodox, lo aleinu.

2. The low divorce rate in these communities couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that  many women are discouraged from getting a higher education, well-paying jobs and even driving a car, in some communities, right?  It couldn't have anything to do with the difficulties of obtaining a get or figuring out how to provide for 7 children, those are just coincidences, right? 

3. When chassidishe mother-in-laws ask for the prospective kallah's dress size or  for a picture or other physical attributes, we can assume that this is part of the thorough spiritual screening for a chassidishe maidel, right? These kinds of questions have nothing to do with the rising rates of anorexia in orthodox females, correct? The meat market in the secular world has nothing, nothing in common with the meat market in the chassidishe world, right? 
 
Ok, now seriously. Do you think chassidishe marriages are more successful or do they just hide their problems better? My own position on this is quite clear, I think. I remember all the guys I was set up with and I shudder to imagine what would have happened if I had married some of them after the first date. As it was, I got married at 21 and sometimes wonder how more mature I would have been if I was encouraged to wait a few more years. Maybe some problems could have been avoided.

On a related note, I recently read about a Beis Yaakov school which set up a tehillim roster for its recent graduates. All of the girls in 11th grade make sure to complete the entire tehillim daily so that the recent graduates will be zoche to find their basherte soon, in our days, amen, selah. Reading that reminded me of why I am never going to encourage my daughter to go through this system. Can you imagine someone praying for you to get married at 18 so you shouldn't have to wait until you are off the shelf at 23? Ugh. 
 

Tags: hashkafa, shidduchim

07:21 am:  From a recent mailing to my home:

Chaim and Yehudis.  Chaim and Yehudis felt the pinch as the price of leben, milk, eggs, butter and bread kept rising. Reb Chaim, the author of two seforim, is trying hard to avoid cutting out any of those foods from his children's meager breakfast, and so, he skips breakfast.

This trend was uncovered by the Rosh Kollel in Yerushalayim, Rabbi Yosef Aryeh Deutsch. One day, during the midmorning session, he politely asked his scholars in residence if they had eaten breakfast. He was shocked to learn that 85 percent hadn't eaten at all. Why? They didn't want to take away food from their children. 

The Rosh Kollel immediately took action. He realized that full time Torah learning was never meant to be a way of life for thousands of people. He realized that many women (and men) entered the kollel lifestyle under false impressions and that when they figure out that they actually didn't want to starve, it is usually too late to do anything about a solid education and job. He immediately  cancelled his kollel and had all of his students enroll in a vocational program which would enable the young men to support their families in a respectable manner. The program also had a nightly shiur and the young men were expected to attend 1-2x weekly. Many of his students learned computers or other skills and began providing breakfast for their own families, as well as lunch and supper. This program has been so successful that we wanted to replicate it with your help! Please send your checks to...

Okay, just kidding. A little humor for your day. No, the Rosh Kollel did not dismantle his yeshiva and send everyone to get vocational training. Instead he started a breakfast program which gives the young men breakfast, thereby energizing them and maximizing their abilities for productive Torah study. And the letter went to say that they respectfully request I increase my level of support for their kollel and breakfast program.  

I just thought I would give an example of a letter from a yeshiva which would not go immediately into the trash.  

Tags: hashkafa, kollel

06:43 pm: On Jeans
So after work today, I went to Walmart to buy a water filter and dishwashing liquid. 

On the spur of the moment, I decided to try on a pair of jeans. 
Wow. 

Boy, do I look cute in jeans. Way cuter than any skirt I have worn. 

This is how people go off the derech. Rabbis should forget about banning televisions and cell phones and separate seating concerts. They should just ban going shopping at places that sell cute jeans. 

So, really now. What will happen if I wear jeans? Will my kids be messed up forever and ever? Will they need years of psychiatry to sort out their complex feelings? Should I expect my daughter to drop her well-worn Lord of the Rings and pick up a copy of How to Be Brittney Spears in Five Easy Lessons?

Are there any females here who wear pants? What do your husbands think about that? Do you have children? Anyone here ever gone from wearing skirts to wearing pants and how did the tarring and feathering thing work out for you?

Tags: tznius

09:47 pm: My Simple Plan to Save the World
 
This blog has a faithful reader who is worried about me. Specifically, the reader is worried about the copious amounts of loshon horah I spew forth on a weekly basis. The reader occasionally sends me books or pamphlets on loshon horah. I have found these to be most enlightening.  A recent set of divrei torah, for example, pointed out that when Jews speak Loshon Horah, this gives power to the Soton. The Soton then channels this energy into... drum- role, yes, you guessed it, Science!  

From here:

Where did all this come from? As Rabbi Kessin has pointed out, if the Jews sin, then the Soton receives the flow of Divine energy, twists it into a physical caricature of its spiritual form, and gives it to the nations. In this case, the light of Moshiach, a divine wisdom which gives insight into the spiritual worlds, was converted into a body of knowledge that shows the mechanics of the physical world. And what is that? Science....

Since all the advances in science came ultimately from the Soton, who had taken the ohr Moshiach that had been meant for us, had twisted it into a force for understanding the physical world, and had given it to the nations, we must take another attitude every time that we visit one of those big-box electronics stores to buy yet another appliance. As we gaze in wonder at the latest super-small, yet super-speedy computers (far faster than last year’s model) and marvel at the latest that technology has wrought, a sad thought must cross our minds: “All this is but a perverted shadow of what was really meant – for us!” 

Says Rabbi Kessin: Look at the damage done by loshon hora. Not only does a Jew’s speaking or believing loshon hora enable the Soton to prosecute him and then punish him, but this sin also gives the Soton the ability to take the kedushah which was meant for us, pervert it, and give it to the nations, who then can use it against us. Furthermore, when the Soton is able to take from the ohr Moshiach, the advent of Moshiach is delayed, and he is able to continue his destruction in ways never imagined before...

So my simple plan to save the world is that we should all take great care to speak lots of loshon horah every day. That way, science will advance rapidly, much quicker than now. Cures for horrible diseases will be found, technology will find new ways to grow plentiful crops for starving people in third world nations, natural disasters will be predicted and averted, the environment will be cleaner, foreign policies will change and people will be much happier. Gas prices will go down. The housing market will finally bounce back. All because of the loshon hora that you and I speak, imagine that! 

So let's divide up the day. I will be happy to take the 9am-12pm slot and talk loshon horah for at least those three hours every day. Anyone else? Come on, I know it's hard, but it is for the greater good.

Tags: hashkafa, science

08:07 am:  Is anyone bothered by this? Maybe it's just me.

“When I think about why Israelis visit Pushkar, I can’t find any logical reason except for the fact that it’s a G-dly birur of a place that needs it so badly. The most amazing thing is that right in the center of impurity, hundreds of Israelis return to their Father in heaven, and connect with the ‘tree of life,’ the Rebbe. 

From here, as always. Since when do we refer to the rebbe as the tree of life? Is that just since his passing?


Tags: chabad, imamother, rebbe

03:49 pm: Yom Hashoah

So my kids didn't know what Yom Hashoah was. 

They did not talk at all about Holocaust Rememberance day in their school. I let it go for a bit, thinking that maybe they had programs for older children or that my kids just forgot. But today I called the school and found out that it was official policy because "all types of rememberances of that sort are to be included in Tisha B'Av", according to the vice principal that I spoke to.  

So I hope that they also conglomerate all those fasts that have to do with sad things  (17th of Tammuz, 10 Teves, Tzom Gedaliah) into the Tishabav fast. 

In fact, come to think of it, we should just abolish all sad things throughout the year. We can have all the funerals and eulogies and shloshim for the year all on Tishabav. That will make the day more exciting anyway. 

Seriously, what is this all about? What is wrong with these people?

Tags: chinuch, crazy