Drowning in Pritzus

Way Immodest, by OUR standards !

We all know that Tznius and Shmiras HoEynayim are more stringent now than they were even a decade ago and that norms that were once the province of small Khasidic enclaves or בני עליה שהן מועטין have now gone mainstream.

To name a few we now have gender segregated buses both in Israel and in North America, the depiction of females of any religion, age or shape is taboo in Kharedi media, בגדי צבעונין  have all but disappeared, shaitels , where not banned outright, are to be short and synthetic, a Passover non-gebrokt item sold until a few years ago as Lady-Fingers are now marketed as Baby-Fingers or just plain Fingers, engagement announcements don't mention the kallahs name and wedding invitations don't list the mothers' names. The list goes on and on so why belabor the point.

Anyone who is not a historical revisionist understands that these are new innovations. If they are in any way part of our Mesorah then they hearken to a past more than a century old because if photographs of even Orthodox and Khasidic life in interbellum Europe and Palestine are to be believed then few if any of these standards obtained.

I'd like to submit a theory as to why hyper-Tznius has become the new baseline.
MORE PROFUNDITY AND CRISP WRITING AFTER THE JUMP

HaMavdil bein Man L'Monkey or...Rav Nachmans Tale Updated

Truth is stranger than allegory.

We have a news item out of Florida today of a man who thinks he is a monkey (Heimisha Racists will have a Field Day with this one) and a Police Officer trying to convince him that he is human because, after all, he is wearing clothes!  This true life story resonates of Rav Nachmans Tale "The Turkey Prince."

The שכוי  may have been granted the discernment to distinguish betwixt day and night but in this era of gender, age, body-image , ethnicity and allegiance confusion it is no longer a given that every human has been granted the discernment to distinguish between him/herself and a primate!
בא המבדיל והעמידן על אחת  
"Those who cannot tolerate Havdala cannot appreciate Qedusha"

Teshuvas Hamishkol

What's good for the Restaurant
is good for the Hardware Store

Kudos to the New York Post for a spot on Editorial  a recent edition that validates the Tznius Dress codes of stores in Williamsburg.

The Post needed to write and publish this editorial. Not only because none of the Left-Wing Media or Oifgiklerta J-Blogs will but because it was their own "Muckraking" journalism in July that began the ball rolling towards citations against 7 stores in Williamsburg lodged by New York Citys  Commission on Human Rights.

Also, Shkoyakh to the Law Firm of  Kirkland & Ellis for representing the "discriminatory" shop-owners pro bono thus fighting for equal treatment under the Law.

Breaking News....

...I did NOT contribute to any Chai Rotel Campaigns before or on La"g B'Omer and I am still in need of multiple yeshuos.
Not that you care about either.

No Anti-Segulah-ists in the Foxhole

A skeptics "Yeshua" Journal

Intrepid hikers through the tumbleweed here are well aware of my conflicted relationship with Segulos.  I am simultaneously attracted and repulsed by them.  It is the same dynamic that forces one to slow down and rubberneck when  observing a fiery crash on the highway but that stops one from getting out and taking a really close look.

But when I find myself in times of trouble Tefilot.org comes to me, hawking fishy snake oil,  like Chai Rotel at Rashbi.

While it's true that in my more dispassionate moments I wonder why no one ever heard of this Segulah 15 years ago, why providing food and drink at lunch to Bochurim and Kolleleit in the Mir or BMG would not earn more brownie-points in HaShems כביכול  eyes, why so many different Mosdos took ownership of Chai Rotel, what percentage of my donation goes for administrative and printing costs, how anyone can connect the dots between Chai Rotels donated and Yeshuos realized, whether a "Rotel" is a unit of liquid volume or of Austro-Hungarian currency... I still cannot dismiss it altogether. Especially recently.
MORE PROFUNDITY AND CRISP WRITING AFTER THE JUMP

Torah Monogomy

I am engaged in a bloggish joust deriving from the opinions expressed here over at Emes V'Emunah. As the thread there is old and stale I've decided to make my comment into a post here in the vain hope that  2 or 3 more people may actually read it here that there

Said Rabbi Maryles:

I can assure you that there are many YU students who love Torah study as much as any Charedi. That they also love other disciplines does not detract one iota from their bren for learning Torah
Most books that deal with sibling rivalry begin by describing the initial trauma the oldest child feels when the new baby arrives home from the hospital. The parents, cooing to the new baby, tell their firstborn: "Don't worry darling, this doesn't mean I love you any less". Typically,  the author then addresses the mother: "How do you suppose you would feel if your husband brought home another wife one evening and said to you: 'Don't worry honey, this doesn't mean I love you any less'. "I think that the נמשל is self-explanatory.

The Torah is a very jealous lover. There is no room for an "open marriage" When should a person study other disciplines?  בשעה שהוא לא יום ולא לילה if he can find such a time. The Torah does not mind if the "other women" of חכמות חיצוניות are brought in as domestic servants, financial advisers or even home health care aids but when the relationship moves from utilitarian/ professional to romantic to 
" also lov(ing the) other disciplines " as Rabbi Maryles put it, then the ardor cools and does so reciprocally. Lovers share secrets. The more the love is one way and unrequited the more the trust factor in the relationship is diminished and the fewer secrets, both בנגלה ובנסתר are revealed.

Then again I suppose that this is the difference between the attitudes of Kharedim ,and even TIDEniks, towards other disciplines and the  weltanschauung of the Torah-UMadaniks of RIETS.

Addendum: There is an old Yiddish Aphorism that goes "One can't dance at two weddings". A non YU Godol of the generation before our own cleverly added "And if you do happen to see someone dancing at two weddings you can be sure that he is not a Mekhutan at either one"

בא המבדיל והעמידן על אחת
"Those who cannot tolerate Havdala cannot appreciate Qedusha"

Was this an Accident?

Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego

I find that hard to believe. Was it built before or after the 6 Day War? If not why is the ADL and USHMM silent?

Well at least the Navy is trying to do Teshuva.

copycat Architects?