memorial day weekend
Americans have public holidays practically every day - any excuse to get off from work and school and any excuse for every single store in the entire country TO CLOSE. So yesterday was memorial day which obviously stemmed from a much longer memorial day weekend, because nothing can be one day because it ruins all the fun. so the great american tradition is to have a bbq on memorial day to memorialize the fallen american troops over a good steak and a bad beer (american beer). so yesterday i joined the memorial day festivities and drove up to the hotbed of current lubavitch politics, west palm beach, for a memorial day bbq at Temmi's brother, mendy kornfeld. all i can say is, there was no minute of silence at 11 oclock or any time at all, and not once did anyone mention the falled soldiers.
so i rest my case. anzac day at the footy wiht a minute of silence (or is taht australia day??!) never mind - regardless of the day, american public holidays cannnot compare, and nor can their bbq's.
so i rest my case. anzac day at the footy wiht a minute of silence (or is taht australia day??!) never mind - regardless of the day, american public holidays cannnot compare, and nor can their bbq's.
posted by Anonymous @ 9:03 AM
16 Comments:
At 5/31/2006 2:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
Cutting Connections - No More Web Browser In My Home
May 30th, 2006 - Kressel Housman
As everyone on this blog is aware, many, if not the majority, of gedolim are speaking out against the Internet. On Sunday, May 14 - Mother’s Day in the secular world - I attended what was advertised as an “historic asifa” on this very subject. My sons’ yeshiva sent home notes about it a month in advance, exhorting the parents about the importance of attending. They followed up with a personal phone call on the day of the asifa, and just in case the community hadn’t gotten the message, a car equipped with a loudspeaker drove around broadcasting: “Save our children! Attend the historic asifa!” Under such pressure, I attended.
I must admit, I was reluctant. In fact, when my ride there was delayed, I was happy to be late. But ultimately, I made it there and was persuaded to do something I never dreamed I had the strength to do: I disabled my browser.
The two speakers at the event were Rabbi Norman Lowenthal, a social worker with expertise in young people and Internet addiction, and Ha Rav Mattisyahu Solomon, Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha. Both were extremely scary. Rabbi Lowenthal spoke about the predators on the Internet, who, with their smooth words, lure teens into the most exploitative of relationships. And even without those horrific stories, he described the easy access to porn, and obsessive behaviors like checking email and blog post responses up to twenty times a day. This last is probably the most benign of the things he described, but it fit me to a T, and that frightened me.
HaRav Solomon got me from a different tack. He quoted a man he’d met whose son had gone off the derech.
“I lost my father to Stalin, my brother to Hitler, and my son to the Internet,” said the man. “And the bitterest loss is that of my son because I know that after 120, I will see my father and brother in Olam Habo, but my son, I fear I will never see again.”
As a sigh of pain passed through the audience, Rav Solomon thundered, “Who told that man he would merit Olam Habah? He allowed the Internet into his home! If he saw it was adversely affecting his son and did not stop it, he deserves at least as harsh a punishment, if not a worse one!”
And that, in short, is why I got rid of my browser. I have many, many problems in chinuch. Part of that is a BT thing – it’s hard to pass down Torah ideals to children when you learned them in adulthood – but a big part of it is my own personal weaknesses. Either way, I’ll blame myself if my kids go off the derech, and if I remove this one major stumbling block from their reach, then that is one thing I will not have to reproach myself for later.
But it was not easy. As a matter of fact, I shed tears over it. After all, doing this meant saying goodbye to friends.
At this point, I should describe my Internet use. In the late 90’s, my husband created a kiruv website, beingjewish.com, and in 1998, I joined in with “Kressel’s Korner,” which has gradually grown to include 14 of my original articles, most of which are about Jewish women’s issues. I’ve met quite a few interesting people over the years as a result of the site, and I’ve received many more complimentary letters. Each one of them was a thrill. For an unknown writer like myself, the instant audience available on the Internet is a dream come true.
In 2005, I discovered blogging, which far surpasses the website in dearness to my heart. My personal blog has 74 “subscribing” readers, most of whom are Jewish women of varying levels of observance. We read about each other’s lives, celebrate each other’s simchas, and support each other through the tough times. Baby pictures, daily gripes, Shabbos menus, divrei Torah - we talk about it all. I think of it as my “virtual veiber shul.” I love my Internet friends. And now I was being asked to give them up.
After the asifa, I called my Rav to help me finalize my decision. Even with Rav Solomon’s words ringing in my ears, the matter was not so clear-cut. I use the Internet to do mitzvos, so it seemed like a case of “calculating the cost of a mitzvah against its reward, and the reward of a sin against its cost.”
My Rov is an absolute tzaddik. He gave me at least an hour of his time, probably more. It was in the course of that conversation that the tears began to flow. All the while, he gave me brachos that I should be rewarded for making this great personal sacrifice. He said it was mutar (permitted) for me to keep my email, use the Web in the public library, and compose one final post from my house that night so I could explain my choice to my friends.
It is over two weeks since then, and my Internet friends were almost unilaterally supportive. Three offered to come over for a Shabbos to cheer me up and many others wrote me letters about how much they feel they’ve gained from my writing. Perhaps best of all were the new and almost-there BTs who seemed to say that I’d just given them the best lesson they’d had about living a Torah life: sometimes you have to give up something you like for the sake of kedushah.
At 6/01/2006 3:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
dear mussar writetr,
how dare you post smoething of such a caliber on my blogspot? tell me, what is wrong with being mekarev people on the web?? what is wrong eith gaining yiddishkiet thrught the web?
when lubavitchers starting put jewish things on the net all the other 'gedoilim' were complainig. how could you do such a thing??
tha answer is that " nishave hakodesh boruch hu lihyos loi diro betachtionim". the whole point of the is worlds and all the other spiritula worlds is so that there should be a dwelling place down here, in this world. not to sit in your little corner in ripponlea (rabbi d. - shaul)and learn all day. NO. the point is to g out into the world and refine it. make it a better place. make it a place where hashem can dwell.
so the net shoulf be used!! and should be accepted!!! how about going into the wrold and start doing what hashem wnats, not what you wnat and you think is right.
all i can say is taht i don't know what type of kiruv sight you could've had because if you take it down because of some person telling you to, it couldn't be that you were really into it or were doing it for the right reasons. don't be nispoal by these people, donhj't listen to them. do what is right.
WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR WAYS OF MUSSAR'DIKE AND NEGATIVE WAYS OF LIFE, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME TO LOOK AT THIS BLOG OR POST ON IT!!.
p.s. if your so anti internet, how come you have an article on the internet??? oooooooooooooooh? shtech!!!!!
At 6/04/2006 2:31 PM,
Anonymous said…
this is a very big topic in the newspaper(ie hamodia)these days,and I'm not sure whats right ir wrong.I personally think if you are careful with your kids,and what thery do it is ok,but maybe I am very naive!
At 6/04/2006 2:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
We had a very interesting,exciting,passionate discussion at lunch yesterday.There is a yungerman,who wears a capote,and a wedding band.Eli said although we accept him in our community,he is not a true lubavitcher if he wears a ring,but Moish said he was.Wghat are all your opinions?!
At 6/04/2006 4:06 PM,
Anonymous said…
the question is waht make syou a lubavithcer??????
At 6/04/2006 9:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
there is a story told, that the rebbe rashab and the poltover rav were sitting tohether and discussing waht is a chossid. the pooltover rav siad that a chassid is one who is mekushar to the rebbe. the rebbe rashab answered that that is a shvacher chossid. a chossid is one who is mekushar to the peulos of the rebbe. that is a chossid
At 6/05/2006 7:29 AM,
SHEVAWOLF said…
i like that anonymous. because pple judge lubavitch by lubavitchers and its pretty embarassing. you end up wishing they knew what was chabad and why we do what we do and how much beuaty there is to it, and then meet the pple that are in it. its almost like our doctrine falls short, because what kind of a teaching allows for so many dropouts and exceptions - does that not prove that somehting is wrong?
At 6/05/2006 2:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
yep, it's for sure the latter one
At 6/05/2006 5:01 PM,
Anonymous said…
the shabbos table discussion/uh..very opinionated and heated but we'll call it discussion. Here's the deal...everyone wrote good points...the discussion was questioning the right of a Lubavitcher to declare - "label" someone elses status. We have absolutely no right/s to decide who is and who isn't a Lubab. Maybe what he is doing isnt in Lubab tradition or gefill but nobody excluding g-d and the rebbe can point to someone and say you are or aren't Lubavitch. How about the story with the man who came to the Rebbe in his suit jacket saying "I dont want to fool the rebbe and come in a Kapote-b/c this is who I really am" What did the Rebbe tell Him??? so yes it is confusing and there are those out there for whom we may say are "emabarrasing" "taking advantage"....or what to say to your children when they say but other Lubavitchers are doing it? There have always been/and unfortunately/fortuanately as Lubavitch grows there will be more challenges in this area. We just have to know our place and continue to build and grow....and think about the future - children etc...how can we help them with all the seemingly contradictary souls-not that we all cant find within us a part of it too - uhh...dont get insulted! Miss you here in chilly melbourne...see y'all New Yorkets/Westchesters soon!
At 6/13/2006 9:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
Who ws this mysterios "yungerman"
At 6/13/2006 9:50 PM,
Anonymous said…
don't eorry about if joe blow is a lubavitchcer, worry about if Yourself, are you a CHOSID???//
At 6/15/2006 9:15 AM,
Anonymous said…
well if joe blow is a chosid then i know im for sure a chosid!
At 6/17/2006 8:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
what is the smallest handcuff?
a wedding ring.
now if the man wants to wear a wedding ring....
At 7/03/2006 10:15 AM,
Anonymous said…
Great site loved it alot, will come back and visit again.
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At 7/18/2006 8:46 PM,
Anonymous said…
Great site lots of usefull infomation here.
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At 7/21/2006 3:59 AM,
Anonymous said…
Nice! Where you get this guestbook? I want the same script.. Awesome content. thankyou.
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