Nechomah

I love Firefox for the reasons that gabs and shira mentioned. I have NO ads at all and love it. I just upgraded yesterday to Firefox 13 and found out that it has the same thing that Syag mentioned is available in Chrome with most used pages available to click on the screen when I open a new tab.

Avi K – where on earth do you get the idea that the charedim don’t allow men to work? Who are all the rebbes, etc – chilonim? How many chareidim own businesses?

Why did he give the cell phone number? If texting seems to be too impersonal, try talking. Shailas cannot always be fully understood from words alone.

42 – According to what my husband told me, a person who doesn’t fast on Taanis Esther for whatever reason – sick, pregnant, nursing, etc, has to be mashlim the fast at a time when they are not in that matzav. Obviously if the psak is that women are weak (I think Dayan Fisher ztzvk”l gave such a psak in EY) then they will basically never mashlim the fasts that they missed, but I think the idea is that it’s not exactly like the other fasts zecher le’churban (Tzom Gedalyah, 17 Tammuz and Asara b’Teves).

There are people who buy old gold and silver. They probably pay by the weight, depending on the product. you could look into that and contact them to find out their policy. Don’t sell the first person you go to.

Oomis, they have a site online. Just Google them. Hope you find what you want. I can sympathize with not being able to cook normally in your own home. Fortunately you do have a daughter. Everything with her should go keshura besha’ah tova.

Oomis, definitely the thumb is a finger. I was just clarifying because JHF was indicating that the ring finger is the third finger, but it’s not. I don’t know if my post was confusing, so I figured I’d just clarify it.

JHF – Yes, the pointer finger is the second finger, the counting begins with the thumb.

Goq, do you recognize the number that called you? I know that if I press too hard on some of the buttons on my phone it will easily dial the last # that I had called, the first contact on my list or one of my speed dials that have a special screen. I’ll pick up the phone and see that I’m in the middle of a call. Oops! Did you ever try calling them back? I know that one of my neighbor’s kids will often press redial on their phone and I’ll get a call but no mommy is talking. I often wonder how long their phone will be off the hook.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my mind. Did anyone find it?

Shopping, I don’t want to post a link since the mods will probably not let it anyway.

Just type the following in google

Galpaz Israel

It’s the first in the list that comes up, with israel at the end of the link. The free shipping is all over their site, not hard to find at all.

I have lived in EY for many years without a teudat zehut. It has limited me only in a few things. I use my passport number for most things, including getting a bank account – which you can get at Bank HaDoar if no one else will accept you, but I would also try Bank Discount and the other banks to see what they can set up for you. I have arranged for phone service, electricity, etc, and bought an apartment all without a teudat zehut. It definitely can be done.

Now, as far as Bituach Leumi, there is a law that for a person who has been in EY for one year consecutively (no going back to US for YT), they are considered a “toshav” and they are entitled to get Bituach Leumi and, through that, Kupat Cholim. Definitely look into that. With that, you will get assigned a Bituach Leumi # that will also be your Kupat Cholim # and that number can be used for a few other situations.

My only major limitation that I’ve found is that Bank HaDoar cannot set up internet access for me to my account because I do not have a teudat Zehut. I don’t know what their problem is because other banks and organizations can do it so I don’t know why they can’t.

Hatzlacha rabba!

Oomis – that must have been uncomfortable. Did they personally invite you this way – I mean by phone or in person? I wouldn’t have had the guts to do that to people.

In EY, I think we have it the best, like I said before. No pressure to go to the whole chassanah – who has a whole night, especially when families get big and you can have numerous simchos close together (maybe even more than one on a night), so you go for what you can and at least the baal hasimcha knows that you wanted to wish him/her well.

I will say that the challenge then goes to the baal hasimcha to figure out how many meals to order. When I got married, we did not use meal cards in the invites nor did we request RSVP to indicate if they were staying for the meal, so how many meals to order??? I guess people just order some extra and have to figure out to make sure to take the extras home.

I don’t think they mean for you to come and go to BOTH the chuppah and the simchas chosson v’kallah afterwards, but rather to whichever is convenient for you. Here in EY, many people come just for chuppahs – like people who want to bring small children who know the involved parties (students or Bnos girls, etc) and then take them home before they become disruptive. Other people want to take care of their families at home and put children to bed and then bring in a babysitter and go to the chassanah to enjoy what is happening at that hour. I definitely wouldn’t come for both parts unless I was staying for the meal.

Hey Roy, sounds like you’re a really colorful guy! Like the subtitle!

I don’t know what is the problem with this article being on the INTERNET??? He says to make sure the internet is filtered, that this is the base level of concern we have to show for our children. He says nothing about the internet being chazer treif. I would imagine that most filters would allow this site to be accessed. What’s your point? A

Did you see your dentist? There are specialists who deal with this problem. I don’t know if teeth grinding has anything to do with this problem, but I know that my mother had a mouth guard at night to keep from grinding her teeth.

In any event, refuah shleimah!

ZD – Like I said above, I come across many Sephardic Jews and have found that it really depends on which country they migrated to. Those that come from Spain or South America speak primarily Spanish or possibly Portuguese. Those from France or Algiers speak French. The ones that migrated to Iran or other Arab countries speak Farsi or even Arabic. Many who have come to EY over the generations now speak primarily Ivrit. There is no one unifying language for Sephardim as there was before the Inquisition.

Taka – I get mine from Heimishe Bagels, where they have different hechsher. Also good bagels and decent price. There’s also Bush Bagel now on Bar Ilan. Not bad but more expensive. They sell cream cheese there also.

Ohhh, I forgot to mention that one of the highlights for our meal is bagels (yes, there are finally some places here that make pretty good American bagels with top hechsherim here in EY – YEAH!!!!!) with homemade cream cheese and lox.

Need to check mezuzas when there are issues. I once had three children get hurt in unusual things at one point, so we decided to check our mezuzas. Found out that one was possul.

Gefen, Wolf is only mean to one person – himself. I wish he’d stop, since, as you point out, he has very common sense things to say, even when I disagree with him. I do wish he’d not play devil’s advocate soo much, but it does make a person think an issue to the depths when he does.

As far as cards go, my boys took a deck of cards to play with at cheder one day (in EY) and they were told to take it home, that it was goyishe zachin. I’m not sure how but I think unless there’s a real issur then we can’t make everything forbidden for kids to play, especially where I live and there are so few permissible things for them to do. Really,what’s wrong with playing go fish? You and Goq were really having fun.

Babygoose and those who commented about the comparison of limud Torah for a man versus tznius for a woman. I heard a very interesting shmooze last night from Rebbetzin Nechama Karlinsky, where she says that the parallel is in dealing with the yatzer hara. She said that H’ created the yatzer hara and for a man learning Torah is his way to fight it and for a woman tznius is the mitzvah that helps her deal with the yatzer hara. Does that make any sense?

Far east – I’m sorry that you have negative feelings about learning. I understood from some classes that I took years ago that since learning Torah is a chiyuv for a man, then the yatzer hara comes very strongly to him on that particular issue, whereas if someone is doing something voluntarily, then the yatzer hara doesn’t get involved so much, so maybe that’s why you have such a hard time with learning Torah but not so hard of a time with learning regular subjects, since your yatzer hara is very strong against your learning Torah (which, as a side note, would make me think that your learning is very precious because the yatzer hara doesn’t need to come too strong for something that’s not worthwhile, whereas it will fight with all its might against something that is).

Wolf, I think your dignity when you are alone is different than when you are with others. One always has to remember shivisi H’ lenegdi somid, but if it doesn’t denigrate your own dignity to eat on plain plastic plates, then you should feel free to do it in private. You don’t have to invite the office to come into your cubicle. Would you be embarrassed if a coworker stopped by and saw your plastic plates? A woman is permitted to be less tznius in her own home than she would be out on the street but when opening the door has to make herself presentable.

I think a person who goes with his jacket off his shoulders gives off an air of being casual, so if he is with CEOs and CFOs, then he could be insulting them. I agree with what Mod42 says about daavening. I’m not sure about the hat tipped back part, but untucked shirts and jackets off the shoulders is for sure causal attire for daavening and would be better off with less formal wear but properly worn to be respectful.

Maybe the true madreiga to strive for would be as you say that things would not matter if we were in public versus in private, but taking into account human nature, such madreigos are hard to maintain and without a true necessity to force a person to hold there I personally think it is okay to relax on these strictures when one is in private. You might think differently and that’s fine.

Interjection, I want to say that I agree 100% with your posts. They are right on. You’re gonna find one special bochur who doesn’t look at your appearance first but is more interested with your pnemius. Don’t pay attention to naysayers.