SJSinNYC

I purchase them online for most places I go to.

The exception is for small local flights – I really want to go to China next summer and if so, all the internal flights I would go to a chinese travel agent. These flights are hard to book online unless you read Chinese.

smalltowngirl – generally, touching someone of the opposite gender thats not “bderech chibah” is allowed. That doesnt mean you should go around touching men!! It just means that if you are on the bus and you bump into a man, its not a problem.

When I started working I had a long talk with my rabbi about how to deal with men at the office. I work in a company thats 85% male and there are plenty of times that I am the only woman around. I was told that it was 100% fine to shake mens hands (even extending mine first) beceause it was all for the sake of business – no chibah involved.

It really irks me to no end when people dont understand that there are varying halachic opinions on many sources.

So yes, you hold that slits are not ok, but I hold they are (per my halachic source). No one should be decrying “How terrible is tznius these days that someone holds by a different psak” which is basically what many of you are saying.

Eyesopen – I hate to break this to you, but we all wear the clothing of the goyim. Yes, many of the styles sold in Jewish stores have been Jewified (AKA sleeves longer, collar higher, skirt longer) but they are ALL the styles of non Jews. Men wear the suit styles of non Jews. Chasidim wear the fashions of 18th century Polish royalt (AKA non Jews).

If you really think this is terrible, please return to the proper attire that we wore in the desert – that includes sandals.

Queen, no one minds if you feel that you are upholding your feeling of tznius if YOU dont drive. Its a problem when people say things like “its assur for women to drive” and that is where asking for sources come in.

Honestly, I think you have it backwards. Riding on a bus has the potential to be a lot less tzanua than driving a car. After all, on a bus you could trip (either drawing attention to yourself or having your clothes possibly shift improperly), you could bump into a man, you could sneeze loudly and draw attention to yourself…whereas in a car, the only thing people would see is your head for a moment as you drive by.

Just remember – innate feeling of “right and wrong” are not a Jewish concept. We believe in halacha and that everything stems from the Torah. Going with what you think is “right and wrong” is very dangerous and can lead to you breaking halacha because your thougts were different.

I have an idea for getting posts up quicker – if you thiink we can handle it!

Basically, make posts automatic. But have two buttons connected to each post:1) automatic removal and 2)mod alert

Automatic Removal would be for something 100% treif. Anyone who sees it would press the button and the post would be removed right away. Moderators would then look at these posts to make sure the button was not abused.

The mod alert would just be for anything thatpeople arent sure is appropriate for YWN. It would alert the moderators to look at the post and decide.

Just a suggestion 🙂

Joseph hasnt posted here yet!!

I was curious about his name because if he is as “frum” as he says he would go by Yosef, not Joseph.

Will Hill ROFL!!

Jfem – I agree with you. I have no idea the issue of why a woman couldnt drive. But then again, we agree that women can learn gemara so clearly we are out of srts with the people here!

Also, I have yet to seem organic milk (hormone free, antibiotic free etc) – with coupons it costs the same as cholov yisroel, but you get a better product. When my son starts drinking cows milk, we are going to buy Organic.

Anyone know of organic cholov yisroel milk?

notpashut – are you sure you understood them correctly? They may have said that was a good side effect of banning an eruv, but not a reason. I really cant imagine they would say that because it really violates the essence of Torah. Other religions make up laws, ours doesnt.

Joseph – I am against abuse of the welfare system by anyone. This topic happens to be about kollel. But, here is how I think welfare should run:

Everybody has to get a job.The state will run daycare centers so people dont have that as an excuse. THat will open more early childhood jobs. Then, give people jobs – they might be menial and low paid, but they are working. This will cut out all the people who have kids to get money and not have to work. Also, when someone goes out to work, they can be doing something productive for society. More people will be working, more money will be working through the system. Money should only be granted to people who cannot work for REAL reasons (severe disabilities and such). There is no reason for me to pay for ANYONE to not work.

tb – here is the flaw in your logic. What you are saying is that the guy cannot do proper research part time. If he can do part time research, then yes, he should go out and get a job and do research part time. If he cannot, only then should he take services.

Most men in kollel should get jobs. They can work 1/2 days. They can learn around their jobs. My husband does. The rest of the men in our families do. There is no need for such a large portion of our society to sit and learn and strain everyone else.

And most certainly, they should stop putting down working so much, when they ask us for money. I do not support kollel because I think this attitude is terrible and VERY prevalent. They cant have it both ways.

MW13 – would you say the same thing if we were support Christian scholars with our money? Or giving it to Planned Parenthood for unneccesary abortions?

My initials and location.

Shindy – is that a nicknam for Shaindel? A totally different name? I’ve never met anyone called Shindy before.

notpashut – I hate to say this but Brooklyn has a MAJOR problem with teenagers socializing in coed situations unwatched. Maybe if there was an eruv, parents would be out watching their kids, rather than sending them off with no supervision.

intellegent, while I agree its sick to extort the in-laws, many feel its the only way they will marry off their kids. Then again, we could spin off into a shidduch crisis…

As for living on $21/week – I could do that easily if it wastn kosher food. I coupon shop for everything and there are so many good deals for non kosher food. So yes, I could easily live for $21/week. The only thing I would have to cut out is organic fruits/veggies for my son, which I would prefer not to do but could.

I have no problem with men learning in Kollel, provided that their wife can fully support them. No person in Kollel should be on WIC, food stamps etc.

I personally think our welfare system should change to reduce the people who are not working rather than just handing out food and money. I think its tantamount to stealing from the rest of the population. I pay a boatload in taxes to people who are fully capable of going out and getting a job.

My husband would love to sit and learn, but it just isnt economically feasible if we dont want to go on government services. And we dont. I remind him that when he wakes up at 4 oclock in the morning to learn and go to minyan, he is working much harder for his schar than someone who is having someone else pay their way. Its easy to learn at 11 oclock in the morning. Its not so easy to learn when you have to get up at 4 am to do it.

I could go on and on…but I’ll stop here.

smartcookie, actually bakeries are not needed for daily living. I can cook bread in my own home easily. Bakeries are a luxury. Facebook is the cheapest and easiest way to communicate with lots of people (especially photos/videos of family and friends) and can be just as much a “neccesity” to some people for communications that otherwise they couldnt afford (like communicating to Israel) as bread or cookies from a bakery.

I have no problem with people NOT being on facebook, but I do have a problem with people saying facebook is assur and things like that. It is NOT assur. If you are sensitive to it, dont use it! Just as an alcoholic avoids alcohol, people who cannot control themselves properly SHOULD NOT USE FACEBOOK. But that doesnt mean I support the Prohibition.

notpashut – as long as the smiley is there, we can disagree 🙂

On a serious note – I am not saying hanging out at a bar is a great thing. But to proclaim this as a terrible, terrible thing???? If someone is an alcoholic its a terrible thing to go into a bar. If someone is using this as a way to meet women (and continue on an inappropriate path) then its a terrible thing.

To go to a bar every once in a while is not a terrible thing.

Intellegent, while I understand what you are saying, we all make judgement calls. So for some, going to a bowling alley is ok because they wont eat food. But I can tell you, I used to bowl quite a bit with my friends and we would see some very “unkosher” things going on at the bowling alley by “frum” people. So, going to a bar and drinking kosher beer (he said just having fun, not behaving wildly or flirting with women or anything) is not a terrible thing IMHO. But its ok to disagree with me because its opinion based.

Kitzur: you say that friendly-like situations cannot be gender mixed.

What about young adults who are old enough to date and get married? Are they allowed coed situations? Because many of my really frum friends were dating at 18…are they allowed facebook?

I disagree that there should be no mixed socializing. What about tu b’av? Wasnt that a coed situation? Maybe some of the problems today are because we seperate genders so much.

Nameless, it depends on both parties.

I have a few (girl)friends who are real shteigers (I think thats the right term, I dont really speak yeshivish) and want a husband they can learn well with. They also want a husband who doesnt want to miss minyan, even for a date.

They need to date people who are going to appreciate their knowledge and learning capabilities. Some of these girls can “outlearn” most yeshiva boys. They cant just date regular yeshiva boys so they should both be aware, before going on the date, what their own expectations are.

Queen, what makes it so wrong? Where is the halacha that says its forbidden to have a kosher drink at a bar?

Dont, it stands for in my humble opinion.

There are very few things to avoid. Soft unpastuerized cheeses (like Feta), sushi (or anything raw).

I recommend a website called babyfit.com – its all about being healthy while pregnant. They have areas for excersize, nutrition, your due date month (which is very helpful to have people to ask questions to). It was such a big help while I was pregnant. Now, the group of us that went through pregnancy together are still around talking about raising our kids. Lots of good stuff!! Especially because we are sleep training my son now and its so hard!!

Nobody, I assumed she is pregnant but didnt want to state that 🙂 None of the remedies posted above are hazardous.

I was so nauseous when I was pregnant (and it lasted for 30 weeks – the nausea, not the pregnancy). My doctor told me I was allowed to drink coke and boy did it help!! I had one 20 oz bottle a day.

Lots of water also helped, as did ginger and crackers. Ginger chicken is yummy!