megapixel One of the hottest topics on blogs is the T word- tznius. These posts generate the most comments. I just want to say that I am in favor. Of tznius. That being said, I do tend to roll my eyes when I see another advertisement for aTznius speech. I dont really attend these. I have been hearing about it for a long time. I also get annoyed when the reaction to a tragedy is another tznius gathering.
Someone I know was involved in a little car accident. Frum woman hits frum man. The guy comes out of his car yelling "So now there's gonna be another speech about tznius! Dont blame everything on tznius! Why dont you learn how to drive!" It was Funny!
Recently someone started these friday evening groups all around town for girls, to teach tznius in a fun way. The kids go after Licht bentchen, they hear stories and get some candy, whatever. I sent my daughter who is 6 years old, I thought she would enjoy going out. The next week she did not want to go. I asked her why not. " all they talk about is tznius, and I already know everything about tznius!" I was thinking to myself, lady, you aint heard nothin' yet! Finally, I do think there is a problem, people need to pay attention to the way they look, but it is a sticky point, because they dont want the hear mussar from others. I did hear a Rabbi say that if you see a woman dressed inappropriately you should go over and tell her in a nice way that she is wrong. As in "you look like a good Jewish woman, but you probably dont realize that your hair is showing, and your skirt is a tad too short. I know if you realized it, you wouldnt wear it." There are two things I see wrong with this plan. 1- How do I know this person isnt a baalas teshuva, who last week was not covering her hair at all, or comes from a different background, and just wearing a skirt is a big step for her? 2- If she is from a frum background and is dressed like that, she knows exactly what she is doing, and my saying anything will not change her! Finally, as trends come and go, there will always be something to fight about, and I believe sometimes you have to step back and wait for the style to pass. I dont mean wearing short tops that expose the midriff when a girl bends down, cuz that is outright halacha. What I am referring to is styles that may offend someone's sensitivity rather that halacha. I.E. long skirts. I say, be glad the girls are wearing long skirts and you dont have to fight about short skirts. or banana clips. there is nothing wrong halachicaly, and if it bothers you, dont wear it. if you make an issue of it by assuring it, you will annoy the girls- make them sick of "the rules" and before you know it the style will be gone anyway, leaving just a bad taste in the mouths of girls. You have to pick your battles, or the girls/women will just roll their eyes whenever this topic comes up. Agree?

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Here is an article from the front page of FoxNews.com. Please take your nitroglycerin pill prior to reading:

AP
MONSEY, N.Y. The photograph (of Yisroel Dovid Weiss hugging Iranian president-you have all seen it by now) is jarring, to say the least. Why on earth would a rabbi from New York travel to Tehran to embrace Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who says the Holocaust never happened and that Israel should be annihilated?
In Rockland County, N.Y., a short drive north from New York City, "love thy neighbor" has been a hard commandment to follow in the weeks since a contingent of fringe religious leaders set out to shake the Iranian president's hand.
This small suburban county has the highest percentage of Jews in the nation, and many if not most of them have been seething since leaders of the ultra-Orthodox sect Neturei Karta attended the Holocaust conference in Tehran and seemingly lent their support to known Holocaust deniers.
Rabbi ---RABBI? another proof that a beard and peyos dont make you a rabbi ---Yisroel Dovid Weiss led the Neturei Karta delegation to Iran's capital on Dec. 11 to participate in a two-day conference on whether the Holocaust occurred. Among the other attendees were former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke and French professor and gas-chamber denier Robert Fuerisson.
---nice choice of buddies, Weiss---

"This kind of cozying up to tyrants, it's really unconscionable," said Holocaust survivor Walter Greenberg, 73, who lives in the county, only about 20 miles north of New York City.
Rabbi Michael Gisser, the executive director of the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley, called the gathering a "conference of hate."
"A lot of people that were there really want to destroy and kill Jews from their agendas," Gisser said.

Rockland County is known for its rich Jewish diversity members of every denomination, from the outwardly religious Hasidim to Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, live here in the lower Hudson Valley.
But residents say Neturei Karta, led by Weiss, is a fringe operation that espouses views held by virtually no one else in the community namely that Israel must be destroyed and put into Arab hands before the coming of the Messiah.
"He wants his 10 minutes of infamy," Greenberg said. "That's what it's about."
Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "guardians of the city," was founded in Jerusalem in 1938 as a splinter group of Agudas Yisroel, (HUH?) an anti-Zionist cell of Orthodox Jews founded 26 years before, according to the Neturei Karta Web site.
The group denies that they are "a small sect or an extremist group of 'ultra-orthodox' Jews," but rather are "fighting the changes and inroads made by political Zionism during the past 100 odd years," according to the site.
"Zionism is a fundamentally heretical movement which denies the Divine imperative that Jews remain in exile until the day when all mankind will be miraculously redeemed,” Weiss told a gathering of protesters in New York City in November. (yeah, weiss, we heard your stupid statement already. you're repeating yourself. and guess what nobody out there cares what you think)
The Neturei Karta's U.S. branch is based in a sprawling but dilapidated tenement in Monsey, a village ringed with strip malls boasting clothing bargains and fast-food shops that offer kosher pizza and falafel.
It's Jewish small-town America.
At a time when most Americans prepared to celebrate Christmas, menorahs twinkled from the tops of minivans as men dressed in black with long, curly side locks hitched rides home and bicyclists, their prayer-shawl tassels twisting in the wind, raced home for Hanukkah celebrations.
Rafael, a nearly 20-year resident of the community, said Neturei Karta has only a handful of members. He, along with other residents interviewed by FOXNews.com last week, declined to give their full names, fearing reprisals within the community. "[Weiss] definitely does not represent any part of the Jewish community except for his little hole in the wall," Rafael said. "I really believe he should be considered a traitor to the country.
"This is a very, very good country and I think that someone who goes ahead and does what he does hugs and kisses the enemy of the world should be considered a traitor. Revoke his citizenship." Yeah, Rafael!
Weiss and his group have made headlines with protests in Washington and in photo opportunities with the Palestine Liberation Organization. ---thanks for the embarrassment, weiss. we all saw your protesting in washington on shabbos with your shtreimel. Shame on you. and we saw you bringing flowers to a dying Arafat in Paris on a friday afternoon. Why dont you save the flowers for your wife, and spend your fridays going to the mikvah and getting ready for shabbos with your family instead of in paris?---
"Nobody embraces him," said Simon, a 10-year resident of Monsey who declined to give his last name. "The blood pressure goes up."
A woman who came to a door marked "Beck" at Neturei Karta headquarters Tuesday said Weiss did not live at the building. Other officials were not available for comment. Phone calls to Weiss were not returned.
But there was no denying that Neturei Karta had been in Tehran.
"We put effort into attending occasions such as this because we feel that we have both a religious and religion-based humanitarian duty to spread our message as much as possible," Rabbi Aharon Cohen said at the Holocaust (denier) (notice how the press calls it a Holocaust conference instead of what it is -- a Holocaust denier conference) conference, according to remarks published on the Neturei Karta Web site. (So you have to go to this type of conference. You dont have the brains and sensitivity to skip this one. Nice.)
"He's still my customer," Rafael said of Weiss. "I'll take his money, but I'll be happy to see him go."

Most worrisome to Jewish leaders is the publicity machine that seems to follow Neturei Karta; photos of Weiss embracing Ahmadinejad garnered headlines around the globe.
"A rabbi kissing someone who considers himself the sworn enemy of Israel, which is the Jewish state," Gisser said. "People ask questions."
There is more to the article,you can see it at foxnews.com. This makes my blood boil. What a first class creep!! First off, want to say at least Fox is talking about the fact that this is not the opinion of normal jews. It must be really titillating to see a Rabbi that is anti Israel, the average goy equates Rabbis with Israel, so the media people love having him on. I have seen several of his interviews. Secondly, this mans grandparents were killed in Auschwitz, and his parents suffered in the Holocaust as well (aside from losing their parents) His father in law is a survivor, suffers to this day. I wonder how he takes to his crazy son in law cavorting around with Holocaust deniers. An informal poll - #1-if this guy were your son in law, what would you do? and 2- if this guy were your cousin, would you invite him to family simchas?

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Another Cute Kid Quote by Megapixel's smart mouth kids:
I was waking my son up one morning for school and he mumbled "go away, Gezel Shaina"
"Aha," I say with an evil laugh, " I am actually doing a mitzvah, waking you up for Shacharis!"
"Mitzvah Habah B'Aveirah!" he yells.
So now you know why I am spending a small fortune each year to educate this kid? So he can use it to outsmart me?

A Chanuka Love Story

Many years ago, in the 1920's lived David. He was a new American, immigrated from Hungary several years earlier as a thirteen year old, and determined to stay religious in an environment which, we all know was not kind to Shomrei Shabbos. So he committed himself to learning Daf Yomi, figuring that if he starts off every day learning, it would protect him from the nisyonos he would face each day. When he was around twenty years old, he had a job working for a company in his neighborhood. One day, he noticed a new employee, Margie, a nice frum young woman.
He asked her to marry him. She said no. Disappointed, he continued with his day to day life. He found out that she liked a certain actor who wore a mustache. So he grew a mustache. A while later, he asked her to marry him again. This time she agreed. They got married, and they had the kind of marriage that we all picture in our minds when we are dating. Love, respect, kindness. They raised a bunch of children. Every Chanuka, David would light the menorah, with his wife and children around him. Then he would dance with his children, and sing Maoz Tzur. One by one, the kids grew up and moved out of the house. One year, he stood in front of the menorah, lighting it as he had every other year, and then he turned around to dance the traditional "Maoz Tzur" dance with the kinderlach. It hit him then that the children were gone - moved on to their own families. So he said "Margie, the kids are not here, so let us dance together." So David and Margie held hands and danced "Maoz Tzur".
Months later they decided to move to a smaller house and put their house up for sale. A younger couple came knocking on the door.
"We would like to buy your house" they said.
David and Margie were surprised. They did not ask to see the house, nor did they ask the price. So they asked the younger couple about that.
To their surprise, the husband answered "We were walking by this house last Chanukah and we saw you dancing with your wife by the menorah. I immediately made up my mind that if this house ever goes on the market, I will buy it, because this is a Shalom Bayis House, and I want to raise my family in it!"
True Story.

Not to toot my own horn, but my kids are really cute. BH. Sometimes they just crack me up. I was having this discussion with my kids about the Rabbi in Seattle who threatened to sue Seatac Airport because they did not want to put up a menorah alongside the kratzmach trees. They whole Happy Holidays vs. Happy Xmas issue is in the news alot lately, it seems. People getting offended about being told Happy Xmas if it is not their holiday, religious symbols on government properties, seasonal songs being sung in public schools, etc. Every year some uptight self righteous idiot makes an issue out of it. The airport released a statement to the effect that since they are in the business of flying airplanes and this is their very busy season, they do not have the time to be anthropologists and put up every religion's symbols. So they took down the trees, too. The next day the Rabbi, a Lubavitcher, stated that he did not intend to make them take the trees away, he only wanted his symbol there, too. So he withdrew his threat of a lawsuit.They put the trees back up. My son said "if they had time to take the trees down and them put them back up, they could have time to put up one menorah" (I for one would rather they concentrate on safety and security and forget about decorations...) I explained to my son that if the Rabbi wants the menorah, the muslims will want their symbol, and so on, etc. So my son (age 12) says " What are they gonna put up there for a Muslim religious symbol? a BOMB? a suicide bomber?" My opinion? Rabbi B, if you want to display your menorah, put it in your damn window of your house, which is what the tradition is, your shul, etc. Be happy that no one is breaking your windows because you have a jewish symbol, and keep your mouth shut! I always find it offensive when malls and stores display a tree and a menorah together, as if they are the same- I want our symbol to be elevated, not brought down to their level.

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In honor of my grandfather's yarzeit this week I wanted to write a few words about him. Hope this wont bore anyone, but he was a really interesting guy so hang in there. He was born in Europe, of course (which zaidy wasn't) and lived thru the Holocaust. He was one of those brave guys living in forests bombing railroad tracks to try to thwart the Nazis in their evil intents. Later he was in a forced labor camp being treated worse than e a dog along with the rest of our people. His Nazi supervisor had a good time torturing him. After the war, he tracked him down and had him brought to trial, gave witness and had him executed.
In the DP camps, people were wandering around lonely and lost. He got married to my grandmother. There was a group of about 15 single girls who had lost all their families, they wanted to get married just so they could have someone, some family. He got hold of transportation and found his way to another DP camp. Came back with 15 young eligible men and proceeded to match them up, making 15 shiduchim. He and his wife wanted to get to America very badly, they were on line for passage on a ship. When finally it was their turn, they were turned away. The officials noticed that my grandmother was 7 months pregnant and did not want her aboard - they did not have facilities for her. They were told to wait until after the birth of the baby. They were bitterly disappointed - they wanted their baby to be born on American soil. Finally, months later, they did get on the ship, and en route the baby had a high fever. My grandmother was terrified - fever on a baby was really dangerous. The ship's doctor told her not to worry - there is a new type of medication called penicilin that will help. It was the new miracle drug that saved my mother as a baby...
My grandfather came here as an immigrant with nothing but a wife and baby. He managed to work his way up the the point where he had his own business and was quite well to do, an amazing feat I think in a place where he couldnt even speak the language. (There was no "Press 2 for Hungarian") I cant imagine going to Hungary and learning the language and starting my own company...He learned it quite well. Later years he used to listen to Bob Grant and laugh and say "Dis guy is great!"
As a grandfather, he was the best. When he came to visit, he always had two huge bags -one of bakery goods and one full of candy. His birthday, chanuka and afikoman presents were always the stuff your parents would never buy you...He loved to joke around with us, and he thought we were the greatest!
When he suffered a stroke, he fought and fought to regain his strength. I was once walking with him in Boro Park, and we passed an old guy. He said good shabos to the old guy and then told me "I always try to say good shabbos to the old people." I thought it was so funny cuz he was himself an old guy but he didnt see himself that way. Sadly, passed away from a stroke later, but he was still too young. We miss him. This little post skips over so many important things... My son who is twelve years old is named after him, and I sometimes think that my grandfather is up there looking down and getting a real kick out of him, because he is so funny and such a wiseguy.

Just when you thought things were safe around here, and the controversy dies down, it's happening again. I am referring, of course, to the new trend of Chassidic Rebbes gracing those of us in Lakewood with their presence. Skver has come and gone, and on the heels of their successful (!) visit, the Satmar Rebbe is on his way. Mark your calendars, Parshas Vayechi. Dont know any details, but the debate remains - Hasidim - do we need 'em? Is this just another sign of Lakewood's "Growing Up", no longer a small town centered on the yeshiva, we now have all types?
Back in R' Aharon's days, out of respect for the Rosh Hayeshiva, people did not wear shtreimels in yeshiva's bais medrash. In R' Shneur's days, he allowed chasidish shtibles, but they were not called "Ger" or "Skver". When I moved to Lakewood 16 yrs ago, I could go months without seeing a Chasid. Now, driving along I see Chasidish ladies with hats and stuff walking along with their strollers, and the occasional shtreimel in Shoprite motzie shabbos. They are definitely here. So if the Rebbes want to visit, and there is an interest in them by their own people, I am okay with that. But what is the deal with bringing along 1,000 chasidim for shabbos? I mean, please. Isnt that overdoing it a little? In any case, my feeling is that if it brings to achdus, and understanding of each other's ways, it can only do good. We need more togetherness, instead of Us against Them. That does nobody good. The Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbis were very respectful of the Rebbe, and that seems like a diplomatic kind of thing to do. But my cynical side tells me that is not why they are coming. Obviously the word has gotten out among them that Lakewood donors give generously and it is well worth their time to cultivate the$e Relation$hip$.