Text Message

I received a text today which read:

Emergency. Please say tehillim for dov Yisroel mordechai ben chaya sara he is in trial now to get sentence to a terrible prison! Thank u"

I responded and asked "who is he and what was his crime"

She responded "I have no idea."

To which I said "and how do you know he isn't guilty and deserve it?" (and I gave her an example of the frummies arrested a few weeks ago)

And she goes "I feel bad for those people and I will pray for them. They tried to do good but it turned out bad. I'm not judging"

!??!?!

"they tried to do good but it turned out bad?"...

Since when was that in the story? I haven't heard anyone say the intentions were good.
I heard the Rabbi's were lied too. But not "tried to do good"

I don't fathom what it is about defending wrongdoers.

The FBI was on this investigation for about 10 years
The FBI is full of highly intelligent people.

I think its safe to conclude that the FBI is most definitely correct on this.

I don't even understand why we should feel for these people. If anything these people should be used as a life lesson (especially if one does not have a fear of Hashem)"hmm... if I steal, maybe the FBI will see me, and catch me, and then put me in jail."

Raffle Ticket

My mother just recently remembered a story she heard from a Rabbi. Here is the story followed by my very humble (stubborn) opinion:

There once was a lady somewhere in frumville whose child got engaged. She had little money and was unable to afford to make a simcha. Since she was a proud women, she had no desire to ask for charity. Her friend wanted to help her, but she refused to accept charity even from her friends.

Her friend thought of a plan. She decided to sell "raffle tickets." She collected a lot of money. Then went and sold a raffle to her proud friend.

The proud friend "won" the money because she had the system rigged (by not actually having the raffle).

***

When the Rabbi was telling over this story, he said it with such pride over the frum community. He was saying how wonderful it was that a friend would go out of her way to create a raffle to RIG it, in order to enable her proud friend to throw her child a simcha.

Now...

Am I the only one who thinks what this lady did by inventing a raffle is a form of theft? I can't even fathom how a RABBI could introduce this subject into anything other than "theft 101" or "How to manipulate funds 101".. to PRAISE this woman is far from appropriate. I think it's disgusting.

I buy raffle tickets. I personally don't expect to win, I give the money as a form of tzedakah, but I like to know that I have a CHANCE of winning... not necessarily because I intend to win, but because I want to know that my money is going to a legit organization. If an organization is legit, they'd actually RAFFLE OFF tickets- and not just lie about the whole thing.

Am I the only one who thinks that frummy idiots should stop blaming all frum problems on the "lack of tznius" and start focusing on the THEFT in the community. For heavens sake, a Rabbi praised a woman who made up the raffle!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its no wonder we have minyanim (of frum men) in US prisons with KOSHER food!!

Democrat Balloonist

A woman in a hot

> air balloon realized she was lost.

> She lowered her

> altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.

>

> She shouted to

> him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I

> would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I

> am." The man

> consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in

> a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground

> elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31

> degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09

> minutes west longitude. "She rolled

> her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

>

> "I

> am," replied the man. "How did

> you know?" "Well,"

> answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is

> technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your

> information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not

> been much help to me." The man smiled

> and responded, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

>

> "I

> am," replied the balloonist. "How did

> you know?" "Well,"

> said the man, "you don't know where you are or

> where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due

> to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have

> no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your

> problem. You're in

> exactly the same position you were in before we met, but

> somehow, now it's my fault.

Guest Post by "Orthodox Zoro" on Fairness

Due to the fact that I’ve been busy lately, the amount of time I spend blogging has decreased (as if that needed mentioning). Someone had asked me if they could guest post, and I decided that branching out was definitely a good idea. I was also thrilled that this particular person wanted to write about fairness, about

I’d like to welcome you to a guest post. Enjoy-

Fairness

If the Sisterhood of a shul has a luncheon or any type of fundraising event, all of its proceeds go to the shul.

If the shul itself has any sort of fundraising event like the Melava Malka, all the proceeds go to the shul.

If the Russian program has an event at the shul, all proceeds go to the Russian Program.

Is that fair?

Why is it that the Russian program gets away with lining its own pockets and only “donating” to the shul once a year in a form of a “Kiddush?”

-Orthodox Zoro

Cell phones in camp

Since I tend to go to shul every shabbos, and it is the summer, I often find myself speaking to people who either have kids or siblings in camp.

I've learned that its a huge thing for camps to forbid cell phones.

I know frummies are nut jobs, but I imagined that some of the camps would
allow cellphones if they're kept off and are only used during break hours.

Nope. Of course I was wrong.

One of my friends explained to me that cell phones are not allowed because the camps have a "mixed" crowd. She said that while some boys are from families who allow cell phones other boys may come from families who do not allow them, so therefore the camp forbids the phones to avoid any potential conflict.

When I heard that reasoning I got really annoyed.

I honestly don't understand why there is such babying in the frummy community. I grew up in a public school, where everything was allowed. Over the years my parents refused to buy me plenty of things I wanted that "everyone else" had. Even in HS when I was one of the last girls in my program to get a cell phone; the only reason I finally received one was because my YOUNGER sister (who wasn't yet in HS), needed to travel to the city, and my overprotective parents decided to get a family plan.

I learned to live with having DIFFERENT sorts of friends. I learned over the years that I can't be like everyone else, and that while some things seemed awesome, they were either totally impractical and a complete waste of money, or just not the type of thing that fit in with my family.

That is called GROWING or MATURING. This is how NORMAL people teach their kids how the world works; they send them to school, and then refuse to buy their kids things their friends have but they don't need (hopefully with an explanation).

Parents don't always say no. Sometimes things friends have are actually reasonable. If the parents are smart, they'll help the kid start a new trend (I remember in kindergarten a few moments of class time for a few days were devoted to playing with random things my mom made out of paper).

Frummies cannot comprehend the concept of being DIFFERENT. They feel like everyone has to be the same. Gd forbid a child's feelings get hurt because his parents are "frummer".

WTH?!

How is a kid going to end up in the work force one day and realize that it's no longer just "machmir" it's the ENTIRE culture that differentiates him from his coworkers?

If school (and camp) is supposed to be a learning experience for the children, why the hell does the administration avoid potential life lessons to be revealed at home later on in the day, after camp?