Let's Play My Favorite Game...With a Twist

[onionsoupmix]

Which one suprises you the least?

1. A chabad website publishes a letter  from a non- chabad woman describing how she was called a whore in a parking dispute in Crown Heights. The commenters respond by saying that if she is going to judge Judaism by the Jews, clearly she's unfit to begin with or just making excuses for her lack of observance.

One

Comments

I'll take a cup-half-full approach

[anonymous]

I saw article #1 this morning. My reaction was a bit different - I was happy that the first 4 commentators agreed that such behavior was a chillul Hashem. The editors apparently thought the letter deserved publication as well. Some people said not to judge everyone by a rotten apple - that's a valid comment too, and one that many communities, Jewish or not, would make

Anyone who participates in the YWN coffee room has a screw loose!

[tesyaa]

Anyone who participates in the YWN coffee room has a screw loose! Even if he or she is a conservative rabbi. The coffee room and the whole YWN site is full of sickos.

Re: Anyone who participates in the YWN coffee room has a screw loose!

[onionsoupmix]

See this is where I have issues.

Who represents Orthodoxy? Are YWN participants really out of the norm for the frum population? Do they not represent the yeshivishe world? Is there another website for yeshivishe people which has more moderate posters?

It seems like everyone is ready to dismiss extremist websites and views, but then whom do they really represent? Is YWN run by the wing of a mental hospital? Or is it run by your average Brooklyn yeshiva guy?

Re: Anyone who participates in the YWN coffee room has a screw loose!

[tesyaa]

It's a valid question. What's the answer?

To what extent is it representative of anything?

To what extent is any other public comment section representative of anything?

What sort of comment moderation is there?

Should I panic about the comment section to one of my favorite YouTube clips?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XrRyqses5U

JRKmommy

Re: Anyone who participates in the YWN coffee room has a screw loose!

[tesyaa]

Don't misunderstand me. When I say that YWN is full of sickos, that doesn't mean that they're not representative of the frum world...

My take is that the average frum person thinks like the average YWN participant, but is too polite to say so in public. So people you casually interact with MAY appear normal, but if you pressed them on their views, many if not most of them would confess to YWN-like beliefs.

[anonymous]

As for #2 - let's just say that it was (gasp!) my Conservative Jewish shul and its affiliated school that taught me about kashruth, Shabbat and yes, even mikvah. FWIW, a surprising number of the kids from that shul grew up to become fairly frum. I remember that there were some on imamother who had trouble believing my description of my parents' Conservative shul and the degree of observance there.

I have issues with some aspects of Conservative Judaism, but blanket ignorance really precludes meaningful discussion. If you want to say, "how can you permit driving a car with an internal combustion engine when halacha forbids making a fire on Shabbat?", go ahead. That's different than claiming that Conservative Jews are all heretics who don't follow Judaism at all.

JRKmommy

You know the definition of a Puritan as someone who's afraid that somewhere, someone is having fun?

[anonymous]

I think fundamentalist frummies are haunted by the fear that somewhere out there, a woman is enjoying sex with her husband. (Hrm, what other forms of psycho fundamentalism does this sound like?)

I'm so torn between thinking "these vicious prudes deserve the chronic sexual frustration and shame that so clearly haunts them" and "those poor children being raised by these people, something that should be relatively simple and joyful (sex within marriage) will likely be a nightmare for them."

Re: You know the definition of a Puritan as someone who's afraid that somewhere, someone is having f

[anonymous]

But aren't the "vicious prudes" just the "poor children" all grown up?

G*3

Re: You know the definition of a Puritan as someone who's afraid that somewhere, someone is having f

[anonymous]

Hence my conflict. At this point the dysfunction is replicating itself. And yet they still have free will. If children of abusers and adulterers can choose to be good parents and spouses (not saying it's easy, but it is possible) why can't these repressed nutjobs (oh, Freud would die happy if he could deal with the frummies) choose not to inflict this harm on their children?

Re: You know the definition of a Puritan as someone who's afraid that somewhere, someone is having f

[anonymous]

But it’s not the same thing. Many children of abusers understand that abuse is wrong, and so try to break the cycle. Unfortunately they learned abuse as a norm during childhood and not acting on that norm can take effort.

The segment of the frum community we’re talking about, on the other hand, see this sort of sexual repression as the height of piety.

G*3

[hamaskil]

B"H, Tuesday of the week in which we read the parshah "And he went out

[onionsoupmix]

I am so pleased to be able to communicate with the Rebbe via my blog. Yechi Hamelech!

[hamaskil]

Greetings and blessings,

In response to your letter where you state that a you are pleased to be able to communicate with me... In my opinion, this suggestion is very appropriate.

With regard to what you write - that it is possible that there are conservative Jews who try to observe some mitzvos - there is a well-known adage of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m: "Our dross is better than their finest." How much more is it true that our finest is better than their finest of the finest.

Certainly, you should have fixed times for the study of my teachings and the teachings of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, in addition to your other law school studies.

With blessing,

[onionsoupmix]

Also, you should get a different userpic for these letters :)