Political? Not.

Yesterday I had a very quick facebook "discussion" with someone I really love.

I commented on a photograph that she had liked/shared and commented on that had been posted by a "friend" of hers.

This is the photo.

I recommend looking up the pesukim for yourself in a Chumash

The photo showed a sign being carried in what I assumed was a pro same-sex marriage rally.
The sign showed what was supposed to be a quote from the book of Deuteronomy.
It stated that a man must marry a virgin for a marriage to be valid and if she wasn't a virgin the woman was to be put to death.
Part of my life as a an observant Jew is talmud Torah, the study of the five books of Moses.
I knew right away this was not even close to being an accurate quote.
After looking up the pesukim to see what it really said I made a mistake.

I commented to this person about this sign's total distortion of what the Torah says.
I then wrote what the Torah was actually dealing with, which was not even close to what the sign made you think it was dealing with.
I also said that I was surprised that she would post this without checking to see what the pesukim were actually saying.
My mistake? I should have done this privately not on the post itself.

Unfortunately this person took my criticism as being against same-sex marriage.
The result was a comment directed to me that I had been warned before about posting my political beliefs on her page.
She then either deleted the post or blocked it from my viewing

Personally, I could care less what two consenting adults do or declare to each other.
I was defending what the Torah said.
I can't sit by without commenting when the Torah is mistranslated, misquoted and used incorrectly for the self serving purposes of any group, right, left, center, up or down.

I'm truly sorry this person, who I truly love, didn't understand the point I was trying to make, but I will never be sorry for defending the Torah.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day.

Even though as Jews we should honor our mothers every day, kibbud aim, we still go along with the world and do something special for our mothers on this day in May.

My mother, Zissel Esther, has been a great mom.
She and my father raised three kids to adulthood and buried one as a teenager.

Mom didn't have an easy beginning.
My grandmother came to America from Poland in 1928.
In 1932 she married Moshe Zundel, who was born in the U.S.
I've been told that because my grandmother was the"greener" and her husband the "yankee", there was some trouble in the relationship.
In 1934 my mother was born.
Six months later, Moshe died.

My grandmother, along with one of her sisters, went to work in a sweat shop in Kansas City.
She would drop my mother off at her parents at the shoe repair store where they worked and lived in a room in the back of the store.
Here my mother learned Yiddish, watched her bubbie make luchshen, pluck chickens and make gefilte fish. Here also my mother remembers her bubbie saving the tiny chicken eggs that were often found in the freshly shechted chickens, and putting them in her soup.

When mom turned six, a marriage was arranged and my grandmother packed up mom and moved to Texas to marry the man that my mother would now know as daddy.
Ephraim would be a daddy to my mother until he died when she was in her teens.

My mother has been through a lot and has put up with a lot from her kids as I guess all parents do, but I am truly grateful she didn't give me to the Troll that lived under the bridge.

Happy Mother's Day Mom.
I Love You.

Zissel Esther. Mother's Day 2012

Oh. What did I do special for my mother today?

I made her a brunch.



Sometimes Definitions Are Important

So Obama is in favor of Gay marriage.
Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.

The concept of "marriage" is a religious concept.

Why can't Gay couples agree to a civil partnership as Romney supports.

It would be difficult to deny rights to legal partners.
Why force society to take a term that has always been associated with a man and woman and apply it to Gay relationships.

Could this lead to Rabbis, Priests, and Ministers being forced to officiate at Gay weddings or lose their license to officiate at any legal marriage?

Tis a slippery slope. Especially with the leftists in office now.
It appears the political left is always looking for a way to disrupt and or change tradition.

Just look at the left leaning versions of Judaism.

The changes they have made have nothing to do with spirituality or the continuation of Klal Yisroel.
It's all politics and so called "social justice".

Hmmm.

Here We Go Again

Chag Samayach.

Today is Pesach Sheni.

When the Beis Hamikdash stood, the Jews actually went up to Yerushalayim to eat the Korban Pesach.
Now what happened if a person was too far away or had contracted a type of tumah that prevented them from participating in the mitzva.

The Torah provides a second chance to bring and eat the korban.
On the 15th of Iyar, exactly one month after the 15th of Nisan, the day of the pesach, those that were prevented in Nisan would bring the korban in Iyar.

Only the korban was brought. All the other halachot of Pesach did not apply.

Since we can't bring the korban today, we eat a piece of matza to recognize the day.

So eat a piece of matza and drink a l'chaim in honor of Pesach Sheni.

If I could Save Shoes In a Bottle.

Sunday, to get out of the house, my brother , mother, niece and nephew and I, went to a local antique mall to walk around.
Why, you might ask, would you take children to walk around an antique mall?
As opposed to museums and zoos, the antique mall is free.
You also get to point out things you remember from your grandmother's house that you got rid of for nothing, but had you known, would have kept and then sold in a antique mall.

I did find some Judaica story books for my niece and a Spanish ship for my nephew.

The mall is set up with cubicles for the different vendors and not very well kept. Lots of things on the floor to pic through.
I guess the real antiques are the items locked up in the cases.

After digging through some books in one cubicle, I turned the corner and came face to face with the very strange item seen in the photo below.

 A sealed jar of baby booties.

Now being Stephen King's "number one fan", I started having these really bizarre ideas.

Had Mother Hubbard finally had enough?

Evidence in a CSI investigation?

The trophies of a killer?

A day care worker with a shoe fetish?

 I moved away quickly after taking the photo before someone could see me.

I guess I'll never know.

What do you think?

BTW... I did not buy this item.

CORRECTION.

OK. Old Mother Hubbard did not have kids. She had a dog but no bone.

I should have written " Had the old woman that lived in a shoe finally had enough"

Mea Culpa.