Comments on: Out Of The Mailbag – To YW Editor (Chanukah Presents)

By: Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy

Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:51:37 +0000

BTW ” FREILICHEN” means Frolicking = good,wild time,in English. It is WAY INAPROPRIATE to use that expression with kedushoh. It is borrowed from the goyish holiday of December,MERRY!. WE DO NOT MAKE MERRY! WE REJOICE! One is material and base,the other is spiritual and lofty. Chanuko represents the exact opposite of Dec. 25

By: Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy

Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:53:58 +0000

I never received “Chanuka appreciation gifts” from my ‘frum’ employer in the 30 years I worked (very hard) for them. Neither did the other frum workers. The goyishe workers all got gifts for their ‘holiday’. Purim is the day for us to give to ours.In fact,hardly ANY appreciation was EVER shown at any time to the frum workers.

By: jewinjerusalem

jewinjerusalem — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:28:41 +0000

Here in Yerushalayim B”H,”their holiday” is an absolute non-issue! Giving Chanuka gelt to children is a commonly practiced minhag here. Some parents may buy their children one gift for Chanuka-a gift each day is unheard of!!!
There is a strong minhag here to give mishloach monos\cash to teachers for Purim. Chanuka giving is not typical.
In Israel people say either Chanuka Sameach or Chag Urim Samaech.

By: Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy

Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:21:02 +0000

BTW ‘Santa’ is short for “St. Nicholas”,who (in their fairy tales) religion was the protector (or something like that) of poor children.In medieval times,many children suffered from poverty,abuse and illness.THE BIG “TO-DO” WITH PARTIES,EXPENSIVE MATERIAL GIFTS;IS NOT TORAH-dig.

By: Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy

Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:14:43 +0000

The minhag was always to give a little modest gift to the children and friends to show appreciation and love.On Purim,this is a mitzvo,with Mishloach Monos and Matonos lo’evyonim.So,years later,when Chanukko was established,similar minhogim developed.The goyim made their ‘holiday a few hundred years later.They imitated our putting lights in the windows and doorways.They took the evergreen trees which the pagans worshipped in the winter because they saw that when all the trees lost their leaves and Nature seemed to have died;these survived. The 25th of this solar month was copied from US,since our holiday comes out on the 25 th of our Kislev and the pagans noticed that there was a minute more of daylight on the 25 th;meanining that nature was not dying. So they copied from us.
In the USA, our assimilated brothers,didn’t want to be different from the goyim and those that still tried to keep their kids loyal to them,bribed their kids with gifts so that the kids would not feel ‘short-changed’by their (our) religion. There is a lot of imitation going on both ways. In USA,the public doesn’t care about the religious aspect;it is all for money. Giving gifts to the teachers is nice if the class gives collectively only,without the teacher or rebbe knowing how much each family contributed.

By: tomim tihye

tomim tihye — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:04:31 +0000

daboss-
In many schools, the PTA or classmothers collect the same amount of money from each child and present it to the teacher with a nice card. The amounts they collect may vary, but I have yet to hear of a school that requests anywhere near $50 per child.

By: guesswho

guesswho — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:02:41 +0000

I think the heimishe papers and advertising booklets should take a stand on this and not allow certain ads. e.g. a few years ago there was an ad saying that the gimel on the dreidel stood for GYM!!! (a perfect example of the yevani mindset – although gyms today may be for health, they are not a jewish value in and of themselves). Or an ad this year saying ‘second chanuka miracle 30% off our low prices!!’. and of couse all the ads requiring gifts for your babysitter, sheitel macher, etc. This is causing the pressure to give gifts. While I fargin all the retailers a decent paransssa, the haskafas in these ads leave much to be desired!! they are not CUTE they are KROOM!!

By: daboss

daboss — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:35:16 +0000

to all my fellow posters: let me clarify.
Firstly, I respectfully take mussar from some of your responses.
for those who called me nuts, crazy, straightjacket, padded room, i forgive you, your comment are beyond your control, you wont be punished for them. it’s sad to see how many brainwashed people there are out there.
just one question if i may: why are the educators so underpaid when the schools are so overpaid? $8000.00 a year for tuition x 25 (average) kids in a class (granted, some will get breaks). departmental (10 teachers/rebbis per grade) multiplied by and average of $50 per (VERY few send $10.00 with a note explaining that they cant afford more)
you say that the system does not grade according to the “tips”? do a little more ersearch, you’ll see i’m NOT nuts. or, just go on living in your little “horse-with-blinders” world, it might just dawn on you one day that the crazy guy was onto something.

Just want to end off by saying that my post was NOT intended to offend any person or group of people. while we must all have respect for one another, we must also live in a realistic world. we are our own worst enemies. we spoiled the educators and we are now payin the price. in the “alte heim”, a rebbe really made peanuts, and it was customary to “support him”. accordingly, certain periods during the year were selected (chanukah, purim, pesach, summer, etc) when rebbes neded more for their families.

todays rebbe/teacher should not have to work for “free” and if he/she does, the system is very broken.

By: shazam

shazam — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:18:57 +0000

I always give Chanukah gelt to our children’s mechanchim, as did my parents to my mechanchim.

Chanukah is the Tom Tov to be mispallel for banim mehuganim, so it makes sense to show appreciation at that time to those who are moser nefesh to help us in this holy mission.

There is a famous story about the Sanzer Rov on Chanukah, and his berachah to his little granddaughter, who became the mother of the 5 Twersky brothers.

By: yiddeshemother

yiddeshemother — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:09:45 +0000

There always has to be someone who sucks the life and joy out of some nice traditional no harm minhagim!