5TResident

My mother was a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia. She was more comfortable with Yiddish than English so my brother and I were raised to speak Yiddish at home. When I was very little, she’d sing songs to me from her childhood in the 1930’s. Almost all of them were very sad – about lost loves, losing one’s home, loneliness, poverty. One song she sang was called “Papirineh Kinderlach Hub Ich” (I Have Paper Children), a mother’s lament that all of her children have grown up and moved away or died, and all she has left are their pictures. It made me cry every time.

Men do get breast cancer. Refuah Shelaimah.

My wife and I have discussed making aliyah. It’s on the radar.

When I was in my early 20’s, I wanted to start dating badly but my mother objected, saying in Yiddish “koidem der elterer”, meaning my older brother had to go first. And he waited until he was 30. It wasn’t fair.

Never cared for herring.

What’s a meat board?

Avira: I was in Mirrer Yeshiva from 1978 to 1982. I’m sure things have changed in 40 years. For example, I’m sure the current principal of the high school doesn’t beat up talmidim anymore, like the one in my day did.

My post was meant to say what it was like when I was there. I have no idea what it’s like there now.

I had a Shabbos bar mitzvah – a sit down lunch after davening, with a few speeches, some dancing and that was it. No music, no photographers.

Marxist:

I grew up in Kew Gardens Hills, lived there until I was 35. I’ve had enough of that place too.

Sounds like a scam.

UJM: I’m a first generation American-born person. My parents were Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe who came to the US in the late 1950’s. All of their ancestors lived in Europe. None of them ever owned an African slave. I never have either. Why should I pay reparations?

My mother a”h spoke mostly Yiddish to my brother and myself in the house when we were growing up. It was her first language (she was from Eastern Europe). My father a”h was also Eastern European but he only spoke to us in English. I am very conversant in Yiddish which has come in handy sometimes. Unfortunately all of my Yiddish speaking family members have passed away so I have almost nobody left to speak Yiddish to anymore. 🙁

Looking at the OP, seems to me the elderly men were telling the young man to stop making such a commotion when lighting the candles. They used a colloquial expression.

My mother was from Czechoslovakia and she called it grfilte kraut.

Mayim Bialik is an actress who has been on several TV series and is currently the host of Jeopardy. She is a baalat tshuva who is an aspiring Orthodox Jew. She is quite public about it.

I had a rebbe in high school who once said that five years for him went by faster than one year did for us teenagers. At the time I thought he was exaggerating but now that I’m older than that rebbe was at that time, I understand his sentiment.

You can often find frum Jews in unexpected places during Chol Hamoed Pesach and Succos.

Check the Artscroll

If your son is 16, how old should the girls be who are going to be redt to him? 14? 13? Can you see your son marrying an 8th grade kid?

UJM: I was hoping there would be at least one “Hitchhiker’s” fan here!

Replying to zen3344: I am prone to sudden painful back spasms if I twist just the wrong way. To be safe, I never do hagba.

I went through the Shadchan system when I was a young man in my 20’s. I learned pretty quickly that Shadchanim could only help you if you had at least one of the following qualities.

1) You were very rich.
2) You were a big learner and intended to be in Kollel
3) You had a large family and exceptional Yichus

Unfortunately, I had none of those qualities. My father died when I was 16 and left us no insurance, so I was not rich. Because I was not rich I had to finish my secular education and get a job as soon as I could, so I wasn’t a big learner and couldn’t be in Kollel. And my parents were Auschwitz survivors who lost most of their families to the Nazis and had to rebuild almost from nothing, so I didn’t have a large family or Yichus. So, as a result, most Shadchanim wouldn’t help me and the ones who did redt me girls who were not suitable for me (ten years older, et al). I finally married at 30 thanks to my mother’s friend, who knew a woman who knew a single girl. No Shadchanim.

I hate Shadchanim.

Reb Eliezer: I had a rebbe once in the 8th Grade who gave a very lucid explanation about Jews being like the “stars in heaven” and the “sand of the Earth”. When the Jewish people are fulfilling their mission of being the light unto the nations and glorifying the name of Hashem, we are like the stars of the heavens – bright, beautiful, graceful in our movements and most importantly, close to Hashem and out of the reach of enemies. But when we commit aveiros and make Chilulei Hashem, then we become like the sands of the Earth – worthless, drab, plain, drifting endlessly and aimlessly with the wind and, most importantly, at the lowest point on Earth and susceptible to being walked on by even the lowest animals and insects. We can be scooped up, pushed around, thrown from place to place without anyone caring.

I heard this explanation 43 years ago, and I have never forgotten it. Unfortunately, the Rebbe who stated it passed away young, at age 65, about 30 years ago.