oomis

Always here: Cataract removal is not a difficult or lemgthy procedure. My husband had a large cataract removed and the vision is fantastic now, B”H. Recovery was immediate. He also previously had retinal tears, but not detachment. Both surgeries were done a year apart (the retinal tears were repaired with cryosurgery, and last year he had laser for the cataract). DON’T put it off, if your vision is affected. Just make sure you have a skilled opthalmic surgeon.

Well-said, ronrsr.

It’s not that it’s wrong – it’s more that kids are addicted to it and are no longer using actual language skills with which to communicate. The inability to carry on a voice to voice normal conversation with another person, is not to be taken lightly.

I stand by my opinion, Popa. Children should be vaccinated to protect those who are too young to be vaccinated, but are at risk of contagion (new baby brother or sister), or whose immune systems are compromised. My children may have all been vaccinated, but if other people’s have not been, they can spread diseases that were nearly completely eradicated. Thank G-d smallpox is no longer an issue thanks to the vaccinations of my generation. Have you ever seen a child in the death throes of whooping cough? It is heartbreaking. Worse yet, it is totally preventable.

And as people often travel to Israel with their families, Hep A and B shots are a necessity, not a luxury. Not immunizing is selfish, not cautious. And it is required by law in order to attend school. there is no demonstrable correlation between immunizations and autism in children, which could be attributed to a whole mess of other causative factors.

Maybe I am not worried about MY kids getting sick. Maybe I am concerned about OTHER people’s babies who are too young to themselves be vaccinated against MMR, getting sick from those children whose parents refuse to vaccinate them (for baseless reasons), so that we have seen a return of those childhood diseases. Do you really think it is not probable that an infant could contract measles from a toddler whose parents refused to vaccinate and was unknowingly exposed to that child?

People who give in to this hysteria about autism, which has NOT been proved at ALL, are endangering other people. And it is the law. Thank G-d we have eradicated smallpox. I would liek to see ALL those dieases competely gone. And it cannot happen when a few frightened people act foolishly based on non-proven theories. There might eb a million reasons why there is a rise in autism. Or maybe it was always there and we misdiagnosed it for decades.

That old saw about the vaccinations and autism has not been shown to have real legs. the danger to a child of dying from whooping cough (a particularly nasty and painful suffering death) is far more real than a supposed autism link. Moreover, kids who are not vaccinated have been the cause of certain childhood diseases making the rounds in this country again, where they had been almost 100% eradicated. People took their kids overseas, where there might be fewer vaccinations, the kids picked up the diseases and brought them back here.

Measles encephalitis is a real danger, birth defects may be caused by the exposure of pregnant women to Rubella in their first trimester, when their own acquired immunity may have been weakened. Mumps which are transmitted to adolescent boys can result in sterility. Are these not enough reasons to vaccinate? What about hepatitis? And btw, IT’S THE LAW. Children are not supposed to be allowed in school without showing their immunizations being up to date. With all due respect to the rov mentioned, that type of action can cause tragedy for someone else.

That is actually incorrect”

Not according to a geneticist I spoke to to confirm what I was being told. While you are correct that a fertilized egg is either male or female and the future gender is already determined at fertilization, the embryo nevertheless remains for all intents and purposes female in nature until around six weeks, when the Y chromosome “turns itself on.” If you know something the doc does not, I will stand corrected.

I actually learned a very interesting piece of science regarding this bracha. At conception, all embryos are morphologically female. After 40 days (approximately six weeks), the Y chromosome in a male embryo kicks in, and the embryo becomes a male fetus. In an embryo that is supposed to be female, this change does not take place (obviously) and the embryo remains female.

Although I wonder if the Chachomim were aware of this (I bet they were), the bracha being said by the male may be a show of Hakoras hatov of Hashem’s Greatness, that the change which was meant to take place DID in fact take place, and as a result Hashem did not make a (destined) male child, remain female, that He allowed the natural order to take place. We know that there are people with gender assignment issues, and perhaps it is due to something that goes wrong in this process. So it truly is a bracha worth making with real kavanah every day.

It is very easy to see where kids learn chutzpahdig behavior. My son was on a school bus ride home, when another boy started beating up on a smaller boy. My son, being who he is, came up to them, and got in the middle to stop the bigger boy from hitting the other one. The bigger boy grabbed my son’s glasses and deliberately twisted them to break them. Meanwhile, my son’s intervention DID stop the fight (the bus driver did nothing,and we later complained to the school about this).

When we called the parents of the bully to ask them what they would like to do about their son’s actions, the mother replied,

“That will teach your son to mind his own business! Next time, tell him to butt out!” It was obvious that the apple fell right near this tree. No remorse, no embarrassment for such behavior, MY child was the problem, because he didn’t stand by as another kid was being beaten.

If it was my child who behaved so badly I would be mortified, and want to know how we could make amends. And THEN I would make my son pay for the broken glasses (they didn’t), and ground him for fighting. I would probably also make him apologize to the kid he picked on, though now that I consider that, that might actually make things worse for the kid who was bullied.

I loved my MIL with all my heart, and she was bedridden and blind for all the time that I was privileged to know her. She was a wonderful, loving mother, who raised a wonderful, loving son, and that is all the reason I ever needed to love and appreciate her, though there were a myriad of other reasons, as well. Fortunately for my hubby, he could say the same thing about HIS MIL (who was thankfully neither bedridden nor blind, but just a loving, wonderful mother).

MIL jokes are just that – jokes. There are some selfish and mean-spirited women in the world, and that nastiness is clear before they ever become a MIL. No one should tar all mothers-in-law with the same brush.

Refuah shelaima b’soch sh’or cholei Yisroel. I sympathize greatly with your situation.

Workfare, not welfare. NO aid to illegal aliens who sneaked in to the USA, no foreign aid before our own country’s needs are being met. Vote Obama out of office ASAP, so we can have a real president and a First Lady who is ALWAYS proud of her country.

If someone has trouble with feeling attraction and the mere words from another person (i.e. asking about nerdiness) evokes an image sufficient to tip the scales against him, then you were not interested in the boy. If you really had liked him for being so special, nothing any friend said to you would have altered that perception. I hope you told your friend to mind her own business. Being nerdy is not a crime, and she should not have spoken L”H to you.

In court, they cannot testify, but every month women give “eidus” that they have been to the Mikvah, and they are to be believed.

Because we’re WORTH it!!!!!! L’Oreal says so…

This is one seriously funny (is that am oxymoron?) guy.

Did you ice your cheek for 15 minutes on/15 minutes off throughout the day? That helps. If it is a lower jaw tooth, that is typically more painful than an upper one. Take the pain meds they give you, but don’t overdo. The next day, if there is still swellling, use ice, then later on apply heat (i.e, a hot water bottle). refuah shelaima. I have BTDT four times.

I am blown away by all these stories, and especially that of ainohdmilvado, whose story mirrors that of my dad’s O”H. Dad made sure to show these klafim wherever he could, specifically as eidus for what the Nazis Y”Sh did to desecrate our Holy Torah. because, as you said, if you did not see it with your own eyes, it would be hard to believe.

My Dad O”H was in the army intelligence corps. He had been recruited for this because he spoke many languages fluently and with the exact pronunciation of various dialects within the community (think of speaking Cockney English versus the King’s English). So he was able to gather intel in Germany, both by posing as the common man on the street or as an intellectual higher-echelon type.

He gathered information that a certain Nazi criminal, who was connected with Kristallnacht, was hiding out in his private chateau, and he brought several men under his leadership, to help him capture the Nazi, which they did. While interrogating the man, my father noticed artwork on the wall, pastoral paintings of the man and his wife. One of his men, an Irish Sergeant, was trying to smash one of the paintings (he had a personal animosity towards the Nazis, and wanted to give this one a taste of his own Kristallnacht), but while the glass shattered, the painting remained intact.

Curious about this, my dad went over to take a look at the painting, turned it over and discovered to his horror that it was painted on a Klaf of a Sefer Torah! When he further examined the Klaf and could make out the words, which had been smeared over, he realized he was looking at his own Bar-Mitzvah Parsha, P’ Shemini. He was able to rescue that Klaf and a couple of others, all taken from different Sifrei Torah, and until he died, he went around to Shuls and Yeshivos, telling over what had happened and what he had found.

He also had his own personal miracle when he and several of hi men were riding in a jeep, when the driver inadvertently drove directly over a mine. The explosion killed all the men in that jeep, except for my father, who landed some distance away, without any injury. To this day, we describe it as if he had been plucked out of the jeep at the very last moment, by a malach. We cannot explain his surviving such an explosion, any other way.

“Number 2) is something you may have not discoverd yet, but don’t worry with time you will. “

Uncalled-for comment Michael. Menschlechkeit is also in the Oral Law. Please re-read all the parts you accidentally skipped over the first time.

But under the circumstances you described, consider yourself lucky that your child is protected from someone who says, “I’m going to kill you”. Its not a joke, and while not necessarily a real threat, it does reflect what the child is hearing / seeing at home.”

You were right, of course, and I had not addressed that in my own post. But – it still does not help that the child really is still wanting that attention, even from the kid who made such a stupid threat. It really saddens me to read of this type of pain. Children go through so much, as it is, even under the best of circumstances.

First of all, I am getting that it is your child who has some social issues, and it breaks my heart to hear how he is friendless. Now, I will play devil’s advocate and suggest, that as a parent, if I knew there were very specific problems with a particular child (such as bullying, hitting, etc.) I would probably not pick that child as a social friend for mine. If it is more that your son is extremely shy, non-athletic, or a little immature, I would speak to the teacher about encouraging the class to play together as a group and not leave anyone out, so he might be able to develop a friendship, and I would invite the other kids over for a Shabbos party, to do homework together, etc.

My daughter worked as a shadow for a child with Asperger’s-type symptomology, and she worked especially hard at helping him to develop socialization skills (I am not saying this is your situation, but just mentioning it by way of an example). Perhaps your son needs a similar type of assistance to help more fully integrate him socially. Again, I feel how painful this must be for you. No parent can ever stand to see his/her child be hurt like that, and I wish your son hatzlacha in overcoming this obstacle.

Owl, you are making an innappropriate comparison. Not only is is not even apples and oranges, it is more like apples and airplanes. Not even remotely comparable.

“For example Yaakov Avinu was 84, and never used a Shadchan. So if you are 84 and have not sinned all your life like Yaakov then you can do it without a Shadchan.”

Who says that was the reason why he never needed a shadchan? Maybe if like Yaakov, you leave your parents’ home and live on your own, you should not need a shadchan.

“Moshe Rabbeinu did use a Shadchan, this is clear, when Yisro said ‘I am giving you my daughter as a wife’.”

He met Yocheved at the well (similar to Yaakov Avinu and Rochel), before he met Yisro. Yisro was his FIL not his shadchan.

“Shimshon never used a Shadchan, but Talmud Sotah reproaches him for this (he went after his eyes so the philistines gorged his eyes), we can learn from this if you don’t use a Shadchan and follow your eyes you will end up marrying a goy (Samson married philistine Delilah).”

Hoo boy! I never used a shadchan and I guarantee you neither my husband, my daughter-in-law, nor my son-in-law are goyim. Shimshon was a man who was nichshal, and for that he was punished, not for not having a shadchan. If he had a shadchan, he wouldn’t have lusted after Delilah?????

“Dovid Hamelech never used a Shadchan with Bat Sheva as Talmud Shabbos says she was destined to him from the Six Days of Creation.”

As are all our zivugim before we are even born.

“Rabbi Akiva dated Rochel without a Shadchan (this was when he was a Am Haaretz).”

A shadchan would NEVER have redt that shidduch, so B”H no shadchan was involved, or we would all be the poorer for not experiencing R’ Akiva’s gadlus and example of mesiras nefesh.

We all have waaaaaay too much time…