I am writing this letter out of deep sadness. I have noticed a very distinct trend lately where someone writes a letter that they mean in the best possible way and their message is taken as a personal affront to many reading it.
The comments left are often uncomfortable to read. The letter writers are accused of some pretty vile things. (i.e. accusing the recent letter writer who respectfully mentioned being more aware of a woman’s responsibility regarding tznius of wanting our town to wear burkas.)
I am certain that most of the letter writers genuinely care about their fellow Jews. Such responses are unwarranted and hurtful to read.
As we enter the nine days, which is the pinnacle of our mourning for the loss of our holy Bais Hamikdash, I implore all of you to please stop for a moment before you post a comment and think- will this comment make our Father proud of me? Does this reflect sinas chinam or ahavas chinam? We daven daily for the release of our precious hostages and for the coming of bayis shlishi. We need to do our utmost to show HkbH that we deserve it.
Please, my fellow yiddin, think before you post, at least for the next week. Let’s try to treat each other with baseless love instead of hate. Let’s try to see the best in others instead of the worst. And in this zchus, may we see the release of our hostages and the coming of the geula very soon.
Respectfully,
A fellow Jew
TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected]
Thank you, dear Fellow Jew. Very heartfelt.
Amain!
So true! Beautifully written and to the point. Thank you.
Perhaps a second “SEND” with a 30 or 45 second cooling off period after the first “SEND”would be helpful.
On everybody’s mind should be ahavas chinom. A suggestion. Rav Pam used to say. To practice true ahavas chinam, is when you pass by a notice in shul that asks people to daven for a חולה. Just because you don’t know who it is, say a kapital tehillim., rather than just to walk by…..
Amen
אמן
The writer is correct that we should not denigrate people who write sincerely.
But there is nothing wrong with pointing out respectfully that burkas follows naturally from many of the calls for stricter and stricter tznius standards
The original letter writer explicitly said he wanted sheitels to be banned and everyone to wear snoods/tichuls, which is not halacha just plain idiocy, I just extrapolated form there that to ensure everyone is as tznius as the frummer than though, ignoramus letter writer wants everyone to be, burkas is the way to go.
You obviously lack reading comprehension because he did not say that at all…
There are so many letters written about this that sometimes one of them is missed, there was a letter wanting to ban sheitels, but I see now that this last letter was in response to a subsequent letter that didn’t say that and I apologize for my mistake, of thinking the last letter was in response to the first letter and not to the 2nd letter.
How about some Ahavas Chinom and Dan Lekaf Zechus to all those around who you happen to see but you really should not be looking at?
Just be very brief, externally polite, internally respectful, and move on. If it’s not your own, you should not be spending any time or a even give a thought about it.
Just because people write emotionally doesn’t mean that they are heartfelt. When people write ridiculous shtussim, they should be called out. Otherwise the whole town looks stupid.
If TLS would stop publishing the letters containing extremism people would give more credence to the moderate, reasonable letters.
Did anyone listen to R’ Gershon Ribner on women and asceticism? I wonder what he would say about the original letter in which the writer said it would be best for women to give up shaitels altogether. There is a middle ground and it’s not as far to the right as some of these letter writers would have you think.