Preface:
In
the Orthodox Jewish community there is a dress code. Women are expected to dress within certain
standards of modesty, specifically long sleeves, skirts below the knees, and if
married, some type of hair covering (scarf, wig). Now there are variations in what is
considered “best” or appropriate, but there is certainly a certain amount of leave
way to find your own style within the bounds of modest dress.
Now
some small groups have taken upon themselves extra strictures, dressing in
loose capes and almost always black. [There
is a cult-like group that dresses almost like the “Taliban”, I am not talking
about them.] And even if one does not agree with this type of dress (especially
when people dress their little girls this way), I suspect that their intentions
are generally very good. Most of the women wearing these shawls are normal
women trying to be extra modest. [I admit that when I personally see little
girls dressed like this, I feel that this is really taking things to“overkill”.]
And finally, after that intro, here is the
blog:
I begin by recounting my “sin” of yesterday:
After a lovely healthy breakfast, I went to the health-fund to take care of
some paper work. And on exiting the
building I suddenly had a good desire for a butterscotch Hanukah doughnut. Now
I allow myself a doughnut each year on Hanukah, but I had HAD one small one
already, at the family get-together last week.
But each year I buy myself a butterscotch doughnut, and I decided that
yes I would buy one. However, there is a condition to this purchase: The day I
treat myself to the doughnut, I have to go on a LONG walk, to walk off the
extra calories. And at about 400 calories in a doughnut “bomb”, that means a
LONG walk.
Now I had already been planning to take a walk… and even to grab a new
geocache in our area on the way. And then, at noon, when I looked at the
geocaching site I noticed that there were even a few MORE new caches. PERFECT!
If I would walk to all of them, the extraneous calories would be taken care of.
So I set out.
The first two caches were in an area that
while not too close to my house, at about 30-40 minutes away, they were
certainly not too far . The other two were on the other side of the national
park in Ramat Gan, which is itself about an hours walk away. However, being at
the first two caches, I was already most of the way there. So I crossed the big highway and set out for
the third and fourth caches.
Then I saw them: three young girls, dressed in shawls, the oldest being
about ten years old. They were obviously
headed back to my town from the national park. I was shocked to the core. There
were no adults with them.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH THESE PARENTS? You are worried about
modesty and you let your little girls out alone?!!? You let your little ones be
supervised by a ten year old?
About ten minutes later, I regretted not having turned around and
escorting (or following) them home. -To
see that they would arrive safely, and to give the mother an education about
how dangerous this is. Also I realized later, that maybe the ten year old had
done this “outing” on her own, and the mother would be more than pleased to
hear where her little darlings had disappeared to.
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