It’s unfortunate that our society has begun the downward spiral in morality, but since the beginning of time, each generation has had it’s own yetzer harahs and these days The Carpool has become a serious nisayon that we have only just begun to understand. The Carpool is one of the last places where boys, girls, men, and women mix freely without a mechitza or filter. The Carpool presents a major breach in tznius, yet somehow it’s gone unnoticed until recently. Rabbi Yair Hoffman started off a firestorm when he unearthed in shocking detail how the Carpool has become one of the biggest tests of our time, people were surely mad, but anytime something is true, people get angry.
Truth, nowadays, is always met with anger, and I’m glad that Rabbi Reingold has decided to give such a shiur. I’m not sure if everyone knows the exact danger of Carpools and I myself have asked my Rav as to whether or not I can use the Carpool lane lest people not eat by my house for fear of my mixing with the opposite sex.
My Rav gave a fiery shiur about this very topic in which he demanded to know how we can “separate children in school at such a young age, only to let them ride in the carpool without even so much as a mechitza.” He has a point, even though my modernishe ways will lead me to allow my children of different sexes to sit next to each other, I can understand how frummies would be disturbed by the notion. The hilchos carpool issue reminds me of that time they realized that many sheitles were made from mamish avodah zarah.
Carpools also force women to leave the home during the daylight hours, unfortunately, many animalistic men know of the carpool schedule and they tend to gaze at these ladies leading to harmful hirhurim. Unfortunately, these women rarely stay in their cars, they often go out to greet children and they often aren’t dressed in the best manner. I have even heard of women singing along with their children’s tapes, don’t they know that children get aroused too?
It’s really a terrible problem and I’m glad some of us are willing to speak out on the issue publicly. Of course there will be naysayers, the antisemitic negative Jewish bloggers will come out and claim it’s crazy, but in the end, Torah Jews speak out for what is right and sometimes people find it crazy. I’m a little bit surprised that such a modernishe community as Silver Springs is going to be the first to bring this breach in tznius to the forefront. I almost feel like I should ask them for mechilah for ever thinking they weren’t as tznius as those in more yeshivishe communities.
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I feel like after being exposed to the frum community, I would feel liberated to live under shariah law in Iran.
wow. more embrassment…what am i doing in this community.
It’s for women only. Men shouldn’t have to worry about carpool, and there is no intelligent programming for women so they’re stuck with topics like this. Is a light dairy buffet included?
i meant the frum community, not the silverspring community in particular, which may be a very fine community in general
Same. Now I just need to convince my wife to go OTD and I’m scott free
My husband once (facetiously) suggested wife swapping for couples in which one spouse is no longer “with the program”. Only problem (for guys at least) is that probably 80-90% of orthopraxers are male.
Living in Silver Spring and knowing this Rabbi, I don’t think it’s about Tznius. I’m pretty sure it’s about interpersonal relationships and things like “If I’m driving carpool and I’m in an accident, do I have to pay medical bills for the kids in the car?” and “If I’m driving carpool and a kid i’m supposed to pick up isn’t ready, do I have to wait for them?” or “If I’m driving carpool and I’m supposed to drop a kid off at their home but their parent isn’t home yet, do I have to take the kid back to my place and would the other family be obligated to pay me for the inconvenience.”
These are real life issues and questions and occurs all the time with carpools. The topic may sound silly, but there’s a lot of jewish ethics at play.
My favorite worst carpool story was back in my SAHM days and I kept my sick preschool son home. The working mom I carpooled with still expected me to pick up her daughter, so OK, I bundled up my sick child and took him to school at pickup time, only to find the girl I was picking up sleeping in the corner because she was, you know, sick. From that day on I decided to handle my own transportation, to the extent that when I went back to work, I made sure to get a driving nanny AND provide her with a car.
so the child was sleeping on the corner and was sick. What’s so bad about the story?
Duh. If the mother was responsible and kept her sick kid home in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to drag my sick kid out of bed. (A little investigation – i.e. asking the morahs – elicited that the kid was sick the whole darn day).
Not all parents let their sick kids stay home.
Your list of topics is certainly relevant, but I wouldn’t call these questions of Jewish ethics. They’re questions of derech eretz and common sense. You know what they say… common sense isn’t common.
I want to be dan l’kav zechus, but why is the shiur for women only. If women drive the carpool and men control the money, then money topics that have to do with women should be coed.
Men don’t always control the money. Some women (gasp) earn as much or more than their husbands. You sexist, you.
well, there will be at least one man in attendence. the speaker.
lucky bastard
their will of course be a mechitza between the speakers and the listeners
Of course, mixed shiurim and mixed carpool lead to mixed dancing
OK, that sounds reasonable, but then why give it a silly name and make it for women only? Plenty of men drive carpool, especially on legal holidays and Fridays.
terpy: “Living in Silver Spring and knowing this Rabbi, I don’t think it’s about Tznius.”
So why is it “for women only?”
Silver SPRING. 1 Spring. its a thing…
I would think that an armrest that’s at least a tefach thick and less than 3 tefachim above the seat would constitute a valid mechitza…
For the modernishe, a tzuras hapesach would do the trick.
This is ridiculous. Beyond what you know.
BTW, it’s Silver Spring. Not Silver Springs. Get it right, NYers.
Classic guy from silver springs comments
I sincerely hope this truly is a satire and nothing serious because if it is, I think it’s time to get as far away from these Jewish Taliban fundamentalist. How crazy can they truly be? Do you really think that until some drunk Rabbi, in his own illness, says something ridiculous like this, anybody even thinks about this insane stuff? Then the crazies jump on the bandwagon, judging others and becoming Religious terrorists!! We need to define our own healthy boundaries that keep each of us within a healthy Torah direction. When stuff like this is brought out it does nothing more then demoralize and dehumanize our own healthy values and brings shame and guilt unto all those associated with people so narrow-mined and blind.
“a healthy Torah direction” does not exist
For women only so why is it at the boys campus?
Only for women, why is it at the boys campus?
OMG, I just about died laughing! This is brilliant! Baruch Hashem that he provides such fodder for your satire.
You guys, this is a satire website. Whoever takes this article seriously needs to start being smarter about believing everything they read…. the website is called frumsatire, for pete’s sake!
You just couldn’t make this stuff up, no one would take you seriously.
woah! so what you actually accomplished in this article (which is funny, I admit) is to bring out the haters who are willing to actually believe that what you are writing is true. Clearly, the topics R’ Reingold is planning cover are not the ones in this post, so let’s move past that.
I know there have been some increasingly prohibitive rulings in ultra-orthodox communities regarding things that other, more “modern” communities take for granted, but so what?? If a family living in b’nei brak or lakewood wants to have same-gender carpools (for argument’s sake), let them! How does it effect the average observant Jew in Silver Spring or anywhere?! Torah Judaism is about cultivating a relationship with Hashem using the guidelines in the Torah. If one community chooses to express that in a very stringent and restrictive way, how does that effect you and your personal Torah observance and your personal relationship with Hashem??
EVEN IF the stringent community in question believes that if you don’t hold by their chumras, you are not religious – I still say who cares! Let them believe and practice as they choose. And you, let go of your hate for long enough to allow yourself to pursue your own relationship to Hashem in the way that seems right to you.
And when you do that, then you’ll also be amazed as how you will be able to look on your cooky ultra-orthodox counterparts and say, “aaw, they’re so silly, but you know what? I love them anyway!”
Just to clarify, by “you” I don’t mean the author of the article. (except in the first sentence.) I mean the general “you” as in whoever might be reading this and in particular those of you who posted about how appalled you are by the idea being satirized in this article.
I believe its for Women because its sponsored by the Yeshiva Women’s Alumni Association. I think its nice that its a Shiur for women. Most shiurim are for men.
Silver Spring is not Lakewood–so I don’t think the topic is what you think it is.
If anyone wants to actually listen to the shiur, it is available online:
– Part 1: http://wwwold.yeshiva.edu/audio/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=Rabbi+Reingold%2FWomens+Shiurim%2FCarpools+in+Halacha%3B+What+You+Need+to+Know+1%2814+Teves+5774%29.MP3&var2=0
– Part 2: http://wwwold.yeshiva.edu/audio/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=Rabbi+Reingold%2FWomens+Shiurim%2FCarpools+in+Halacha%3B+What+You+Need+to+Know+2%2814+Teves+5774%29.MP3&var2=0
It was for women only due to the expected crowd and size of the space (and women are frequently the carpool drivers).