Frum N' Flipping

"I don't like people with principles", a boy once told me. I stopped and stared at him. "Because they put their principles before everything else. They refuse to step out of their comfort zone, to stretch. People should come first, and that takes flexibility." "But everyone has principles," I said, "at least, I hope they do. Like in my family, my father stressed honesty, I hope I'm carrying that on." "That's different. That's Halachah. Think about it. There's Torah, Halachah, we should be acting according to that. Not be adding things on." "Oh. I see." I said. But I didn't really see. It took a few months, with his words buzzing in the back of my mind, before I grasped the meaning. Today I remembered him. Today I understood. A Rabbi refuses to give me the name of one of his Talmidim, until he's met me. "We can discuss it on the phone." I said. "I'll tell you everything you'd l...

I just wanted to write. That's all. Write whatever's in my head, in my heart. Write without censorship, without holding back the things I most want to say. Frum newspapers all have the same procedure. To start with, their authors know what not to write, what not to say. They are well trained. So was I, once. The editor has her own eagle eyes. She usually catches any untoward lines that slip through. Finally the "Mevaker", the official censor, gives his stamp of approval. There is not much I have to say nowadays, that would make it through the screening. So instead this blog came into being. A diary, you could call it that. Except none of the diaries I've tried to keep ever lasted beyond a week. I do want to write, but I want it read too. And I'm loving it. But together with my blog I entered a world. A virtual world. A universe builds up around me. I'm drawn in. It captures my thoughts, my time. Not everything thought should be spoken, Solomon said. And...