Men love to make fun of women for talking too much, especially talking about clothes, but when men get started on the topic, there's no stopping them.
My husband discovered the email "group" mail Jewish many, many years ago, when email was new, a novelty. It's an email discussion group on Jewish topics. Members are from all over the world and all "committed" to Torah Judaism in "one form or another."
It was on mail Jewish that I discovered the "pesak," rabbinic opinion, that there's no such thing as "mezonot bread/roll." "If it looks like bread, tastes like bread and eaten like bread" it has the same halachik (Jewish Law) obligations as bread. It doesn't matter if there's "potato water" instead of regular water. It's not a cake. This makes sense to me, though it complicates airline travel, since it means I must wash for the rolls and sandwiches.
Many of the topics bore me or are irrelevant to my life. On occasion I pipe in with a line or two. For the past month, or maybe it's a year or more, the men on the list have been arguing about proper dress attire for dovening, praying. 99% of this is all custom, but they won't let go of it. A few times already I've written something to make them stop, because I find myself deleting the digest after reading the list of topics. "two hats," "gartles," "jackets," "types of shirts," "proper attire for leading prayer," "black or grey"
It's all so superficial. They've repeated each subtopic so many times. I no longer look forward to reading mail Jewish. No one is going to be convinced, since the male dress code is very dependent on the society they're in.
As I say every morning in the "Morning Blessings,"
I thank G-d for making me "kirtzono," according to His wish.
Yes, I did. It was when I was employed as an aide in the office of Geula Cohen when she was Deputy Minister for Science and Development in 1990 and Danny in the computer room revealed the secrets of "discussion groups" on the computer.
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