Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

12 Adar 5761 - March 7, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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HOME & FAMILY

Living it Up

by P. Chovav

It's a downright shame! After all the effort we invested in the attempt to claim that the chareidi public is victimized and deprived, along comes the Central Bureau of Statistics and reveals to one and all that the opposite is true: not only aren't the chareidim deprived, they actually have the advantage over the general public.

Imagination Machine
by Bruchie Laufer

"Here, right here. Step on this blinking red strip and you will immediately be transported to any type of lifetime you wish to imagine!"

LETTERS, EITZES, FEEDBACK

We have been receiving lots of letters lately. Thanks! We love them, even if they criticize. So long as you are reading, thinking and feeling!


Grandmother Bakes a Psalm

by Judy Belsky

This reads like counterpoint in music. A very serious poem with a Purim perspective. You need Purim once a year to see things through different glasses - preferably drinking ones.

NOSTALGIA
A Chassidic Purim

by Sudy Rosengarten

Purim in Williamsburg was like nowhere else; streets teeming with children in masquerade, adults running to hear the Megilla, traffic creeping to enable the drivers to absorb all the sights. A carnival spirit pervaded the whole chassidic neighborhood, a spirit unknown any other day of the year.

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

Want to know what is the most common disease of the elderly in the Western world? It's probably osteoarthritis, or arthritis for short. "Mir tut vey de bainer" ("My bones hurt me") is a common complaint of the elderly and they are probably referring to their joints.

WHAT'S COOKING?
by Rivka Tal

Do you find, as I have, that preparation of homemade Purim treats for mishloach monos is getting to be the exception rather than the rule? All the pity, because it's fun and easy to make homemade candy treats that are usually appreciated more than just another "Brand X chemical-coated-chocolate" candy bar to add to a special shalach monos.

Poet's Corner

The Last Haman
by E. Isaacs

Each "Haman" was closely followed
By a tremendous crash of noise
The enthusiastic labor
Of lively little boys.

Only impatient Mr. Cohen Was literally burning with rage,
"I didn't dare do this
When I was their age!"

Being unable to speak
At the boys he could only glare
And somehow, each boy ducked
His icy, fearsome stare.

Each noisy Haman projected
Every youngster's idea of fun
But poor Mr. Cohen was fuming
At basically -- everyone!

Just like a live volcano
Molten lava seething within
Thus did his blood pressure
Shoot up with each new din.

The reader intoned "Haman"
The clatter was so great
There seemed no end to the banging
And Mr. Cohen just would not wait.

Jumping up and seething
The old man finally erupted
"QUIET!" he screamed with fury,
And the reading he interrupted.

"This racket is IMPOSSIBLE
I cannot stand it any more!
Can't you learn to behave?"
He shouted and stomped out the door.

Outside, breathing deeply,
The fresh, cool night air
Mr. Cohen, with a sudden shock
Suddenly became aware --
This had been the last "Haman!"
The very final one
Now just look at what
His stubborn impatience had done!

He had made of himself
A proper, public fool
And to top it all off
He'd have to find another shul!

He had spoken out in the middle
Of the Megilla reading
He'd have to begin from scratch
And give each word his heeding.

This story is absolutely true
I am sorry to report
And its lesson must be taught.
Daily we face "last Haman"s
In varying shape and size
Can you outwait it with patience?
Do you know where the secret lies?

[The secret is holding one's tongue,
From which each word must be wrung.]


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