But Why Her Little Girls?

There has been flack about the 'Taliban-styled' ladies in the ultra-Orthodox sector.

Yesterday, I spotted a mother, two-daughters and an infant in a pushchair.

It took some maneuvering and espionage experience fieldwork, but here are the results:

They were walking along Meah Shearim Street, then turned into the main square area and then made a further turn up in the direction of the Meah Shearim central Yeshivah.

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Sea/Poolside Modesty Fashion

From Csuta:-

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Even She's Taken Aback

Miriam Tzachi's snapshot of a Hareidi woman staring at the new Burkhababe fashion which appeared in Makor Rishon:-

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A Fashion Statement

Spotted in Meah Shearim:

Translation:

SEVERE WARNING

THERE IS NO PASSING THROUGH OUR STREETS

IN IMMODEST DRESS

INCLUDING SLUTTY CLOTHES OF THE RELIGIOUS FASHION

Neighborhood residents

Take heed although I am not sure if this applies equally to women and men.

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How to Sell a Shtreimel

Fur from heaven.

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Fancy Dress - Who?

I had a thought, could she be mistaken for a classy modern-orthodox lady?  At a wedding?

Nope.


She's H.H. Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar. Occupations: Wife of H.H. the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani; unesco special envoy for basic and higher education.

Looks can fool you.

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Getting Back (Very Back) To Modesty

Yesterday, I posted a picture of a (slightly) growing phenomenon of Jewish femine modesty attire, i.e., the black shawl movement. I have done so before here and there are references there to other posts on the issue.

Well, you can now join the "King's Legion" at the offices of L'Ma'aneinu, 03-5743752 if you are so inclined.  Here's their flyer:

They are, as should be, against "short and tight-fitting clothes".  But they go just a bit further.  They ask women to talk to other women, with 'pleasant words', to urge them to avoid immodesty which 'causes death and the distancing from the Shechina'.

Another flyer, handed out with that is this one, entitled "Clothes were made to hide":-

and it stresses that clothes were made for the purpose to 'completely hide the outline of one's body and one's figure'.  That one should not be able discern any 'protrusion of body parts'.  And therefore, knitted material and lycra are Torah prohibited.  It even goes into a bit of detail (which is problematic by on that later on):

the skirt or dress should hide the shape of the shin from under the knee at the part it begins to grow large [the back part between the knee and ankle - YM]

Posters have been put up with pictures like this one of women at the Kotel a century ago all in shawls and looose-fitting clothes. 

Incidentally, I have heard that because they did not have modern warm-keeping material, the best way to keep warm was layers of clothes but be that as it may, I noted an article in Makkor Rishon this past Yom Kippur by Bechol Serloui Bakol Serloi Ullman (if I am phonetically correct; I wasn't; thanks to RA) in Hebrew on the modesty issue wherein she writes that a modest society surely frames sexuality within the proper limitations, permitting women to be human beings but that Hareidi developments are distancing from this ideal and its modeesty culture possesses elements of pornography (which is what two women have written to me priviately when I have posted previously on this).  Her article is not yet up at a web page but I hope to remember to link it soon.

Here is an excerpt:

וכאשר מזוהה הצניעות עם כלל המידות הטובות, כל התנגדות לה היא אסון וכל שאלה עליה היא ערעור על סלע קיומנו. והאישה, המנסה להיות יהודייה טובה יותר, נדחקת לפינות האחוריות של האוטובוס כשבד שחור מכסה את איבריה הנשיים. היא מזוהה עם החטא; ואת החטא – אין לגלות ברשות הרבים. דומה שכוחה השטני גדל שבעתיים: יהיו הרחובות נפרדים. כוחה עצום כל כך עד שיש לכסות את כל גופה ממש. והיושב לצידה באוטובוס, הרי הוא מתחייב בנפשו.

זוהי פורנוגרפיה. בפורנוגרפיה חושפים את גוף האישה כדי למחוק את פניה שהם עולמה הרגשי; כאן מכסים את גופה כדי להימנע מכוח הפיתוי העז שלה; מול הפורנוגרפיה מאבד האדם את שיפוטו המוסרי ואת שיקול דעתו. והתוצאה אחת היא: ה"אישה" נעלמת. כבר אין מדובר בגוף החי, בבשר ודם בעל רגשות, חלומות, תחושות; כאן וכאן מדובר בגוף בלבד. וכוח הייצוג של החטא עצום כל כך והפחד ממנו רב כל כך, שכמו נראה שכל ייצוג של נשיות הוא המפחיד. למעשה, יש להכחיד את הנשיות עצמה.

Just hope we don't adopt a song like this.

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Shawl Away

I have displayed here (b & c) and here wall posters in the hareidi neighborhoods exhorting females to wera a shawl-like cover over their upper bodies as part of the correct modest fashion.

Here's what it looks like. I spotted her near Davidka Square:

And here's a close-up of the apparel:

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Wall Posters Cont'd

A new set (I know you've been waiting):

a)  protesting the scheduled Gay Parade (July 28?) too near hareidi neighborhoods (see: "Doitsch said. "We're not in paradise yet," he explained. "Jerusalem is a very sensitive place. We don't expect to have gay pride parades in Mea Sharim [an ultra-orthodox area of that city].  Jerusalem hosts an annual Gay Pride march, which is a much more political event than the Tel Aviv celebration. Homosexuality is unacceptable to both ultra-orthodox Jews and Muslims.")

b)  Women must wear a shawl:

c)  Women really must wear a shawl when going out that covers their upper body:

d)  and in going to the Kotel for dawn prayers on Shavu'ot holiday, it was men via Damascus Gate and women via Jaffa Gate:

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A Bit of Misogyny

An misogynic outlook is what I read interpret here:

The front page declares that "Greek culture - the campaign is still going strong" and the headlines from items inside read: "to invalidate the Parisian kernel" (using a Kabbalistic term indicating external impurity) and "Exit the captivity of impurity".

The theme is that women's sartorial fashion that is sold in areas of Hareidi neighborhoods are the same collections that are sold in the secular stores but with just an alteration of length.

The author(s) write:

The same non-Jewish material!
The same narrow and clinging tailoring!
The same narrow, short and trashy line!
The same exaggeration of curves!
The same causing of sin!
The same decadant European designers!...

A bit over the top.

Looking arefully, I think the sponsoring group is called Mishmeret HaChayim, Guardian of The Life, of Rav Uri Sofer (Hebrew story here)

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More Hareidi Commercial Advertising on the Walls

Spring is coming, Pesach is in two weeks. Time for improving or renewing your wardrobe (but the ads relate solely to males, you'll note):

a) Dress to kill as if you're in New York:

b) more hats

c) suits

d) "baked with not faults" matzah

e) and Belz has its own clothing outlet:

f) "and above all..." hats of quality:

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New Wall Advertisements

Not political-religious messages but selling:

a)  Four different types of matzot -

b) Hareidi fashion -

c) Haberdashery -

d)  Spice electronics (the store that got hit) -

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This Is A Fake Wall Poster

This one is fake:

How do I know?

Well, it reads:

To those females passing through our neighborhood, we request of you in all manner of request:
Don't come walking through unless you are dressed to kill.
Killer fashion includes: a poncho of Dolce & Gabbana with pink touches on the neckline, a short asymmetric jacket with a Gucci fur trim, Chanel spiked shoes
Please don't disturb the sanctity of opur neighborhood and our way of life as faithful consumers of the most holy of labels.
Signed:
Neighborhood Storeowners, Institutions of Purchase & Good Deeds and the Neghborhood Community Committee

Now, you don't think that's authentic, do you?

(Kippah tip: RH)
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The Junior Cape Fashion

I spotted this female near Davidka Square:



Here's the close up so you can see that she is wearing a shoulder cape:

Not quite the 'burqha' but on the way.

She looked about 14-15.

That's No Playboy Bunny

Following my post on the Hareidi crypto-burqha fashion, I was sent this (kippah tip: RH):-

A rather unfortunate selection of design?

However, this morning I was informed by the driver of the tremp I was in that his niece had just given birth to her 8th child. She has two sets of male twins and four others, 1 boy and three girls.

But wait, the oldest is in 2nd grade.

Did I say bunny?

Maybe the lady above knows why she's wearing that teichel.

That Modern Hareidi Feminine Fashion

I spotted a woman on a bus as I left work to head for the shuq.

She was reading Rebbe Nachman's Tikkun Klali. She even got off at my stop. Lo and behold, she even started walking in the direction I was walking to as I was cutting through behind the HaMashbir store towards the shuq.

I could not avoid my urge to snap a shot of her. As I did not want to intrude into her private space or identity, I took one shot from afar:



and another from just behind:



Yes, that's a semi-burqha outfit.

Her face was uncovered, but that was it.

Her outer clothes were bulky, in layers, many layers, with a shoulder cape and a shawl covering that. Her skirt was ankle-length.


Besides that fashion statement, I am always amazed that Rebbe Nachman's Tikkun was primarily intended for the matter of nocturnal seminal emission. That's a man's problem.


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Joint Muslim-Jewish Head Fashion?

Hollywood Headcovering

We have been watching recently the Castle TV series and its female lead is Stana Katic. She's Croatian but her headcovering has a distinct observant Jewish look:

Fired Up Wall Poster

This one is a bit convoluted:-

There is a way-out group of Hareidim, recently 'converted', I think, who denounce wigs. Only kerchief headcoverings for their women.

They have been campaigning fiercely.

Seems they have taken to filming in Hareidi neighborhoods to catch waywarders in wigs.

But to use a video is a big no-no in other Hareidi quarters.

So, there have been fights and pummelings.

The above poster warns:

"A burning fire one doesn't extinguish with kerosene"

Two Jerusalem Wall Items

Just before you arrive at the Shmuel HaNavi intersection from Ramot Eshkol, this sign informs you are walking along a wall of a cemetery and Kohanim are advised to stay away from walking under the tree branches that are inside the cemetery due to specific ritual impurity restrictions for Kohanim:


And with Rosh HaShana three weeks away, the men are plied with a commercial advertisement for kittel fashion from Hadran. The very best styles, 100% cotton, royal and classic:

Only in your better stores.