Super Raizy hosts Haveil Havalim: The Super-Hero Edition of the Jewish-Israeli blog carnival.
Ilana-Davita hosts the “Green” edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival.
Speaking of green, I ask whether whether a traditional eastern European diet is “kosher” for your health on the Israeli environmental blog Green Prophet.
This website points out the lack of Jewish chaplains in the American military and suggests ways to help, such as hosting military personnel within your community.
And last but not least, a subject much on my mind but so depressing I have avoided writing much about it–Israel’s drastic water shortage. Here’s the money quote from Haaretz (emphasis mine):
Committee chairman MK Ophir Pines-Paz acknowledged that “the crisis is severe, but there is no sense of crisis and no one is behaving as if it were a crisis. We expect the government to adopt a determined, aggressive police of enforcement and punishment, including criminal charges [against violators of water restriction regulations].”
Most water is used for industry and agriculture, but homeowners are not being taught or encouraged to save water except for a few ineffective ads that seem to have gone off the air. As for the weather, we keep getting predictions of several rainy days. Then we end up with a few minutes of precipitation and a revised, arid prediction.
I’ve continued to update the list of injured soldiers and civilians. I hope that we can start removing names, instead of adding.
A father’s perspective: Ynet: Screaming babies ignored in Israeli maternity wards
How do some Orthodox women decide what is okay to wear? Exclusive: Official Haredi Guide to Modest Necklines
Another look at local fashion trends: Shoes and Fashions
Thanks to Ilana-Davita for a blog award!
Video for Libi, an organization caring Israeli soldiers
Book Review: Run by Ann Patchett
In a personal column in the health section of Ynet, clinical psychologist Yair Tzivoni describes his experience in the hospital after his wife gave birth. While she went with a friend to the maternity ward, he brought the new baby to the nursery to await washing, blood tests and immunizations. His own daughter slept, but others screamed. The babies were supervised by one nurse, busy with her routine tasks. She completely ignored the crying babies.
Tzivoni was especially distressed by the cries of one tiny baby attached to a monitor. He cynically suggested that no one was concerned because the monitor didn’t register a problem. Finally, Tzivoni approached the nurse and pointed out that the baby had been crying for forty minutes. The nurse adjusted the position of the baby, who calmed down and fell asleep. Tzivoni also noted that none of the tasks were lifesaving and could have waited for another time (although health authorities might disagree–a blood test could uncover an urgent medical issue).
This morning on Channel Two radio show Seder Hayom, host Keren Neubach interviewed Tzivoni along with a nursing coach and former midwife named Orna Dan. Dan refused to say how many children she had, just that there were a lot and evenly distributed between ages 3 and 24.
Tzivoni strongly objected to the conditions in the maternity ward, where he and his wife had asked for full rooming-in (where the mother and baby stay together day and night). The room contained only an uncomfortable chair next to a narrow bed. He pulled the curtain and slept next to his wife, near the baby in the bassinette. It was like scout camp, because every time someone went to the bathroom or made a slight noise Tzivoni and his wife would wake up.
Tzivoni and his wife left the day after the birth for the “malonit,” a private, hotel-like arrangement right in the hospital. Neither Tzivoni, Dan nor Neubach pointed out that hospitals have a disincentive to improve conditions in maternity wards, because they will lose business for the malonit.
Neubach asked whether full rooming in was encouraged in the hospital. Tzivoni replied that the rooms are not suitable for rooming in as there is no place for a visitor to sit, or for father to stay overnight. Neubach pointed out the conflict between the father, who wants to be with his wife and baby, and the other women in the room (in this case two). She said the system held an anachronistic view of the father’s role.
Dan said that 90% of mothers are not aware of the situation in the nursery, because the baby is washed, calm and sleepy by the time he gets to his mother. The mother wants to nurse, but baby is tired from crying. Neubach pointed out that mothers don’t have energy to go to the nursery and collect the baby, especially when the staff may resist. She herself recalls a nurse telling her to go back to bed, and promising to bring her the baby later. (In my experience the memory of these incidents stay with a mother for many years.)
Dan noted that having the baby nearby does not take a lot of energy, and that mother and baby can rest together. She finally understood the situation after her first home birth when she took the baby to Tipat Halav at three days old for a blood test. The baby cried and cried during the long minutes while the nurse struggled to collect the blood, even though Dan held him the whole time. The baby then slept for eight hours straight. Dan now knows why her older children were so exhausted in the hospital.
Tzivoni quoted a nurse from another hospital, who said that mothers don’t want rooming-in even though the babies are more relaxed and cry much less. [Do mothers know this?]
Dan maintained that mothers rest better with the baby nearby. Newborns
sleep so much at the beginning, and caring for the baby is not so difficult that it will prevent her from resting.
Neubach mentioned a mother who approached a nurse because her baby had cried for several hours, and the nurse said to give her 20 milliliters of M* formula–and everything will be okay. She promised to address breastfeeding on a future program.
When Tzivoni asked about the medical procedures, a doctor told him that the newborn doesn’t register pain. Tzivoni claims that the system ignores the baby’s emotional needs, and is only concerned about immunizations and blood tests.
Neubach read a response by email from a woman named Dorit. Before the baby was born, she requested permission for her husband to hold the baby during all of the procedures, and not lay the baby in the bassinette. The hospital granted the request. Dorit wrote that parents need to remember that the baby is theirs, not the hospital’s.
The health ministry’s response was that “hanosei nimtza bebedika,” i.e. the subject is under review. Tzivoni said they are looking into his specific situation, but this situation exists throughout Israel. The ministry did not appoint someone to appear on the program. I can’t really blame them–they would have been lambasted.
Related post: Why Baby’s First Gift Shouldn’t Be Formula from the Hospital
I Waited and Waited but They Didn’t Call Me
Women’s Hospital Center Devalues Mothers
Amit Kadosh is a six-year-old girl from Kfar Saba with leukemia. She is looking for a match for a bone-marrow transplant. Testing sites set up in convenient places throughout Israel until 8 PM tonight. You must be between 18 and 50 years old. You only need to be tested once through a simple blood test. I know I am in the computer, as I was once contacted as a possible match. But a subsequent blood test disqualified me for that patient.
Click for a list of testing locations (Hebrew only).
Thank you to Ilana-Davita who awarded me the The Prémio Dardos Award along with seven other bloggers. Here is the description of the award:
“The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.”
Ilana-Davita’s blog contains unusual photographs, book reviews, and commentary on education and Jewish life in her home in France and elsewhere.
Haveil Havalim #201, the I Love Nauru Edition, is being hosted by The Rebbetzin’s Husband.
Haredi Guidelines for Neckline Tzniut
This document is entitled: “Common Pitfalls Regarding Necklines.” At the bottom (cut off) it reads: These pages have been viewed by Rabbi Nissim Karelitz Shlit”a and Rabbi Moshe Shaul Klein Shlit”a from the rabbinic court of Rabbi Vozner Shlit”a.*
You can see common Israeli neckline styles here. The rabbis who signed off on the above document hold by stringencies not observed by all camps in the Orthodox community. Rabbis from the national religious community are more lenient about how much to expose, but none would permit a plunging necking or decolletage.
Of the 22 pictures, the first twelve are labelled “Not Kosher”:
1-3, 5: The neckhole is too open.
4: The neckhole needs to be above the necklace at the sides. [To judge the neckline, a woman wears a chain around her neck. The back and sides of the collar or outfit must cover her skin to the point just above where the chain lies on her neck. As pictured, a boat neckline exposes too much.]
6: The wide neckhole is not covered by the scarf, according to Jewish law.
7: From the back. The opening must be closed with a zipper.
8: A safety pin should be added to the top button, which does not cover according to law.
9-10: The shoulder bag pulls the collar and exposes the shoulder.
11: The neck is covered in front according to law, but not the sides.
12: The dickey (libit) is too low and does not cover properly.
Thirteen through eighteen, inside the central hexagon, are kosher:
13: The dickey (libit) covers according to Jewish law.
14: Closed according to Jewish law.
15: The neck opening is slightly higher than the chain.
16-18: The neckline is closed according to Jewish law.
Nineteen through twenty-two are pictures of views from the back (hard to tell when there are no faces visible).
19: Not kosher, the neckhole is too open.
20: Kosher, the neckhole covers according to Jewish law.
21: Not kosher, the neckhole is under the chain.
22: Kosher, the neckhole is above the chain.
Please keep comments respectful.
*Shlit”a: An acronym meaning “May he live a good and long life.”
Update: G6 left the following comment:
The document you posted is certainly the strictest stance and many very frum, yeshivish, right wing rabbonim would NOT agree that all these stringencies are required.
I would suggest that everyone consult their own posek (rabbinic authority) instead of imposing (possibly unnecessary) restrictions upon themselves based on an internet posting.
G6, there are people who are looking for more stringencies, but this is not the strictest opinion. I have seen sources quoted for covering the neck entirely.
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