where will you be

 You are Joe from Chicago. You start keeping mitzvos and slowly incorporating Torah values into your thinking. You don't have to become a Mir Yeshiva man or a Belzer Chosid or a Religious Zionist, replacing your wardrobe and your speech patterns with theirs. You can if you want, but you are not required to. It might not even be advisable. You might be told to forget your career plans, drop your hobbies, lose your friends, and even to cut off relations with your family and to dedicate your life to Gemara study. You might even be tempted if you are enjoying the Gemara study and feel that you have entered a new world that is embracing you. But beware, all of that might fade to large extent and then where will you be?  

The trajectory of feminism

grandmother - If you are happy I am happy.

mother - If I am happy, you are happy.

wife - I am happy.

a fair chance

 

a fair chance

 "I think that the definition of a good society is where everybody has a fair chance at life's happiness. Now as you know  most people mess it up. They have the chance but for this or that reason they mess it up. And they ruin their lives even though they had a chance."

Norman Finkelstein, INTERVIEW: Norman Finkelstein | The sickness of capitalism, Israel's war in Gaza & German complicity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__W0B_8ZoA, 1:05:32

If she balks, I walk.

To the sick mind healthy people are boring. They want excitement. They want to be cool. They don't want to live in places like Montana or West Virginia. Too many Churches. They want Hollywood, Manhattan, Miami. You know a person by what he wants. And shallow, pretentious people need excitement to feel alive. They don't know what to do with themselves in quiet places. They don't want to be a state assemblyman in North Dakota. They want to work for a Congressman on the Beltway in DC near all the psychopaths who vote for military aid to dictatorships.

With Orthodox Jews, the sick ones, it's New York or Israel. Every other place is just laughable. But the joke is on them, because New York grinds you down with greed. And Israel is all war, war of every kind, all day long war, but mostly a war against religion. 

Next time I go on a shidduch, I'll ask, how would you feel about living in St. Louis, Missouri. If she balks, I walk. 

a fair chance

 "I think that the definition of a good society is where everybody has a fair chance at life's happiness. Now as you know  most people mess it up. They have the chance but for this or that reason they mess it up. And they ruin their lives even though they had a chance."

Norman Finkelstein, INTERVIEW: Norman Finkelstein | The sickness of capitalism, Israel's war in Gaza & German complicity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__W0B_8ZoA, 1:05:32