Rebbetzin Rosa Parks

(click to enlarge)

Hot on the heels of the pashkevilim admonishing mehadrin travelers not to use the back exit as a way of avoiding the fare, comes this adrenaline shot to the country's latest segregation effort.



And a segregation effort it is, but not to segregate haredi men from haredi women. Instead, by restricting their mostly unvehicled flock to mandated bus lines only, the geonim have finally succeeded in ensuring that these men and women never ever leave the Jerusalem - Kiryat Sefer - Betar Illit - Bet Shemesh - Bnei Brak pentagon, except on foot. I may have missed a few locales, but you get the idea. 


When the Gaon Kupshitz qualifies travel on non-mehadrin buses as being "פורש מן הציבור" - you know which tzibur he isn't talking about. If you are reading this online, Internet Rimmon or not, here's looking at you.


I also enjoyed the reference to "mizrachi" schools, as an analogy to the backsliding practice of taking mixed transportation. (For the uninitiated, "mizrachi" does not mean eastern or Sha"s, but is rather a jab at the Mafdal school system, an etymological artifact of the 19th century Chibat Zion's מרכז רוחני - מזר"ח that only haredim seem to use, and never as flattery). 


This poor blogger attended a "mizrachi" junior high in Jerusalem, and used non-segregated public transportation to get there. Since the school in question was located in Gival Shaul, I had a daily choice between the #11 and #15 buses. The former drove straight down Jaffa Rd, but at the time (mid-80s) still used one of those WWII-vintage cigar-shaped claustrophobia-inducing buses, and was populated exclusively by East Jerusalem laborers heading for construction sites. Not fun for a thin-wristed 12 year-old. That left the #15, which drove down Strauss and Malchei Yisrael St. (otherwise known as Geula). I spent many a ride reading the pashkevilim pasted along the route, and wondering at the tefillin-clad yeshiva students perched on the steps of yeshivos, presumably during the slower parts of davening.


What I never saw during these countless rides (and believe me, I was watching) was any interaction between the haredi and hiloni passengers that could in any way lead to Rachmana litzlan mixed dancing. Actually, there was no interaction at all. Either I was naive or things have really changed in the last 20 years.


My school, incidentally, was segregated from 1st grade.

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Here's a melaveh malka treat:
   

Compare with Deuteronomy 21:17 -

כִּי אֶת-הַבְּכֹר בֶּן-הַשְּׂנוּאָה יַכִּיר, לָתֶת לוֹ פִּי שְׁנַיִם, בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר-יִמָּצֵא, לוֹ:  כִּי-הוּא רֵאשִׁית אֹנוֹ, לוֹ מִשְׁפַּט הַבְּכֹרָה.

That's right, numbers after פי always need to be in the masculine form. Simple grammatical ignorance? I think not. The daas torah underlying every page of Chodosh seems to have dictated that the word at the end of the title - like the passengers at the back of the bus - must belong to the fairer gender.