ExCUSE me????

Neither baby nor house nor rain nor snow nor shine nor... whatever, will keep this blog from it's appointed route!!

I saw this article this morning on my Google Reader (which you can now use to follow my blog quite easily). A man asks a great Rav whether he should sell his kidney (!) to fund his child's wedding.

I felt like both laughing at the ridiculousness of the question, but crying at the bitter desperation that the person in this dire situation must feel. I think I can sum up the comments on VIN with... ??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know whether this speaks to the problems we as a community have in being able to decide certain things independently or to the unsustainable economic model that many of us delude ourselves into thinking still works...

I mean, why do you need to even ASK this question?? Are you KIDDING (or, shall I say, KIDNEYING...) me??

I could go into a whole long, booming discussion about an ingrained culture of dependency, entitlement, dina d'malchusa, appearances, unrealistic, anachronistic expectations etc, etc, etc that could possibly lead to such a shaileh, but I'm too tired. All I know is, DON'T sell your kidney, heart, liver, gall bladder, toes, eyes, fingers, brain, or intestines to fund your daughter's wedding, I couldn't care how angry your mechutanim will be (unless your liver or intestines are really tasty, then you can make some nice gehakte liver or some good kishka for the wedding for cheap). Make a wedding (or bar mitzva or bas mitzva or bris or kiddush or whatever) you can truly afford, even if it's just chicken, soup, cake and a few close friends.

That's what my wife and I plan on doing... right, dear? Oh. Wait. No need to stoop so 'low'. We can sell off a coupla shaitels and make one in the Marina del Rey off the proceeds... ;-)