3 posts tagged “poor taste”

At shul this morning, there was a guy standing next to me ranting in Hebrew.  He got there around the same time I did, and was yelling at bochurim the whole time he was in talis and tefillin.  At one point, I had to put my siddur down on the table to gather up my tzitzis, and he slammed my siddur shut and started pushing my arm when I tried to open it back up.  I yelled "excuse me" at him in Hebrew a couple times, but just walked away when I realized I was going to get nowhere with him.  At one point, I think the gabbai came over to calm him down because he was getting too rough with the Israeli bochurim.  People were shushing the guy the whole time he was there, but he kept ignoring them.

Turns out that lady who gave me a hard time outside of Kol Tuv has a reputation for being difficult.  I know a few people who've had trouble with her.  She once told my friend's wife that she wasn't helping to bring the geulah because she didn't give her enough money.  I forget if that was the first or the second time she yelled at my friend's wife, but the second time she gave this lady money, she yelled at her again.  So she told the lady to get a job!  When my friend was telling me this story he ended it with, "That's my girl!"  I wasn't sure what to make of that until I actually had to deal with that woman making me feel like a criminal.

On my way back from Kol Tuv this evening, I stopped to give some change to a lady sitting outside on a milk crate.  Shnorrers are commonplace in Crown Heights, and they let us fulfill the important mitzvah of tzedaka.  Sometimes they bother me, though.  I had a couple pennies in my hand.  This woman did not want pennies; she said if I couldn't give her like a mentsh, not to give her at all.  So I gave her a quarter in addition to the two pennies.  So she yelled at me as I walked away.  I told her that was all I had.  So she threw a penny at me.  I felt badly.