On the left. the leader of Lithuanian haredi, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. On the right, the Litvak's number two, Rabbi Aryeh Lein Shteinman. I have seen dozens of pictures of these two and one video, but I've never seen either smile. The video was taken at a siyum for daf yomi, hundreds of other rabbis, including many haredi leaders were singing, dancing and clapping (many of them very weakly, though). These two sat almost motionless, looking like dried up, very unhappy prunes. Rabbi Shteinman is the rabbi who a year or so ago did not know what a credit card was. Run away from these men as fast as you can.
Haredi rabbis, led by the evil one of Jerusalem, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, have set out to ban women's clothing they find offensive, even if that clothing conforms to halakha. Ha'aretz reports on the results of their da'as toiyroh:
…In Jerusalem, the response went further than just the Mea She'arim poster warning against "the Parisian designer getting his nails into us," to acts of violence. A clothing store near Shabbat Square was recently set on fire, while Geula neighborhood patrols are armed with containers of bleach to damage the clothing of women who break the dress code.
It is not clear how organized the patrols are, but an elected Haredi official in Jerusalem recently complained to the police of an "atmosphere of terror in the streets." He called on the police to intervene.
Bnei Brak also has a local Bleach Underground. The desire to be fashionable exacted a price from Bnei Brak resident D.: "At the end of a day around town I discovered three large bleach stains on my new skirt," she reconstructed. "The next day I heard from friends that women with syringes and baby bottles are spraying bleach on clothing they don't like for some reason." According to D., her sin was that her "skirt was pretty, not particularly short."…
Just how picky are these madmen? This picky:
Miri, the owner of an eponymous clothing store, earned approval, but only after she removed a substantial portion of her goods from the shelves. "Anything made from jersey, spandex and denim is prohibited," she explains.…
Several respected rabbis weighed in on the matter last week, writing, "Recently a variety of foreign garb has spread among the women and girls; this is immodest clothing. Knitted fabrics are not appropriate for daughters of Israel." At that time, the list of dozens of approved stores was published.…