Frum Gossip

I was in Flatbush this weekend and I got to catch up on the latest frum-world gossip. Apparently last shabbos there was a bus (or perhaps three or four) which left Boro Park, Brooklyn on a two hour drive to Lakewood, NJ. However it did not arrive in Lakewood till 7:00 PM, which was about two and a half hours in to shabbos. As you would expect there were countless cell phone calls to rabbonim, and dozens of halachic issues to contend with. Could they leave the bus when it stops? Could they leave the 4 Amos (8 feet or so) of the bus? It is unclear to me what happened, at the end, but many rabbis in many shuls started calling for soul-searching because of this. I heard there was also an ad taken out in some religious paper (I think the Yated Ne'eman) by four rabbis claiming that they did NOT offer any ruling that would have allowed this to happen.

The incident also inspired many jokes. The best one I heard is "well, they don't believe in _sheshet yomim taaseh melacha_, why should they believe the sequel _U'va'yom HaShivii shabbos La'hashem_?"

Lakewood is a good target for jokes in general. The kollel lifestyle is not the most popular, even among Brooklyn's very Orthodox Jews