Hello I am a chossid shoteh.

Executive Member Joined: Jan 22 2012 Posts: 354

just wanted to share that I was born in a car over 30 years ago my parents had no car so they took a cab to the hospital. My mother was overdue and drank some oil, on the way to the hospital she felt the baby (me) almost coming out. My father told the driver to pass all the red lights he did not want to so my father warned him that if he does not the baby will be born in the car and so it happened.

The car had just made it to the block of the hospital when I was already born the driver flipped out and ran away I don't know if he ever came back.

My father ran to the hospital to get help they said bring her in he said HELLO!!! baby was born already meanwhile my mother and me were alone in the car all this time. The nurses and doctors finally understood and ran out to the car cut the cord and whisked me into isolation just for protection.

So on my birth certificate it says place of birth in car.
This is not hereditary I did not give birth in car thank god. Whew

Gold Member Joined: Oct 14 2010 Posts: 1224

FTR the article does say that the couple was stranded so it was logical that the husband waved down/called a tow truck. While he was there it makes sense that the husband called upon him for help delivering the baby as l'halacha he was not supposed to touch his wife or the baby while still attached to the mother. I think labeling him a chosid shoteh is rather harsh.

Platinum Member Joined: Dec 27 2007 Posts: 7241

Miami. Maybe you are not familiar with the origins of the term Chossid Shoteh.

The term is used by the gemara when discussing a group of men who pass by a lake where a woman is drowning. The man who refuses to get in and save the woman because he cannot touch her is called a chossid shoteh. According to your analysis, though, this man could theoretically find someone else to save her. He could ask his friends or a gentile or whomever, just not him. Yet, this person's reluctance to act immediately is what earns him the term chossid shoteh by the gemara.

So is this gemara too harsh on the poor fellow? Or can you explain the difference between the two scenarios, with a citation to halacha? I'm still waiting for ANY citation supporting your conclusion that this fellow was in the right.

And to Ora and the others who are questioning the brief account- this little blurb is not an article on how stupid Orthodox Jews are. It is simply a cute, funny blurb about the tow truck driver. Like ha-ha, look what this truck driver did today. Other similar type articles might be about goats that people keep in their backyard or other odd little news clips. There are no nefarious goals here, no one is trying to make the Jews look bad.

Moderator Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 18290

No one is saying the article is about that.

We're just trying to present a different way of interpreting what happened, because the blurb did not say that he said he couldn't deliver his wife and had to find someone else. It was a separate, stand alone sentence that could easily have been added in on a whim as "look at this interesting halacha Jews have" and had nothing to do with him flagging down the driver.

We're not trying to explain the article as much as we are trying to explain that perhaps the guy isn't a chossid shoteh.

We don't know, that's all.
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Gold Member Joined: Mar 05 2007 Posts: 1610

You all replied so seriously! I was expecting a bunch of LOLs. While reading, I was pretty certain it was some humor article. Perhaps the guy didn't want to touch his niddah wife, but to describe her as some sort of monster for requesting his help in her most painful moment? I didn't get it...
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Executive Member Joined: May 22 2012 Posts: 426

Gold Member Joined: Dec 10 2007 Posts: 2288

Having caught my own baby in the hospital (the nurse ran to call the doctor instead of sending DH, that would have been a bit smarter - and, he takeh had no idea what to do, although it was not our first, but I did not really need his help) I can tell you that generally a baby born in a car (or at home) is born by itself, it does not really need a truck driver to help. Now if the baby is stuck, fine, tow the car to the hospital & let them interfere, but otherwise? Uh uh.

And my first reaction was also, I hope he washed his hands. I would not have let him get near me, no ma'am. But then, I know how to catch babies, even my own...

Executive Member Joined: May 22 2012 Posts: 426

Platinum Member Joined: Feb 20 2009 Posts: 7635

Executive Member Joined: May 22 2012 Posts: 426

I'm sorry everyone, again, I don't for a second think bad about truck drivers - I was talking from the perspective of the chossid.

Moderator Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 18290

FTR, no one said this was a "chossid" in the way we understand chossid.
Chossid shoteh has no relevance to minhagim, and is the original use of the word chossid.

Just in case people were confused...

Gold Member Joined: Apr 27 2010 Posts: 1974