Hubris and Hemlock

Chapter 9: Purely Puritanically Frum

Driving to PG Airpark without touching was easy given the bucket seats. No attention had to be paid to the problem until they reached the hangar. Emotionally and physically exhausted, Naamah was unable to pull the Piper Cub onto the taxiway by herself. When Mike offered to help, putting his hands around hers, she pulled away, wondering if he had done it on purpose. He recoiled as if insulted, and walk away shaking his head. She walked off the flightline in tears as he, apparently unaware, pulled the low-wing onto the parking area to run through the pre-flight checklist.

I guess I won't get to do any flying tonight, but I forgot my log book anyway.

Hoping he didn't notice, she did not want yet another reason to argue. This was such a small airfield that the guys in the hangar would tell everyone else and soon everyone would know. Bad enough they had come out her on such short notice with little time to spend in the air. Someone was bound to notice that. Too bad they didn't have the Chaffetz Chaim to explain the ills of gosip to them.

-What, I can't even touch your hand to move my plane, now? Sheesh, this is meshugas!

-This is tsnius.

-This is what? I haven't heard that word since my grandmother of blessed memory died. Don't tell me you plan to start wearing a sheitle now?

-A what?! I said don't touch my hand until I have been to the mikveh. That has nothing whatsoever to do with wearing a sheitle?! I hate wigs, why would I start wearing one now?

-You said tsnius, that's what she always said when she put her sheitle on, nu?

-Mike, that was a custom in one little village-

-Ah, no, not just one little village, thank you, and there are still lots of women today who wear them. I hope you are not about to become one of them!

-No, Mike, you ditz!

-You meant to say yutz.

-Thank you, you yutz. Tsnius is the entire set of mitzvot around being modest, both for men and for women.

-Oh, no, I am not going to start wearing peyas.

-No, it's just about going to the mikveh and dressing and behaving modestly. Kind of like having a Jewish name and a normal name.

-I think we started to use the goyeshe name after the Holocaust, Nans.

She glared at him, but held off saying Naamah this time. Her significant look directed him to explain the use of non-Jewish names after the war, with an eyebrow quirked.

-It seemed safer to be less obviously Jewish and more American, nu? Pretty obvious.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at his tone.

-It is also just plain old modesty, using a name like the people around you, not to draw attention to yourself. Tsnius includes modesty in speech, like not using vulgar language-

-Damn it!

Her right eybrow looked at him, awaiting an explanation for the interruption. He had been checking the oil as they talked.

-I closed the cowling on my hand.

-Right. Very funny.

-No really, it was an accident, Naamah. Happy? I used your Jewish name. Now can we please have some Shalom Bayit and stop this not even touching hands meshugas?

-If you want peace in the house, then try having some respect for me, and ask your mother if it is meshugas or not, the Family Purity laws. She was the one who insisted on the mikveh, remember?