![Rabbi Avi Weiss kisses John Stone on Thursday as Toby Weiss joins in. [Harbus for News]](http://www.vinnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/we4-400x271.jpg "*Apr 15 - 00:05*")
Bronx, NY – Reunited Thursday night with the hero in pinstripes who saved her from choking on food at Yankee Stadium, a Bronx rabbi’s wife exclaimed, “I would be dead without you.”
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“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you,” Toby Weiss told John Stone, the Army medic and Iraq veteran who rushed to her rescue during the first inning of Wednesday’s game. “Without you, I don’t know where I would be.”
Weiss, who is married to Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, hugged Stone and invited him to pray at her synagogue.
“I’m just glad you’re okay, honestly,” Stone told Weiss when he visited her home Thursday night.
“We’re connected now,” Weiss, wearing a pink Yankees cap, told Stone. “It’s not a one-shot deal. I would be dead without you.”
Stone, 38, was sitting about 15 rows behind Weiss when she began choking on a piece of kosher London broil. Stone sprang into action and performed a life-saving Heimlich maneuver.
“I’m too young to die,” Weiss, 66, told Stone.
She insisted that Stone was heaven-sent.
“God sent me an angel,” said Weiss, noting that her unassuming hero was blushing over the praise.
She joked that she was “turning blue,” and Stone responded, “It’s colorful.”
A die-hard Yankees fan, Weiss decorates her Riverdale home with Bronx Bombers memorabilia – including a picture of herself with ex-Yankees skipper Joe Torre.
Her collection grew by two items after her rescue. The Yankees provided Weiss with a bobblehead doll and a team media guide after her brush with death.
The team moved Stone and his brother, an Army infantry soldier on leave from Afghanistan, to the front row and plied them with all the food and booze they could handle.
“I was so scared,” Toby Weiss said of her near-fatal encounter. “My husband kept saying, ‘Help us! Help us!’ That made me feel even more scared.
“I was really in trouble. I couldn’t swallow, and I couldn’t spit it out,” she said. “Then I saw those big hands around me.”
The Montville, Conn., man – who wore a Don Mattingly No. 23 jersey to the game – was making his first visit to the new Yankee Stadium.
“I thank God that he sent John to the Stadium that day,” said Weiss.
The phones were ringing off the hook at both the Weiss and Stone homes yesterday with calls of congratulations and thanks.
“If I had another baby, I’d name him John Stone – boy or girl,” Weiss told her rescuer. “Without you, I don’t know if I’d be here today.”
Its a gevaldige kiddish hashem to thank a person and give him the attention he deserves, but why is she hugging other males when this is such a breach in hilchos tznios. Why is a nice simple thank you and maybe a nice gift not enough. But to be her dan lekaf zechus, HE probably approached her and she didn’t have a chance to refuse. Anyway may all the jewish women (and men) be proud with the special mitzvah that they have, the crown jewel of modesty and tznius.
Weiss… hugged Stone…?? Looks like “Rabba” Avi Weiss doesn’t teach that these things are not permitted!!
How ironic that Avi Weiss’s wife gets called a Rebbetzin in the news Bifnei Kol Am Va’aidoh!! ‘Rebbetzin’ is like a dirty word for his philosophy. He has been trying so hard to find other ways for spiritually motivated women to grow personally and express their desirers to help others.
Perhaps this could be a reminder to him and his feminist friends that we don’t need NEW venues for women. We don’t need Rabbis, Rabbohs, poskos or anything else, Klal Yisroel has always respected, cherished and honored its rabbis’ wives and its Rebbetzins!
B”H
I am sure u r well intentioned but please don’t give mussar to the Weiss family based on Daily News article… why assume reporter has it right instead of assuming weiss wrong
What’s the difference between a Rabba & a Rebbitzin?
Comments 1 and 2 perfect examples of why the drop out rate is now approaching 30pc in frum communities. You think Hashem is toting up your mean spirited chumras for extra credit in olam habbah?
One man may hug another man!!! The weisses have this whole issue mixed up
Hug thing just an exaggeration…
To # (4)
You are absolutely right and I will assume the writer had it wrong.
I hope you will remember to assume the same when the subject is about someone or something you disagree with.
(Just for your info I was not intending to criticize her personally just wanted to point out what’s right to do and what’s not so right)
a womans life was saved and you guys kvetch that she hugged the guy who saved her?
next thing you will kvetch about is that he had his arms around her while doing the heimlich manuever.
i dont think there is anything wrong with what she did.
had she behaved in a standoffish manner after he saved her life….that would be wrong.
the rabbi’s wife did the right thing. i approve.
The picture looks like she’s being choked agian!
I love it how you readers only look for the negetive and love it when you can find “gotcha” material.
Start learning torah to bring the geula instead of reading articles here to prevent it
People who are annoyed by her hugging him, he already touched her to save her life! This guy deserves to be thanked and even given a hug! The question of why it is not good to hug someone of the opposite gender is a misconstrued one… Do some of you hug other family members other than your wife or husband? Do some of you ever hug your grandchildren who are of age? Well then, you would be going against halacha if you did! And that is against your own blood! Do you see how extreme of an ideal you have? Don’t confuse the mitzvah given for men, with the additional rules set by rabbonim to ensure a “pleasurable” marriage. And for Rabbi who think this mitzvah works, after 25 years of a marriage, a handshake is no longer sensational, you genius!
I know see what kind of Rabbi and Rebetzin this is. Modern Orthodoxy needs to be totally divorced from our frum community. Let them do what they want and we should consider them as another sect, like conservative and reform. considering them as part of us is a danger to all our orthodox values. When disallowing a female to hug a strange man is a “mean spirited chumra” thats not A frum jews viewpoint.
If it were anybody other than Weiss’ wife, we would never have heard about this. This type of help from happens daily in NYC. That’s why NY is NY.
what a rebatzin !
“Rabba”t machshavat blev ish…
After reading the mean comments here I wonder if my heimish community could learn something from the Weisses. By the way Rabbi Weiss has been moser nefesh and been arrested around the world including at the Aushwitz monastery.
Whether you agree or not, a married women may not not have any physical contact with any man other than her husband, father, grandfather and son.
So that being the case the Weiss’s cannot consider themselves Orthodox because being Orthodox means following the laws of halacha -wether we are in the mood or not.
#20 is not being mean spirited, he is not being hateful, he is saying it like it is.
We Orthodox Jews will not stop complying with halachah just because some in our community don’t like and drop Yiddishkeit because of that. We will serve Hashem with all our might and our strength. Whoever doesn’t want to comply, that’s their choice, but don’t call yourself Orthodox.
Did anyone ever think that maybe she was just overcome with emotion and hugging him was a subconscious act? This woman had a near-death experience that most of us couldn’t possibly understand. Why is there such a need to throw dirt on a beautiful outcome? Shameful.
Well said. How “mister,”Rabbah and their kind can turn a beautiful Kiddush Hashem into a Tznius story is beyond me. Why must some people always make a beeline for the Tznius part? Why does everything in their world revolve entirely about their definition of Tznius? Is this what frumkite is all about? Is this the sum and substance of what we have to offer the world?
There’s an old saying to the effect that if you want to know someone’s faults see those that he has the quickest eye for in others. Mister and Rabbah, with your comments, you reveal more more about yourselves, than you do about Rebetzen Weiss.
to # 28
Thanks for trying to defend my position, and after all the ugly hate comments I got just for the mere sin of pointing out a simple halacha, its no wonder that the David’s of the world would only see part of my comment and of course he missed comment #10 .
Anyway let me not waste my time, because the people that live with what the torah says don’t need my explanation, and the people who live with what their heart and mind says and hate every holy and restricting part of Judaism, noting I will say will change their views, so all of you have a great shabbos.
reading these comments make me feell embarrased and ashamed being a part of the so called frum community,to a normal person reading these comments we must sound like some criminaly insane ignorant savages.
here we have this young woman being saved from sure death by a complete stranger,
and when she get’s to thank him that he saved her life,all these ignorant idiots are busy with is ‘how come she touched him’
im just trying 2 understand y everytime theres a story posted on VIN,all the comments r based on judging the person if they r rite or wrong,what they r allowed 2 do and what they cant do,y cant the cooments be based on the STORY,the way it is with all websites that post news,4 the last time,its NOT ur place 2 judge people and its NOT ur place 2 decide what they r allowed 2 do and what they cant do,if u want 2 be all frum i clearly recall all the gedolim going strong against the internet,so first fix what u guys need 2 fix urselfs on and then wrry about other people!!!!!
Reply to #36 : What nonsense, Lo Sikrivu Legalos Erva is explicitly in the Torah – m’deoraisa. Furthermore arayos and even avizrayu d’arayos is one of the 3 aveiros that are yeherog v’al yaavor. Why shouldn’t anyone comment on anothers tznius? If an avaira is done in public or publicized we have an obligation to be mocheh even if it offends your secularly influenced sensibilities. Shabbat Shalom.
NO. 38. May I call myself Semi-Orthodox ?
You are like the sun coming out after a storm. Just when I feel like the Jews have gone completely insane and callous, you post such sensitive and intelligently written comments.
Thanks for reminding me that their are decent, intelligent Jews out there, in addition to those I know and love in real life.
#72 , i totally agree with you.
people don’t even understand what normal is anymore.
i have a nephew that usd to hug me when i would see him till he went to israel after high school.when he came back he got himself a big black hat and his aunt was no longer allowed to give him a hug.
yes, the same aunt who babysat for him and took care of him when he was an infant and a young child and teenager.
suddenly he became too kosher for a hug.
personally i think it is all due to the sickos out there who get a ”kick” out of ”improper touching” of the opposite sex, but on the other hand there are many of those ”sickos” who get their kicks touching the same sex as well.
soooooo, perhaps it should be asur for a man to hug a man too coz the rebbe in school might have his talmid sit on his lap since they are both male its not asur.
all sick garbage.
conduct yourself properly ,in all ways at all times.
the woman in the article reacted in a normal fashion by hugging the man who saved her life.
1. Kol ha’kavod to Mr. Stone. May he be blessed.
2. I would think that the issur of negiah falls upon a Jewish man, not a Jewish woman. Thus, Mr. Stone is not under any halachic obligation to follow the issur of negiah. So, to all those who have criticized Rebbetzin Weiss, please check to see she is obligated to follow this.
3. There are dozens of other things we should, as orthodox Jews, be concerned with. Whether or not Rebbetzin Weiss should hug her rescuer, whether or not she should have been at a ball park, whether or not she should have been eating in public (!), whether or not she should be called “Rebbetzin” or “Rabbah”, whether or not you would hold by Rabbi Weiss’ paskins —- these are all ridiculous issues that just increase sinas chinam. Remember, as frum as you may think you all are, there’s someone else who thinks you are a treifer for doing something different from them.
I posted #38 &88;.
To #89 I don’t know what gives you the idea that I posted other posts than #38 in stating about the halacha of ervah. There were other people who stated the facts of this halacha. You are trying to give the impression that it was only one person stating the law as is.
I follow the laws of the Torah that do not follow YOUR reasoning and I am well within my Torah rights and obligations to point out an obviously PUBLIC transgression of the laws of ervah.
I think what really bothers you is the fact of how the Weiss’s public thanks was being squashed on a public forum. It doesn’t suit your agenda of chanfening to the world. So you don’t mind my tochacha in private, but you do mind that it’s on VIN, because the WORLD will see that it wasn’t proper. Well, my Yiddishkeit, or yehadut, as you call it, does not get one iota influenced by what the WORLD will say, feel or think. Especially not when a large percent of these nations were and are the ones who persecuted us all these years in golus.
Just a little dose of reality – these very same people that you’re trying to impress can one day give you a wakeup call. (I’m not going to spell out the wakeup call. U
I mistakenly sent the previous post without finishing, so I will now. As I stated earlier I’m leaving it to you to fill in the blank of how those whom you are trying to impress can give you a wakeup call. (Hint learn Jewish History)
to #90
As you see I have identified myself and my identity is now as clear as yours. So now that we have both identified ourselves I can proceed to the issue at hand.
Your stand on this issue is very clear. It is the stand of the Tziddokim and Reform Jews who do not follow the halachas that Chazal set forth . To start arguing that this is not the opinion of ALL halachic authorities puts you in the same postition as those who argue that a man having relations with a non-Jewish woman or girl (even if that man is married) is not an halachic prohibition.
The halachas of ervah that Chazal set forth are gedarim so that we should not come to transgress the prohibition of guiliy aroyes. These are fences that Chazal set forth as it written in the Torah itself that we need to make fences for ourselves so that we shouldn’t come to transgress a commandment. I’m sure that your Torah Vdaas Rebbes agree with me on this issue.
to #95 Jonny, ervah is a woman having deliberate contact with a man other than her husband, son, grandfather, and father. You are twisting my words with saying that I was implying that rabbah Weiss is guilty of giluy aroyas. I have written that Chazal have set forth the halachos of ervah as a fence to prevent the transgression of giluy aroyas. Your misconstruing my words show that you are standing on shaky ground.
I will not judge from the article which states that rabbah Weiss hugged Stone. But in the picture Stone is clearly hugging rabbah Weiss and as a frum woman I can tell you no G-d fearing woman would put themselves in such a position, kol sheken to have a picture taken from you, being hugged by another man. I guarantee you in a million years you will not see a photo of a REAL rebbetzin in the paper being hugged by an unrelated man.
What happened with the Holocaust survivors is no proof of what the halacha is regarding ervah.
Who is Rabbah Weiss? If you are actually making fun of Rebbetzin Weiss because of the “Rabbah” contriversy, then you really have a problem with Sina’as chinum, and I would suggest teshuva.
You can tell from that picture; I can tell they are adjacent to each other. You again are passing an equal gvul of choshed b’ksherim, with whcih you trmaple with ease.
And to quote you-“what happened with the Holocaust survivors is no proof of what the halacha is regarding ervah” is opposite of your first line- “ervah is a woman having deliberate contact with a man other than her husband, son, grandfather, and father.” What you are implying is that there are in fact situations where the normal g’vulim placed by Chazal DO NOT APPLY!!!! And this in fact may be one of those situations!!!!
to #94 The Chofetz Chaim clearly states that one who transgresess a halacha in public can be shamed in public. The Weiss’s undoubtly know about the issur of ervah, yet publicly transgressed the halacha. You are not a bigger ohaiv Yisroel nor a bigger yirah Shomayim than the Chofetz Chaim.
to#97 I was not condoning what the survivors did and I did not say that the g’vulim placed by Chazal did not apply in that case. Neither will I explicilty state that they transgressed the halacha of ervah. Holocuast survivors cannot be judged especially right after the war. Please don’t put them in the same category as the Weiss’s, who are totaly not in the category of Holocaust survivors who were just freed from the concentration camp.
If you see rabbah Weiss adjacent to Stone and don’t see them clearly touching (no, I don’t mean with their hands) I suggest you get new glasses.
Please tell me a better title for Toby Weiss, as a rebbitzin she is clearly not.