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I loved everything about that episode of House. I am pretty sure that they wrote it specifically to make me happy. Thank you for the birthday gift, House writers and actors. It was late, but well worth the wait.

I enjoyed especially the respect that frumkeit was given. The writers and actors gave clearly noticeable honor to such concepts as:

- joy at weddings
- a bride's personal happiness with the husband the matchmaker had helped her to find (rather than being terrified or angered at an arranged match)
- refraining from gossip (lashon hara)
- honoring modesty, especially between a bride and groom
- not trivializing beliefs which one doesn't share or understand
- Orthodox Jewish acceptance of non-heterosexuals (the patient thought that Thirteen's bisexuality was "interesting," not gross, sinful, or titillating, at least in the non-frum/non-Jewish person; we don't know what she would've thought, had Thirteen been Jewish )
- a spouse's acceptance of his spouse's non-observant past, as a part of her life that helped guide her to becoming the woman he loved
- pikuach nefesh ("preservation of the soul" -- the fact that, because it was a medical necessity, the patient accepted medical treatment, a lack of perfect modesty, and men touching her, because it would hopefully save her life)
- Shabbat (though they did lie to her, they were also doing what was in full keeping with Jewish custom: violate one Shabbat in order that she could hopefully live to observe many more Shabbatot)

Also? I adore Amber/Cutthroat B****, and I'm glad that she's back. I'm also glad for the one important difference between herself and House: that she chose to find both love and respect, while House specifically and purposefully chooses annoyance/hatred and respect. (I hope no one here thought that I thought that the important difference between the two of them was their genders. For the record, I honestly don't know that Wilson is hugely concerned with that, either.)

I've got three copies of that book on my shelf. Well, actually, in boxes; I packed up the books two weeks ago, preparing to move. I love the book, and it does a great job in almost everything it attempts to do. Only one thing I noticed that was glaringly wrong or out of place:

There is no such tradition as "raising a child in silence." That is the single, solitary instance I could find in the book that is not actually a part of Jewish tradition or lore. It's a literary device, added to an otherwise very realistic portrayal of Modern Orthodox and Chasidish Orthodox Judaism, to further the story.