Sometimes when I hear the chumrah of the month or the internet asifa I feel that some people who call themselves ultra-frum are trying to turn Torah Judaism into the equivalent of some bible belt group that tells everyone not to see a doctor or take medicine but if one of their leaders are ill they would. I suppose other people's zealotry should not bother me, but it does.
A few years ago there was a television mini-series about Jews and Judaism. I confess that I did not watch most of it, but the one message that I did hear was that now that for those of us who are living in the United States we have to find a way to be observant because we want to be and not because we are being forced to be separate . This is an ideology that I grew up with in the midwest that I think has bypassed brooklyn and much of the tri-state area. So often I her goyim this and goyim that and if you do this its goyish etc. Well in certain neighborhoods I would agree with you. The goyim there don't have such great values. Some other goyim that I have met are very lovely upstanding individuals. When one lives in a neighborhood filled with upstanding goyim its not valid to say that we should be frum to be different than the "awful" goyim. Would it not be best to say that we should be frum because its the right way for us as Jews to be?
4 comments:
The thing about living in NYC is that because the Jewish community is so large here, we can create as many little ghettos as we like, finding perfectly like-minded people.
Out of town, the communities are smaller, and everyone needs each other more. In those sort of environments a Jew can develop more uniquely, without a specific ideologue; they can become who they like and still be accepted.
In the case of NYC, if the community can be so polarized and narrow, how much more so will they be suspicious of gentile "outsiders"?
After leaving BY I was able to think more freely in terms of why I am a Jew and being happy I am a Jew. One's identity should be for one alone, and not for anyone else.
I agree
I remember that story too.. Growing up ultra orthodox, I remember that for me at least, it made me feel that no matter how frum we are, it is never good enough.. Well, these days there are burqas, and people who don't say when they are in labor becasue there on a "taanis dibbur". Certainly nailed clothing is a possibe next chumra..
The pinning-her-skirt-to-her-legs story, along with the running-back-through-the-gauntlet-to-pick-up-his-yarmulke story come from a novel written in 1904 by a maskil, Isaac Leib Peretz. Both acts are “gifts” that the main character, a wandering Jewish soul who was denied entry to heaven, collects and brings to God. Both are complete fiction, and both are repeated in yeshivas as true stories illustrating the importance of tznius/wearing a yarmulke.
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