Chaptzem Blog!      

I don't see any problem with what's written. If the kilt or any similar concept, is completely avoided by the heimishe community, then nobody who was not born heimish should be introducing such foreign concepts.

 

Dear chaptzem, that you would post an opinion like this at any time of the year is beyond me. THE WEEK BEFORE ROSH HASHANA? On behalf of ehrliche yidden everywhere, I would like to say to Eliyohu SHANA TOVA. The question about the clothing should be decided by a Halachic authority. However, I am confident that no Rav would ever say the things that this nameless person wrote.

 

You utter twit.

You were too busy congratulating yourself on stringing together a few Hebrew words that you think makes you look like the gadol you think you are, that you unfortunately failed to but your brain in to gear while typing your comment.

I'll leave it to others to rip your brilliant thoughts apart, to start with; "They all bring along meshigasen and also tend not appreciate the Jewish culture"- Onkles, Oivadya, Yisro, Shmaya & Avtalyon, none of these evil people had any appreciation whatsoever. Only you, O Brilliant Genius Twit Comment Man, knows what it means to appreciate yiddishkeit.

Just allow me to say; you must be solacking any self-esteen, any yichus of your own, not even an illustrious zeide here or there, that you have to raise yourself up by pushing others down.

The floor is yours, twit.

 

What a mean-spirited letter.

 

wow...thats a great way to look at the negative side of the situation no? This is an insult to Bal Tshuvas everywhere...Many many many Bal Tshuvas appreciate jewish culture much more than the one they were brought up with...I am speaking from personal experience here and I think what you said is utterly ridiculous...

 

grow up and get a life, the guy meant jews from all backgrounds, countries and cultures, there is nothing wrong with a jew dressing as is the custom in that local, jews in arab areas dressed like the locals, all the polish rebbes dressed like the local nobels. obviously we are not talking about dressing in appropriate, how long ago do you think pants were invented? what about all the chassidim that dont wear any pants just a rekel and socks? stop believing your childhood story books with moshe in the midbar wearing a striemel. and yes i know it says shlo shinu es malbushum, but what do you think they were wearing to start with? the local clothes of canan or aram. should we stop wearing pants, socks, button shirts, sweaters, and the like. is it too assur to wear a short jacket?

in addition your opinion on gerim is wrong and sick.

and if you want to know what happend to chabad, they have their own issues, older and bigger than anything some baalie teshuva brought in.

a bisel avhavas yisroel would be a nice thing to add to your resume before the yemei hadin

 

What exactly is Jewish culture?

As far as I can tell we adopt things from the non-Jews and then claim it to be culturally significant - but there is no mention in the Torah. Further more there are Jews spread throughout the world who take oncultrual identities akin to the places the live
E.g.
Borsalino hats (this is a European invention adopted heavily inthe US and europe at the turn of the 20th century)
Pants (suits/ long coats/ short coats/ white shirts(invented only in the last 100 yrs/ button up shirts/ shirt collars/ zippers on your pants)- although panyts are mentioned in the Torah with regard to the Cohanim (as undergarments)- the form of clothing took by our ancestors was a large clothe wrapped around the body (See Gemorah for more details)
Shtreimel and Visser Zoken - again, these are Eastern Europen forms of dress from the late 18th and 9th centuries (no mention n the Torah or gemorah)
What about copels (yarmukas) - this was introduced into our religion approx 400 years ago - this isn't mentioned in Torahand was a form of head covering common in the middle ages in Deeply Catholic European countries (note: Catholic preists, Bishops and the Pope still wea them today)
If the kilt insults your sense of Jewish culture -what of the sephardim from India who left after WWII who wore Jalabahs - commen skirts for men in India
so too from Singapore and Burma, Jewish men wore Sarongs like all the other men in these countries
what about our kids who wear baseball caps -in the summer I have noted they are quite common

and wha of womends clothing - I think you would be hard pressed to find any womn wearing'culturally Jewish' clothing now-a-days.

If we want to be 'Culturaly Jewish' as you put it, we need to sourc our inforation from the only REAL and TRUE document that clearly efines JEWISH. In saying this we need to really on the Torah. In saying this we should really be dressed like our Islamic cousins to be dressed 'Culturally Jewish'

or perhaps this may be too embarassing to walk through Midtown wearing the garb of your ansestors as defined in the Torah

 

Gezhe: You know, the word "Twit" is most likely based on Roald Dahl's terrific book with the same title. It does do your comment justice. The author of the negative look at Baalei Teshuva most likely has never read anything by Roald Dahl, but it may be a good start.

 

I like the comment of "they bring along all these non Jewish ideas into the maistream. Look at chabad, Breslav etc"

Just like to point out that a significant part of the MO,Litivsh and Chassidic teens are following their Bresolv and Chabad brothers and sisters.

It wasn't more than a few years ago that we slammed Chabad for all their teens getting blind drunk at any opportunity

Guess what - It's now happening in far wider circles than just in Chabad

A month ago I was at a chassunah in Melbourne Australia where The Rosh Yeshiva of Philly was there with 10 philly bochurim. It was disgraceful to see these teens blind drunk and behaving in public in a dispicable manner (regardless of the fact that they did it right in front to ftheir rosh yeshiva)

Am I to assume that now that boys from Philly are going blind drunk in front of the Rosh Yeshiva that this is part of the "Jewish Culture"

Who exactly defines what is "Jewish culture"?

 

BTW - since you are quoting the gemara, please take a look at Tosfos which brings down the opinion of the RI (no slouch) who says that the quote means since gerim are so meticulous in their halachic pactices, they make the Jews look bad in comparison - but what did the RI know?