B"H
Pamphlets are everywhere. It seems that cars just drive by and throw out all the pamphlets with new rabbinic decrees mostly signed by Rabbi Nissim Karelitz from Bnei Brak.
Friends of mine picked them up in the streets of Mea Shearim and gave them to me. One pamphlet mentioned a certain chassidic man in the neighbourhood inviting guys for Shabbat and besides all the food, they had to listen to what was called "irreligious opinions". Additionally, the hosts full name and address was given. Another one of those "flying messages" mentioned two shops in Malchei Israel Street selling Tallitot with a seal of a company which has no connection with the shops.
It is not only those public messages. In religious neighbourhoods everybody knows everything. The worst what can happen is that someone lives on the ground floor and all the kids from the "hood" stare through the window. I have experienced it myself when I visited friends and many people complain about being stared at.
Someone chassidic and living in such a neighbourhood, of course, knows all society rules and the fact that everybody is watching all the others. Even if they do not intend to watch you on purpose.
After a while I would just go wild not having my privacy. Although we go to chassidic neighbourhoods every Shabbat and I have lots of friends from religious societies, I really enjoy my "freedom" during the week when I am somewhere else in town.
As we go to different Tishes, we also met many people of different chassidic groups, and as we are a kind of regulars, we realized that we are also being watched. No one at a Tish cares what exactly you wear. What I am trying to say is that, of course, one should be dressed modestly but when you only comes once in a while, no one is going to make a fuzz if you wear a skirt with many colours or a black skirt.
However, as soon as one goes regularly and meets people, things are starting to get very different. On Shabbat, I dress modestly and behave in a certain way but not only because I want to but also because I have to.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
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isn't HaShem always watching?
ReplyDeleteironically there is a Torah about the tents of bnei yisrael in the midbar that their entrances faced away from one another so that everyone would get their due privacy..
B"H
ReplyDeleteHello Yitz,
Yes, HaShem is always watching, there is no doubt about it.
But there is a certain sentence which always comes into my mind. The sentence is from the movie "Yentl".
When Yentl's father wanted to teach her Talmud in the evenings, he always closed the curtains.
One evening, Yentl asked him why he is does so and her father answered:
"G - d will understand, the neighbours won't".
Whatever you do, either wrong or right, the neighbours might draw the wrong conclusions, and there is a little danger in this.