Only White Spots

B"H

Pessach is approaching and this holiday always reminds of one of my former flatmates. She had converted to Judaism and became what others would call a "fanatic". Soon she decided to become chassidic and be something like "Shomeret Minhag Vishnitz - Someone who keeps the Vishnitzer customs".
Well, I am not too familiar with many Vishnitzer customs but I just found out from someone belonging to Vishnitz that the chassidic group does not have Pessach Haggadot with pictures or cartoons. For the children yes but not for adults.

One night and long before Pessach, my flatmate proudly showed me her Pessach Haggadah which was obviously not from Vishnitz itself. I must admit that it was an extremely beautiful Haggadah with drawings inside. Only one thing was missing and I told her that she must have got cheated in the book store. All the faces of the people in the drawings were missing. The place where the face should have been was only marked by a white spot. No faces, just empty spots making the people somehow look like aliens.

My immediate reaction was shock. I still remember that I was so shocked that I didn't even want to speak to my flatmate anymore. Just go into my room and be alone. I thought that this is all sick when she told me that there were only white spots because many Chassidim don't look at pictures showing human faces. I almost threw up due to the shock.

Ten years have passed since and I am still in shock. A few months ago I saw a certain poster on the Internet where the face was cut out. The poster was from New York and it mentioned something about Vishnitz. A Vishnitz area, maybe Monsey. But it is not only Vishnitz (especially the Vishnitzer Rebbe of Monsey, Rabbi Mordechai Hager) avoiding any kind of pictures. Many chassidic groups keep this custom and when you look around in private living rooms, you won't find personal photos hanging on the walls but only pictures showing nature etc.

There are things in haredi and particularly in chassidic society I could never get used to, and the "white - spot - face - business" is definitely one of them. I don't even want to get used to it. The Torah forbids us to make images but does it really mean cutting out all the faces ?

At least to me this is too far off.