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| The uniform look of Charedim |
Rav Shlmo Wolbe discusses Frumkeit in Alei Shur. And does not consider it a positive thing. Frumkeit is what happens when people take upon themselves Chumros for the wrong reasons. This is a common occurrence among some Charedim. But what has happened in the Charedi world in general goes beyond Chumros. It extends to externals adopted by them for purposes of self identification and separation. For example, just this past Shabbos I was struck by the number of young Charedi students that happened to Daven Mincha at my Minyan at Yeshivas Brisk this week. They were literally identical. All wearing the exact same suits and black hats. They were almost like a little army.
Back to Eytan Kobre. He described his occasional encounter with a stack of old Jewish Observer (JO) magazines) he owns:
I recently had occasion to do so again, and was struck, as I am each time I read one of those back issues, by just how much things have changed in the frum community over the many decades since the JO began publication in the 1960s.
This much is clear from even a casual perusal: We’re a lot more frum than we once were. Pictures of a beis medrash scene in a yeshivah gedolah from those days feature a look that has disappeared in the current iteration of those very same institutions, with some boys sporting colored shirts and funny-looking hats and somewhat longer hair. And it’s not that the rebbeim were different looking, too; they looked quite the same then as they do now.
Then there are the occasional pictures of women, and the article titles and cultural references that are now not deemed “frum enough” to mention.
More importantly he then praised the JO’s willingness to host articles by Orthodox Jewish leaders with whom they had profound disagreement:
32 years ago, Professor Aaron Twerski wrote an article in the JO criticizing elements of a speech by the late president of Yeshiva University, Dr. Norman Lamm, the latter wrote “An Open Reply to Professor Aaron Twerski,” which was followed by Professor Twerski’s reply.
Both were strongly worded and openly, but respectfully, stated, and all involved lived to tell the tale. I believe that the fact that the exchange was featured in the JO, far from signaling some sort of concession to Dr. Lamm’s views, gave readers a clarity and a confidence in the case Professor Twerski had made on behalf of the worldview espoused by the JO.
As Eytan notes, this would never happen today because we are Frummer now than we were then. Our ‘standards’ of what is and isn’t acceptable have changed. But then he ends his column with the following:
Like I said, we’re a lot frummer now than we once were. Or are we?
That ending reveals a sense that his community is not necessarily more religious than it was back then. Just that they have adopted more externals - standards that have little to do with how religious they actually are.
He is right. This phenomenon has resulted in creating society of cookie-cutter Jews whose worldviews are limited to unchallenged rhetoric about right and wrong. Buttressed by a code of behavior that tends toward isolationism. Thus reinforcing their own narrow views.
I suppose the fear is that exposing them to the worldview of someone like Rabbi Lamm is now considered too dangerous. Even it is followed by a strongly worded rebuttal by one of their own. The idea might be ‘Why expose them to these ‘foreign ideologies’ at all?’ ‘They might somehow end up agreeing with them!’
The uniform look Charedi students in the Yeshiva world now have reflects their uniquely uniform ideology. One which rejects any other Orthodox perspectives. For all practical purposes it makes those ideologies seem almost heretical. And deeming those of us ‘harboring’ those views either heretical or ignorant.
I have had more than one conversation with young Charedi students that actually think that way. I have heard the recorded lectures of some of their respected Mechanchim teaching them that way.
One might ask, what is the harm in making people look Frummer in this way? Isn’t it better than making them look less Frum? And why expose them to ‘questionable’ Hashkafos? Why put these ideas in their collective heads? If one is Charedi, why not pull out all the stops to assure their young follow in their footsteps?
To me the answers are obvious. Externals like black hats and jackets are not what makes one a sincerely committed Jew. It makes them a cookie-cutter Jew with a narrow perspective on life. Who will miss out on opportunities to explore other observant Jewish communities and see them in a favorable light.
It harms how men and women perceive and interact with each other.
It does not allow anyone to explore their own strengths and weaknesses and choose a lifestyle using their true strengths while being consistent with observant Judaism. Allowing and even encouraging them to flourish – instead of burying those strengths in their unconscious minds.
Not everyone wants to be a cookie cutter Jew. This applies to Charedim too. Especially if they have been psychologically forced into a Charedi mold by their Mechanchim and by parents that go along with it - having had a similar indoctrination themselves.
This does not unite the Orthodox Jewish world. It divides it.
There is a reason that R’ Moshe Feinstein who was the recognized head of the Agudah Moetzes (and considerd the Gadol Hador at the time by many people) approved of the kind of things the JO did back then which are now considered not Frum enough. He believed that the truth would prevail and that exposing readers to other points of view would not lead them astray. He had no problem with blue shirts instead of white shirts, baseball caps instead of black hats (on weekdays). He had no problem with pictures of women. Or even sitting with his wife at a mixed table together with other Gedolim at a wedding or a banquet.
These developments are not good things. It’s sad that this is now the standard of a community that is very likely the wave of the future. There is not a doubt in my mind that their commitment to perpetuating their version of Judaism is greater than those of us with any other Hashkafa. And whose population numbers increase exponentially with every passing generation. Far more than any other Orthodox demographic.
I’m glad however that there are at least some people like Eytan Kobre in that world who do not necessarily see perpetuating these externals as all that important. Or even necessarily a good thing. Will that change anything? I doubt it. But one can hope.