Monthly Archives: March 2006

A blast from the past (Y-Love)

The world is really a small world after all. While searching through the interenet, I came accross the following websites

I went to Yeshiva with this guy! Seriously. I was in Ohr Somayach, Monsey for 7 months at the time he was there. He was one of the top bochurim in the yeshiva, in terms of learning and popularity. Great guy. Anyways it appears he has entered into the world of music. Check it out, he is very talented.

http://modularmoods.com/y-love/

http://www.modularmoods.com/press/photos/y-lovegreen.jpg (picture of Yitz Jordan)

http://www.thisisbabylon.net/ (his blog)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsBd52_6iB0 (a brief bio video)

Litvish Vs Chassidic Worlds: Beard, Shetails and Dress

Here are some summary notes that I have been thinking of with regard to the difference between the Chassidic and Litvish world with regard to "externals". My thesis is that the difference in externals really represents a fundamental difference on a more intrinsic level. I feel that the Litvish world has been influenced more (seperate question whether this is a good / bad thing) by western culture and values.

Chassidic world

Full untrimmed beards
Untrimmed peyot
Long coats
Conservative style of glasses, watches
Style of eating more european..
Speak only yiddish
Unchanged curriculum from what is in Europe
More stringent on seperation between sexes
Get married at young age (18 – 20) as in Europe
Woman wear less attractive, more synthetic looking sheitals with head covering
Woman shave their hair
Wear conservative style of clothing
Go to mikvah everyday
Live in ghetto citys

Litvish

All young men are clean shaven
Wear short designer suits
Adults have short, trimmed modern beards with shaved necks
Speak english
Changed corriculum to include secular studies
Woman wear more modern clothing
Woman wear more modern shetails that are longer, more attractive and more realistic looking

I am waiting for comments, before I start posting some of my own ideas on this matter. Comments please, I havent had any in weeks. Come on people this is nice controversial one to get you all thinking and to express your views.

Clarification and a bit of Mussar

I posted up a draft essay that I was working on about an Athiest Prof who gave a lecture at Uni, however it wasn’t complete. I tried to delete it, but didn’t relise that it had only gone to my trashbin so it was still up. It was incomplete so probably didnt make any sense. I decided that at the end of the day it wasn’t such an interesting topic to post about in length so below is a shortened summary. I had an lecture on ethics at UNI, a Prof who is an athiest was the presenter. In the process of his presentation, he subtley ridiculed religions of various shades including Judaism with stupid, juvenile comments..

The moral of the story in summary is that when you see someone present an ideology with ridiculous arguments and in a way that is offensive, it turns people off and makes you the subjuect of ridicule. This Prof made an absolute fool of himself. This is a lesson to all of us who try and defend and represent Judaism in the public eye. Make a good first impression, because first impressions last. Also, if you aren’t qualified to be a public spokesman, ie you dont have the correct knowledge and you don’t know how to get a point accross, better to keep quiet or if asked say you do not know. One does more harm than good giving a poor presentation of Judaism.  That is my mussar message in a nutshell. It is not often that I give mussar on this blog :) but I feel this an important topic to get accross.

Pictures of Young Gedolim

Prof Y Levine has posted some great pictures of Gedolim when they were young (pre-beard years). Among those listed are R’ A Kotler, R’ Shach, R’ Ruderman and many more. Please have a look here

(http://personal.stevens.edu/~llevine/young_gedolim.html)

For more gedolim photos see E-Tzvi