[Avodah] Are Upsherin and Bonfires Taken from the Gentiles?

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "Mandel, Seth" <mandels at ou.org>     


>>I am coming from a different direction.  I do not have  problem with 
people adopting new customs, as long as they pose no problem  halakhically.
What I do object to is hypocrisy.  While I doubt any  particular 
person here is being hypocritical, the stance of various  movements 
within Judaism is, if not hypocritical, at the very least  
self-contradictory.
If one does not object to adopting new customs, then why,  pray tell, 
do some groups make a big issue out of wearing the European fur  hats 
(AKA shtreimels or spodiks)?  <<
 
 


>>>>>
 
There are two different trends at work here in Jewish history (not only  
among chassidim but among all Jewish groups) and they are A. the tendency  to 
gradually change and adapt to the ways of the cultures around us and B.  the 
tendency to resist change.  Although they seem mutually contradictory,  in 
fact both tendencies are constantly operative.  Change is inevitable in  any 
human society.  The notable thing about Jews (Torah Jews) is that we  
approach any type of change very warily and cautiously.  Changing while  
resisting change is not "hypocrisy" but the normal Jewish way of doing  things.  It 
has made us, Orthodox Jews, largely immune to the kind of  radical and 
extreme changes that would tend to lead to  our extinction,  the kind of changes 
adopted by our C and R  brethren.
 


--Toby  Katz
=========








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