tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post4265846943129451910..comments2023-10-24T00:40:27.831-07:00Comments on Friar Yid: Standing Up or Standing Out?Friar Yid (not Shlita)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10311439778319103094noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-45768023562391134702012-08-31T19:22:42.176-07:002012-08-31T19:22:42.176-07:00Hi Dave,
Thanks for writing in! It's good to ... Hi Dave,<br /><br />Thanks for writing in! It's good to hear from you.<br /><br />Yeah, it's interesting; though I still fantasize about wearing one 24/7, I think I may adjust my expectations for myself for now. I definitely have enough on my plate starting my new job without adding a kippah to the mix right now-- though I still think that my parents are putting way more emphasis on it as an "exclamation point" symbol than it really would be. For now I'm happy to wear my hats and to work on working the kippot in more during my free time.<br /><br />Yes, minhagim are funny. I once had an online convo with a frumie who threw out the line, "What would your great-grandfather think if you did/didn't do such and such?" My response was, "Well, since he was a secular Yiddish Communist, I would think anything I do would be an improvement."<br /><br />I got a tallis katan over the summer but I got so darn hot I couldn't stick with it. I'll keep trying though.Friar Yidhttp://friaryid.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-28751743298723742132012-08-30T18:20:18.358-07:002012-08-30T18:20:18.358-07:00Friar, I read that the Vilna Gaon said that wearin...Friar, I read that the Vilna Gaon said that wearing a kippa all the time (ie. even when not praying or studying Torah) was only a chumra, and not required. <br />I personally do not wear a kippa all the time. I have the excuse that since I am Sephardic, my minhag is to only wear a kippa while praying or studying Torah. However, I think wearing some form of tzizit is actually more important, and one day when I remarry and have enough nerve, I'll wear tzizit and a baseball cap all the time. Dave.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-11566783194073518402012-08-26T08:10:02.449-07:002012-08-26T08:10:02.449-07:00True- And over the past 5 years I've used wide...True- And over the past 5 years I've used wide-brimmed hats as a stand-in (amassing quite a collection in the process). Since I've decided not to wear a kippah all the time, I think for now I'll stick with hats. The benefit to hats is that they aren't as explicitly tied to clothing identity politics-- but on the other hand if that's something I'm becoming more interested in expressing, a hat starts feeling like some kind of cop-out.<br /><br />Can you tell I'm still working through this one? :)Friar Yidhttp://friaryid.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-68385573003722171862012-08-26T00:49:02.991-07:002012-08-26T00:49:02.991-07:00Well the kippah as the definitive piece of Jewish ...Well the kippah as the definitive piece of Jewish headgear isn't that old. A hat, baseball cap, turban, etc. does the job just as well. You can express your Jewishness by covering your head any darn way you like (although a bishop's mitre would look stupid). You don't need a kippah.Garnel Ironheartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-42596605589778752932012-08-16T21:31:41.454-07:002012-08-16T21:31:41.454-07:00Nope, private! Not sure about the student populati...Nope, private! Not sure about the student population yet, but given the tuition and the area (about an hour away from the city), my guess is that it's not overwhelmingly Hispanic-- less sure about the Catholic thing, though.Friar Yidhttp://friaryid.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-50837907667195356112012-08-16T21:17:07.849-07:002012-08-16T21:17:07.849-07:00It occurred to me -- are you teaching in the publi...It occurred to me -- are you teaching in the public school system? Will there be any problem with wearing "religious symbols", such as the controversy that erupted when an airline check-in clerk was censured for wearing a cross on a chain around her neck? Or if you are teaching in a predominantly Hispanic/Catholic school district?Antigonoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01022875780607194845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23499413.post-79500571773848042022012-08-16T07:21:51.272-07:002012-08-16T07:21:51.272-07:00Watch out -- you're becoming a Reconstructioni...Watch out -- you're becoming a Reconstructionist! :-))<br /><br />Jews have traditionally, when in goyish society, kept a low profile for reasons of safety: "don't give the goyim a reason to persecute us; they'll find one easily enough anyway". To a point, the generation that came from Europe, no matter when, carried a fear with them that their American-born children found difficult to understand. The reality of America is that the immigrant Kowalsky can be a Polish Catholic, or a Polish Jew, no one knows which UNLESS he does something to distinguish himself as one or the other. This was a freedom unknown to the parents, and like a lot of freedoms, it is a double-edged sword because it allows you to STOP being something you have negative feelings about.<br /><br />And, in general, when children begin to do something that the parents abandoned, it makes the parents feel somehow rejected. On Givat Haim, a kibbutz where I worked as a volunteer, the generation which had grown up in the children's houses decided to have their own children sleep at home -- and their parents, who'd come to Israel convinced that the kibbutz's total socialism was utopia, were shocked and hurt, when their own children told them of the trauma of crying all night in a dorm where there wasn't any adult. [Even psychologists like Bruno Bettelheim didn't pick up on that].<br /><br />My mother saw Orthodoxy as a religion of the poor and ignorant. It was Asiatic, primitive. Her own mother, of course, had a Yiddish siddur -- Hebrew wasn't taught to girls -- and she really only knew how to keep a kosher house and light Shabbat candles. My mother wanted to be AMERICAN!! so much she Anglicized her first name, never let anyone she worked with know she lived on the Lower East Side. Her entire generation fled from expressing their Jewishness as much as possible -- and then the second generation began looking for roots, to their parents' amazement. BTW, exactly the same thing has happened, in a shorter time period, here in Israel. It's the "immigrant syndrome".<br /><br />I was never subjected to overt anti-Semitism in the US. But there were plenty of subtle signs. It's the ones who don't think they are anti-Semites who can be the worst, and nowadays they will tell you, when trotting out some pro-Palestinian rubbish, that they like JEWS, it's just Israel that commits atrocities, etc.<br /><br />Antigonoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01022875780607194845noreply@blogger.com