Oh Frieda, the little hint of sadness in your eyes when you say you left the community...but I see it another way, HaShem has a plan for you to be a bridge between the worlds, to share with us on the outside so that we can not only understand the Hasidim, but BENEFIT, highly benefit, from their way of life. For me as a goy with Jewish roots on my father's side ( Polish), I yearn for these values which I believe are in my blood. I treasure them. And here, your work has brought them home to me and many others. May they be a light in today's darkness. I bless you for your work. And take heart, you may have left the community, but deep inside, it has never left YOU. Shalom.
I’m black guy from south london England with root from Africa but I agree with your comment. You can feel the good heart and I’m learning a lot about a group of people that I wouldn’t never know about. Ironically some of the values held this is group is also the same in my African family and cultural.
Hi Frieda, firstly, I'd like to thank you for your beautiful videos about Chassidic life. I grew up in an Orthodox non chasidic home and I am still Orthodox. However, my friends and I played with Italian Catholic school kids. We never spoke about religion or ate in each other's homes, but we all learned to be respectful of one another. I am glad that you are implying by your videos that people are not all black and white. There are Chassisim who are quite respectful of people from different cultures and there are "openminded" liberals who will be respectful of every religion, color and sexual orientation, but draw the line when it comes to Jews or those who disagree politically with them. Even though you have left the Chassidic world, you are perceptive and understand that there are openminded people who have plenty of biases. I admire that in you ( for whatever that's worth) People are human and no one is perfect. It would be nice if people would see the good in others and focus on the similarities instead of the differences. People are more polarized than ever before, but it's nice that you are trying to bridge the gap. It's a step in the right direction.. Also, there are good and bad people in every group but they don't necessarily represent the entire group or the entire religion. My hope is that those who leave the fold can realize it's not necessarily the religion, but some of the people who have distorted the religion that make up the problem.
I am now 81 years old. I have always been fascinated by other cultures, but the Hasidic community has been perplexing because of its insularity, fixed attitude’s, remoteness and unusual dress. I have enjoyed many of your episodes, especially those with Pearl. What a lovely woman! Except that her language is different, her faith reflects that of the Catholic community in which I was raised. Your presentations are wonderfully enlightening and have opened up a strange world, to me, and made it much more understandable. People’s negative attitudes reflect tremendous ignorance. Your introductions to that world will surely help break that ignorance down bit by bit. Please don’t be discouraged. You are doing a great and worthwhile job!
very well put, and i have been around many catholics, and even gone to mass a few times, and faith is faith. identical if stripped of the veneer...thanks!
Speaking personally, you have taught me so, so much about Judaism in general as well as The Hasidic community. They are so private and you have bridged a vital gap. NEVER have I seen such a joy and love of one's faith as I have amongst the RUclips films I have seen by you and some other links. That's important fir The Jews so we avoid Antisemitism. Thankyou Freida
I’m an outsider Christian looking in with much love and respect for all cultures different from my own. I am watching this video probably 2years later. I hear the fear in your voice from the trauma of Covid 19 . This fear wasn’t just in your community but plagued the world. We all had to learn how to listen and learn from each other I order to survive. We wouldn’t trust each other and we’re all suspect of one another. 2 years later we still are bickering over vaccines and such. I hope you and your loved ones and the Hasidic community despite whether you are vaccinated or not survived. I see beauty in the Hasidic community as I do in other communities that live differently than I do. I think that is one of the reasons God created us all so unique. Thank YOU for being brave enough to respectfully cover this community with love so that biased and uninformed individuals will be able to possibly educate themselves one day and stop the fear of others.
I’m seeing this video after the pandemic’s over. I would have shared our school curriculum site that’s user friendly. It would have supported you to homeschool. So many died of COVID in NY. There’s a lot to appreciate about the community, culture and life of Hasidism. You live by your own truth and we all see that. Keep up your amazing work.
I am a Gver. I am not Orthodox, but have been greatly influenced by by Elie Weisel, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and the Lubavitcher movement. A Chabad "missionary" performed a Bar Mitzvah for my son (then 30-yrs old) in a Manhattan park upon learning that my son had not had a bar mitzvah at age 13. Truly a blessing -- especially for my mother-in-law of blessed memory in a Jewish nursing home in Colorado. Thank you for your work -- I "liked" and subscribed!
I'm enjoying your content.. thankyou. I have been interested in the Hasidic life for several years, and I think it's the family community that intrigues me. Have you made a video on your lifestyle, meaning are you keeping up with some of the laws including the meat and dairy kitchen?, and observing The Sabbath and other celebrations? Do you raise your little son with some of the Hasidic laws? (hope that is the right word). Again, thank you for sharing your video's with us.. I'm enjoying them.
Thank you for your videos I enjoyed going to Williamsburg and seeing your community nicest people in nyc to us it was a nice break from this media driven world we live in
Your comments remind me of Muslim Irshad Manji's comment in her book 'The Trouble With Islam' regarding people who've asked why she remains a Muslim even if she's critical of certain elements of the religion - she says Islam has values like self-discipline that provide a contrast to the individualism and materialism of the secular world and it's the debate between ideas that she finds so fascinating to live with.
Hi from Australia 🐨🦘 I've just come across your chanel and I love it! I could listen to you all day. Thank you for your balanced, intelligent view point. 😊
wait, "did well with the pandemic?" There was a study that showed that death rates in Brooklyn Hasidic neighborhoods were 3-4 times higher than state averages! Granted, nowadays liberal secular society is *also* ignoring the pandemic at the cost of many lives, so clearly we're no better. But to assert that *any* community should ignore public health statistics so that people don't get lonely? That feels really off-base to me. And I totally get the argument that shutdowns hurt small businesses, but we have to remember that the government *has money to pay people to stay home.* Let me repeat that: they have the money. They're just choosing not to give it to us. They're choosing to give tax breaks to CEOs of big corporations instead. THEY are the enemy here-not public health measures like mask mandates and school shutdowns.
I know exactly where you're coming from. The Hasidic way of life, especially the Satmar, is not welcoming to ANYONE who is not EXACTLY like them. They literally look down on you, or act like they want to run away from you. I am 100% Jewish as far back as we can trace. I speak Yiddish, went to yeshiva (conservative, not orthodox). I'm educated in torah/mishna/custom. Every time that I would go shopping in Borough Park, I go into a store (I'm wearing pants sometimes), I get ignored, or this disdainful look. UNTIL, that is, I start to speak to them in Yiddish!! All of a sudden, everything changes!! I get attention, a smile, and of course, THE QUESTION!!!! You're Jewish??? I answer them in Yiddish. YES, I AM!! I went to yeshiva for most of my education, I light candles on Shabbat and I keep the Yom Tovim. They want to know why then am I not frum. I explain to them, that I don't agree with some of their ways, etc. I believe in G-d and I believe that I am one of the lucky chosen and it's an honor. I just go about things differently. I tell them that G-d knows my heart is pure and giving and that I have genuine compassion and empathy as much as, if not more, than a frum person! Before I know it, in most cases, they are much nicer to me, they smile and tell me it was a pleasure meeting me, come back soon. If the frum would just be a little more welcoming and nicer, people would have a much better opinion of them. Kindness, is kindness, it knows no religion/race. If you can't be a kind, respectful person, then you are not a MENSCH, plain and simple 💯🙏
Please understand that we are cautious about strangers and if you look like one we will not trust easily. We have been very recently burnt by formerly good neighbors who helped the nazis murder thier former friends.
Why do you feel you will be accepted by people in a community that you feel superior to? Why do you want to be part of a community that does not share you ideology?
I’m sorry but someone with pants will not be assumed to be Jewish at first glance. We are raised with the principles of ALL the laws of the Torah. Not just cherry picked for convenience. So modesty is actually the main thing we see first and foremost. Pants is historically a man’s attire and was never allowed for women because it highlights the shape of the legs which is not modest. God knows your heart is true but the same God asked you and chose you to abide by all the 613 mitzvahs…. If you don’t look like his daughter how do you assume his other children to know you are a sibling?
I'm convert to Chabad Chassidic Judaism. I like you so much as a person. A person who authentically looks for truth is always carrying a flame inside them. I think you're a warm Jew. Not a cold Jew. Your healthy skepticism has definitely led to the right conclusions about global events. Shkoyach.
Thank you from NJ for your caring and connection with our elder brothers and sisters in the Hasidic community, I have discovered deep roots in my family from Jewish program from Germany many years ago, several generations ago, my great grandparents settled in Williamsburg but we very strict Catholics- grandpa was a tailor who spoke Yiddish yet was a daily communicant in the church. The “fiddler on the roof’ has an unusual connection to my unconscious mind, so I cherish this experience. Thank you my sister in this journey, keep up your great work. Ray D. (Nj)
I know this was an old post but it was very good, we do need to examine ourselves, our motives, our hearts. Hate is scary and it is fueled by ignorance. Thank you for sharing this post. May you have peace my friend.
Continue to work toward educating and bringing information to the secular world. This is a necessary and important thing because it opens closed doors for a look inside a grossly misunderstood religion. We can see the ideas, customs and beliefs that are important to the Hasidic community. When we have understanding, there is much less likelihood of bias and animosity.
Yes, I have some friends - and I'm always invited to family events. But I'm also making friends as I return all the time for my tours. People are slowly warming to me.
I’m so interested by your videos. I’m curious where in Yiddishkeit you weren’t able to ask questions. To me that is such a major part of learning. I agree with Perel…if you can connect to real Torah teachers I think you would really be amazed at your heritage 💕
You are allows to ask. I think it depends on her parents maybe who didn’t entertain questions but honestly it’s encouraged and it even says in perek if you don’t ask questions because you’re shy or afraid then you won’t be able to learn. I think most parents answer the questions thier kids ask and even say wow this is a good question and then answer it. She is heavily influenced by her parents whom I Haven’t met but from her stories can gather they were rather strict and unbending. I myself am a parent and can tell you questions are answered.
I am Christian and admire a faith group that lives their faith day by day. I lived 5 years in a catholic convent and fell asleep many nights listening to the Benedictine nuns singing the Gregorian chants. My best friend of 60 years is Jewish and she says “ ach. Those Hasidic Jews are michigena. It’s all crazy. “. Go figure. I asked her father once at a Seder if he believed the messiah was coming. He looked at me sadly and said what messiah? Where was the messiah in the concentration camps? I tell my friend how I love that she came from one of the tribes of Israel and I love the Seder prayers and readings. But she just waves her hand and says “ fairy tales. All fairy tales”. But I pray for her. And will forever. Thank you for your videos.
something else. my autistic older brother spent the last 20 years of his life , until covid took him, in a small group home in boro park run by a frum non profit. they were the most kind and loving ppl, for the first time in his adult life he had a home....even my anti-frum sister acknowledged, "this is the best of frum jews." that dedication to the helping the weak and the sick...and i never in my life saw my brother smile, its as if he physically could not do it. he could laugh, but not smile...i got a photo of him after he died with his arm around a young male volunteer, with a big open smile. even now my eyes tear remembering that photo...
I am just curious about conversations within the community? I am wondering as a new if you just go and rent/ buy an apartment, how welcoming is the community? I went to Williamsburg to find kosher food and judaica and I was mesmerized by the bakery, toys. I wish to go with my son and buy him toys but I feel a little exclude..m they told to my husband, this hat is not for you. Even we are modern Orthodox... I like everything is set up for life and all the values..
No, you should go! You can go to Lee Avenue Photo and tell them I sent you to buy Jewish toys. They are very nice there. Some Hasidim don't know what to do with outsiders but don't let that deter you!
I think your honesty is real. And I'm not saying it because you suppsedly defend my community (It can only be called defense in comparison to the attacks of all the rest who leave). I get more irritated than excited by the things you say (which is why I listen, so as to be challanged, whereas the attacks of the rest bore me). It really seems that you bought into the idea of trying to be objective 😅 Now, having dealt in my life with the same questions, I'll share some of my own observations, how I resolved them in my own way. When you grow up in the hasidic community, everything feels like an expression of Judaism and hasidic life and seen through that lens. The virtues and vices are all neatly and intricately woven together and make up the whole that we see as the community. But only if we compare them to the outside world, we can really see what's uniqe about them and in which areas they're similar to the rest of the world. If I find a flaw that is also prevalent in the outside world, I must, at a minimum, entertain the possibility that these are not hasidic flaws, but human flaws, even if they have a unique hasidic flavor, but still - the same flaw, most likely coming from a place not related to hasidic life. So let's say, OCD related to ritual washing might be unique in hasidic circles, but, at its root, the problem doesn't stem from the way our community is structured. I know someone who suffered from it, and after some many heart felt talks with a rabbi, he finally got rid of it, and then the OCD incarnated itself into a new aspect of this person's life, now in relation to door safety, which is a non hasidic matter. Now to the questions of appeal to authority and conformity (when popular opinion reaches herd immunity to truth... 😉). These are things that bothered me for years. Until I ventured to check outside my community, and slowly realized that this is a human problem. Everyone appeals to authority and moslty everyone conforms to popular opinion. It's so obvious, how can one miss it? Here's what I found: the confusion lies in the fact that the western culture is built around the promise of the exact opposite. And every secular agenda is painted with the promise of more freedom nod independence. But a closer look reveals that they only apply those standards to the values of others which they try to tear down (and that's probably how these standards were born, the purpose being to abolish the pre enlightenment world), and none of it to their own system of thinking and doing stuff. If so, how is the hasidic community different? They don't conform to the norms others think must be kept, and they don't follow the authority of others just because these people said so, in relation to the outside world. Where I differ from you: since you bought into the promise of these ideas, not only for yourself in your own personal life but as the way the whole of society should be, you don't see that the opposite is just human nature, and it transcends hassidic society. Most people like to conform to the accepted opinions and they also like to have experts and listen to them. It serves a valuable function in the lives of people, and every society, since forever, was always this way. Humans also have a non conforming streak to them, which is also valube, so when things don't work, a select few organize and rebel against existing institutions, and at the time of rebellion, they appeal to the opposite sentiments also found in humans, but when things calm down, they resort to the way things always were. The same rule applies in the hasidic world: even here we have rebellious streaks, starting with the baal shem tov himself, the founder of hasidism, who rebelled against the way things were done before him, down to the rebellion of the Williamsburg faction of satmar who didn't want to let things the way they were before, and got their way. A word about the select few who organize rebellions. These are people who combine a sharp inquisitive mind with an high threshold for pain, and, in the best case scenario, they spend their lives searching for truth, and helping society when needed. But in most cases these people run around the world, trying to educate those who refuse to be educated, trying to convince a pasive population that's preoccupie with their own little problems that they can and need to immediately become the best possible society, trying to explain to anyone who would listen that the world would completely transform if only.... no one is going to be discriminated... everyone is going to be non conformist, etc. etc. But the world doesn't work according to such rules, no matter how much better I think they are, and I can come up with my own high standards but only regarding my own behavior; I can also serve as role model, if and when people decide to see me as such, but no one really remembers what I said if instead I spent my time preaching. There's only so much the world can change at once and whenever it's ready to change, it almost always happens even if I didn't encourage them to do so beforehand.
You’re very special and a soul that Hashem needs because you’re an individual. There are people like you; I’m similar, but wished I weren’t so critical of my own. So many people fall away in the most worst of ways and become immoral that it screams reform. Reform needs to be seen via the Torah lens but there aren’t many Gedolim nowadays that really understand nor want to dig into human psychology and how to cater to humans that have brains. A virus can be triggered and a brain can be triggered by multiple events. When a person like you has deep questions but is constantly rebuffed and told to NEVER ask or think about it, it can be so emotionally triggering that it disturbs your equilibrium. Many of your friends (or former), don’t think as deeply and their minds are at peace. I’ll tell you something interesting: A friend of mine explained how my deep thinking and the novelty of it, is extremely powerful but like a sword with two edges. It can invite critical thinking - and like you (Frieda), becomes a catalyst to wanting to change things but at the same time, nothing is whole and fully acceptable anymore. It can’t just “be”… I can assume that I’m much older than you and despite ring bothered all my life about restrictions and rules (yes, I looked at many as radical or non thinking people), which didn’t help my emotional nature either. But going through difficulty and allowing my brain to think, I’m attaching and detaching like a spring, as needed. I don’t need to change my dressing, because I don’t have a problem with it and it’s not important enough for me to fight it. I can be friendly and love in private and in public, yet feel uncomfortable with the shallowness I see. The shallowness does BOTH mirror a shallow Torah c”v. I really see a need for authoritarian Judaism and a non authoritarian Judaism, at the same time; synchronous… Torah does demand to have leaders but the leaders need to understand their followers. In my historical education, it’s obvious that a rebbe had a way to connect to his followers in the yesteryear way better than they can today. There are many reasons for that, but are they justified or helping the situation? Anyway, I think people need to learn to understand when a person needs to say yes, and when to say no. A father that buckles to pressure from rabbinic authorities to not support his otd child, for example, is doing lots of harm to his child, and ultimately himself. Judaism needs to be authentic. You follow your parents due to joy of doing the mitzvah. If a person has no joy when lighting Shabbos candles, I see it as a parenting problem. We most likely have much differences, but much more in common. Good luck and have a wonderful life. 😊
The way I think about it, we're all over-evolved and desperately seeking meaning and a place in a world that is ever moving faster. Maybe it's a bit like dark energy, things are being driven apart faster than light. In such a confusing space, I won't criticize the philosophies that people develop to find their meaning, as long as they're not making everyone else's lives bad. As a way to find meaning, Chassidic community is as good as any other. In some ways better, and in some ways worse, just like the rest of ours.
I have watched several of your most recent videos, including the ones interviewing Pearl. There is no perfect culture and no perfect “world”. The very world you considered utopia has, as you saw, the very same problems that inspired you to leave the Hasidim. We saw the secular government(s) behave in the same way as the Hasidic leaders: full complete control and authority over those under them whether it was necessary or not, with no questioning or disobedience allowed, etc. I think the huge question needs to be about God. I am a Christian who came out of a cult church, with some of he same qualities the Hasidim have, such as authoritarianism and control. I had to go back to basics, as in, “Do I believe in God?” And “is the Bible from God to us?” Then I built all my new and old beliefs that I kept, based on the answers to those two questions. You know there are many forms of Judaism and synagogue groups. They all follow the Torah, but some follow systems of Rabbinical laws and rules added onto what the Torah requires, based on “Rabbi-interpretation” of how to follow and obey what the Torah says. You sound in this video slightly disillusioned with the world you chose to enter when you left the Hasidim. Maybe there is a “best of both worlds” you haven’t thought of? I think Pearl might be right, in that believing in God and pursuing living by what is in the Torah, gives peace and contentment. Maybe you just don’t want all the rabbinical add-ons? But maybe you have thought of all that already. I appreciate so much that you are kind and respectful to everyone. I love learning about this community. Keep up the good work.
Frieda, I am secular, and want to make sure I understand what you have said here about how the Hasidic community handled the Covid crisis. You mentioned not wearing masks and distancing. This was a difficult time for the whole world, but science advised/dictated there were measures we all can take to protect ourselves and others. Not just the Hasidic community, but there were people protesting wearing a masks, not believing its value, or science. This attitude, perhaps magnified by the media, has brought attention to not only the Hasidic community, but to all Jews, and stirred up, in my opinion, more antisemitism. Would you please clarify if possible.
For me, it’s hard to get angry at Hasidim, when you experienced communism. And communism started with all same liberal ideas. Why not embrace Torah, the eternal message, but no necessary the strict hasidism?
I watched many of tout vidéos before I saw this one. I am the Daughter of an immigrant family. The eau you discribe the eau of you feel reminds me a lot of the way I feel because the values if m'y family clash with the values if where we live. I feel toi!
Apart from Lubavitch, Melbourne has a number of Chassidim of various groups including Satmar, Belz, and Ger. There are also several schools, some are mixed with Chassidim and non-Chassidim, and some, like Satmar, with their own schools.
Hasidic community is suprising me as well,in positive way. It looks different world and it is but still I can pick-up similarities with us from your culture.
I hope you don't only have the city life to compare your previous life, get out of the city, the country and even the suburbs are completely different way of life❤️
You are So right ! Chapeau bas to every hassidic person for being so good , for protecting their culture . Today loose so much t todayin every aspect . Hassidism is still here and strong and faithful
Hi Frieda. Can't you be ultra orthodox/chassidish and be educated, enjoy technology and see the world all while respecting your own religion and other peoples?? What is it about the community you cone from that seems to convince ppl you can't have both? Because not all Chassidish communities are like that. Where i live in the UK we seem to be managing pretty well sitting on the fence.I can dress completely tzniusdik while using technology, being an educated person and working and traveling how and where i want. What am i missing please???? A big Mac??
I’m not sure you yourself realize what a powerful line you said, “the Hasidic community will listen to the rabbi because the rabbi said so, while the outside world listen to the scientists because the scientists said so” like what’s the difference here
I think the difference is one group has full proof and the other one only pretends to understand reality. Guess which group is which?! 🤣😂🤣 Oh yes, the science doesn't have ANY answers about the nature and even structure of reality, unlike Kabbalist scientists.
the difference is the scientist + science comes w| verifiable evidence that can be repeated. they're not the same. i say this as someone who is religious + a believer. (not jewish, but definitely religious, a religion i chose as an adult + to which i converted.)
@@hellaSwankkyToo except scientists are constantly being proven wrong and science is constantly changing, as is the nature of science. As new things are learned, the old “correct” information becomes wrong. When a rabbi is consulted, he is the expert on religious law because he has studied it his whole life. It doesn’t change over the years because society and technology don’t change so rapidly. There are debates and differences on how to handle certain situations, which leads to different communities doing things slightly differently. So religious leaders are a more reliable source for how handle societal situations or how to handle a situation of law than today’s leading scientists are. Not to mention that the rabbis actually have a value of NOT LYING TO THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THEM. Scientists have no such values.
@@hellaSwankkyToo nonsense. The Rab is come with factual reasoning to their statements. There is nothing more logical than the Torah based reasoning. In fsct the Talmud claoms the world is round 2000 years ago, way before the secular world Realized" this fact. Theer eis a LOT of science in Judaism!!
You are such an inspiration and amazing to listen to. You are so brilliant, caring, and open minded. I have been following you for a bit and just love your content and what you so graciously share!
Wow great video the points you brought up are so valid, the response to covid was honestly terrifying. The amount of suppression of speech that was going on, was and still is really scary. thank you for addressing it. I found that one line about Judaism being a harsh religion honestly heartbreaking, because to me, Judaism and my community have been such oasis of warmth and acceptance. I'm so sorry that your experience was so different and hope you are your son are doing well. wishing you all the best! Thanks for a great video!
My question would be, Is it really possible to criticise a Jewish practise without being called anti-semitic? For instancer, I HATE the practice of cutting hair....and then wearing a wig on top! Obeying the RULE of Law but not the spirit of the Law, like all the worst lawyers who look for loop holes to circumvent the law. Like the Muslim women who cover their bodies for modesty then slap enough makeup and false eyelashes on to shame a drag queen. It's not as if dressing modestly was even a bad rule and therefore worth breaking! It protects women in many circumstances. I wouldn't say I'm anti-Semitic, nor would my best friend (who happens to be Jewish), but many might. You are protected from criticising some aspects of Hasidic life because you ARE Jewish but are other people's criticisms genuinely heard?
I defend them as well for a different reason.... they are the precious few.... and if you want to go about selling your heritage for lentils... I suppose you will discount that?
Yes! Continue to defend the Hasidic Community; their rules and regulations may seem severe to us, but it is their faith! They have a right to practice their faith as do I have a right to practice mine - or not! The Jewish population is 5% in the world! Let them be! They are good people. - or not...
The problem is how orthodox people try to interpret & apply religion. religion & revealed books are not merely book of law with long list of dos & don't send by God & prophets aren't merely postmen bringing these orders. people often take revealed book as literally book of law Before proceeding further let me clarify this point, I will never recommend confronting laws of physics or laws of nature or other genuine revealed laws which are valid. Let me clarify this point also traditions, rituals, & opinion of this & that are not divine law Now just see what orthodox mindset have done with Torah They have mixed up genuine & valid laws of Torah with rituals, tradition & opinions under the banner of oral traditions so much that Reform Judaism which was started to correct it , but it is now itself in a dilemma how to sort it out, what is genuine law of Torah & what is not. See this debate about validity of oral tradition Leave alone practicing 613 mitzvot, even rememberimg all of them is not possible for a common Jew so long u are trapped in legalities/formalities you will never truly understand & appreciate the truth or change your self beit din or 613 mitzvot, mikvah is not going to change anything Change comes from within.
You're attacking a straw man. Orthodx Jews don't believe they are allowed to add to the Torah, outside of what the Torah itself says to do or not to do. You don't need to accept their beliefs. But at least keep your argument fair and honest. The meaning of oral Torah is many fold and the term is used to describe more than one thing. 1. THE TORAH GIVEN AT SINAI. According to Orthodox belief (which was the belief of all Jews prior to the enlighntemt era) G-d gave the Torah at Sinai to Moses not in written form. Moses taught it to the Jews and they studied it and trained themselves to follow its precepts for forty years in the desert. He didn't teach it to them from a written book but orally. The written Torah itself describes giving the Torah orally (it always says: G-d told Moses so and so, and Moses taught the Jews so and so; it doesn't say he taught it to them in the written book we now read that tells us about teaching it to them), and as such, the written text being a record of Torah teachings, it doesn't include all the details Moses taught the Jews in the desert, just the major themes, so as to be able to practice and remember the oral Torah he taught them for forty years. In some places the written Torah itself references an outside law that preceded its writing (see for example, Exodus 21, 9). Also, throughout the hebrew bible, already in the times of the Prophets and Kings, there are many instances in which you clearly see that the Jews kept the laws of the Torah in greater detail than what's expounded in the written Torah. 2. THE MEANING OF THE WRITTEN TORAH. At the end of the forty years of sojourning in the desert, G-d commanded Moses to write down the stories and the laws of the Jews up to that point (Deuteronomy 31, 9-26). Moses, naturally, wrote it down in accordance to the spoken language and mindset of the time, and the people understood how to read it based on all they were taught beforehand. They continued to read the written Torah as many things changed (even the hebrew language itself continued to develop and change over time), preserving orally the meaning of the written word how it was originally understood. Like you would read today an English language document from the times of king Arthur, if you would read it as people speak and think today, you would not read it according to the meaning it had thousand years ago. The Jewish community has continuously studied the written Torah preserving the way it was understood by the first generation that received it, even as idioms and forms of expression change over time. The fact they continuously practiced the laws as they understood them originally helped them not to forget the original meaning of relevant sentences and words. The meaning of the written Torah is an aspect of oral tradition. 3. THE LAW IN EVERY GENERATION. The Jewish people were commanded by G-d to adjust to every new phenomenon in the world and interpret the law how it applies to every new situation that wasn't known before that generation (Deuteronomy 17, 8-13), without, of course, changing anything from what was commanded or prohibited. For example, the world economy went from growing food - everyone for themselves, to the mass production of food by a few, which is then bought by the broader population through money which people earn for their labor in some other area. The law, as understood before this change, was that every Jew needs to give a tenth from the food he grows for charity. In the new circumstances this law was applied through giving a tenth of the money every Jew earns. For more than three thousand years the Jews applied the law to every new situation as it was agreed upon by a majority of the Jewish supreme court. Since doing so was a commandment by G-d, the entire corpus of Jewish law - the way they applied the law over all these thousands of years to every new situation, is an integral part of the Torah. The practical application of the law in changing circumstances is an aspect of oral tradition. So, to sum it up, the Jews never added or substracted from the Torah the way they understood it to be from G-d. The Torah was given orally, and its major themes were written down and understood according to the language of the time. The Jews practiced the law continuously, each generation as they were taught the law by the preceding generation, and as each generation faced new things they continued to expound the application of the law accordingly. This is exaclty the Torah Orthodox Jews practice today. And... lo and behold, even today they continue to adjust to every new thing around them and they continue to expound the meaning of the law to meet every new situation that arises.
@@chaimweiner8620 you are admitting that the language of what was revealed thousands of years ago has changed a lot although l know reform movement isn't perfect but remember reform is long overdue change is the only constant in the universe scripture has to be understood in the language of today while preserving its sprit Everything about yesterday has gone with yesterday. Today, it is needed to say new things. Rumi the way orthodox follow scripture is simply mimicking without understanding it & following its spirit. what has been revealed has a purpose & spirit, if it's purpose & spirit has been lost then it's merely formality. regarding oral law or tradition there is a big question mark over its authenticity/validity & no matter how hard orthodox try to defend it & claim all of it was given to Moses on mount Sinai they can't prove it till the day of Judgement & on that day who knows even Moses will distance himself from all this, as per what I have understood, children of Israel were chosen for a purpose but they forgot the purpose & their rabbis started claiming they are chosen people having some sort of racial superiority over others they were supposed to be different from others, a nation with saintly attributes, a role model, light & guidance for others but see what they have become. they have made Judaism a religion of worship -to- their race. ' Gods chosen people', the rest are goyim (sub human) see how scripture have been twisted to fit the racial agenda anyone who tries to change the scripture for his own selfish interests is going to pay for it. Dear there is no problem with torah it is a revealed book & blessing for children of Israel The problem starts when the human mind gets into it & starts contaminating it. original Jews, Judaism & even Torah has changed, Even a cursory read of the, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, shows that the Torah could not have been written by a single person Both reform & research agree. In rabbinic Judaism whatever the rabbi say is the final authority, that's the oral law, that's the authority above the scripture how valid is oral Torah see this debate ruclips.net/video/fj4POLkTqJY/видео.html
@@chaimweiner8620 Now you are dragging Christianity into this debate about the validity of your oral traditions let me clarify this for u & every one else that I am not a follower of any church nor do I defend their beliefs In fact I am not a blind follower of anyone. you have time till the end of the world to prove that all of your oral laws goes back to Sinai & I am pretty sure u have no proof. & on the day judgement u people will have only regrets & embarrassment Infront of everyone . for those who proudly claim that their religion, tradition, culture is the oldest in the world & there are many people who say this, let me remind them that salvation & true success doesn't depend on how many thousands years old religion, culture , tradition u are following but it depends on how accurate & updated your understanding of the truth is & in which state u exit from this world to face challenges of next dimension, this is going to create your hell & heaven
@@chaimweiner8620 Jews, Christian & Muslims all believe in Torah given to Moses on Sinai, it is verified by multiple sources but what about your oral traditions? do u have any proof about its authenticity? or you just want Jews to have blind faith in it otherwise the entire building u have built on it is going to collapse. dear Truth can stand on its own feet, it doesn't need crutches of any oral tradition to survive. In today's fast changing world where everyone has access to all kinds of information, only Truth can survive. even if someone has blind faith in what your rabbis are saying & let's say for the sake of argument that these oral laws go back all the way to Sinai then think how many generations have passed & by the time it has reached u in the year 2023 how much contaminated these traditions have become finally remember this, one of the reasons for going to hell is not using your intellect & blind following & imitating others Religion recommends useful practices which will be beneficial for you after death, in a nutshell it prepares you to exit the physical world with true belief & knowledge & a perfect state to face the challenges of the next dimension or after life Religion has not come here to make you an imitator & blind follower of this & that sect & rabbi or put your intellect in a box & lock it, it has come to guide your intellect towards the ultimate TRUTH
My head hurts now. May I express a simpler stance, without going into the weeds? I think of the Hasidic lifestyle, as a form of a sukkah. A sukkah; as it was first intent to be...go camping for a week, out in the wilderness, in the desert. Get back to the basics. Clean those cobwebs out of your brain. Let nature give your Neshama; a mikveh. Not just a netilat yadayim, but a full Tevilah. At least, that's what it should be for you personally... Just my thoughts...
We are all connected … even to the Hasidic community. During Covid, there was a huge economic impact to health care resources. People were dying and were turned back because there was no space. Keeping the numbers of infection low was key to attending people who needed to be cared for. The cost of treating these people, many who were underinsured is also an economic burden not to mention the number of lives that could be saved if fewer people were infected. Social distancing was key to containing this. I can speak to this because the data is clear. We also lost doctors and nurses who wore masks and other protective gear because they had to treat many infected patients. One tiny mistake in putting on the gear could cost you your life. Kids carry all sorts of viruses home. They may not have gotten sick but they were carriers of Covid. Yes it’s true they suffered from a lack of socialization but they will recover their education. The economic impact was great too. But we would be in recovery now if not for our current political policies.
In my experience with OTD people I find that the vast majority left the faith due to bad experiences in interpersonal relationships (usually within one's family or from school staff members). Only a minority leave due to faith issues. Those that have been either physically or emotionally harmed then look outward towards Western society and its enticements. Its lack of restrictions and pursuit of materialism speaks to them and slowly causes them to fall to the wayside. Men are entice to the sexual promiscuousness and women are enticed to freedom of physical expression (I.E. wardrobe, makeup, and hairstyle). The men/boys tend to become promiscuous to the extreme and the women/girls slowly start to transition their wardrobe to shorter and shorter skirts and shirt sleeve until they finally end up wearing pants and often shirts that are shamefully revealing. I have NEVER seen a OTD female that has maintained strict standards in clothing! NEVER! Our sages taught us (Makkot 24a) that in the end of times before Mashiach we will be tested in only one mitzvah and that is "Tzaddik B'emunascha Yichiye" (The Righteous live by their faith). The root of our believes will be tested. I believe that because Hashem doesn't want people to serve out of rote Hashem is implanting within people doubt. Doubt causes one of two things. Either 1) a yearn to find answers or 2) a desire to drop everything. The latter is obviously irresponsible. It shows that the individual REAL had no desire to serve Hashem in the first place. Doubt just becomes an excuse for them to leave the fold. This does not mean to say that anybody that drops their Judaism falls into the latter category. On the contrary, MANY of those that drop mitzvos are actually from the prior category. They are searching and trying to find answers. These people never leave their faith in Hashem's existence. They remain believers in God. Rather, they are exploring and searching for truths. They want that their devotion stems from a resolve that what they are doing is reality and not blind faith. Often these individuals return to their faith with great fervor and become extremely dedicated individuals with a iron clad faith. That is what Hashem seeks out. The process is painful, especially for the parents. However, the dividends are well worth it.
One can be fully dedicated to God without the community's norms. Read about the desert hermits, John Cassian, St Anthony of the desert...no money, no women, no rituals, just man with God in the desert.
Check out Jew in the City. Woman who runs this site is Modern Orthodox . She has a group to help those who leave the Hasidic community but still want to be observant. Get job skills and learn English yet still observe Shabbat, wear tefillin and follow commandments.
@@desertpriere I don’t think you understood what he wrote, as he referenced different concepts of the Talmud Those books you mentioned have no relation with the topic he spoke about
Your videos are really interesting but I find it very sad that these people are following man made laws of various rabbis rather than the Torah and Tanach. They have no peace with God, no awareness of their need for forgiveness. They are not trusting in Yeshua HaMaschiach for salvation. Without Him, there is no way to be reconciled to God! I am a Gentile. Your Messiah is my Saviour. He is the only way to God for Jews and Gentiles. May you know Him for yourself.
Jesus is an idol that you Christians are worshipping. The laws of God never change, God said keep Shabbos, keep kosher, etc. You Christians don't observe anything but yet you have the audacity to tell us that we are following man-made laws.
My patreon is www.patreon.com/friedavizel :)
I think you're doing a wonderful job teaching us about hasidic lives. Your love towards the community is obvious.
Thanks Lauren!
Oh Frieda, the little hint of sadness in your eyes when you say you left the community...but I see it another way, HaShem has a plan for you to be a bridge between the worlds, to share with us on the outside so that we can not only understand the Hasidim, but BENEFIT, highly benefit, from their way of life. For me as a goy with Jewish roots on my father's side ( Polish), I yearn for these values which I believe are in my blood. I treasure them. And here, your work has brought them home to me and many others. May they be a light in today's darkness. I bless you for your work. And take heart, you may have left the community, but deep inside, it has never left YOU. Shalom.
Such beautiful words. I was raised Jewish in a small town in North Carolina. I treasure this “channel,” because I learn so much about my Judaism.💙
I’m black guy from south london England with root from Africa but I agree with your comment. You can feel the good heart and I’m learning a lot about a group of people that I wouldn’t never know about. Ironically some of the values held this is group is also the same in my African family and cultural.
Hi Frieda, firstly, I'd like to thank you for your beautiful videos about Chassidic life. I grew up in an Orthodox non chasidic home and I am still Orthodox. However, my friends and I played with Italian Catholic school kids. We never spoke about religion or ate in each other's homes, but we all learned to be respectful of one another. I am glad that you are implying by your videos that people are not all black and white. There are Chassisim who are quite respectful of people from different cultures and there are "openminded" liberals who will be respectful of every religion, color and sexual orientation, but draw the line when it comes to Jews or those who disagree politically with them. Even though you have left the Chassidic world, you are perceptive and understand that there are openminded people who have plenty of biases. I admire that in you ( for whatever that's worth) People are human and no one is perfect. It would be nice if people would see the good in others and focus on the similarities instead of the differences. People are more polarized than ever before, but it's nice that you are trying to bridge the gap. It's a step in the right direction.. Also, there are good and bad people in every group but they don't necessarily represent the entire group or the entire religion. My hope is that those who leave the fold can realize it's not necessarily the religion, but some of the people who have distorted the religion that make up the problem.
I am now 81 years old. I have always been fascinated by other cultures, but the Hasidic community has been perplexing because of its insularity, fixed attitude’s, remoteness and unusual dress. I have enjoyed many of your episodes, especially those with Pearl. What a lovely woman! Except that her language is different, her faith reflects that of the Catholic community in which I was raised. Your presentations are wonderfully enlightening and have opened up a strange world, to me, and made it much more understandable. People’s negative attitudes reflect tremendous ignorance. Your introductions to that world will surely help break that ignorance down bit by bit. Please don’t be discouraged. You are doing a great and worthwhile job!
very well put, and i have been around many catholics, and even gone to mass a few times, and faith is faith. identical if stripped of the veneer...thanks!
Speaking personally, you have taught me so, so much about Judaism in general as well as The Hasidic community. They are so private and you have bridged a vital gap. NEVER have I seen such a joy and love of one's faith as I have amongst the RUclips films I have seen by you and some other links. That's important fir The Jews so we avoid Antisemitism. Thankyou Freida
Thank you so much my friend.
I ❤ Frieda Vizel’s Channel. It is so informative and relatable.
I ❤️your comments. You crack me up.
I’m an outsider Christian looking in with much love and respect for all cultures different from my own. I am watching this video probably 2years later. I hear the fear in your voice from the trauma of Covid 19 . This fear wasn’t just in your community but plagued the world. We all had to learn how to listen and learn from each other I order to survive. We wouldn’t trust each other and we’re all suspect of one another. 2 years later we still are bickering over vaccines and such. I hope you and your loved ones and the Hasidic community despite whether you are vaccinated or not survived. I see beauty in the Hasidic community as I do in other communities that live differently than I do. I think that is one of the reasons God created us all so unique. Thank YOU for being brave enough to respectfully cover this community with love so that biased and uninformed individuals will be able to possibly educate themselves one day and stop the fear of others.
I’m seeing this video after the pandemic’s over. I would have shared our school curriculum site that’s user friendly. It would have supported you to homeschool. So many died of COVID in NY. There’s a lot to appreciate about the community, culture and life of Hasidism. You live by your own truth and we all see that. Keep up your amazing work.
I am a Gver. I am not Orthodox, but have been greatly influenced by by Elie Weisel, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and the Lubavitcher movement. A Chabad "missionary" performed a Bar Mitzvah for my son (then 30-yrs old) in a Manhattan park upon learning that my son had not had a bar mitzvah at age 13. Truly a blessing -- especially for my mother-in-law of blessed memory in a Jewish nursing home in Colorado. Thank you for your work -- I "liked" and subscribed!
become orthodox and serve G-d in simcha!
What a very interesting intelligent person you are and may I say balanced, thank you for your videos
I'm enjoying your content.. thankyou. I have been interested in the Hasidic life for several years, and I think it's the family community that intrigues me. Have you made a video on your lifestyle, meaning are you keeping up with some of the laws including the meat and dairy kitchen?, and observing The Sabbath and other celebrations? Do you raise your little son with some of the Hasidic laws? (hope that is the right word). Again, thank you for sharing your video's with us.. I'm enjoying them.
I don't think that you criticize as much as you critique. It is a learning experience (for me) when I watch your videos.
Thank you for your videos I enjoyed going to Williamsburg and seeing your community nicest people in nyc to us it was a nice break from this media driven world we live in
I deeply appreciate your kindness and gentleness in dealing with Hasidic communities in a wise and respectful manner. 2:11 You are a wise woman. 1:11
Your comments remind me of Muslim Irshad Manji's comment in her book 'The Trouble With Islam' regarding people who've asked why she remains a Muslim even if she's critical of certain elements of the religion - she says Islam has values like self-discipline that provide a contrast to the individualism and materialism of the secular world and it's the debate between ideas that she finds so fascinating to live with.
A million times this. You're such a rare and important voice.
Hi from Australia 🐨🦘
I've just come across your chanel and I love it!
I could listen to you all day.
Thank you for your balanced, intelligent view point.
😊
You are so kind, Marisa.
Another Australian glued to your channel, here! ✋💕😊
@@FriedaVizelBrooklyn ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you for your beautiful channel.
I appreciate the nuance you’re able to convey ❤
Love to learn from you. Love your explanations. Love to think of all the choices in people's lives. Thank you for sharing.
Can't wait to go to Williamsburg. Will try all those Satmar delicacys my grandparents used to make.
wait, "did well with the pandemic?" There was a study that showed that death rates in Brooklyn Hasidic neighborhoods were 3-4 times higher than state averages!
Granted, nowadays liberal secular society is *also* ignoring the pandemic at the cost of many lives, so clearly we're no better. But to assert that *any* community should ignore public health statistics so that people don't get lonely? That feels really off-base to me. And I totally get the argument that shutdowns hurt small businesses, but we have to remember that the government *has money to pay people to stay home.* Let me repeat that: they have the money. They're just choosing not to give it to us. They're choosing to give tax breaks to CEOs of big corporations instead. THEY are the enemy here-not public health measures like mask mandates and school shutdowns.
A great pleasure to listen to your thoughtful and balanced approach to issues. Thank you
I know exactly where you're coming from. The Hasidic way of life, especially the Satmar, is not welcoming to ANYONE who is not EXACTLY like them. They literally look down on you, or act like they want to run away from you.
I am 100% Jewish as far back as we can trace. I speak Yiddish, went to yeshiva (conservative, not orthodox).
I'm educated in torah/mishna/custom.
Every time that I would go shopping in Borough Park, I go into a store (I'm wearing pants sometimes), I get ignored, or this disdainful look. UNTIL, that is, I start to speak to them in Yiddish!! All of a sudden, everything changes!! I get attention, a smile, and of course, THE QUESTION!!!!
You're Jewish??? I answer them in Yiddish. YES, I AM!! I went to yeshiva for most of my education, I light candles on Shabbat and I keep the Yom Tovim.
They want to know why then am I not frum.
I explain to them, that I don't agree with some of their ways, etc.
I believe in G-d and I believe that I am one of the lucky chosen and it's an honor. I just go about things differently. I tell them that G-d knows my heart is pure and giving and that I have genuine compassion and empathy as much as, if not more, than a frum person! Before I know it, in most cases, they are much nicer to me, they smile and tell me it was a pleasure meeting me, come back soon.
If the frum would just be a little more welcoming and nicer, people would have a much better opinion of them. Kindness, is kindness, it knows no religion/race. If you can't be a kind, respectful person, then you are not a MENSCH, plain and simple 💯🙏
You can't blame religion on some of the people
Absolutely.
Please understand that we are cautious about strangers and if you look like one we will not trust easily. We have been very recently burnt by formerly good neighbors who helped the nazis murder thier former friends.
Why do you feel you will be accepted by people in a community that you feel superior to? Why do you want to be part of a community that does not share you ideology?
I’m sorry but someone with pants will not be assumed to be Jewish at first glance. We are raised with the principles of ALL the laws of the Torah. Not just cherry picked for convenience. So modesty is actually the main thing we see first and foremost. Pants is historically a man’s attire and was never allowed for women because it highlights the shape of the legs which is not modest. God knows your heart is true but the same God asked you and chose you to abide by all the 613 mitzvahs…. If you don’t look like his daughter how do you assume his other children to know you are a sibling?
The why of someone left is important to understand.
I love how you connect with everyone. Love watching you. 4:41
Interesting point and very well expressed/thank you from Sweden!
I'm convert to Chabad Chassidic Judaism. I like you so much as a person. A person who authentically looks for truth is always carrying a flame inside them. I think you're a warm Jew. Not a cold Jew. Your healthy skepticism has definitely led to the right conclusions about global events. Shkoyach.
Thank you from NJ for your caring and connection with our elder brothers and sisters in the Hasidic community, I have discovered deep roots in my family from Jewish program from Germany many years ago, several generations ago, my great grandparents settled in Williamsburg but we very strict Catholics- grandpa was a tailor who spoke Yiddish yet was a daily communicant in the church. The “fiddler on the roof’ has an unusual connection to my unconscious mind, so I cherish this experience. Thank you my sister in this journey, keep up your great work. Ray D. (Nj)
Your very respectful. I like that
I know this was an old post but it was very good, we do need to examine ourselves, our motives, our hearts. Hate is scary and it is fueled by ignorance. Thank you for sharing this post. May you have peace my friend.
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate all you show us and educate us. I love studying culture too!
Wow this video shows a lot of interesting emotions. Good luck
U got the message . Please grow.
Continue to work toward educating and bringing information to the secular world. This is a necessary and important thing because it opens closed doors for a look inside a grossly misunderstood religion. We can see the ideas, customs and beliefs that are important to the Hasidic community. When we have understanding, there is much less likelihood of bias and animosity.
Do you still have friends or are invited by the community you left? I love your videos
Yes, I have some friends - and I'm always invited to family events. But I'm also making friends as I return all the time for my tours. People are slowly warming to me.
So well said.
I’m so interested by your videos. I’m curious where in Yiddishkeit you weren’t able to ask questions. To me that is such a major part of learning. I agree with Perel…if you can connect to real Torah teachers I think you would really be amazed at your heritage 💕
You are allows to ask. I think it depends on her parents maybe who didn’t entertain questions but honestly it’s encouraged and it even says in perek if you don’t ask questions because you’re shy or afraid then you won’t be able to learn. I think most parents answer the questions thier kids ask and even say wow this is a good question and then answer it. She is heavily influenced by her parents whom I Haven’t met but from her stories can gather they were rather strict and unbending. I myself am a parent and can tell you questions are answered.
@@Star-qh5wp until
I am glad you do! Its ultimately about respect...
Such a lovely and heartfelt video. Thank you so much for sharing.
I am Christian and admire a faith group that lives their faith day by day. I lived 5 years in a catholic convent and fell asleep many nights listening to the Benedictine nuns singing the Gregorian chants. My best friend of 60 years is Jewish and she says “ ach. Those Hasidic Jews are michigena. It’s all crazy. “. Go figure. I asked her father once at a Seder if he believed the messiah was coming. He looked at me sadly and said what messiah? Where was the messiah in the concentration camps? I tell my friend how I love that she came from one of the tribes of Israel and I love the Seder prayers and readings. But she just waves her hand and says “ fairy tales. All fairy tales”. But I pray for her. And will forever. Thank you for your videos.
Frieda, how did you get out with your child? Everyone has heard about the nightmares about leaving. You seem to be welcome still in the community.
something else. my autistic older brother spent the last 20 years of his life , until covid took him, in a small group home in boro park run by a frum non profit. they were the most kind and loving ppl, for the first time in his adult life he had a home....even my anti-frum sister acknowledged, "this is the best of frum jews." that dedication to the helping the weak and the sick...and i never in my life saw my brother smile, its as if he physically could not do it. he could laugh, but not smile...i got a photo of him after he died with his arm around a young male volunteer, with a big open smile. even now my eyes tear remembering that photo...
Aww thanks for sharing this…
I am just curious about conversations within the community? I am wondering as a new if you just go and rent/ buy an apartment, how welcoming is the community? I went to Williamsburg to find kosher food and judaica and I was mesmerized by the bakery, toys. I wish to go with my son and buy him toys but I feel a little exclude..m they told to my husband, this hat is not for you. Even we are modern Orthodox... I like everything is set up for life and all the values..
No, you should go! You can go to Lee Avenue Photo and tell them I sent you to buy Jewish toys. They are very nice there. Some Hasidim don't know what to do with outsiders but don't let that deter you!
@@FriedaVizelBrooklyn i will definitely will in my next trip to NY ;) I need my shetel and my clothes too;)
I think your honesty is real. And I'm not saying it because you suppsedly defend my community (It can only be called defense in comparison to the attacks of all the rest who leave). I get more irritated than excited by the things you say (which is why I listen, so as to be challanged, whereas the attacks of the rest bore me). It really seems that you bought into the idea of trying to be objective 😅
Now, having dealt in my life with the same questions, I'll share some of my own observations, how I resolved them in my own way.
When you grow up in the hasidic community, everything feels like an expression of Judaism and hasidic life and seen through that lens. The virtues and vices are all neatly and intricately woven together and make up the whole that we see as the community. But only if we compare them to the outside world, we can really see what's uniqe about them and in which areas they're similar to the rest of the world.
If I find a flaw that is also prevalent in the outside world, I must, at a minimum, entertain the possibility that these are not hasidic flaws, but human flaws, even if they have a unique hasidic flavor, but still - the same flaw, most likely coming from a place not related to hasidic life.
So let's say, OCD related to ritual washing might be unique in hasidic circles, but, at its root, the problem doesn't stem from the way our community is structured. I know someone who suffered from it, and after some many heart felt talks with a rabbi, he finally got rid of it, and then the OCD incarnated itself into a new aspect of this person's life, now in relation to door safety, which is a non hasidic matter.
Now to the questions of appeal to authority and conformity (when popular opinion reaches herd immunity to truth... 😉). These are things that bothered me for years. Until I ventured to check outside my community, and slowly realized that this is a human problem. Everyone appeals to authority and moslty everyone conforms to popular opinion.
It's so obvious, how can one miss it? Here's what I found: the confusion lies in the fact that the western culture is built around the promise of the exact opposite. And every secular agenda is painted with the promise of more freedom nod independence.
But a closer look reveals that they only apply those standards to the values of others which they try to tear down (and that's probably how these standards were born, the purpose being to abolish the pre enlightenment world), and none of it to their own system of thinking and doing stuff. If so, how is the hasidic community different? They don't conform to the norms others think must be kept, and they don't follow the authority of others just because these people said so, in relation to the outside world.
Where I differ from you: since you bought into the promise of these ideas, not only for yourself in your own personal life but as the way the whole of society should be, you don't see that the opposite is just human nature, and it transcends hassidic society. Most people like to conform to the accepted opinions and they also like to have experts and listen to them. It serves a valuable function in the lives of people, and every society, since forever, was always this way. Humans also have a non conforming streak to them, which is also valube, so when things don't work, a select few organize and rebel against existing institutions, and at the time of rebellion, they appeal to the opposite sentiments also found in humans, but when things calm down, they resort to the way things always were. The same rule applies in the hasidic world: even here we have rebellious streaks, starting with the baal shem tov himself, the founder of hasidism, who rebelled against the way things were done before him, down to the rebellion of the Williamsburg faction of satmar who didn't want to let things the way they were before, and got their way.
A word about the select few who organize rebellions. These are people who combine a sharp inquisitive mind with an high threshold for pain, and, in the best case scenario, they spend their lives searching for truth, and helping society when needed. But in most cases these people run around the world, trying to educate those who refuse to be educated, trying to convince a pasive population that's preoccupie with their own little problems that they can and need to immediately become the best possible society, trying to explain to anyone who would listen that the world would completely transform if only.... no one is going to be discriminated... everyone is going to be non conformist, etc. etc.
But the world doesn't work according to such rules, no matter how much better I think they are, and I can come up with my own high standards but only regarding my own behavior; I can also serve as role model, if and when people decide to see me as such, but no one really remembers what I said if instead I spent my time preaching. There's only so much the world can change at once and whenever it's ready to change, it almost always happens even if I didn't encourage them to do so beforehand.
That was absolutely brilliant....Thank you so much!
This was very well stated and insightful. Thank you.
volume?
Hashem will always take you back (not that he ever gave you up)
Hasidim are part of the western world. So are the Amish. “The western world” is not a synonym for mainstream popular culture.
You’re very special and a soul that Hashem needs because you’re an individual.
There are people like you; I’m similar, but wished I weren’t so critical of my own. So many people fall away in the most worst of ways and become immoral that it screams reform.
Reform needs to be seen via the Torah lens but there aren’t many Gedolim nowadays that really understand nor want to dig into human psychology and how to cater to humans that have brains.
A virus can be triggered and a brain can be triggered by multiple events. When a person like you has deep questions but is constantly rebuffed and told to NEVER ask or think about it, it can be so emotionally triggering that it disturbs your equilibrium. Many of your friends (or former), don’t think as deeply and their minds are at peace.
I’ll tell you something interesting: A friend of mine explained how my deep thinking and the novelty of it, is extremely powerful but like a sword with two edges. It can invite critical thinking - and like you (Frieda), becomes a catalyst to wanting to change things but at the same time, nothing is whole and fully acceptable anymore. It can’t just “be”…
I can assume that I’m much older than you and despite ring bothered all my life about restrictions and rules (yes, I looked at many as radical or non thinking people), which didn’t help my emotional nature either. But going through difficulty and allowing my brain to think, I’m attaching and detaching like a spring, as needed.
I don’t need to change my dressing, because I don’t have a problem with it and it’s not important enough for me to fight it. I can be friendly and love in private and in public, yet feel uncomfortable with the shallowness I see.
The shallowness does BOTH mirror a shallow Torah c”v. I really see a need for authoritarian Judaism and a non authoritarian Judaism, at the same time; synchronous…
Torah does demand to have leaders but the leaders need to understand their followers. In my historical education, it’s obvious that a rebbe had a way to connect to his followers in the yesteryear way better than they can today.
There are many reasons for that, but are they justified or helping the situation?
Anyway, I think people need to learn to understand when a person needs to say yes, and when to say no. A father that buckles to pressure from rabbinic authorities to not support his otd child, for example, is doing lots of harm to his child, and ultimately himself.
Judaism needs to be authentic. You follow your parents due to joy of doing the mitzvah. If a person has no joy when lighting Shabbos candles, I see it as a parenting problem. We most likely have much differences, but much more in common. Good luck and have a wonderful life. 😊
The way I think about it, we're all over-evolved and desperately seeking meaning and a place in a world that is ever moving faster. Maybe it's a bit like dark energy, things are being driven apart faster than light. In such a confusing space, I won't criticize the philosophies that people develop to find their meaning, as long as they're not making everyone else's lives bad. As a way to find meaning, Chassidic community is as good as any other. In some ways better, and in some ways worse, just like the rest of ours.
I have watched several of your most recent videos, including the ones interviewing Pearl. There is no perfect culture and no perfect “world”. The very world you considered utopia has, as you saw, the very same problems that inspired you to leave the Hasidim. We saw the secular government(s) behave in the same way as the Hasidic leaders: full complete control and authority over those under them whether it was necessary or not, with no questioning or disobedience allowed, etc. I think the huge question needs to be about God. I am a Christian who came out of a cult church, with some of he same qualities the Hasidim have, such as authoritarianism and control. I had to go back to basics, as in, “Do I believe in God?” And “is the Bible from God to us?” Then I built all my new and old beliefs that I kept, based on the answers to those two questions.
You know there are many forms of Judaism and synagogue groups. They all follow the Torah, but some follow systems of Rabbinical laws and rules added onto what the Torah requires, based on “Rabbi-interpretation” of how to follow and obey what the Torah says.
You sound in this video slightly disillusioned with the world you chose to enter when you left the Hasidim. Maybe there is a “best of both worlds” you haven’t thought of? I think Pearl might be right, in that believing in God and pursuing living by what is in the Torah, gives peace and contentment. Maybe you just don’t want all the rabbinical add-ons? But maybe you have thought of all that already. I appreciate so much that you are kind and respectful to everyone. I love learning about this community. Keep up the good work.
Frieda, I am secular, and want to make sure I understand what you have said here about how the Hasidic community handled the Covid crisis. You mentioned not wearing masks and distancing. This was a difficult time for the whole world, but science advised/dictated there were measures we all can take to protect ourselves and others. Not just the Hasidic community, but there were people protesting wearing a masks, not believing its value, or science. This attitude, perhaps magnified by the media, has brought attention to not only the Hasidic community, but to all Jews, and stirred up, in my opinion, more antisemitism. Would you please clarify if possible.
Are you orthodox? Great video!
For me, it’s hard to get angry at Hasidim, when you experienced communism. And communism started with all same liberal ideas. Why not embrace Torah, the eternal message, but no necessary the strict hasidism?
I watched many of tout vidéos before I saw this one. I am the Daughter of an immigrant family. The eau you discribe the eau of you feel reminds me a lot of the way I feel because the values if m'y family clash with the values if where we live. I feel toi!
You for the way you need to défend the hassidic Community
As a liberal Jew your videos are very interesting to me we don't really have Hasidim in Australia
There is a nice little enclave of Hasidim in Melbourne.
Not sure about Satmar, but there are many Chabad Lubavitchers in Sydney and Melbourne. Theres also a Chabad in Bondi Beach.
Apart from Lubavitch, Melbourne has a number of Chassidim of various groups including Satmar, Belz, and Ger. There are also several schools, some are mixed with Chassidim and non-Chassidim, and some, like Satmar, with their own schools.
Hasidic community is suprising me as well,in positive way. It looks different world and it is but still I can pick-up similarities with us from your culture.
Yes, exactly. Sometimes more alike than we realize.
I hope you don't only have the city life to compare your previous life, get out of the city, the country and even the suburbs are completely different way of life❤️
You are So right ! Chapeau bas to every hassidic person for being so good , for protecting their culture . Today loose so much t todayin every aspect . Hassidism is still here and strong and faithful
Hi Frieda.
Can't you be ultra orthodox/chassidish and be educated, enjoy technology and see the world all while respecting your own religion and other peoples??
What is it about the community you cone from that seems to convince ppl you can't have both?
Because not all Chassidish communities are like that.
Where i live in the UK we seem to be managing pretty well sitting on the fence.I can dress completely tzniusdik while using technology, being an educated person and working and traveling how and where i want.
What am i missing please???? A big Mac??
I’m not sure you yourself realize what a powerful line you said, “the Hasidic community will listen to the rabbi because the rabbi said so, while the outside world listen to the scientists because the scientists said so” like what’s the difference here
I think the difference is one group has full proof and the other one only pretends to understand reality. Guess which group is which?! 🤣😂🤣 Oh yes, the science doesn't have ANY answers about the nature and even structure of reality, unlike Kabbalist scientists.
the difference is the scientist + science comes w| verifiable evidence that can be repeated. they're not the same.
i say this as someone who is religious + a believer. (not jewish, but definitely religious, a religion i chose as an adult + to which i converted.)
@@hellaSwankkyToo except scientists are constantly being proven wrong and science is constantly changing, as is the nature of science. As new things are learned, the old “correct” information becomes wrong.
When a rabbi is consulted, he is the expert on religious law because he has studied it his whole life. It doesn’t change over the years because society and technology don’t change so rapidly. There are debates and differences on how to handle certain situations, which leads to different communities doing things slightly differently. So religious leaders are a more reliable source for how handle societal situations or how to handle a situation of law than today’s leading scientists are. Not to mention that the rabbis actually have a value of NOT LYING TO THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THEM. Scientists have no such values.
@@hellaSwankkyToo nonsense. The Rab is come with factual reasoning to their statements. There is nothing more logical than the Torah based reasoning. In fsct the Talmud claoms the world is round 2000 years ago, way before the secular world Realized" this fact. Theer eis a LOT of science in Judaism!!
You are such an inspiration and amazing to listen to. You are so brilliant, caring, and open minded. I have been following you for a bit and just love your content and what you so graciously share!
Wow great video the points you brought up are so valid, the response to covid was honestly terrifying. The amount of suppression of speech that was going on, was and still is really scary. thank you for addressing it. I found that one line about Judaism being a harsh religion honestly heartbreaking, because to me, Judaism and my community have been such oasis of warmth and acceptance. I'm so sorry that your experience was so different and hope you are your son are doing well. wishing you all the best! Thanks for a great video!
People have a right to live according to their own values.
we used easy one liners to dismiss others....you said it! that's our modern world, no?
sadly yes.
You are so beautiful Frieda
I also defend all Hassidim. They are perfect and gorgeous. 💛🇮🇱💛🇮🇱💛🇮🇱
🤦 🤦♀️ 🤦♂️
Nobody is perfect. You clearly didn’t watch the video
My question would be, Is it really possible to criticise a Jewish practise without being called anti-semitic? For instancer, I HATE the practice of cutting hair....and then wearing a wig on top! Obeying the RULE of Law but not the spirit of the Law, like all the worst lawyers who look for loop holes to circumvent the law. Like the Muslim women who cover their bodies for modesty then slap enough makeup and false eyelashes on to shame a drag queen. It's not as if dressing modestly was even a bad rule and therefore worth breaking! It protects women in many circumstances. I wouldn't say I'm anti-Semitic, nor would my best friend (who happens to be Jewish), but many might. You are protected from criticising some aspects of Hasidic life because you ARE Jewish but are other people's criticisms genuinely heard?
I defend them as well for a different reason.... they are the precious few.... and if you want to go about selling your heritage for lentils... I suppose you will discount that?
"for lentils..." lol!
Yes! Continue to defend the Hasidic Community; their rules and regulations may seem severe to us, but it is their faith!
They have a right to practice their faith as do I have a right to practice mine - or not!
The Jewish population is 5% in the world!
Let them be! They are good people.
- or not...
Secular liberalism is incredibly prejudice but because they are all on the same page it's accepted... like antisemitism.
BRING IN THE MEXICANS!
You sound more libertarian than liberal.
The problem is how orthodox people try to interpret & apply religion.
religion & revealed books are not merely book of law with long list of dos & don't send by God
& prophets aren't merely postmen bringing these orders.
people often take revealed book as literally book of law
Before proceeding further let me clarify this point, I will never recommend confronting laws of physics or laws of nature or other genuine revealed laws which are valid.
Let me clarify this point also traditions, rituals, & opinion of this & that are not divine law
Now just see what orthodox mindset have done with Torah
They have mixed up genuine & valid laws of Torah with rituals, tradition & opinions under the banner of oral traditions so much that Reform Judaism which was started to correct it , but it is now itself in a dilemma how to sort it out, what is genuine law of Torah & what is not.
See this debate about validity of oral tradition
Leave alone practicing 613 mitzvot, even rememberimg all of them is not possible for a common Jew
so long u are trapped in legalities/formalities you will never truly understand & appreciate the truth or change your self
beit din or 613 mitzvot, mikvah is not going to change anything
Change comes from within.
You're attacking a straw man. Orthodx Jews don't believe they are allowed to add to the Torah, outside of what the Torah itself says to do or not to do. You don't need to accept their beliefs. But at least keep your argument fair and honest.
The meaning of oral Torah is many fold and the term is used to describe more than one thing.
1. THE TORAH GIVEN AT SINAI. According to Orthodox belief (which was the belief of all Jews prior to the enlighntemt era) G-d gave the Torah at Sinai to Moses not in written form. Moses taught it to the Jews and they studied it and trained themselves to follow its precepts for forty years in the desert. He didn't teach it to them from a written book but orally. The written Torah itself describes giving the Torah orally (it always says: G-d told Moses so and so, and Moses taught the Jews so and so; it doesn't say he taught it to them in the written book we now read that tells us about teaching it to them), and as such, the written text being a record of Torah teachings, it doesn't include all the details Moses taught the Jews in the desert, just the major themes, so as to be able to practice and remember the oral Torah he taught them for forty years. In some places the written Torah itself references an outside law that preceded its writing (see for example, Exodus 21, 9). Also, throughout the hebrew bible, already in the times of the Prophets and Kings, there are many instances in which you clearly see that the Jews kept the laws of the Torah in greater detail than what's expounded in the written Torah.
2. THE MEANING OF THE WRITTEN TORAH. At the end of the forty years of sojourning in the desert, G-d commanded Moses to write down the stories and the laws of the Jews up to that point (Deuteronomy 31, 9-26). Moses, naturally, wrote it down in accordance to the spoken language and mindset of the time, and the people understood how to read it based on all they were taught beforehand. They continued to read the written Torah as many things changed (even the hebrew language itself continued to develop and change over time), preserving orally the meaning of the written word how it was originally understood. Like you would read today an English language document from the times of king Arthur, if you would read it as people speak and think today, you would not read it according to the meaning it had thousand years ago. The Jewish community has continuously studied the written Torah preserving the way it was understood by the first generation that received it, even as idioms and forms of expression change over time. The fact they continuously practiced the laws as they understood them originally helped them not to forget the original meaning of relevant sentences and words. The meaning of the written Torah is an aspect of oral tradition.
3. THE LAW IN EVERY GENERATION. The Jewish people were commanded by G-d to adjust to every new phenomenon in the world and interpret the law how it applies to every new situation that wasn't known before that generation (Deuteronomy 17, 8-13), without, of course, changing anything from what was commanded or prohibited. For example, the world economy went from growing food - everyone for themselves, to the mass production of food by a few, which is then bought by the broader population through money which people earn for their labor in some other area. The law, as understood before this change, was that every Jew needs to give a tenth from the food he grows for charity. In the new circumstances this law was applied through giving a tenth of the money every Jew earns. For more than three thousand years the Jews applied the law to every new situation as it was agreed upon by a majority of the Jewish supreme court. Since doing so was a commandment by G-d, the entire corpus of Jewish law - the way they applied the law over all these thousands of years to every new situation, is an integral part of the Torah. The practical application of the law in changing circumstances is an aspect of oral tradition.
So, to sum it up, the Jews never added or substracted from the Torah the way they understood it to be from G-d. The Torah was given orally, and its major themes were written down and understood according to the language of the time. The Jews practiced the law continuously, each generation as they were taught the law by the preceding generation, and as each generation faced new things they continued to expound the application of the law accordingly. This is exaclty the Torah Orthodox Jews practice today. And... lo and behold, even today they continue to adjust to every new thing around them and they continue to expound the meaning of the law to meet every new situation that arises.
@@chaimweiner8620 wellsaid!!
@@chaimweiner8620
you are admitting that the language of what was revealed thousands of years ago has
changed a lot
although l know reform movement isn't perfect but remember reform is long overdue
change is the only constant in the universe
scripture has to be understood in the language of today while preserving its sprit
Everything about yesterday has gone with yesterday. Today, it is needed to say new things.
Rumi
the way orthodox follow scripture is simply mimicking without understanding it & following its spirit.
what has been revealed has a purpose & spirit,
if it's purpose & spirit has been lost then it's merely formality.
regarding oral law or tradition there is a big question mark over its authenticity/validity & no matter how hard orthodox try to defend it & claim all of it was given to Moses on mount Sinai they can't prove it till the day of Judgement & on that day who knows even Moses will distance himself from all this,
as per what I have understood, children of Israel were chosen for a purpose but they forgot the purpose & their rabbis started claiming they are chosen people having some sort of racial superiority over others
they were supposed to be different from others, a nation with saintly attributes, a role model, light & guidance for others but see what they have become.
they have made Judaism a religion of worship -to- their race. '
Gods chosen people', the rest are goyim (sub human)
see how scripture have been twisted to fit the racial agenda
anyone who tries to change the scripture for his own selfish interests is going to pay for it.
Dear there is no problem with torah
it is a revealed book & blessing for children of Israel
The problem starts when the human mind gets into it & starts contaminating it.
original Jews, Judaism & even Torah has changed, Even a cursory read of the, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, shows that the Torah could not have been written by a single person
Both reform & research agree.
In rabbinic Judaism whatever the rabbi say is the final authority, that's the oral law, that's the authority above the scripture
how valid is oral Torah
see this debate
ruclips.net/video/fj4POLkTqJY/видео.html
@@chaimweiner8620
Now you are dragging Christianity into this debate about the validity of your oral traditions
let me clarify this for u & every one else that I am not a follower of any church nor do I defend their beliefs
In fact I am not a blind follower of anyone.
you have time till the end of the world to prove that all of your oral laws goes back to Sinai & I am pretty sure u have no proof.
& on the day judgement u people will have only regrets & embarrassment Infront of everyone .
for those who proudly claim that their religion, tradition, culture is the oldest in the world & there are many people who say this,
let me remind them that salvation & true success doesn't depend on how many thousands years old religion, culture , tradition u are following but it depends on how accurate & updated your understanding of the truth is & in which state u exit from this world to face challenges of next dimension, this is going to create your hell & heaven
@@chaimweiner8620
Jews, Christian & Muslims all believe in Torah given to Moses on Sinai, it is verified by multiple sources but what about your oral traditions? do u have any proof about its authenticity? or you just want Jews to have blind faith in it otherwise the entire building u have built on it is going to collapse.
dear Truth can stand on its own feet,
it doesn't need crutches of any oral tradition to survive.
In today's fast changing world where everyone has access to all kinds of information, only Truth can survive.
even if someone has blind faith in what your rabbis are saying &
let's say for the sake of argument that these oral laws go back all the way to Sinai then think how many generations have passed & by the time it has reached u in the year 2023 how much contaminated these traditions have become
finally remember this,
one of the reasons for going to hell is not using your intellect & blind following & imitating others
Religion recommends useful practices which will be beneficial for you after death, in a nutshell it prepares you to exit the physical world with true belief & knowledge & a perfect state to face the challenges of the next dimension or after life
Religion has not come here to make you an imitator & blind follower of this & that sect & rabbi or put your intellect in a box & lock it, it has come to guide your intellect towards the ultimate TRUTH
My head hurts now. May I express a simpler stance, without going into the weeds?
I think of the Hasidic lifestyle, as a form of a sukkah. A sukkah; as it was first intent to be...go camping for a week, out in the wilderness, in the desert. Get back to the basics. Clean those cobwebs out of your brain. Let nature give your Neshama; a mikveh. Not just a netilat yadayim, but a full Tevilah.
At least, that's what it should be for you personally... Just my thoughts...
We love the Jews 🇮🇱🇮🇱
We are all connected … even to the Hasidic community. During Covid, there was a huge economic impact to health care resources. People were dying and were turned back because there was no space. Keeping the numbers of infection low was key to attending people who needed to be cared for. The cost of treating these people, many who were underinsured is also an economic burden not to mention the number of lives that could be saved if fewer people were infected. Social distancing was key to containing this. I can speak to this because the data is clear.
We also lost doctors and nurses who wore masks and other protective gear because they had to treat many infected patients. One tiny mistake in putting on the gear could cost you your life. Kids carry all sorts of viruses home. They may not have gotten sick but they were carriers of Covid. Yes it’s true they suffered from a lack of socialization but they will recover their education. The economic impact was great too. But we would be in recovery now if not for our current political policies.
In my experience with OTD people I find that the vast majority left the faith due to bad experiences in interpersonal relationships (usually within one's family or from school staff members). Only a minority leave due to faith issues.
Those that have been either physically or emotionally harmed then look outward towards Western society and its enticements. Its lack of restrictions and pursuit of materialism speaks to them and slowly causes them to fall to the wayside. Men are entice to the sexual promiscuousness and women are enticed to freedom of physical expression (I.E. wardrobe, makeup, and hairstyle). The men/boys tend to become promiscuous to the extreme and the women/girls slowly start to transition their wardrobe to shorter and shorter skirts and shirt sleeve until they finally end up wearing pants and often shirts that are shamefully revealing. I have NEVER seen a OTD female that has maintained strict standards in clothing! NEVER!
Our sages taught us (Makkot 24a) that in the end of times before Mashiach we will be tested in only one mitzvah and that is "Tzaddik B'emunascha Yichiye" (The Righteous live by their faith). The root of our believes will be tested. I believe that because Hashem doesn't want people to serve out of rote Hashem is implanting within people doubt. Doubt causes one of two things. Either 1) a yearn to find answers or 2) a desire to drop everything. The latter is obviously irresponsible. It shows that the individual REAL had no desire to serve Hashem in the first place. Doubt just becomes an excuse for them to leave the fold. This does not mean to say that anybody that drops their Judaism falls into the latter category. On the contrary, MANY of those that drop mitzvos are actually from the prior category. They are searching and trying to find answers. These people never leave their faith in Hashem's existence. They remain believers in God. Rather, they are exploring and searching for truths. They want that their devotion stems from a resolve that what they are doing is reality and not blind faith. Often these individuals return to their faith with great fervor and become extremely dedicated individuals with a iron clad faith. That is what Hashem seeks out. The process is painful, especially for the parents. However, the dividends are well worth it.
One can be fully dedicated to God without the community's norms. Read about the desert hermits, John Cassian, St Anthony of the desert...no money, no women, no rituals, just man with God in the desert.
Check out Jew in the City.
Woman who runs this site is Modern Orthodox .
She has a group to help those who leave the Hasidic community but still want to be observant.
Get job skills and learn English yet still observe Shabbat, wear tefillin and follow commandments.
Very well said!!!
time has proven your observation is 1000% accurate
@@desertpriere
I don’t think you understood what he wrote, as he referenced different concepts of the Talmud
Those books you mentioned have no relation with the topic he spoke about
God bless the Jews 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
Your videos are really interesting but I find it very sad that these people are following man made laws of various rabbis rather than the Torah and Tanach.
They have no peace with God, no awareness of their need for forgiveness.
They are not trusting in Yeshua HaMaschiach for salvation. Without Him, there is no way to be reconciled to God!
I am a Gentile. Your Messiah is my Saviour. He is the only way to God for Jews and Gentiles. May you know Him for yourself.
Jesus is an idol that you Christians are worshipping. The laws of God never change, God said keep Shabbos, keep kosher, etc. You Christians don't observe anything but yet you have the audacity to tell us that we are following man-made laws.