Pashuteh Yid makes a good point that makes me feel the need to post something that I’ve thought about for a long time:
“It is too long for now, but the Chareidi world is very frightened about anything that will cause the kids to go off the derech. What they do not realize, is that the hysterical fear itself is what is really causing the kids to go off. It is mamash like living in a witch-hunt. I don’t know how one can take it living in certain neighborhoods. I am willing to bet that the Vaad Hatznius will lead to less tznius on the whole, as kids and families snap under the pressure, and go their own way.”
I’d go so far as to amend the post from “the Chareidi world” to “the Ashkenazi world”.
Ashkenazic culture as a whole seems far, far more paranoid, frightened, and guilty about this than does Sefardic culture. Has anyone noticed (anecdotally, mind you) a lack of severe REBELLIOUS behavior amongst non-religious Sefardim? Their “freier” generally still maintain a strong Jewish identity, and behave far more traditionally (i.e., they will pop into shul, wear tefillin, etc now and then) than freier Ashkenazim. The posionous acrimony one finds between frei or “frei-ish” and frum Ashkenazim does not seem to exist on the same level amongst Sefardim.
Why is this? Why does it seem that Ashkenazi minhagim & practices seem a bit (sometimes more than a bit) more stringent, rigid, and formulaic than their Sefardi counterparts? I believe that historical circumstance plays a large role here, NOT necessarily halacha per se. Ashkenazim went through hideous torture, persecution, and bloodshed for thousands of years at the hands of mainly Christians and Nazi-influenced societies. The natural sociological reaction to such a history could be reactionary conservatism, that is to say an extreme emphasis on religious and cultural preservation; Asheknazi culture , practice, and general approach and outlook to Jewish life became somewhat more rigid, insular, and formulaic as a result. Deviation in the slightest from even non-halachic practice & minhag became thoroughly discouraged and considered as almost a deviation from d’oraisa halachos itself, all to ensure that the Jewish faith continue to hold together under even the most extreme physical persecution and emotional duress.
Sefardim never had such a long history of intense, bloody, and constant persecution as did their Ashkenazic brethren (aside from the Inquisition in the 15th century) because in part they lived mostly under non-Christian rulers whose attempts at persecution and intimidation were only sporadic in nature – is it any accident that the Golden Age of Jewry in Spain occurred under Moorish stewardship of that country? Sefardi culture and approach to living a Torah life took on a different, “looser” flavor as a result.
Some random examples that come to mind:
1. Many Sefardim have a formula for havdala but play with the wording and insert some personal tefilos within the havdala tefila ITSELF – something that would be considered unthinkable for Ashkenazim. Ashkenazim generally frown on free-form prayer within the davning structure.
2. Sefardim are generally more accepting, on the whole, of fellow Jews whose religious observance may or may be more or less strict than their own (I’d venture to say that one doesn’t find shul divisions by Sefardim as one does by Ashkenazim – do people really find “yeshivishe” and “modern” labels on Sefardi shuls?).
3. R’ Yehudah Ha-Levi wrote many beautiful piyutim and tefilos and was an incredible holy person – who also happened to be a philosopher and secular poet. The Rambam was a philosopher who admired Aristotle (but understood Aristotles flaws and limitations vis a vis HKBH).
I could go on and on and on…
Food for thought then – Pashuteh Yid wrote that “hysterical” fear of assimilation and it’s manifestation in “chareidi” (I say possibly “Ashkenazi”) practices can have the OPPOSITE effect – to drive young people to more bitter and vicious resentment towards Judaism. I’d agree, but I’d also argue that that resentment wouldn’t be against Judaism per se, rather, subconsciously, against the specific Asheknazi approach or weltaunschaung WITHIN Yahadus. Is it possible then that the Ashkenazi outlook, approach, and culture, born and developed in the crucible of persecution from Constantine the Great in the 4th century C.E. up until the Holocaust era, has a little less relavance in our world today, where the bloody persecution and hate exist on a FAR more diminished level than they did in years & centuries past? Does an ultra-conservative approach as reaction to then-current circumstances (constant physical and mental persecution) still apply or is effective when those circumstances no longer really exist, to nearly the same extent?
Just food for the brain to chew on. Comments?