Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Chosid=Loser

(The names, dates, and ages have been changed)
So I was 12 or 13 years old and it on Shabbos afternoon. After the Davening in 770 finished I was walking together with my father, brother, and some random people to a Kiddush where a friend of the family was celebrating something. The sun was out and shining in my face although it was chilly outside.

The weather was uncomfortable and the atmosphere was glum for just a few months ago the beloved Lubavitcher Rebbe had passed away....

Always the inquisitive one, I would make sure to walk near the adults so I could listen in to their passionate effusive conversations, besides it was always more interesting then what the kids my age were saying.

I overheard a conversation that has affected me until today. Moshe, a contemporary of my father, asked my father "Dovid, do you think Reb Avrohom is a Chassidishe Yid?” I strained my ear as best possible to hear the response, after all that’s exactly what I wanted to be, a "Chassidishe Yid", that was the ultimate! "Yes" was my fathers unwavering opinion. "Why?" Asked Moshe, "He's a Chassidishe Yid," my father explained “becomes he has nothing- no money, no family… er hut gurnishet".

Let's put away the concepts of success, happiness, alpha male, Chavreman, go getter. I am at a loss of words to explain how, don’t know what work to use, loserish was.

In my experience this horrible outlook on life wasn’t only felt and taught by a few, but sadly it is a concept that permeates the community as a whole.
With the backdrop of its history, Chabad has a lot to be proud of and continues to personify the self sacrifice of Russian Jewry etc. I am extremely proud that not so distant relatives actually saved people during the holocaust at the peril of their own demise.

However, to bring up a whole generation with this pathetic outlook and negative thirst toward not enjoying the basic accomplishments of the human being and even worse to to promote
a looser as a Chasid,
having a crazy wife as a good Mashpia,
making crap out of someone as a Farbrengen,
ruining someones property as a "good Farbrengen", is plain wrong.

I for one want to be the biggest loser in the eyes of the community!

1 comment:

e said...

you're becoming a regular blogger!