Sunday, April 1, 2007

Bein Hazmanim (the israel experience- week 7-8)

It's motzei the first days right now, and I'm desperately trying to catch up on my posting.....
Yom Kippur was on a Thursday, and to commence bein hazmanim, Jake (www.jakes-take.blogspot.com) and I went up to the holy city of Tzfas for shabbos. You can check his blog for details about the shabbos, so I won't rehash them. The most that I will say is that it was a truly wonderful shabbos, and I enjoyed myself immensely. One thing, however, that I didn't enjoy was that due to it being the first shabbos of bein hazmanim, there were many yeshiva guys up in Tzfas for shabbos. I've been to Tzfas many times when it was virtually devoid of bochurim, and I must say that I felt there was a lacking of authenticity this shabbos.
The problem is that many people come up to Tzfas with the expectation that everyone there is floating around, and that anything goes. So, this means that they can down a fifth of vodka before kaballas shabbos, and then mosey on over to the nearest Carlebach-ish minyan, and try and take over with their geshmakness. So, what happens is that they come in without a respect for the locals, and try to whip everyone into a frenzy by singing (screaming?) at the top of their lungs, etc. Also, there seems to be an attitude that "hey, I'm going away to a place where anything goes, so that means I don't have to dress the way I usually do for shabbos, pants and shirt are enough." Now while I agree everyone should where a shirt, and most definitely pants, I can't fathom why anybody would think that they don't have to wear their traditional shabbos garb. Shabbos is shabbos, no matter where you are.....
I have to run, but I will update later, God willing....
Peace.
Originally posted Thursday, 20 October 2005

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