tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post6782218879011620370..comments2023-09-11T17:58:13.764-04:00Comments on The Rebbetzin's Husband: Yom Tov: When Family and Religion ClashThe Rebbetzin's Husbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14977193945074906534noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-12511988902487331182011-10-19T16:11:02.081-04:002011-10-19T16:11:02.081-04:00Michael-
All valid points, although I am in the ca...Michael-<br />All valid points, although I am in the camp that believes Rupture and Reconstruction overplays its hand a bit.<br /><br />Anonymous 3:17 PM-<br />Well-said on all counts.The Rebbetzin's Husbandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14977193945074906534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-90765367905849914122011-10-19T15:17:07.256-04:002011-10-19T15:17:07.256-04:00two comments:
1. People should play the percentag...two comments:<br /><br />1. People should play the percentages: 90%+ of the time when children speak out against their parents, yatza s'charam b'hefsedam. So people may be better off just having a policy of keeping their mouth shut across the board.<br /><br />2. If everyone would try to emulate Avraham Avinu, we'd all be much better off (your relatives are most probably better than Lot, and certainly than Anshei Sdom, and look how Avraham treated them).<br /><br />I say this after years of experience with in-laws whose behavior is very far from what I was taught, but I learned to keep my mouth shut no matter what.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-28170343659194078222011-10-18T17:22:24.011-04:002011-10-18T17:22:24.011-04:00What you're describing in part is a subset of ...What you're describing in part is a subset of the "Flipping Out" phenomenon. Son goes to Yeshiva in Israel and comes back telling the family "they're doing it all wrong!" <br /><br />This happens sometimes because of the religious immaturity of the son (ie. Must be the only way because the Rebbe told me), and the Yeshiva not teaching that there are various other valid minhagim (need to teach difference between halacha, chumra and minhag).<br /><br />In this case the parents should explain the basis for their particular minhag (Doing your homework, as you say). (BTW I recommend reading the essay "Rupture and Reconstruction" by R. C. Soloveitchik http://www.lookstein.org/links/orthodoxy.htm which discusses the breaks from mimetic Yiddishkeit).Michael Mirskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-53081154489991330912011-10-18T13:06:52.473-04:002011-10-18T13:06:52.473-04:00Daniel-
Definitely not limited to Yom Tov; that...Daniel-<br />Definitely not limited to Yom Tov; that's just a time for family reunions which can give rise to clashes.<br /><br />Re: #4 - Even in the extreme (and common, I think) situation you describe, people begin with positive intentions. They go off when they get frustrated or become defensive. Fundamentally, healthy people want to be positive toward each other.<br /><br />Shalom-<br />But do they want to impose it on others?The Rebbetzin's Husbandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14977193945074906534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-48764995093276654762011-10-18T09:13:15.654-04:002011-10-18T09:13:15.654-04:00"The more stringent one is nervous about impo..."The more stringent one is nervous about imposing on the less stringent one."<br /><br />Um, sometimes ... but many times, the more-stringent one is 100% sure that his way is 100% what G-d wants, and anyone else can go jump in a lake.<br /><br />(And if that isn't how the stringent son feels, often it's how his rebbe does.)<br /><br />One of the very few chumrahs that I like is the "mehadrin straps" around the lower 10 tefachim of a canvas sukkah. Instead of the yeshiva saying "bochrim, your parents' sukkah is pasul so throw it away", we were told, "bochrim, with five dollars' worth of twine and half an hour of work, you can upgrade the existing sukkah to mehadrin."Shalom Rosenfeldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898782635470765614.post-42408069915512421352011-10-18T09:08:46.518-04:002011-10-18T09:08:46.518-04:00I agree with what you are saying, but I'm not ...I agree with what you are saying, but I'm not really sure it is a Yom Tov problem. Similar situations can arise on Shabbat and even on weekdays, especially if a child becomes more or less religious in his or her teens when living with his or her parents, as often happens.<br /><br />Regarding the fourth point, I think sometimes people feel very insecure around a relative who has become significantly more or less religious because it challenges their own religious identity. Also, parents can feel their children are rejecting them personally by changing their level of observance ("Oh, so my kitchen isn't kosher enough any more?!"). Occasionally someone can feel that a more religious relative has been brainwashed or a less religious relative is wicked and going to be punished by G-d. These types of feelings mean that sometimes (not all the time by any means) people don't mean well, or at least what they think of as meaning well is dramatically different to what the other person thinks ("I'm saving you from a cult/Gehennom!") and <i>in extremis</i>, they are indeed looking to make the other person feel bad, to shock them out of their behaviour.Daniel Saundershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07087956908558706584noreply@blogger.com