Re: Black Hats

wwide@erols.com
Fri, 02 Jan 1998 11:02:19 -0800

Rabbi Raphael Goldmeier wrote:
<<..But once you are dealing with people outside your own private
organization,who should be the person to decide what the "uniform" will be?
You may think the uniform should be a black hat but someone else may think
the uniform should include Kippa srugas, or purple scarves, or bare-heads,
or anything else you can think of. It may be a good idea that every jew
should dress in uniform (and I am not so sure that it is a good idea - a
sports team isn't a great analogy - they dress the same for a couple of
hours to do their job and then they all put on whatever they want. I don't
think you want people comparing their dress code to Dennis Rodman's!!!!)
but who has the right to decide what the dress code should include?

1. The analogy to a sports team is fine, because when the members of a
sports team are on the court (or field or rink, etc.) they think & act as
one. Achdus is supposed to be our goal as Jews. Off court, sports figures
have different values, goals, dreams, and often don't interact with team
members; therefore, the way they dress off-court is not germaine to this
analogy.

2. "Who has the right . . ?>>

About 15 years ago I spoke with R. Dovid Gottleib about this very issue. I
was frustrated by the disparity of dress styles among religious Jews. His
answer was poignant, and leads us to the title of my response to you.

(With my apologies for paraphrasing), R. Gottleib's answer went something
like this:

Your right! We do dress funny and we do dress differently. We dress
differently from the rest of the world and from each other. But put the
dress-issue in another perspective: whether you wear a shtreimel or a
"kippa s'ruga" or a velvet kippah; whether you wear a silk koppota or
Levi's jeans or a coat & tie; regardless of what we Jews wear, WE'RE STILL
DOING IT WRONG. If Moshe Rabbenu came to visit us, do you think HE'D be
wearing a spiffy Pierre Cardin 3-piece vested suit and a pair of wing tip
loafers? Do you think HE'D be wearing Levi's jeans and a top that reads
"MY BUBBY WENT TO BARBADOS AND ALL SHE GOT ME WAS THIS STUPID T-SHIRT"?

The fact is, we don't know how we are supposed to dress as Jews, so the
important thing is to choose a mode of dress that's tznius (in all its
definitions), comfortable, affordable, appropriate for the weather and
reflects your lifestyle. Then get to work on the person INSIDE those clothes.