What really irks me is coming across “selective frumkeit”.
What is “selective frumkeit”?
When someone very openly shows off how frum he/she is and is so makpid and machmir and things below his standard are not acceptable to him, even to the point of denouncing any behavior not meeting this person’s “standards”. Then you see that person doing something completely against what those same Rabbonim said, or lowering his own standards when it is not convenient.
For example, somebody who keeps strictly to the badatz hechsher to the point that anything less than that is not considered kosher and unacceptable. Yet then you see this person buying a non-badatz item in the store because he enjoys that yogurt or drink or whatever.
Another example, people who talk about only listening to the rabbonim’s decrees and not allowing you to have internet access because the rabbonim banned it. If you do not swear and sign that you do not have internet access, they will not accept your child into the school system. Yet then you find out these same people have internet access (or computers or non-kosher cellphones or any other example).
I just came across a discussion on a hareidi bbs discussing how to describe something that was seen on the internet, in light of the “issur” to not have internet access. What would you say if you wanted to quote something but you saw it on the internet. If you say, “I saw it on the internet” that means you have internet access, so you cannot say that.
That is “selective frumkeit”. That is what irks me.
I’m not sure this is “selective frumkeit” so much as just being plain disingenuous. I think selective frumkeit is more keeping some mitzvot that are convenient while discarding others. For instance, being machmir on kashrut but speaking a lot of lashon harah.
I have less of a problem with someone keeping one thing and not another thing. Happens all the time. My issue is when one acts stringent in public to an extreme, but in actual practice on that same issue is not true to his statements but finds it when convenient easy to not keep those stringencies…
Not sure why it irks you. If they want to be selective, it’s their business as long as they are being selective on matters that apply only to themselves. I see it as being human. What bothers me is when they make demands on others.
that is exactly the point. Because people act so frum because they keep certain chumros, they look down at those of us that do not keep those specific chumros, and then they can be seen ignoring them when it is not convenient or when they think nobody is looking. Or they try to force their chumros on the community as a standard.
I call this catagory of people the Issurdox or the Flexidish. You know chasidic at shull or ranting about all the lsser frum folks and then all of the sudden they are on craigslist looking for a chasidish gang bang.
Any man who chooses to be a ‘rabbi’ (‘true teacher’ of Torah) or a ‘dayan’ (‘judge’), or a ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) should be doing so Voluntarily. Out of his pure love for Hashem and the Torah. And his Ahavat Yisrael.
If he refuses to do community work voluntarily, and wants and accepts payment for everything he does, such a man should not be heading a community. He should get a job and earn a living. He can collect milk bottles or clean the windows. That is what is called ‘earning a living’.
Torah is learned, studied and taught: out of Love. Voluntarily. But the ‘rabbis’ have turned the Torah into their ‘Profession’, from which they earn money.
We are commanded in the Shema to:
‘LOVE Hashem, your G-d, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with all your soul and with all your might.’
‘VE’AHAVTA et Hashem Elokecha BECHOL LEVAVECHA uvechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha.’ (Devarim, Vaethanan, 6:4-5)
Is the ordinary man or woman PAID to pray to Hashem, or to say some words of Torah? No. Has veshalom! But the rabbis are. These men can give ‘lovely’ shiurim that they have rehearsed. But they would not give a shiur without being paid for it.
The true hachamim and rabbis of old, all actually worked at proper jobs and professions.
Wake up! Even a little child could have worked this out. These salaried men can never truly stand for the Torah, because in a case of conflict between a correct course of action according to the Torah, and the rabbi or rav’s pocket – his pocket and position will always prevail.
Pirkei Avot: (2:2)
“Raban Gamliel beno shel Rabi Yehuda HaNassi omer: yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz, sheyegiat shenaihem mashkachat avon. Vechol Torah she’ein imah melacha sofa betailah ve’goreret avon. Vechol haoskim im hatzibbur yiheyu imahem leShem Shamayim……”
“Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabi Yehuda HaNassi, said: It is good to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, for working at them both drives sin from the mind. All Torah without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin. And let all who work for the community do so for the sake of Heaven………”