Circus Tent: Shluchim running marathons; am I out of touch?
Dear Hirshel,
I came across your blog recently when executing a google search about Rabbi Peretz Chein, of Chabad at Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) and his fairly completion of a marathon. I wanted to take a moment to express to you why I disagree with the content of your post:
Even had Rabbi Chein's sole motivation in running the marathon
been to instill in his students the value of exercise, this would be
more than a worthy endeavor. We are commanded by Hashem to take care of our bodies by maintaining our health. Every doctor will tell you how important it is to exercise on a regular basis, so as to prevent heart disease,stroke or countless other problems (G-d forbid), yet I hardly know of a Rabbi or Jewish educator who takes this mitzvah seriously. More often, we neglect exercise in the name of "more important" mitzvot. This lifestyle of cholesterol and imbibing calories rather than burning them is hypocricy. It is a blatant error that should be obvious, and usually is acknowledged, in theory, those times that I have ever confronted anyone. (If someone dies at 60 from a heartattack, because they neglected their health during their life, how is this not going to be viewed by Hashem in some way as a form of suicide?)
The value of exercising on a regular basis would have been a more than worthy purpose of Rabbi Chein's marathon. However, this was not even the crux of Rabbi Chein's message! You missed the larger picture, even while alluding to it in your post. I am a recent graduate of Brandeis University and had personal contact with Rabbi Chein as he was preparing for the marathon. The primary message that he sought to instill in his student's was this: nothing is impossible. To a man that had not participated in organized sports since he was age 13, to complete a marathon within the year was literally almost impossible. Yet he persevered.In doing this he demonstrated to his students that nothing is impossible. As Rabbi Chein once put it, he asks his students to push their limits, to "do the impossible" all the time, and now he was showing us that that it can be done, and that we can do it.
He showed that all of us can do that which we think may not be possible. We
really can commit to observing Shabbat, to learning Torah every day, to
attending a regular Torah class, even to attending a single Shabbat meal, to be mekarev, in some small way, yidden around us,...even when we never thought we had it in us. Nothing is impossible, not after the Rabbi ran a marathon. I don't think there could be a more worthy, beautiful, "Torahdik" and "Chabad" message than that. Finally, regarding your comment about his looking like a "spaceman" during the race, I don't see it. But regardless, I am certain that Rabbi Chein would look like a "space man" again in a heartbeat, and anytime, if that is what it would take to hammer home this beautiful message to even one more of his students. Shouldn't every shliach? A view that his example was anything other than positively inspiring is, yes, simply "out of touch."
-Robert Friedman
St. Louis, MO
_________________________
Robert Friedman Tennis
rftennis@yahoo.com
13 comments:
Dear Robert & friends,
Our issue is not that he ran a marathon with good intentions. Our issue is that while we permit ourselves to accept others who do not strive to our standards, we may not lower those standards for ourselves. Our Rebbe does not allow us to have a television in the home. We will fully accept anyone who wishes to have a television in their home and teach them the beauty of Yiddishkeit and Chasidus - we may not bring into our home, even if that will somehow influence someone else.
The same is for jogging. If the Rabbi had gone jogging in a hat and jacket with tzitzis flying, he would have lived up to our personal standards and expectations of a Shliach. As he did not, he failed - personally, even if he succeeded on a global scale.
Their is an interesting aside in a Maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, printed at the end of Hemshech Tarsav, that discusses not going into situations that are immodest, even if necessary for health. You can find a way to excersize that will not lower the standards.
Vu shtait that a Chossid jogging must wear a hat and jacket?
boruch hashem
i see peace here!!
next year rabbi chein should run with his woolen tztits hanging out (the hat i think today most shluchim dont wear all week anyway and the kapotoh also) and then you would approve???
or if he has to he can a black (straw) hat and wear that also
will that do ?
but i think that the best part would be a blach hat(straw) and a kapoteh (thay have very thin ones with no linig) and then all will be happy and he will make a kidush chabad
hey ill sponsor the hat
I still don't really understand what the problem was in the first place.
I guess some take the opinion that it's not "chassidish" - but I don't know where that is written... if he's a chassidishe yungerman, then it is; and if he isn't a chassidishe yid than it isn't. Running in the race itself isn't here nor there.
Another tayna is perhaps that Marathons are "goyish," al derech bodybuilding or old-fashioned olympics, in the Greek/Roman style of glorification of the body. But I think it's a stretch to apply that here.
The reason for Chasidishe Levushim is that they hold you apart. Whether it is your way of life or not, if you see someone entering an adult video store there will be a big difference in your reaction if they are wearing a black collar and tumah chain or if they are dressed in jeans and t-shirt. The clothing hold you back and make you more accountable, you represent more than just yourself.
The most inspiring view to a fellow Shliach is the campus shliach in some combination of hat, jacket, tzitzis, white shirt etc. standing on a table in a frat house blowing shofar, giving a vort of Torah, reading Meggilah or whatnot. It is a combination of the unwordly and the wordly, which is Dirah Betachtonim.
b"h we have reached the crux of the problem: "Where is it written? Does it say anywhere that you can't wear a space suit?"
Let me ask you: What is wrong with ... walking down Kingston avenue Yom Kippur afternoon in shorts (below the knee!)?
or having a dog? (aside from the "Tzuras beheimah temei'ah" which is quite recent).
We all know that not everything has to bee written, and not everything CAN be written. There are things which are not rules Do's and Don’ts but something more "eidel".
This is what differentiates us from the "Modern Orthodox", those that claim to stick to the essence and ignore the trimmings (that's why he doesn't see a problem with the dog, and will have much difficulty with the shorts on YK ... "vail er is doch furt a id").
Guravitzer
Many shluchim don't wesr hats all the time, don't go to a mikveh everyday even they have one handy,don't do Chitas and Rambam, so wat? this make them less shluchim?Golus affects everyone , in one way another
I am more concern about baal gaiveddike or ,dirty pollitical shluchim,money hungry
They think all the time that they are making a Kiddush Lub, when in reallity they are making a chillul Lub. They think only about money and power, and this is a "succesfull shlichus"
Shluchim have to be Chasidim as well, which addresses both of your points.
And tell me, in the mikveh you also go with a hat and jacket? You dress appropriately for each situation, and a hat and jacket is not appropriate dress for running.
And I don't see anything even the slightest bit wrong with having a dog. In the Alte Heim the poretz had a dog, but yidden had cats. In Hendel Lieberman's paintings there are cats. And what makes a cat more chassidish than a dog? Nowadays we haven't got a poretz and his dog to be afraid of. I haven't got a dog myself, and have no desire to do so, but I don't see anything wrong with it.
In the mikvah it is a question of undress, in which case it is only done privately, Veka"l. This is a question of public dress, and the issue isn't whether hat and jacket is appropriate for running, it is whether the running garb is appropiate for a Chossid. It isn't.
I just added this web site to my feed reader, excellent stuff. Can't get enough!
Hello. And Bye.
Hello. And Bye.
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