?מה הועילו חכמים בתקנתם

You may have read about the Chasidic Actor who starred in a movie being filmed in Brooklyn, under the Brooklyn Bridge to be exact. He starred next to an Israeli actress, and together they portrayed a Chassidishe couple. (I think.) When I first saw the pictures on the The Daily Yid I wondered how they dressed up a guy so well. Then I began to hear that it's no dressup; the guy's a regular Williamsburger who decided to make a few bucks, so he went and signed up, and was accepted. After all, why dress up a guy with a bad-looking beard and Peyos, when you could get the real deal right here in Brooklyn! Now, after a few days of talk about this "Pirtzeh," it seems like he backed out, citing community and family reasons. That makes you wonder: what was he thinking? did he think that nobody would find out, and that he'd just do the job and get paid without anybody knowing? We may expect an Oofgeklerter maybe to think that as long as there's no actual issur happening, that somehow he was permitted to act alongside a woman, since maybe he can influence her in a positive way, but a Satmarer???

Anyway. Anybody who discusses this topic sits and wonders: How is it that a guy is not embarrassed to hang out and make small talk (or worse) with a fremde vaybel in public? They say he has a wife and children too, and that he would qualify for the qualify for the apartment listed here, at least as far as she's concerned. She wears the appropriate dress needed to live in that house. They also say that he did it with her Haskomoh, that she was fine with him hanging out with fremde vayber. I guess she must not lack self-esteem. But that's not the real issue here, that's just me flying off the handle. The real issue is as follows: Until recently a Yungerman mit Aroopgelozte Peyos meant something, after all, if you're a bum you put them behind your ears or shortened them. So if he had them long and thick, and insisted on keeping them out for all to see, it must've been a siman that he was a Tchatchke Fun A Yungerman, someone who's not fazed by the ways of the street, and sticks to his guns. This is obviously not the case here; The guy went and signed up to act in this movie, knowing what the part called for, and knowing that he'd be in full Chassidic garb. Oyb Azoy Iz Shver The Kashe we ask in the title of this thread.....

We thought that the Churban is internet and movie delivery companies and video stores. We thought that although one may go and find ways to do Aveyres, never would he do it in public wearing the Levush. We thought that years and generations of "Mah Yomru HaBrios," and "S'vet Dir Shterren Tzum Shidduch," was enough to keep our children from doing Aveyres, at least in public. Avroom Karpen proved them all wrong, even if he did ultimately back out. He put that idea in the heads of others now, and his pulling out for his kids' sake can't undo that. I guess he still hasn't gotten rid of the guilty conscience completely, otherwise he'd stay on and do the movie, but others will stand up to to the pressures, maybe even at the expense of wife and kids. Money does that to a person, especially if his world may not be all rosy in the first place. So, my friends, what we've witnessed is the downfall of one more barrier, Karpen made it crash and burn. We should Rais Kriah on that, because there may be nothing left to keep us from Zindigen, other than good ol' fashioned fear of G-d, and some people never learned that....