Dear Hirshel;
I have read your blog since day 1 and comment on almost every post that I have something to add. I have to confess I recently attended a mitzva tantz, and a saw the real dilution of a concept that once was holy and pure, and how it's become a show, no better than bringing in the kallah to the men and all the bochurim singing eishes chayil to her... Yet the people who practice these tentzlech would never, ever, ever bring the kallah in to the men during dancing... so I thought: where better than this choshu've blog to write about it?
The father of the bride, a pseudo talented shnook, decided that it is his night, and he will suck up all the oxygen of the night, plus he has a young father that is nebech stricken with a terrible disease R"L, and a shver that nebech suffers from another debilitating disease R"L - the shver too is very young. The people are anoshim p'shutim with lots of Emunas Tzadikim and Emunos T'feilos... strange combination of Shtreimlech, thick Gartlech, but super baalbatish at the same time. For obvious reasons I cannot be more graphic than that. Now to the point; the father called up his daughter the bride to his mitzva tantz with a prepared booklet of grammen that he prepared on his own, and begins his performance. He spoke of many things, from the crying for his father's refua, which these fools believe that Mitzva Tantz is the holiest time of the year and can "po'el alles gits" at that time... Forget about all the days of Tishrei or Seder nacht.... and then he went on and on how much he loves his daughter and how much he loves his wife and how great she is, on and on... I haven't the pen nor the vocabulary to describe the deep romanticism that was displayed there - and besides, this is a frum, family blog.... - all in front of a big family from both sides.... Then the dancing started with the daughter in a nice beat, with crying and hugging, then danced around her and hugging again .... the crowd was mesmerized by this spectacle...obviously the cheap jokes started flowing and still are till today.... The women almost ran out of tissues and the badchen had a nice, long cigarette break... so Reb Hirshel, this is the future of these events for the upcoming shnooks of the baalbatish new generation? not by New Square or Vizhnitz-Monsey families... but It will be the norm in a certain segment, which is already not small and gets bigger daily, לדאבונינו. So does the Rav of Shopron the Baal "Toras Alef" guarantee that no Hirhur happened that night?
