Tel Aviv – The pre-Rosh Hashanah wave of pilgrims to the town of Uman in Ukraine peaked on Monday as around 9,000 boarded 50 flights from Ben-Gurion International Airport.
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Another 5,500 pilgrims from the Bratslav Hasidic sect will travel to Ukraine on Tuesday on 28 flights to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman. Overall, some 18,000 Hasidim will travel to the rabbi’s grave over three days.
On the eve of his death 200 years ago, Rabbi Nachman couldn’t have imagined that his request that his followers not abandon his grave would bring 18,000 of them one year to Uman.
“We smile all the way to Uman,” was written in a leaflet distributed in the town of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. It was meant to encourage believers to cover their eyes with scarves against “forbidden sights.”
“Support for flights without movies” is the name of a small group that several years ago encouraged Haredi travelers not to take regular flights unless they had cardboard that could cover the movie screens on the airplane seats in front of them.
This year the idea caught on that immodest sights may also be a threat outside the airplane – in the airport terminal, for example. So pilgrims are being encouraged to bring scarves along.
“In any cloth shop, ask for a thin lycra cloth 70 cm wide (blue, brown or black ) costing about 20 NIS,” reads one instruction. “It needs to be about 1.5 meters long … which is necessary so it will sit well and not flow in the wind.”
The leaflet notes that even if people laugh at someone wearing the scarf on his face, those covering their eyes “will be rewarded a thousand fold.”
In a telephone interview from Uman, one pilgrim named Avinoam added: “It may sound ridiculous to you, but it has been more successful than expected. I recommend that you try it.”
Aha! Burkhas for the men as well.
I thought only Jews go to Uman for Rosh Hashanna?
This is not the way of our Gedolim. I’ve seen many Gedolim and pusheter Yiddin who have mastered shemiras einayim — none ever resorted to a veil.
Try to imagine a world, without American Yidden giving for their Hachnosas Kallah, and these burka guys will have to show up, with that silly garb, to an interview for a real job, to support their family.
They should do this more often, that way we wont have to see their face…
this is the most stupidest thing i have ever seen!!!
so at passport control te officer can’t see you cus you are covered!!
thank goodness my dh is not like that!!
I don’t understand. I never watch the movies; I just turn to the map that shows the progress of the flight, open a sefer and learn Torah.
This poses an interesting thought in the evolution of man and the Jewish Religion. Had we had these veils 200/300 years ago, it might have been very probale that ther would not have been a Chasadic Movement or the like. I would think that one needs to deal with the issue rather than living like an ostrich.
reply to 1,2,3:
This is a personal choice, and reasonable without bothering anyone else. Why would you make fun of it?
It is the very first time anyone has made an attempt to control what he sees without impinging on everyone else’s rights.
was it better when they tried to publicise that embarrassing “seat Mechitazah” mini-tent on airline seats?
Forget the fact that this is chodesh elul, and try to grow up, and not have to make snarky remarks or jokes about every single article.
These people are sincere, don’t get in your way, and desrve your respect, not your derision.
You should be so lucky to have their emaunah, and joy going into this time of year, but while they are going to Uman at great personal time, expense and risk, you sit on the internet making fun of them.
So you tell me, which deserves to be laughed at?
The line between Judaism and Islam seems to blur further each day.
May all their tefillos be answered!
They’d be better off staying home learning Mishnayos.
Although covering their faces sounds overdone, it does have some merit. The goyim are dressed on the streets much worse than they used to be dressed at the beach. My grandmother has told me that when she was a girl growing up in NY, they used to go to the beach and EVERYONE was wearing long dresses and were all covered. However this poritzdike generation walks around on the street and even go to work in their underwear. (Why isn’t it underwear, because a designer named it a top? It doesn’t cover anything more than the underwear covers.)
So the real solution for these people is to stay home. However, if they choose to travel to Uman, they are in need to do something that will protect their eyes from seeing immodest sights.
Unbelievable. Yiddishket is meant to me “normal”.
I suggest these people should not be going to Uman they should rather cheack in to a mental institution
We should ask these guys for a beracha! With all of the corrupting filth that most of us have seen and become insensitive to, it is a wonder we can pray at all.
Veils! This is great! Now, when they brush up against a woman, they can claim it was because they couldn’t see her.
The gemara mentions the “chasid shoiteh”, or the bloody chasid, that covers his eyes in his false piety and walks into walls and the like.
No, it is not proper behavior.
I once heard from Rva Shimon Schwab ZTL, that the Chazon Ish, used to play a game with his nephews, that he was a blind man and they had to lead him through the streets. This was his way of not seeing the pritzus in the streets.
Maybe what they really need are filters for their minds. Since apparently they have only one thing on their minds all the time.
When I was 17 I went to work for the government straight out of high school. We got a notice on Summer Dress Code for the office. It said that everyone must wear underwear! I started laughing and asked my boss if this was a parody humorous notice. He looked at me as if I were crazy and said “No, this is not a parody, these are the rules for the summer and everyone MUST abide by it”. It is then when I looked at him in shock and asked “are you serious? People actually have to be told to wear underwear to work?”
BTW that was more than 35 years ago.
to all of you who just like to bash….
the chozeh of lublin attributed his ruach hakodesh and his power to see from one end of the world to the other (and upstairs as well) from blindfolding!!!! yes, blindfolding his eyes for SEVEN years when he was young. i guess he was arab and a meshugina too…..
alhtough probably nobody will attain that madreiga today, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do what the tzaddikim of previous generations did to reach their madraigos. we don’t say, masai yagiu madraigosai limadraigas avoysai, rather masai yagiu MAASAI limaasai avosai, in order to bring a nachas ruach to hashem and not do it simply for ourselves because we want to get there.
The idiotic rabbonim who came up with this idea are an insult to yiddeshkeit and dishonor the memory of the heilege rav nachman, z’tl. They are no different from the imans who direct their followers to enage in this type of antisocial behavior and should be treated as such. Most importantly, they should be denied access to any public facility or airplane for security reasons.
this is what happenes when human beings let themselfs be duped with no jobs and no highter learning that pertains to todays life, not long ago they would be commited into a lunatic asylem , they do need mental help the sooner the better
What about the dangerous sites at home. Your son or daughter might cause a certain segment of the population to think impure thoughts. What about your wife at forbidden times? The answer is blinding people at birth. Not only will they not be tempted they will have a profession.
Charlie you think you have the answer but no. What happens if the woman next to you decides to strip while you are watching the airplane. The perfect answer is above.
For those of you who received a secular education I will call this “An immodest proposal”
Charedi Jews are becoming more radicalized today than any Jewish community in past 800 years. In a decade, I would not be surprised if some of these religious sects will start adopting violence against others as a tool of fulfilling their religious beliefs just like Muslims do. Many studies support the hypothesis that religious radicalization is most common in poverty and high unemployment ridden societies—Charedim, Samalis and Pakistanis have something in common.
Ukrainians will look at these uncultured idiots in burkas roaming through towns like they own the place and will think that Ukraine didn’t lose much if this is what “Jews” look like and believe in.
Seeing erva is assur and with today’s style of dress probably an issur d’oraisah. Not only histaclus (staring) is assur but even reiya (a casual glance) is ossur. If so, you will ask how can one go out on the street in the summer or go to an airport or a shopping mall? Good question.
The gemora says that noshim haomdos al hakvisa (women doing laundry in the river) are forbidden to be seen. However, if one has to pass by and does not look it is allowed because it is hanoah haasura leodom habaa leyodo baal corcho (forbidden pleasure that comes to a person against his will) which is permitted if it’s impossible to avoid and he does not intend to indulge in it.
Rav Moshe has a teshuva about this shaala. The hanhoga of prior gedolim was not to do strange things that would astound the world. They were careful not to go where they shouldn’t and did not look where they weren’t supposed to.
Some may matir a sight that is seen when one is trying not to look at all in those places where he is allowed to go due to some necessity.
This is one of the most bizarre manifestations of Am Ha’Aratzus at work. All the Tzaddikim of our generation and of the past never did, or instructed their followers to put a shmata on their eyes. It’s on the same level as the “Burka”. It’s not a Yiddishe idea. It comes from the islamic world.
#20 : “Veils! This is great! Now, when they brush up against a woman, they can claim it was because they couldn’t see her.”
DavidMoshe, be careful. By describing your fantasies so openly, you expose your sick mind to the oilom.
There is merit to protecting yourself from sights that you don’t want to see rather than trying to force the rest of the world to conform to your standards, but there is a growing sense of sexual panic among some Jews, based on the false assumption that a learned man cannot control his own emotions no matter how disciplined his mind is and how attached to Yiddishkeit he is. We are not talking only about 18 year old boys here.
hey 34 do you mean tom and jerry can’t talk? there was a young man who was a nieghbors son.well he crossed the street in mea sharim and turned his head from a woman in his site line.a car made a pretty good mess of him.broke quite a few bones.he walked with crutches for some time.he never changed.definitly a sick puppy.these fellows with the shmaters on the face may have a better instinct fo self preservation but for sure as rain they are inviting jokes and critisim on there cheshbone.rebbe nachman said he wanted his chassidem to be normal.
I do not think these men learn enough. They should stay home and stare at their wives once in a while!!
#6 . Amazing comment. Really. Thank you. I smiled at that one
My nephew in Beitar’s young friends were collecting for themselves several weeks ago to buy tickets to Uman. This picture is wrong.
Spend Yom Tov with your family.
Spend your money on families who can’t afford Yom Tov.
This results in ridiculous behavior as in the above.
Good for these Jews taking responsibility for themselves! Instead of forcing burkas on the women, they choose to do it for themselves. Not hurting anybody.
There is NO comparison here to Muslim fundamentalists – the radicals force their views on others, these Breslevers are choosing it for themselves. HUGE difference.
Scholars have told me. I never saw it inside, that Rav Nachaman’s best friend, R.Natan, said that this behavior means that they are imagining dirty stuff behind those veils. What he actually calls it is: closing the eyes a little too tight
why not charter a flight and make it only men?
#40 , someone is pulling your leg with a literary reference. R Natan is Nathaniel Hawthorne, and he’s referring to the story “The Minister’s Black Veil.” But it’s an excellent tzushtell anyay.
And why, pray tell, if they were sincere about it, could they not simply put on sunglasses that’s blacked out – as to not call attention?
does it get any sicker than this? can you imagine em at home? are they married? does he get along with his wife?
During this time we need to give this men credit, I mean going into Rosh Hashana the very many real mitzvot of the torah (Such as standing for an elderly person, standing for a rav, returning a lost item — people drop things in airports all the time) the positive message that would bring to someone if one of these men were to chase down a not so appropriately attired woman to return her wallet as they smiled could start her on a path to teshuva. However these men might know them selves and that they are horrible people, they could never get any credit for mitvot ben adom lechavero and so they need to grasp at any thing they can do, despite the sheer number of very postive mitvot that can be done with ones eyes they know they would just snarl at people, push and shove, and keep any dropped items or think that such talmidi chacamim as themselves it is beneath their dignity to return lost items even if the person is right there. We each have to know our own boundaries and I am sure they thought through all the possibilities and this was best for them.
#25 – just curious; do you really believe that story? Also, what about the tooth fairy; does she still visit you?
#32, Shmuel– for the record, I was not writing about my “fantasies,” nor am I sufficiently warped or degenerate that I can’t walk around without shielding my eyes from the world as it actually is. By the way– isn’t it a bit odd that you’d want to speculate about another guy’s fantasies? From what I hear, that sort of inclination is very much frowned upon in the frum world. Maybe you could get therapy, or maybe you should just stop hiding, and embrace your true self! I promise– I’ll still respect you as much as I ever did!
While I appreciate the men’s desire for personal purity, I mourn about the many women who are being forced into being trafficked in Israel. I think it would be much more pleasing to HaShem for the Haredim and the rest of Israeli society to do all in their power to stand up as a community against the evil exploitation of oppressed women in this way. If there were no “clients,” the money would dry up as would the exploitation. Isaiah 58 says that “true fasting” (practical holiness) is about rescuing those who can’t rescue themselves from oppression. When men act as brothers, talk together, and hold each other accountable, everyone benefits. When any society condones using a woman in such a way, G-d hears the quietest tear.