New York, NY – The Torah scholar wore bluejeans.
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That might seem a fairly trivial thing to say about Shalhevet Schwartz, the 14-year-old girl from the Bronx who, in between softball games and the demanding homework at her Jewish high school, studied hard enough to win her division of the National Bible Contest, held last Sunday at Yeshiva University in New York.
But most of the 115 students at this Bible bee, which sends its winners to compete at the international finals in Jerusalem next year, attend Orthodox schools, and thus the fashion code here mirrored the dress codes at those schools, and in most of the children’s families: long skirts for girls, skullcaps and the fringes known as zizit for the boys. From what I could tell, Miss Schwartz, a freshman at SAR High School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, was one of only two girls to compete in pants.
At SAR, a “modern Orthodox” school, Miss Schwartz is required to wear a skirt to school every day. But she did not see the need to be in dress code on this given Sunday, when her only commitment was to vanquish her competition answering multiple-choice questions on obscure biblical passages. And while there was an English-language division, Miss Schwartz competed in Hebrew.
A sampler of the questions Miss Schwartz and her fellow competitors faced down: “Which king bought Samaria from Shemer for 2 talents of silver — Omri, Zimri, Ahab or Baasha?” “Who said to whom: ‘If you would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg you, and let me see no more of my wretchedness’ — Moses to God, Joab to Solomon, Naboth to Ahab, or Obadiah to Elijah?” “Who was not David’s son — Adonijah, Solomon, Absalom or Joab?”
Mazel tov!
Well done.
I rather see a fine girl with fine character and fine Torah knowledge in pants, than a black hat wearing boy who is full of chutzpah and has no derech eretz.
Big whoop many Christians also know the Bible and are not even Jewish. And they wear bluejeans.
This YU its not a real test of torah knowledge/ Let her goup against a real Torah Learner from the mir or ponavitch
I guess one of the questions wasn’t, “who says women are allowed to wear pants and short sleeves?”
Kol Hakavod!
These Bible contests are for seculars, not for religious Jews. Traditionally, the heavy focus on Tanach came from the Reform movement and religious Jews broke off to focus on chazal and how they interpret the Torah.
This will surely be of importance one day in her role as a Yiddishe Mama imparting the the age old traditions to her children in hashkofo, how to dress b’tsnius and act as aidel maidels etc. It is wonderful to have so much knowledge but, that isn’t everything, as the article describes her clothing. It is more important to have the right hashkofos and know how to dress properly, keep a kosher home, keep Shabbos properly, daven with kavono etc., than to have all this knowledge.
wow, so many jewish anti semites in here. I am disgusted..
While I think that the girls’ (their were 2 blue jean winners) knowledge is beautiful, the ny times struck me as having an anti-ultra orthodox tone. It’s point was that modern orthodox jews are more knowlegable than orthodox jews. of course that’s silly for this was just a memorization contest.
Why is there so much anger? A Mazal Tov would be nice. I cannot understand why all of us cannot be happy for this young lady. Unfortunately it immediately
becomes “us vs them”. How sad! Remember: ahavas chinam will bring the geula. Shabbat Shalom my fellow Yidden.
The purpose of learning Torah is not to study some history. We learn ללמוד וללמד לשמור ולעשות ולקיים
לֹא יִהְיֶה כְלִי גֶבֶר ע ַל אִשָּׁה, וְלֹא יִלְבַּשׁ גֶּבֶר שִׂמְלַת אִשָּׁה, כִּי תוֹעֲבַת ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ כָּל עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה
The next time any of you naysayers see a modern orthodox girl who isn’t dressed to the standards of your tzibbur, try the following.
1) Imagine that she has been frum for just a few years and she is making great strides.
2) Imagine she is your cousin.
3) Imagine she is your gandaughter
4) give her a smile
5) know that you have no idea of her life story and only Hashem knows what she should or shouldn’t be doing based on the life, family and culture Hasem put her in. For all you know, she is a bigger tzadaikes than you are a tzaddik. Only Hashem knows the whole story.
6) remind yourself of all this before the next such person you bump into. It might help you look at things the way you really should.
Your attitude reminds me of the story of kamtza and bar kamtza but this is worse. Don’t you realize that her tzibbur reads VIN too? Do you always insult and look down on people in front of them in a public setting? Have you no shame, sensitivity or tact?
Let this be a lesson to all of us Talmudic scholars. If we want to be the ones to ‘wear the pants in the family’, then we’d better take learning Tanach seriously! (Of course I’m also proud of this girl’s accomplishment and am not judging her).
Better that we should lose one or two at the fringes than lower our standards and accept everything as part of some new creed called Open Orthodoxy. This girl will probably become a Professor of Biblical Studies somewhere; if she had any sort of Yiddishe neshomo she would dress at least according to the standards of her school and make a kiddush Hashem rather than the chilul Hashem that she made.
Indeed, this is just a memorization contest.
Gut vuch. Shavua Tov.
Don’t you all know that the bais hamikdosh was destroyed because a fourteen year old girl wore blue jeans and learned tanach? Can’t all of you defending her understand that she is the reason klal yisroel is still in galus? Didn’t you learn that the talmidai rabi akiva died because they didn’t spit on fourteen year old girls who wore jeans?
Don’t any of you have enough yiras shomayim to hate the girl and insult her without knowing anything about her?
Do you think moshiach will ever arrive if you people keep treating other people with common courtesy and judging all yiddin favorably???
No wonder we are stuck in galus for so long. It is all you ahavas chinam addicted enemies of klal yisroel forcing the real frum yiddin to suffer by seeing knitted kipot every time we venture out of Brooklynmonseylakewood. If you would just get your heads on straight moshiach would be here already and would have destroyed anyone who doesn’t wear a black hat.
Or is moshiach supposed to be a more ‘heimish’ and he will kill all yiddin who wear down brim hats? Or is supposed to be chassidish and will kill the up-brim crown too? Wait, maybe he will be satmar and kill chassidish yiddin who allow their wives to wear shaitlach? Or maybe lubavitch and will shoot anyone caught davening anything other than nusach ari?
Never mind, with all you defenders of jeans wearing fourteen year olds he’s never coming anyway.
Maybe it is Obama’s fault?
This isn’t an either or. I know a girl who won this about 15 years ago who was from a modern orthodox background, went to a modern orthodox school and was a tremendous yaray shamayim. Torah learning should be applauded, and we can hope that it will inspire everyone involved towards greater shmiras hatmizvos.
And for all those who are not familiar with this contest, it is a big deal. The finals are televised in Israel and most of the competitors are indeed frum.
Mazal tov and kudos to all the teens involved, as well as YU for supporting these endeavors.
In response to #5 98% of Lakewood guys cant even name the seforim in neviim and ksuvim.. One thing I can tell you about that 14 year old girl and others like her.. Is that she will finish college with a professional designation, marry someone who knows how to learn with a professional designation, not have to do the “foile shtick” that most every Lakewood guy has to do because he can’t make enough money to support his large family. I never really understood or agreed with the YU philosophy, but in this day and age I totally do.
I think it’s a matter of respect. She was at Yeshiva University, which is a recognized ORTHODOX institution. Would she wear a mini skirt & a sleeveless top on a summer visit to the Vatican?
This doesn’t take away from her intellectual abilities, just her sense of correctness.
כל המלמד את בתו תורה כאילו מלמדה תיפלות
No one c”v hates the girl for wearing pants; however, we are not allowed to tolerate a breach of tznius, especially public. Public flaunting of halacha is a Chilul Hashem.
In many fixtures of the MO world, learning is purely an intellectual exercise; it is not considered a contradiction by them to be extremely learned but nonobservant or minimally observant or “pick-and-choose” observant. This attitude was prevalent among the maskilim as well; the Rov of my shul recalls how when he would come home on Shabbos morning as a child, his next-door neighbor (who was bare-headed and smoking a cigar) would ask him which masechta and daf he was learning, then rattle off the whole blatt with Tosefos by heart, and farher him on it! We all have heard of “chiddushe torah” actually being written down on Shabbos in some of the hotbeds of haskala.
Of course, we should pity her for where she’s holding, and daven that she should wake up and use all that learning to increase her Yiras Shomayim and actualize her tremendous potential.
No wonder few people their kinos into geniza after tisha ba’av these days.
If the disgusting attitudes expressed by supposedly shomrai torah umitzvos on this blog are indicative of what Brooklynlakewoodmonsey yiddin really feel about the rest of the Orthodox world, let alone the not-yet-Orthodox world, there is little reason to wait with our bags packed.
Skirts are not forbidden to women; tight skirts and too-short skirts are forbidden.
The fact that there are people who do not keep Tznius the way they are supposed to does not change the rule itself.
Pants are forbidden to women, whether they are tight or not.
From “Modesty: An Adornment for Life” –
“Slacks and trousers are absolutely forbidden, and wearing such clothing is viewed as gross Pritzus. Not only do they display the general outline of the upper sections of the legs, but they exhibit and emphasize the full shape of those limbs – see Rashi, Pesochim 3a s.v. b’Zov and Responsa Shevet HaLevi 6:118.2 about the Pritzus of Pisuk Raglayim – displaying the division of the upper sections of the legs. . .
When wearing trousers, a woman also transgresses the Issur Min HaTorah of Lo Yehi Kli Gever al Ishah. . .These Poskim maintain that a garment which is intrinsically not suited to a female (either due to Pritzus or some other reason) is subject to this Issur, even if the world-at-large has deteriorated, and the garment is widely worn by women (See Responsa Minchas Yitzchak 2:108, Responsa Shevet HaLevi 2:63, and Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 11:62). . .”
*
Note: I am not saying that this girl knew any better, nor that she deliberately violated Halacha.