New York, NY – Chasidic Jews Dressing With Faith, Not Heat In Mind

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    Hasidic Jews, prominent in Brooklyn, say they have learned to live comfortably in all seasons with their attire, as dictated by tradition. Photo: stefano giovannini.New York, NY – When the mercury passes 90, most New Yorkers start to wilt. Many resort to shorts and tank tops, even in the office. More than a few bankers and lawyers reach for their seersuckers.

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    Yet amid all the casual summer wear, in some neighborhoods more than others, Hasidic men wear dark three-piece suits crowned by black hats made of rabbit fur, and Hasidic women outfit themselves in long-sleeved blouses and nearly ankle-length skirts. To visibly cooler New Yorkers, they can look painfully overdressed.

    Some New Yorkers who are not Hasidic surely ask themselves: How on earth do they stay cool?

    “I think I’m not as hot as other people because the sun is not on me,” said Chany Friedman, who was shopping recently in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with two of her five children in tow, wearing a sweater and dense stockings in addition to other concealing clothing. “If I’m covered, the sun is not on me. I’m happy that I’m not exposed to the world.”

    Using a Hebrew name for God, she added, “That’s what Ha-Shem wants from us.”

    “Does anybody ask a congressman why he walks into Congress with a suit or a Wall Street executive why he goes to work in a suit?” asked Isaac Abraham, a leader in the Satmar Hasidic community.

    Hot and cold is all in the mind anyway, argued Shea Hecht, a Lubavitch Hasid who heads the movement’s educational outreach arm. In his dark suit and gray fedora — Lubavitch garb differs from that of other Hasidim, though it is still conservative — he sometimes chuckles at people in Bermuda shorts.

    “Why are they spending so much money on only a half a pair of pants?” he said. (Cue rimshot.)

    Still, Hasidim have found subtle ways to beat the heat.

    The shtreimel, the tall, cylindrical, Russian sable hat that Hasidic men wear on the Sabbath to dignify the day, has been modified in recent years, with holes in the crown to provide a kind of ersatz air-conditioning. Those innovations may not seem to offer that much relief, but in Hasidic philosophy, it is more important to please God.

    Read full article at New York Times


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    56 Comments
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    Lodzker
    Lodzker
    11 years ago

    nikadesh shem shumayim!

    Nebech
    Nebech
    11 years ago

    Bezchus hachasidim nigalu

    DACON9
    DACON9
    11 years ago

    YOU DESCRIBE EUROPEAN DRESS.
    As a sepharad I wear long robes one under and one open to fly in t he wind when i ride my camel Also a long flowing head covering with braided robe around the crown of head. I have a new staff able to split seas.
    I feed my camels very well. The camels, my wife and I are quite comfortable in this heat.
    You see our father ‘ABARAHAM raised us in ur kasdim also a very hot climate. My family never left even after the british renamed it to iraq, even after the romans renamed the land to palsitine, even after the world tells me to move to uganda, my people ,my family, never left the land except for brief journeys but I was sure to always leave some family at our hme or my brothers home in Israel renamed palsitine and also syria egypt lebanon. A few of my ancestors were captured by romand and sold as slaves to germany. Yes sadly they did adopt the ways of the barbarians
    BUT I KNOW ONE THING FOR SURE
    MASHIACH IS ARRIVING SOON AND WE WILL ALL RETURN
    TO THE WAY WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE,
    THE WAY HASHEM THE ONE AND ONLY GD WANTS US..
    TO KNOW ‘HIM’ AND KNOW ‘HIS’ LAWS
    B’H

    \

    torontonian
    torontonian
    11 years ago

    $1500 for Rabbit fur?

    11 years ago

    While the halachot of tzniut are very important, there are absolutely no halachik requirements to wear a shtreimel. I can see nothing “pleasing to G-d” in wearing a shtreimel.

    Member
    11 years ago

    Trust in Hashem to make certain you wear a streimel in the 96 degree weather! Schvitzing is the new jewish norm! Baruch Hashem!

    DanielBarbaz
    DanielBarbaz
    11 years ago

    I personally could not wear dark, heavy clothing in the hot weather, let alone a fur hat. But if someone believes that they are fulfilling a Mitzvah and it gives them a sense of closeness to Hashem, Kol Hakavod. They are not hurting anyone, so live and let live.

    ffkrn
    ffkrn
    11 years ago

    A Guy without a shirt and shorts once met a Ruv in all shmoineh beudim in a boiling day, that Goy ask the Rov why all this cloth? The Rov replied Me when I get hot I take of my coat, more hot- I take of my hat, more hot – I take of my vest, open my tob button, change for a cotton tzitzis… But you what can you doman?….

    shlomogabai
    shlomogabai
    11 years ago

    Right in this time, we bash them for the way they dress! They have to appease us and dress (or rather undress) like us!! Please! they want to wear a winter coat good for them! it’s none of our business even to print!

    lazerx
    lazerx
    11 years ago

    love it, love it, love it!

    Just to see men and women sweating and suffereing for their beliefs. It is these clothing that holds them together and yet apart from others, or so they think. If it works, great. I personally prefer to dress more comfortable and still can maintain my distance from undesirables.

    11 years ago

    This should be the worst that the NY Times can say about chareidim…they dress wierd. So what. There are some hipsters whose lvush make the yerushalmi guys in meah sheaarim look like Tommy Hillfinger protoges’

    Materetsky
    Materetsky
    11 years ago

    I am not Chasidish, but I think that Hashem is *pleased* when the Chasidim wear streimels as it is their minhag ; Hashem is pleased when we carry out traditions.

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    11 years ago

    for all those who read this and dress with all the clothes listed here , straimels too….make sure u drink lots of water so u dont dehydrate from sweating so much…no joke…serious advice.

    miahc
    miahc
    11 years ago

    Is it also a mitzvah to have all the kids clothes match? Look at the picture….alot of time and money is spent in this in Willy and bp. It’s not all “nikadesh shem shamayim”

    enlightened-yid
    enlightened-yid
    11 years ago

    The Hasid said “hot and cold is all in the mind anyway.” You can’t pray biological functions away. When your body overheats, you sweat like every other person on the planet. When you guys enter the crowded subway in a heat wave and people around you can’t find a space to run away to, you know that it’s not just in your mind. Or when I stand in line at the bank on 13th and a fully clothed Hasid stands in front of you when it’s 90 degrees outside, you can tell….or at least smell that the heat bothers them a lot. Even Arabs are smarter to wear garnets designed for desert heat when it’s hot. Torah doesn’t tell us to suffer in the summer.

    HaNavon
    HaNavon
    11 years ago

    In Europe, Yidden didn’t wear such hot clothing during the summer.

    takeittothem
    takeittothem
    11 years ago

    When Jews were forced out of warm climates to cold climates in Poland, Russia and germany, they DROPPED THEIR MINHAG of wearing light clothing to starting to wear heavy, warm clothing of the north. Why, oh why, can’t the Jews who have returned to Israel, a warm climate ,DROP THEIR MINHAG, and start wearing the old light clothing of their Avos?
    It boggles the mind!
    As for the New York Jews in 90 degree weather – no comment.

    Unasked_Question
    Unasked_Question
    11 years ago

    Faith ???
    I’m one of the shtraimel wearers.
    I don’t know anyone who dresses with shtraimel because of faith, or anything to do with hashem.
    Its just social pressure and nothing more!
    We know how our community does not tolerate any individuality, that leaves us with no choice.

    Claiming that we are so dumb and stupid to think that hashem actually gets pleasure from us wearing $4,000 shtraimlech or long bekiches is belitteling an entire community.

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    11 years ago

    shtreimel has holes in it?? I think the author has holes in his head AND his story!!

    Raitech
    Raitech
    11 years ago

    If u put on my Shtriemel on a Tuesday will the built in air conditioning of the Shtrimel cool me off too?

    Babishka
    Member
    Babishka
    11 years ago

    At work yesterday, they announced that today the usual dress code would be suspended. I suspect this may have something to do with turning up the thermostat on the air conditioner. There is a lot of computer equipment here so they can’t turn it up too high.

    yaakov doe
    Member
    yaakov doe
    11 years ago

    A streimal with holes in it is not a holy streimal and one does not fullfil the mitzva with it. The reformers started this way.

    ZSNYC
    ZSNYC
    11 years ago

    Reply to # 29. Please speak for yourself. Please don’t insult all shtreimel wearing people. Who most of them are intellectual people, who don’t wear it because of social pressures!

    Miami
    Miami
    11 years ago

    As much as i enjoy and prefer to dress more “cool” in the summer, I still respect all yeshivish and chassidish for their strength and firmness, kol hakovod!

    Stickpick
    Stickpick
    11 years ago

    Do any of you think that wearing open, sleeveless vests and mini shorts is gonna keep you cooler in 90 degrees? Absolutely NOT!
    the sun beating on your skin is the worst. A sure cause of skin cancer which statisticaly is much much higher amongst the goyim than frum yidden.
    yes, wearing 3 piece black or any color suit is also crazy in this heat. But who said chassidim can’t wear light clothing that is tzniusdik?
    ….Think again!…

    GEULA
    GEULA
    11 years ago

    Baruch Hashem, klall yisroel has kept strong. Anything anybody does is in the state of mind. Some things seem foreign to others but it is all about what and where you train your mind and being to be. Kol Hakavod to shtreimels, Kol hakavod to non shtreimels or the holy Frocks; which has the same concept as a shtreimel. kol hakavod for any yid that holds his mesorah strongly. Kol Hakavod to the Kipa Sruga and Kol Hakavod to Sefardim and Ashkenazim. When are we gonna learn that to the outside world we are all the same. To Hashem we are no different. And therefor to us/eachother we should just accept and respect our differences as long as it’s for Retzon Hashem.

    DovidTheK
    DovidTheK
    11 years ago

    The great Taylor Swift said it best, “she wears short shorts, I wear t-shirts; she wears high heels, I wear sneakers.”
    You do what you want, I do what I want. You don’t tell me what to wear, I don’t tell you what to wear (as long as you don’t walk down my street or shop in my store, then I will tell you what to wear).

    vitriol
    vitriol
    11 years ago

    If #2 chief doofus says that he sees nothing pleasing to Hashem in wearing a Shtreimel I must also concur. Also, whereas women must be tznius, remember that woman can be tznius and also cool. Summer dresses are not the same as wearing pants. In my opinion, the men are all idiots because they are not disallowed from wearing shorts. There is nothing sexy about the hairly legs of a male Hasid – except perhaps if your name happens to be Abraham Mondrowitz (see story above) Even then, I think the whole concept of puberty probably scares him.

    5TResident
    Noble Member
    5TResident
    11 years ago

    My father a”h was a refugee living in Morocco with my grandparents from 1940-45, having escaped from Belgium after the Nazis invaded. He basically lived in tents for five years, from the ages of 12 to 17. He learned tricks from the Moroccan Jews to keep cool in very hot weather and used those tricks for the rest of his life. No matter how hot it got it outside, he never used air conditioning and always drank a huge glass of hot tea after every meal. We are spoiled; there are many ways to survive and even thrive in hot weather. It really is all in the mind.

    11 years ago

    1 thing is for sure that the family in the picture looks like a very calm charming happy family ble”h!!

    Respect
    Respect
    11 years ago

    This was a fairly respectful article that answers a question that many both inside and outside the frum world wonder about both in private and aloud. I’m not chaddisish, but why would it bother me to see someone else follow their rabbanim? I’m not getting what the hak is all about on this article.