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Slowly slowly I am seeing more Black Jews around. I mean more Black ultra Orthodox Jews! A part of me wants to tell them to run so that they won't face any potential social problems. But I bite my tongue.
There is what to gain.
As far as I've seen. Its only in these circles that the Torah gets explored in such depths, such far reaching depths I feel like I literally get high from it. I pray that these Black Jews at least realize the bottomless depth that Torah can go before they leave that circle. Then hopefully, they will take that knowledge with them and it will become a part of them. There is way too much to learn.
So for now, because of the restriction between men and women to interact, when I see a BM religious Jew walking down the street, out of respect for him and his need to guard the brit (circumcision; i.e. not to look at women and have base after thoughts, etc), I say nothing. To the little black boys, I give them a nod. To the women and girls, if I see that they are open, I smile and talk with them.
9 comments:
"Slowly slowly I am seeing more Black Jews around. I mean more Black ultra Orthodox Jews!"
I'm perplexed, Miriam. From whence do they come?
Could you exmplain bit more on what it means to be black and an ultra Orthodox Jew?
Hi Domino,
I am not entirely sure. But Alot of the women are definitely Ethiopians, I can spot them more easily because they don't change much how they typically dress (travel shawl, head coverings, etc) so I imagine the men are also. The men are harder to tell because once they are in that group, everyone dresses the same: white shirt, black pants.
I have met a few who are AA.
Hi Tnt5150,
There are the very religious who are known as Ultra Orthodox -as in, super orthodox. In Israel they are called Hareidi. They tend to have extra restrictions on themselves (for example, its not enough for a food to be "kosher" it has to be certifiably kosher from a certain group of rabbis), the men tend to dress mostly in black with white shirts.
They are hardly seen except in their own neighborhoods.
Usually, this group is so closed, you hardly find anyone who doesn't look like they can (at least pretend like they) come from a European background among them.
Well, in those circles, I'm seeing more AA Jews and other Black Jews in those circles. Those that I have met --and I must tell you, I was in that circle once upon a very recent time -- are usually having to deal with very sheltered people being so surprised at seeing them. Or they have to deal with those who reject them or some thing usually related to their state of being (i.e. Are you really Jewish? Who did your conversion??).
Its hard. And tiresome.
But if they make their own circle of friends within that group they can have a wonderful cushion. The problem is you can't depend on your friends all the time. Going to new places always become hard. (As opposed to the not as strict groups like modern Orthodox, National Religious, etc. who know and teach kids early on not to stare, who have a certain decor on social behavior, who are more inclusive rather than exclusive, etc).
However, in those (Ultra Orthodox) circles, they take the Torah spin it. Twist it. Question it. Break it down so well, so deeply, its worth passing through them to get to the true "neighborhood" one feels comfortable in settling into. If only to just realize how deep things can go.
These Black UO Jews are most likely sitting almost all day and delving into the Torah like there's no tomorrow. God willing it will be in their hearts (and they'll reject the social ways of that group. lol)
Hey Miriam!
Great post, as always!
Just checking in! I hope all is well!
:-)
Hey Tr8erGirl! Great to see you!
What's a bit confusing is that when Orthodox Jews talk about "blacks," they may be referring simply to black-hat Jews. What gets me is the extreme racism from some of these people. People are drawn to Judaism for all sorts of reasons, and it's not for me to judge anyone's choice, but I suspect that black converts need to have some extra resolve. On the one hand, I sometimes wonder if the converts really know what they're getting into, but on the other hand, their very presence is something of an antidote to the problem. The Ortho-racism is largely due to insularity and ignorance, and meeting more people from the race you demean has a tendency to lessen one's prejudice. The problem is, knowing that this prejudice exists in the community has made me bitter and cynical (aided by the fact that it was a major factor in why my brother left), and it's one of the main reasons I'm not into kiruv: I just don't feel like advertising my own religion. When outsiders get a good impression of it without being aware of the faults, I am not going to go out of my way to destroy their idealized picture of Judaism, but I'm not going to whitewash it either. So I just say nothing.
Yes, I know what you mean.
I must say, however, that I've found that the most meaningful Torah is not found in the so-called ultra-Orthodox (haredi) world.
Micha: Was that a response to me, or to Miriam?
It was a response to Miriam.
In short, this is so because, in general, the haredi world understands Judaism and takes as its mold of what the Torah's program is from the Judaism of the exile. And those aspects which don't fit into this system, which of course did just fine in Vilna two hundred years ago, or Minsk, or Frankfurt, are basically ignored. Whether it's voiced as such or not, the basic conception is that they're outside the realm of Torah, or at least someone else's problem (for instance, Mashiach--the Messiah). The problem is, this mold of Judaism is basically a crippled, truncated Judaism. Just look at the number of mitzvot which can only be fulfilled in the Land of Israel, those which require a Temple, those which require a Sanhedrin (Supreme Court of Torah sages), those which require a proper Torah-based government, and so on.
Because of this, the truly creative, truly profound, truly visionary Torah, is coming from outside the haredi world.
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