Wow. Just...wow. First of all, thanks for the translation. Very interesting- though I admit the whole thing leaves me with a depressed, sinking feeling inside.
And who knew that hair roots could be sexy enough to drive a man to distraction?
BTW, I've always thought it so cruel when I see those little girls with tights even during the hottest days of summer. What the heck is going on here? As the woman in the article said, it wasn't always like this. What is going on to make people act this way?
This doesn't bode well for the future.
I'm fascinated that this seems to attract ba'alei teshuva and converts. What clicks for these women that they need to do something like this?
And the realization that your fingers are feminine so you have to cover them?
Just, wow!
Fascinating and scary all at the same time. I imagine that some of these women could end up divorced if they are davening to remove the impediment. Oy!
Abbi, My husband says that one reason that baalei teshuva don't always fit in, and sometimes go to extremes as in this case, is because what allowed and inspired them to become baalei teshuva in the first place is their individuality. They had a strength to be different than their non-observant peers. They broke away from their society and went to a different society. But they are still in search of being different. Here's one way to be charedi but different. Dress like it's frezzing outside and you don't have a coat to wear. I'm glad that at least Rav Eliyahu of Tzfat thinks they're nuts.
I will have to let my husband know that fingers are sexy. They are about the only part of my body that does not have stretch marks.
Thank you for the translation "A mother in Israel".
Women did wear gloves in public until the last century. But the gloves were not intended to disguise the "feminine" quality of their hands but to protect it. I don't know, it sounds like a bit of inflated vanity to think one's hands are so very attractive that they must be covered from men's eyes.
There was a video making the rounds a while back of rn kanievsky talking with an interviewer. I did not notice anything especially covered about her hands!
She also talked volubly to the male interviewer (modestly of course, but no not talking to men there!)
I also noticed a woman in a long hot pink dress or robe talking to her on the streets of bnei brak, so fortunately there are limits to the "no bright colors" movement.
RR--
In the Hebrew version the hareidi woman from tzfat (who was against the dress-as-a-tent phenomenon) said that she and others also thought it was cruel to dress little girls in tights--but now they have to if they want their daughters to get into the "best" schools. IMO if everyone stopped worrying about the so-called "best" schools we'd be a lot better off, but I don't see that happening.
Abbi-- (about converts/bts)
I think BB has a good point about individuality. I had a couple of other thoughs,
1. often if people were at one extreme, they go to the other before settling down somewhere in the middle. So if a girl dressed provocatively to get male attention, she might later feel the need to do everything possible to avoid provocative dress, or in this case, showing her body at all.
If it weren't for Rabanit Keren Bruria and her group, I imagine that Maya would have worn extra layers of clothing for a while and then removed some of them, but with the group the "settling down" stage probably won't happen.
2. It's easy to get addicted to the feeling of taking on more and more observances. After you're shomer shabbat, shomer kashrut, etc, there's sometimes a feeling of "OK, now what?" and then a struggle to make your observance deeper without the "high" of newness. By putting on a third, fourth, and fifth skirts these women can keep the feeling of newness going for longer. (just a possibility).
>> I'm fascinated that this seems to attract ba'alei teshuva and converts. What clicks for these women that they need to do something like this?
Speaking as a convert, I'll take a stab at this question. One factor, I think, is that converts and BTs didn't grow up in the frumme velt so a) they don't always have a firm grasp on what's considered "normal" and b) they don't have family traditions to look back to or a zeidy/bubbie who can tell them, "That's not how my mother did it, and she was very concerned with modesty." In other words, it's harder for people in that position to have a point of reference, except vis-a-vis the old way of life that they've already decided to give up. Another factor may be that some BTs and converts are very drawn to strictness in observance but since they did not grow up frum, they have a hard time integrating into the tightly-knit communities where observance is most strict. So again they find themselves without an easy point of reference, without social anchors to clue them in on why this sort of thing might be a problem.
Meshugganah charedim....the only difference between them and the Taliban is that they're not Muslim. These women need serious counseling.
" I looked at the place my fingers began, and saw that it was indeed very feminine. So I cut off the ends of some socks and wore them on my hand, to cover the part up to my fingers. At first I wore them only outside, because they bothered me at home. Gradually I also began to wear them at home, and now I sleep in them as well as in a high neckline. "
If I were this woman's husband, I would be in a straitjacket by now. In the privacy of her own bed she sleeps with socks on her hands? Does he get to see the sock-mittens come off on mikvah night or...OK. I'm getting vulgar. But this is perfectly ridiculous.
There's a line in Little Women where once of the girls says something isn't proper "any more than wearing all your dresses and hats at once that folks may know you've got 'em". NB: wearing all the clothes you own at once, if that is more than one set, is not proper.
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