Friday, July 4, 2014

What happened to our Busha?

One of the three defining characteristics of Klal Yisrael is, we are bayshanim, we are easily embarrassed."Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov" The gemara Bava Basra (60a) says that this refers to the wonderful homes of Bnei Yisroel whose doors do not directly face each other and are the epitome of Tznius, modesty and refinement, which Bilam saw and marveled at. The Internet  in general and social media in particular have caused many to unmask the busha from themselves. They do so by publicizing anything and everything about their private  and personal life. Its all out in the open for the world to see. We are living a life, where every random thought gets tweeted and each action is photographed and shared with friends who vote to like it. 


A new recent phenomenon is taking place  which until now has never been an accepted behavior by the frum torah yeshiva world and especially by the Chasidish crowds. I'm talking about frum couples posting pictures of themselves. Not just a regular picture, but pictures showing affection.

Pictures of chiba, weather they are touching each other, holding hands, hugging, or other poses that are not to be for the public to see and considered Chiba b'rabim. Yet, young frum couples innocently upload these pictures  on facebook for all to see with out any busha. It can be the private pictures of the Chasunah or of a recent vacation. This is not happening by the modern orthodox crowd, it is by the yeshivish baal habatish and heimish crowd. Take a look at your friends facebook page and many are posting  images which is purely Chiba berabim. Never have people in previous generations publicized such pictures of themselves outside of their home. 
A frum photogropher recently launched a contest on Facebook asking couples to upload a picture of themselves, and the one with the most likes gets a free couple photo shoot. Have we no shame ?? We are voting on a picture of Chiba berabim in a contest? Is this the norm. What happened to our busha? Our sensitivities have been dulled, our busha unmasked. At this time of let us daven that the the mask of busha be put back on our face.

3 comments:

  1. It reminds me of a story that I heard with R Elchonon Wasserman ( I heard someone else say it was the Netziv) who was at a wedding and after kiddushin was finished the chosson kissed the kallah under the chupa. R Elchanon was distraught. Someone tried to ease R Elchonon's mind and said that at least they are married. R Elchonon answered that "L'einie Col Yisroel iz soif col hatoira"

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  2. Unfortunately, as we know, the secular culture influences us, too, and the current secular culture has gone beyond almost every conceivable boundary.

    Chazal speak about these days in Perek Chelek: "biyimos hamashiach...chutzpah yasgei..."
    May Hashem please redeem us all bb"A.

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  3. If you quoted the source of the issur, you would look more credible.

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