Following the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates, the problem has been solved. Whoever won’t be able to travel this year to Uman will be able to travel to Oman 🙂

Best regards, Samson Zweiblinder, Knight of the Onions and Garlic

Who knows—maybe the agreement with the United Arab Emirates will also influence the emir of intellect, so that he will moderate the protests on Balfour?

And on a more serious note—

Since the government of Ukraine announced that it will prevent Hasidim from entering Uman on Rosh Hashanah, this year will be the opportunity for modern religious people who do not grow beards and sidelocks to pray at the grave-site of Rabbi Nachman on Rosh Hashanah. After all, the Ukrainian police won’t be able to tell them apart already at the airport.

The Ukrainians say they will insist that anyone who does succeed in reaching the grave-site keep a distance of 5 square meters per person, and one may safely presume that the modern religious public will accept this requirement without any problem, just as they will observe without protest the verse: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalms 141:3).

Corona has, after all, brought into the world the insight that “solitude is essential” 🙂

Best regards, Shatz

By the way, it will still be possible to get to Silistra in Bulgaria, the burial place of the gaon Rabbi Eliezer Papo of blessed memory (author of Pele Yoetz), who promised before his death that whoever comes to his grave after immersing in a mikveh and prays with a broken heart—he will guarantee that his prayer will be accepted (cited in the introduction to his book Orot Elim)

Benjamin,

To the same extent that a person wearing a kippah may feel that he’s being labeled and be embarrassed by his way of life, a secular person can also feel that he’s being labeled.
And we know many religious people at various levels who label secular people as leftists, religion-haters, people who eat hyraxes, lacking morals, “arrogant,” suspected of sexual immorality, etc. etc…
So what? Have you ever seen a secular person ashamed of his shiny bald head and quickly cover it with a kippah for fear of being labeled?

If they’re not ashamed, then you also shouldn’t be ashamed of who you are.

I’ll give you two interesting and maybe even funny examples.
When I enlisted in the army as a Haredi man (straight from kollel, and afterward I went back to kollel), some female soldiers asked me if I was Haredi. And when I answered yes, they asked me whether I was a regular Haredi. Again I answered yes. Then they asked: so how is it that you’re enlisting? I answered them that there are Haredim who enlist too, even if the media says otherwise.
That means that from the outset they understood that I was Haredi, but not a regular one. Or that I wasn’t Haredi. And I ran into other similar cases.
On the other hand, I remember very well how during basic training at the Nitzanim base, when about 60 Haredi soldiers in our platoon were standing ליד the dining room, a few secular soldiers from another platoon walked past us and shouted at us: get out of here, you freeloading parasites!!!
Can you believe it??? I’m at the Nitzanim base wearing an army uniform and they’re shouting at me that I’m a freeloader and a parasite!!!

I’m not done yet—pay attention!!
A friend of mine, who was Haredi and a career officer in an elite unit, had to pop in one Purim day to a family doctor to get a prescription, and of course he came in army uniform. In line for the doctor there was a young secular guy who scolded him: how are you not ashamed to dress up as a soldier, you parasite??

Do you understand? No matter what you do, there will always be people with sense, and there will always be those who came last when they handed out brains.
In short, let it go.