Reply To: Sign Of The Times?(!)

A man with a black hat, beard, black suit, white shirt and tie walks into a shul to give a shiur – what would the congregation say about the man? I suppose it would go along the lines of “Rabbi…..” If a guy in chinos, shirt and blazer walks in and gives a shiur, I must confess it doesn’t carry the same weight – like it or not. We would look to this guy as just that – a guy giving a shiur. Nothing wrong with that you say. Correct. But it does add to the extra kovod of shabbos of a suited guy who goes that little bit further to how he dresses.

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And that is precisely the problem in Klal Yisrael. The laity has abrogated its responsiblity to itself, to the point were it is now incongruous that a “. . .guy in chinos, shirt and blazer” would be able to say a blatt shiur. The torah taught by lay men, casually dressed is percieved as less worthy than that taught by black suited ad hatted rabbis. That’s a horrible state of affairs; one that I, by virtue of my sartorial preferences intend to change in my small corner of the world.