Looking at my outlook

I was asked by someone this week to define my hashkafah (outlook). Ok, that’s easy.
I’m modern-mussarnik-yeshivish-lite-neo-chassidish/yekkish-YUish-uberdox.
I know, that really doesn’t say much about my outlook.


am often hypocritical…but I’m aware of it, I go to minyan, have a television, spend a few nights a week learning in a beis midrash, have internet, I am not a fan of talking during davening…but I am not a fan of “shushhing”, I wear a black hat on Shabbos Kodesh, wear black “Non-Fiction Unlimited” baseball cap when it’s raining, if I listen to the radio it’s only the news since the one station in Chicago I actually liked went off the air, my iPod has: Carlebach, Diaspora, Piamenta, Yosef Karduner, D’veykus, YBC, Shalsheles, Pitom, Bad Religion, Husker Du/Bob Mould, Echo and the Bunnymen, and old R.E.M., I aim to be a giver in the “Rav Dessler” sense of the word but I am open to receiving mussar, my three kids attend a seperate-sex day school (with girls and boys under one roof, my wife covers her hair, my black “Knitting Factory” kipah covers mine (ok, it’s really not from the Knitting Factory, but it’s a black knit kippah), kavod ha’brios is something I view as important, some say I yell and others say I don’t yell enough, I really enjoy it when a baal tefilah is leibidig, I have no problem sitting with a sefer and an iced latte in a cRc acceptable Starbucks kiosk, I thought I knew what Hashem wanted from me until I read Mesillas Yesharim in 1990, thought I knew what love was until I married my wife in 1997, I’ve sold a bunch of hardcore punk and alternative tapes and CDs so I could have money to purchase seforim… which is a rather punk thing to do, my kids like a majority of the Jewish music I listen to, no one in my eruv seems to like the few secular bands I listen to, I usually read a fiction book during each Chol Hamoed,  I say the tefillah of the Chofetz Chaim prior to kiddush on Shabbos so that I will be more aware of what I might say during kiddush, while I find being able to quote Rishonim to be impressive…I also find those who say “please” and “thank you” to be just as impressive, and I have this bumper magnet on my vehicle:

Prototype-not available yet for consumers

4 thoughts on “Looking at my outlook

  1. jewishspectacles

    awesome post. glad you left a comment on jewishspectacles so that I could click on your icon and read this. sounds like a sincere jew to me!

    Reply

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