“The whole food, plant-based revolution is growing rapidly in popularity. Maybe it’s time to introduce this successful approach to the frum community?”
I commend Family First magazine for opening up such a valuable discussion on excessive materialism in our community. As I read the Inbox, I cannot help but think about how our focus on materialism is a microcosm of what is happening in the frum world around us.
Take our sweet Bais Yaakov girls. These girls are the future of our nation. They are being taught everything they are supposed to — Chumash, Navi, Yahadus, Hashkafah — you name it. But simultaneously, they are being taught in the most subtle and subconscious ways that externality is what matters. As long as I look like a Bais Yaakov girl — wear my hair like this, wear this zip-up, with these shoes, I’m good to go. Are we raising our Jewish daughters to think about their souls or just how we look on the outside?
This materialism is not only about “things getting out of hand.” Not to sound so cliché, but it’s about the future mothers of Klal Yisrael.
I am somewhat involved in the camp world, and I have been privy to the preparation it takes to pull off a successful summer that the girls will find thrilling. What I also see, however, is the pull to “appease” the girls with “stuff” — creative swag, crazy trips, dozens of recorded songs, over-indulgent overnights, or even cross-country road trips. What happened to those good ole campfires and “homemade” fun that made camp so cozy and wholesome?
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