Sometimes You ARE What You Wear!: The Traditional Jewish View of Modesty [Paperback] BY Eliyahu Safran
My Review on Amazon.com
Perhaps the sole criticism of this book is that the title sells the book short! :-)
This is not simply a book on "how to dress modestly" it's a discussion of how modesty [tzniut] should define our posture as Observant Jews - and also as Human Beings. Our liberal, permissive society has spawned freedom of religion and tolerance. But our lack of sensibilities and good grounded boundaries based upon self-respect have fallen by the wayside. We need not return to a stodgy Victorian prudishness in order to increase our modesty quotient.
We simply have to realize that Modesty- Tzniut is how we can project ourselves with respect and engender some awe and even a bit of mystery. Rabbi Safran's book is written in the style of musing - a reflection via a stream of consciousness regarding the "prost" [decadent] nature of our current society. It seems addressed to Young Women, but it's much more than that. It seeks to shape the thinking of parents and young men too about about what is proper and what do we REALLY want our society to reflect and to project. The disarmingly simple title would lead us to think this is a simplified halachic [legal] book or dress code. Not so! Rather it's an introspection into the internals of what what makes modesty tick
This is not simply a book on "how to dress modestly" it's a discussion of how modesty [tzniut] should define our posture as Observant Jews - and also as Human Beings. Our liberal, permissive society has spawned freedom of religion and tolerance. But our lack of sensibilities and good grounded boundaries based upon self-respect have fallen by the wayside. We need not return to a stodgy Victorian prudishness in order to increase our modesty quotient.
We simply have to realize that Modesty- Tzniut is how we can project ourselves with respect and engender some awe and even a bit of mystery. Rabbi Safran's book is written in the style of musing - a reflection via a stream of consciousness regarding the "prost" [decadent] nature of our current society. It seems addressed to Young Women, but it's much more than that. It seeks to shape the thinking of parents and young men too about about what is proper and what do we REALLY want our society to reflect and to project. The disarmingly simple title would lead us to think this is a simplified halachic [legal] book or dress code. Not so! Rather it's an introspection into the internals of what what makes modesty tick
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Shalom uVRacha
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nishma-Minhag/
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