Boro Park Story: My first visit to Boro Park, My First Encounter with my Chassid Within

by Zev

       “Is everyone in this neighborhood a rabbi?” I asked my parents when we were visiting Boro Park one day when I was 10, which was 15 years ago. We were from the Midwest, Modern Orthodox, and we were in town for a family chasana in Flatbush.

     I figured that all men with beards and peyos were rabbis.

     My mother responded, “No, they’re Chassidim.”

  “Chassidim? Who are they?” I asked, mesmerized by what I thought to be a whole neighborhood of rabbis. I had to know more. 

        “It’s hard to explain,” answered my mother, who, like my father, is Modern Orthodox and did not grow up frum.

   Although my parents knew little about Chassidus, it was in their blood, as all four of my grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors, were brought up in the Chassiduses of Gur and Rodomsk, which I probably why I feel so connected to Chassidus.

   I grew up around plenty of religious Jews, but not so many Chassidim. Looking back, I think, for me, Modern Orthodoxy lacked the focus on emotion, the intense devotion, and the zealousness that attracted me to Chassidim.

   Plus, everything in Boro Park was so different than anything I had ever seen back home. 

    For instance, we were staying in a hotel that served a kosher breakfast, which was an exciting novelty for me, as a 10-year-old from the Midwest.

    Later that day, we were walking through Boro Park to get something to eat at one of the neighborhood’s heimishe bakeries. 

   I had never heard the word “heimishe” before, but that’s how my mother described the bakeries in the area.

    After the wedding, we returned home to the Midwest, but my curiosity about Chassidim had been piqued. 

   I Googled “Chassidim” and clicked on the first search result that came up, which was Wikipedia. I read through a post titled “Chassidic Judaism” from beginning to end, and I was fascinated.

   I learned about 18th century Poland, the Baal Shem Tov, and what a “Rebbe” is.

All of this new information was a world completely different from my own and different than anything I had ever encountered.

   I was hooked.

I spent the next several weeks obsessively reading everything I could find on Chassidim. 

   As I grew up, I bought and read any book I could find on Chassidism.

  I attended Orthodox day school, and after attending an Orthodox high school, I learned for a year in a yeshiva in Israel.

    After graduating from college in 2015, I moved to Israel for two years to work at a Tel Aviv based start-up during the day, and I learned and davened in nearby B’nei Brak at night.

    While I was there, I spent time in Chassidic communities, such as Kiryas Viznitz in B’nei Brak and Toldos Aharon in Meah Shearim. I was grateful that my Orthodox education gave me the Hebrew skills that enabled me to learn so many Chassidic seforim, although, I wish I knew Yiddish the only language in which many of the Satmar seforim by Reb Yoel are available.

   One night, I was struggling to fall asleep, and I came up with the idea to start a blog about Chassidic life. I wanted to share my fascination with the world. I knew that a younger version of myself would have appreciated such a blog, which I call, “The Hasidic World,” and which I update regularly with posts about everything from the minhagim of Toldos Aharon to the different types of Chassidic hats. 

    Although I wear knit kippah, and I am a Zionist, I have always been particularly interested in Skver, Satmar, Mishkenos HarRoim, Shomrei Emunim.

   In fact, I have spent hours and hours in the Toldos Aharon Beis Medrash in Yerushalyim, davening and learning Chassidic seforim, takkanos, and minhagim. 

   Not only do I continue to be inspired by the intensity, devotion, and commitment of Chassids, I also find them to be extremely warm.

    I don’t look Chassidic, yet, in their communities, Chassidic men always come up to me to chat and learn. We are all Jews, and we have so much in common. We learn the same Parsha each week, and we keep the same Shulchan Aruch.

    Today, I live in Manhattan, and I consider myself Modern Orthodox, but, at the same time, I'm a Chassid at heart. My wife jokes that I must have been a Chassid in a past life. I satisfy the Chassidic part of myself by visiting Brooklyn, Kiryas Yoel, New Square, Williamsburg, and Monsey as often as I can.

    I also collect Chassidic seforim and continually learn books from many different Rebbes and sects, such as Satmar, Toldos Aharon, Bobov, and Belz, and I continue to research and write my blog.

   I can't totally explain the pull I feel from Chasidism, but it definitely is something that has been with me ever since my first trip to Boro Park.

   Readers can reach Zev at [email protected].

Photo by: Eli Wohl