Being Frum today is easier or harder?

Reesa

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 7:55 pm

It may be easier to live a frum lifestyle, but being REALLY frum is harder.
We are too integrated in secular society. We have lots of distractions. Too much is available too easily. We aren't as strong as previous generations. We are full of fluff. We are so professional and polished. We feel like we can be frum AND educated, but its not the same. You can't have your cake and eat it too. We rationalize everything to ourselves but who are we fooling? We are not on the same level spiritually....yeridas hadoros is real.

happybeingamom

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 8:21 pm

Hard to say, throughout Jewish history different situations were going on and things kept changing. It is easier to be a Jew today then during the Spanish Inquisition for example however I am sure there were other circumstances that makes thing harder today. Bottom line there is no real answer.

amother

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 8:33 pm

Frum is one thing. Ehrlich is another. See the two shmutz threads.

In regard to aroyos, it's harder than ever to be frum. Emunah, too, is hard in this cynical dor.

southernbubby

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 8:36 pm

My grandmother had to kasher her own meat and chicken and her mother had to buy the live bird and have it shechted. The mikveh was dirty and unheated and the shul was not air conditioned and that clothing was very hot. Jewish education for women did not start until almost a century ago so women were taught at home and didn't know much. Shomer Shabbos people in America were routinely fired from jobs and the Triangle Shirt factory fire happened on Shabbos and took many Jewish lives. There were no hechsherim on foods and everything had to be home made. Few Jewish books existed and the majority of Jewish books distributed were Maxwell House haggadahs.

OTOH, there was no pressure for seminaries, summer camps, lengthy years in yeshiva or kollel, or to buy lavish gifts for chassanum and kallahs.

zaq

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 8:52 pm

Easier, of course. Not many people these days have to choose between earning a living and being shomer shabbos, or between eating and keeping kosher. Sure, there may be difficulties with leaving early on Friday and not having enough vacation days for all the yomtovim, but it is now illegal to tell you "if you don't come in Saturday, don't come in Sunday".

The present-day pressures southernbubby mentions are all the pressures of affluence and keeping up with the Schwartzes, not the pressures of being frum per se.

hello123

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 10:36 pm

I think in many ways its harder. There are so many temptations in the world that distract us and make us lose sight of what we really need to be doing.
Yes we may not be schecting our own animals but to push ourselves to wear that skirt that covers the knee is hard.

Ruchel

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 5:51 am

Reesa wrote:

While we are not on the same level as our ancestors, we definitely, if we are "REALLY frum", are NOT more polished and integrated than they were.

It is definitely easier, but with some very hard challenges. But the challenges they had, shelo neda...

5mom

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 7:21 am

Reesa wrote:

How do you know this?
There have been plenty of frum educated Jews over the ages. Every generation has both strong and weak people.

gittelchana

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 3:35 pm

blueberries wrote:

What do you think is easier being observant today or hundreds of years ago? I personally think today is easier.

Definitely easier.

sequoia

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 3:54 pm

Jews have always been MORE educated than the general population. Reesa, perhaps you should learn some actual history.

pause

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 6:24 pm

Lady Bug wrote:

Physically and technically easier. Emotionally and spiritually harder.

In regards to mikva, my kallah teacher told me that in the previous generations they had cold water but warm hearts. In our generation we have warm water but cold hearts. (It sounds better in yiddish!)

southernbubby

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 6:40 pm

sequoia wrote:

Jews have always been MORE educated than the general population. Reesa, perhaps you should learn some actual history.

I was told that that was not really true either. Women had no formal Jewish education and after a certain point in history went to public school along with everyone else and therefore had the same level of education and boys often only went until age 8 or 9 and then apprenticed in some sort of craft or trade. There were some learned Jews but the priests in monasteries were also educated.

happybeingamom

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 9:33 pm

When I read threads like these I truly feel either they are teaching Jewish history incorrectly or making it up to fit an agenda.

mommygmer

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 9:36 pm

Its different but at the same time. Its very much the same.
struggles with pair presser that we struggle with they did too.
with people going of they did too.
maybe it was the internet but it was Communism soshelsim ......
they were missing the spark and looking else were and so is our generations.
we have to be misernefish just like them.

loveandpeace

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 9:42 pm

blueberries wrote:

What do you think is easier being observant today or hundreds of years ago? I personally think today is easier.

I think a hundred years ago was easier because people were more conformist then. Today it's so easy to be OTD it practically comes knocking on your door. And you can even pretend to be Frum and lead a double life,sadly. Another point is that a century ago people OTD were shunned. Today there's a community outside the community.

mommygmer

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 9:47 pm

loveandpeace wrote:

wow I am going to so not agree with you.
1. they were just as conformist as we are today
2. we are so shunned if we go OTD
3. there were plenty of support groups then, like I said the communist the zinest and plenty more.

Last edited by mommygmer on Tue, Mar 03 2015, 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

southernbubby

Mon, Mar 02 2015, 10:00 pm

loveandpeace wrote:

My grandmother, who was born in 1902 went OTD with the American born sisters as did most people of their generation.