"Inspired" the video

chavamom

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 3:03 pm

Has anyone else seen this? I went to see the 'women's only' video last night and it was, well, very inspiring. It is a video with interviews of ba'alei teshuva, some well known (such as Rebbetzin Heller, Sarah Shapiro and Miriam Adahan) and some just regular women. In it they talked about how they had become frum b/c of the small things that frum people did and how all frum people can do 'kiruv'. They also had a few 'kiruv professionals' that talked about how to deal with issues such as what to do if you are worried about having over women who might not dress so tznua, the effect it might have on your kids. All in all it was very inspiring. I missed the 'co-ed' viewing (interviews of men that can be shown to co-ed audience) that was shown the night before. I just got an e-mail that says it was shown at the Aguda convention over the weekend to the entire convention with gedolei yisrael on teh podium who endorsed it strongly. I want to see if I can get ahold of the other video now as the first one was very inspiring. I'd love to hear what others thought.

sarahd

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 3:18 pm

I didn't see it, but my sister saw both videos and said the same as you...they were so "inspiring". Also guilt-trip inducing, because they show you how easy it is to be mekarev someone, so why aren't we all doing something about it? Just hearing her description sent me on a guilt trip - I didn't even have to see it!

chavamom

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 4:03 pm

OH I forgot to mention Rebbetzin Twersky gave a message at the end of the video and said something along the lines of how Hashem is crying for his children and if we realized the enormity of what was happening to klal yisrael we would get involved. She also said that she herself doesn't know that if she were not 'zoche' to be born frum, she doesn't know if she would have the strength to change her entire life, though she'd like to think she would. She also feels she has gotten more from the ba'alei teshuva she has known that she has given over the years (and we know that the Twerskys have given tremendously!).

chavamom

Mon, Nov 28 2005, 8:39 pm

they are showing it all over in frum communities. I don't know where you live, but it's an aish hatorah produced video, so you could try contacting them (though most of the places showing it are not aish centers).

chavamom

Tue, Nov 29 2005, 11:38 am

Hm - there were no 'credit cards' given out here. Perhaps they thought better of it. But really, what is the problem with reinforcing the fact that by doing kiruv, you are doing a mitzvah ("points" in heaven)? I think the young women in question has her own issues of feeling like a 'chesed project' that she is projecting onto the statement.

Motek

Tue, Nov 29 2005, 8:33 pm

There were two lines in an otherwise very nice video, that made me cringe because rather sheltered high schools girls were present.

one was when gila manelson said that she asked why there was a mechitza at the Kosel and the woman said: Do you think you'd be able to concentrate on your prayers if there was a cute guy standing near you?

another time was when one of the women described meeting her husband-to-be at Aish and was told before officially going out on a date with him about not touching him and how brilliant Judaism is to have this system

nothing wrong with either line, just felt uncomfortable because of who was in the audience watching

chavamom

Wed, Nov 30 2005, 12:37 am

I'm curious why you had a problem with high school girls hearing those lines? I know Gila and many of the charedi seminairies have her come speak. She says that exact line. You don't think they have ever noticed that a guy is cute?

chavamom

Thu, Dec 01 2005, 10:04 pm

Motek wrote:

you wrote seminaries

I wrote sheltered high school girls.

My point was that she gets to these girls in seminaries (Bais Ya'akov girls) and they are all arguing with her that 'it's not so bad - why can't we talk to boys?' and things of that nature. I'm sure that these girls didn't come up with these ideas as seminary girls, but that most of them developed these ideas as high school girls who were deemed 'too sheltered' for anyone to confront the issue. Talk to people about what is going on with their Bais Ya'akov daughters, esp. in NYC. Even good schools. It will raise the hair on your head. I'm not sure that 'sheltered' exsists in this day and age.

Motek

Thu, Dec 01 2005, 10:14 pm

apparently it depends on the schools they are coming from

yes, there are still schools and many girls who don't wonder why they can't talk to boys

I come from a more liberal home and was not sheltered and I wouldn't have asked that question in seminary because I would have thought it was ridiculous. Sounds disingenuous to me, like a fun topic to get teachers going on ...

chavamom

Fri, Dec 02 2005, 1:57 pm

freilich wrote:

So once again, where can I purchase it etc?

I don't know that you can. They are showing it publically. It might be that eventually you'll be able to see it on the internet? I don't know. Try contacting aish.com and asking where you can get a copy?

Motek

Thu, Oct 05 2006, 7:48 pm

I saw it one year ago, on succos and I was thinking about it again because I read an article by a rabbi who is a "kiruv type rabbi." He wrote about having to be careful when interacting with those who are not yet frum. Even with good intentions you can say the wrong thing and be merachek rather than mekarev. So I wondered whether he would disapprove of Inspired's message which is for everyone to reach out to the people they encounter.

I was also thinking about this topic because of a long harangue I was subject to by a man calls himself a proud Jew (though he doesn't eat kosher etc.) and he takes great offense by how religious Jews have spoken to him. He may be right, that they were rude or he may be overly sensitive, I don't know. Is it really a good idea for frum Jews who have no conception about life for a non-frum Jew to host or speak to a non-frum Jew? I don't know.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Jan 18 2007, 10:35 am

Motek wrote:

motek, my question to you is, if they were going to see the video, and they knew that it was about chozrei teshuva, what did they think they were going to hear? nothing about any of their previous lives?
to me that is a very nieve thing to think if you are going to listen to how chozrei teshuva were inspired.