The Toldos Avraham Yitzchak Rebbe is asking his chassidim not to purchase or wear tall shtreimels, as has become popular today in the shtreimel market.
The rebbe called for shtreimels to be made to only 13 cm high and cost only NIS 4,000.
The high shtreimels that have recently become popular in the Chassidic sector have led admorim such as the rebbes of Modzitz, Sanz, Karlin and Bobov to ask their Chassidim not to succumb to the new styles.
A week ago, his son, Rav Berish Kahn, married off his son. Ahead of the wedding, chassidim bought a shtreimel for Rav Berish as a gift for the celebration, but his father, the rebbe, was unhappy when he saw the shtreimel.
“The height,” the rebbe remarked, “is like a spodik…. You can give it as a gift to Rav Itche Falloch,” the rebbe said, referring to a chossid close to the rebbe who wears a spodik. “Maybe he will have something to do with it!”
The rebbe made it clear that he wanted new and cheap shtreimels to be made for his Chassidim. The chassidim brought to the rebbe some shtreimels for the rebbe to look at. When the rebbe observed them, he pointed to a shtreimel that was only 13 cm high as an ideal choice.
The chassidim hurriedly got to work, putting a plan n place to produce shtreimels at a low price of no more than 4,000 shekels and a height of 13 cm.
According to one of the people involved, the rebbe only made this as a request, not as a regulation requiring everyone to change. Nevertheless, apparently, hundreds of chassidim will be changing their shtreimels in the near future.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Buy synthetic ones. There is no kedusha in animal tails. Old-time silk bekeshes have been made of polyester for many decades, and that hasn’t resulted in chilul shabbos, or kids going off the derech.
Save your funds for more important things, and maybe that would eliminate the need to go collecting others’ hard earned money for stylish fur adornments, which have a very short and negligible connection to Yiddishkeit.
I wear a synthetic strymol. I got25 years ago. No knows. I believe30% o all yiddem wear a non animal srtymol.
7 and 1/2 inches! Not bad! It’s about time!
5.1 inches actually
Maybe in “Jewish inches”
What headgear did BESHT wear?
Lev Simcha beat them all to this reality over 25 years ago.
FYI –
Shtreimals are the only hat worn by no one other than Yidden. It began as a “yellow star” of sorts; a hat made of the lowest part of the what is seen as the lowliest animal (see Makos 24b). Yidden turned it into a “badge” of pride, put a Yarmulka in the middle and made it a Shabbos Levush. Therefore the use of fox-tails is a very important part of the symbolism.
Silk Bekeshes were initially worn as a stringency in the laws of sha’atnez as no amount of linen could render the silk garment sha’atnez. The first Bostoner Rebbe – Rav Pinchas Dovid HaLevi Horowitz – even had a tailor in America make him a pair of pants from silk since there was nobody here at the time who was a sha’atnez expert. (The Chochmas Adam – a mechutan of the Vilna Gaon – writes that one should not wear suits of wool for this reason.) The silk of the bekesheh is apparently of importance as well.
Turkish Talleisim were sought after for a similar reason as flax – the plant from which linen is made – does not grow in Turkey. Therefore a woolen garment from there was assumed to have far less, if any, sha’atnez concerns. Another old “minhag” which was not simply a fashion trend.
That a very cute legend, which came out in the end of the 19th century.
The true origins of the shtreimel/spodik are far more prosaic.
1. The Polish nobility wore fur hats, as marks of distinction, in addition to keeping the wearers’ heads warm in harsh Eastern European winters. The Jews followed the trend, with rabbonim wearing very similar, if not exactly the same, headgear. That was the trend long before hassidism came into existence. With its start, rebbes began wearing the levush of city rabbis, followed by prominent chasidim, and after WWII it became every chosid’s headwear choice, pushed for by certain rebbes, to foster pride in one’s Yiddishkeit after the churban.
2. Fur hats of all sorts were worn by even the poorest of peasants, in Eastern Europe, due to very long and extremely cold winters. The Jews did the same. With time, in honor of Shabbos, the Yidden gravitated towards better furs, instead of the usual sheepskin, goat, and even wolf pelts. Due to high expenses of obtaining a full hat of nobles’ sorts of fur, tails and odds and ends were used, and eventually the shape came into being. The yarmulka in the middle was a costs saving measure.
Read up on that, in frum sources.
I am sorry, but your “legend” is only partially correct. The “spodek” or “colpek” was a very common hat of the times;worn by royalty, clergy, and other wealthy or important people. Typically made of one pelt, it was no different than a fur coat, wrap, scarf, etc. The shtreimal was different as it was from tails and was created as a way to belittle those who wore them. This has actually been well documented as opposed to the often repeated suggestion you write which more likely was created to justify other changes to lavush Yisroel.
To Anonymous at 10:08am.
13cm = 5.12 inches
13cm = 5.12 inches ??
Actually, you only have two significant figures: 5.1 inches.
Why are Bar Mitzvah kids getting Borsalino hats as soon as they turn 13? They are so expensive as well! It has become peer pressure. If a Bar Mitzvah boy doesn’t get such a hat, he is looked down upon by his classmates. Who are setting these trends?
Not sure where you live, but yeshivish hats.com has very nice hats for a fraction of Borslaino prices, and, from what I’ve seen, they last nicely, too.
And why are we no longer living in the apartment buildings our parents or grandparents lived in? And why are we no longer buying new or used cars and keeping them until they putter to stand-still (say after ten years) as opposed to leasing a new one ever two or three years? And why are we no longer buying polyester suits? And why are we no longer spending Pesach (or Succos) at home or with our Bubbies and Zeidies and why are we no longer going to our local shul or Yeshiva for Shavuous? Why have once-in-a-lifetime vacations – usually taken after retirement – increased to once-in-a-year-time or once-in-a-season time?
Or, to put it in one sentence, why are you harping on the one thing that expresses “membership” and for which there is berachah we say every day (see Shulchan Aruch and the Mishnah Berurah there on the berachah of Oter Yisroel bi’sifarah)?
Felt Gelt
Mir ken huben a git kvitel
Mit a zeyer bilig hittel
Oib ir villin tzulen drei mul
Mir ken koifen a fein schtreimel
About time. The shtreimlichs that are not only tall but TEASED!! are ridiculous. These wearers look like bantam roosters or peacocks strutting their colors. Soon they will be putting blond streaks in ?? Totally meshugga. I would go back to the flat “pletzlech” shtreimel that our grandfathers wore. Simple and Humble.
Right in th “olden days” no-one went off the Derech…
Halivay
it should go based on how tall the person is. shorter people, taller shtreimlich, taller people , shorter shtreimlich.
the “crowns” on some of these are fluffed up so much they look ridiculous
To yankel tailor
Soon they will be putting blond streaks in ?? They actually do this mishigas already.
Hardly a meshugas! Take a look at the shtar tena’im (or maybe the star kesubah) written by the talmid of the Arizal (HaRav Nagara) . Obviously not referring to our shtreimalach, but the idea of a hat for a chossen with both dark and light hairs is a p ardently based on kabbolah.
apparently *