""There are yeshiva students on Purim who are assigned because it is disgusting to look at them" • Watch

March 6, 2023   

The Rabbi of the 'Ada, the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, addressed in his weekly shiur at his yeshiva, a phenomenon that has recently spread on the fringes of the yeshiva world, when young men walk around on Purim in street clothes or secular clothing. "There are yeshiva young men," he began, "who dress like secular men on the street on Purim. This is because it is disgusting to look at them. I cannot look at them that way. They look like gentiles or secular men so that they will not be recognized as yeshiva young men. "We must know that clothing affects the human soul. Chazal say that when the Amalekites came to fight Israel, they changed their language to speak the language of Canaan so that the people of Israel would not recognize them and would not know who to pray for. "The commentators were puzzled - why didn't they also change their clothing? And the Rebbe of Belz says, because if they had changed their clothing as well, they would have truly become Canaanites, because clothing affects the soul and according to what a person dresses, that is what he truly is." "Therefore," added the rabbi, "the fact that there are those who dress in street clothes is a great trouble, and one must be very careful not to dress in street clothes, which is forbidden because of the disgust that yeshiva boys dress like this. "On the other hand, this is true kiddush Hashem if you see a yeshiva boy who dresses and behaves like a Ben Torah on Purim, and as the sages said, 'You have loved the Lord your God, may there be a place in heaven that loves you by your side, see how beautiful and how well-groomed are so-and-so's deeds, blessed is his father who learned Torah and blessed is his teacher who learned Torah.' "And for this, every boy should strive to sanctify Hashem, and the reward for kiddush Hashem is without measure or limit.".