If you have been reading my blog you know that this past summer I wrote about seeing some Amish boys and men eating in a local restaurant in my home town in Ohio.  I realize now that my fascination with old fashioned, orthodox religious groups is not limited to the Amish.

When I was planning my recent trip to New York City and could set up an itinerary of anything I wanted to do in the Big Apple, I remembered that I had once heard of a Hasidic tour in Brooklyn.  I googled the tour and there it was!  I asked my traveling companion, Kathy, if she was interested in taking this tour with me.  She was more than eager!  So, we booked our $39.00 tickets online, plotted the subway trip to Crown Heights and we waited until Tuesday at 10 am with great anticipation!

When Kathy and I popped up out of the subway stop at Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights we saw lots of men in black coats, black wide brimmed hats and tsitis hanging out of their jackets.  We knew we were in the right place.  We followed our printed directions to a "library" to meet our tour guide.  The library had no outside signage but was an old brownstone located on a block of shops.  We walked down into the basement as directed and found ourselves in a large, dimly lit space full of bookshelves containing old Hebrew books with a few round tables and chairs in the center of the room.  The group of 5 slowly came together - we were the only ones in the library - and our guide, a Hasidic rabbi about 50 years old with a long beard,  showed up and asked us to join him at a table where he served orange juice and rugela while explaining the basic tenets of his religion. 

Our first stop on the tour was the World Headquarters of the Lubavitchers (the sect of Hasidics that lives in Crown Heights).  We entered their main temple through a back door and followed our leader up a few steps to the Women's Section.  This section sits like an open mezzanine above the main floor of the temple with shaded plastic that you can look out of to see the men on the main floor.  There must have been about 200 men in total chaos.  The men were praying, davening, putting on their tefillen, dancing in a line, talking to one another.  Our Rabbi told us that although it looked totally disorganized, the men knew exactly what they were doing.  Watching from that height onto the inner sanctum of the temple was like watching the movie "Yentl".  A once in a lifetime experience!

The second stop on the tour was the library of the Headquarters above the Rebbe's office.  Displayed in the library was the complete history of the Lubavitchers including pictures and writings of Rebbes dating from the 18th century.  Our tour guide recited the long history of the Lubavitchers from memory.  Quite impressive!

Third stop - the second floor of another brownstone on the block where they made tefillen.  Tefillen are small black leather boxes with a long connected strap that the very Orthodox wrap around their left arm and head until the small box is secured on their forehead - pointing the man towards God.  The process of making the tefillen is long and complicated involving the molding, curing and painting of leather and placing a prayer inside the box.  We watched as one man was working at a table on the tefillen.

Next we went to a Torah repairing company.  Here again we entered a rather shabby brownstone building and walked up the narrow stairs to a room on the third floor.  The three men were standing over an unfurled Torah and filling in the Hebrew letters with black markers.  There were a stack of Torahs on a table sent from around the world for repair.  The work looked so tedious.  These men had been carefully trained to be exact in their lettering of the beautiful old Torahs.  Each Torah costs between $30,000 and $60,000 as they require enormous work to produce.  I had to laugh when I saw one of the scribes with a bluetooth phone on his ear so he could talk while repairing the Torah at hand.

Our tour guide then took us to a very special and private place - the Mikva - the women's ritual bathhouse.  Yes, the tour guide and the one gentleman in our group were allowed to enter!!!  But, there were no women there while we toured the old building.  Basically, there are a number of bathrooms with two doors - one an entrance and another an exit.  The women go there to cleanse themselves 7 days after their periods have stopped and prior to Sabbath and Holidays.  The bathrooms were fully stocked with shampoo, Q-tips, nail clippers, bath tubs, sinks, etc..  Once a woman is completely clean, she rings for an attendant to takes her to the ritual bath - a deep tiled tub filled with water from two sources.  She dunks herself completely and then the attendant ushers her back into the bathroom to get dressed before her walk home.  Each Mikva costs $16.00.

We then took a short walk to a kosher restaurant for lunch which was our last stop.  We had the choice of  roasted chicken in pita, hamburger, or turkey sandwich.  We all chose the chicken in pita which arrived with a side Israeli salad (no lettuce) which was quite good.  The restaurant had no atmosphere - just wooden tables and chairs.  Some hasidic men were having lunch at another table but I could not understand what they were talking about as it was in Hebrew.

The tour was fabulous.  We could ask any and all questions of our guide - he was nice and funny and willing to discuss the details of the Hasidic life.  I had so many questions which I felt completely comfortable asking  - "Are marriages arranged?" "Are you in the diamond business?" "How many people become Hasidic?"  "Can you watch TV?" "Who is the Rebbe now?" "Can  you get divorced?" "On average how many children does a Hasidic family have?"
And on and on.  Absolutely fascinating!!!

Without going into a lot of detail here is some of what I learned and my impressions of the Hasidim.

The Hasidic neighborhood felt like a foreign country.  The men were all "in costume" and we saw very few Hasidic women on the street.

Every place we visited was rather shabby.  The Hasidic from Crown Heights are mainly teachers; not diamond merchants and they don't have a lot of money.  I felt that everything was held together by duct tape and neither the temple nor the places of business had been cleaned in a long time. 

The Jewish religion and particularly the Hasidics are known to be male chauvinists.  The tour guide explained to us that women are the higher beings and do not need to pray like the men do because they are nearer to God.  Perhaps they believe this.  But, I know that the women are "barefoot and pregnant" - birth control is forbidden and the Hasidic have lots of children and the women are home taking care of children, cooking, cleaning, and not out in the world.

TV, movies, certain books are forbidden.  Our guide explained that men should not look at other women as this takes away from the love they have for their wives. 

There are over 600 Jewish laws that the Hasidic follow in their daily lives.  They say that the laws are there to help them be good people and follow God's path.  It sounds like a very limited life to me.

Rebbe Schneerson died 9 years ago and he declared before his death that there would be no heir because the Messiah will be coming soon.  It seems strange to me that the Hasidim have no Rebbe leader at this time and may never have a leader again.

If you are interested in this tour the website is:  www.Jewishtours.com




Real Estate Hint #19 - Real Estate brokers make small talk with the best of them!  We learn how to keep a conversation going with total strangers, how to calm nerves and relay good and bad news.  But, there are topics that a professional Realtor never discusses - religion and politics.  These two subjects are out of our realm - we don't need to know and we don't want to create controversy.  If the buyers ask, "Where is the nearest Episcopal church?"  We can answer and tell them what we know about the local church, but we never bring it up.  Not only are the laws about discrimination strictly adhered to by Realtors, but it really isn't any of our business!!!