Our Routines...And Rituals....Not So Different From Theirs....

I mean, of course ours are different. From a Torah, religious, spiritual perspective.  Of course.

But I mean the idea of routines, rituals, etc.

For example,  the non jewish world has a LOT of rituals and things-everyone-does when making a wedding. The rehearsal dinners, the parties, the planning of the parties, who's in charge of what, preparing their vows, who's in charge of holding the ring, the order of who walks down, etc. etc.


So some of the things we do which seem so "when did it become a ritual it's cuz everyone does it" is really just the way a society functions.

A number of years ago I posted the ritual of the Giving Out The Black & Whites On The Day Of Hanachas Tefilin.  That was a  major important milestone ritual for bar mitzva boys in Monsey.

Or so I thought. Now my sister in the Midwest told me she had to do it for her son, too.  Who knew?!?

Here's another one. Maybe not a ritual, more like a rite-of-passage.

YBS1 is in the Mir in Israel and wants to get into the dorm.
So he has to be at the yeshiva 7:00 a.m. Shacharis for 4 months, in order to gain entry.  It was a rule that made sense, but I didn't realize it's A Thing.

"Aaahhh, he wants to get into the dorm, yeah?! 7 a.m. shacharis for four months steady, no? Woo, ganz choshuv, ganz choshuv"

"So, eh, I ah, hear, your son, he wants to get into the dorm, l'maisa 4 months 7 a.m. shacharis, not so poshut, he must really want it, good for him, good for him!"

"So how's YBS doin' over dere, in holy Yerushalayim, in the Mir? Good? Good! He's in a dira, he's in the dorm, what's the situation over there? Oh, he wants to be in the dorm? It's a goal? Good, good to have goals, gotta have goals.  So, he can get up early every day for four months and make it to the 7:00 a.m. shacharis?! Wow, I didn't know he was such a shacharis guy. Good for him!"


Anyway, I just spoke to him.  He's not doing it.  7:00 a.m. was too early, and all the guys in that dorm are leaving after succos while he's staying, and he'd be with some "random israelis" which wouldn't L'maisa be such a gevaldiga shidduch for him, so , he's back to later shacharis at the shteebs.  (all my words, not his)

But it was a great four months of conversation