Viznitzer Rebbe says “Don’t come here to daven, unless you have a jacket”

Viznitzer Rebbe says “Don’t come here to daven, unless you have a jacket”

By Rabbi Lamech Somayach Meshumad Meshubach

Mashgiach Ruchini, Yeshiva Aishes Eish Hatorah
Special to http://MeshumadMeshubach.blogspot.com

In a near riot last Tuesday night, a congregant was told to leave prayer services at the Vizhnizter minyan factory of Monsey. The Grand Viznitzer Rebbe of Monsey, Rabbi Mordechai Hager was walking with his entourage past a group of men davening in his Synagogue and stopped to tell the young man he should not pray there without a proper jacket and hat.

The synagogue, 1 million square foot prayer hall, has so many members that a minyan, or service starts every fifteen minutes through out the entire day. “This building was intended as a place for all men to come and express their thanks to the creator of the universe, but their prayers are not heard if their hat is the wrong type or if they only wear a yarmulke,” said a translation of the Rebbes drasha give during Shabbat the following Saturday.

Reactions to the announcements were varied. “I was turned away from the Vizhnitzer mikveh because the sign said ‘no one with a hairdo would be admitted,’ and I had not yet shaved my head,” said Don Rosenblum of Monsey. “These things are entirely arbitrary and designed to keep us in line.

This is perfectly normal.” The young man, a Jew of Sephardic descent said that he was not dressed in a disrespectful manner. “I was wearing pants a shirt with a collar and a kippah, the same way I dress when I go to my own shul to pray,” said Daniel Melamed, whose parents are from Syria, but he grew up in Monsey.