Rabbi Stern, who’s Orthodox bashing? I also believe having a large Jewish family is a mitzvah. If you can afford the extra room, great. And if you can fix up your home and stay in the neighborhood near family, even better, as I wrote.
The problem of McMansions is not a denominational one. There are plenty of suburban Conservative and Reforms Jews who live in McMansions. McMansions are an American Jewish problem. It's a reflection of how we prioritize our personal spending and what we believe is most important. And it affects how we subsequently fail to adequately share our wealth with the needy, with our movements in Israel and Europe, and with our communal agencies, which are consistently underfunded and thereby hobbled in their efforts to provide sufficient and compelling educational, social-service, and outreach programs.
Who's Orthodox Bashing?
Thursday October 26, 2006
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About Virtual Talmud
This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Judaism in our Judaism forums.
Brad Hirschfield currently blogs on Windows and Doors.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula.
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What bothers me the most about the McMansions is the display of the importance of the "Materialistic World". The need to wear only the designer clothing, bags, eyeglasses, etc. When I was growing up, my parents thought me to love books, nature, love of my family, the importance of continuity. In my home, my children never wore clothes made by designers. As long as the clothes were made well, and looked well, that was what I bought for them. It was not important to show my neighbor that I have more than they. I lived in Brooklyn, and my children played with their friends near our homes, and we knew our neighbors, we said hi to them as they passed by. The importance of money and labels was never preferred over education, love for life, and being a human being. Over the past few years I lived on LI. I never felt comfortable there, and am glad that I no longer live there.