With the Off The Derech community growing at such a rapid pace, the Rabbonom who set community hashkafa have been unable to keep up. Splinter groups keep forming and I think they’ve reached a critical point, just last week, several…
Tag: BT
Why I’m jealous of Baal Teshuvas
I’m jealous of Baalei Teshuva. There I said it, it’s not easy for me as a supposedly elitist, cynical, sarcastic, and sometimes angry FFB to admit that I’m terrified and jealous of BT’s. Their inspiration, passion, and willingness to submit…
The funniest kiruv speech ever made
Thanks to Rachmuna for posting this on my wall, it’s brilliant and it encapsulates the real problem that FFB’s have with BT’s. This problem is that after years and years of ritual we just can’t seem to get excited like…
Why I hate Baal Teshuvas
Sometimes people take my satire seriously, in fact, the following email is a rant from a BT who mistook my satirical piece about why BT’s are a danger to the frum community as a serious post and decided that she…
Baal Teshuvas are a danger to the Orthodox community
I’ve said before, but I just read something so disturbing that I think I need to reiterate the fact that the BT movement is destroying our community from within. I’m not just talking about polluting the pure blood yichus and…
I finally heard an inspirational BT story firsthand
As a certified conspiracy theorist of the frum community, I generally doubt the validity of inspirational stories, especially the ones that seem to be designed to make people frum. Back in the day, before the Charedi world decided it could…
Thanks to Aish I now want to be a Mormon
Dear Heshy, I want you to post this, not only because it can be inspiring, but because I think it should send a thank you to Aish who was the cause of a lot of happiness and discovery over the…
BT Mussar is an abomination
I can’t think of anything much worse than having a newly indoctrinated Baal Teshuva giving you mussar. As if several beautiful and inspiring shabbos meals, followed by some Aish discovery brainwashing gave them the right to rebuke me, don’t they…
Oh no the black hats are coming
I can see the fear in people’s eyes, when I mention that I counted 10 black hats this past Friday night in shul. As if these people didn’t realize that they belonged to a community known for it’s fervent baalei…
An Atheist and a Baal Teshuva walk into a bar…
I have this love and hate relationship with Atheists, it just so happens to be that Atheists are almost always interesting and smart people, but sometimes their militant views can get on my nerve, probably the same way religious fanatics…
Stop trying to make Off The Derech people frum again
I’m not a big fan of kiruv, as many of you know, I believe that the FFB master race has become diluted with Baalei Teshuva and converts who inflict us with their secular culture. I also believe that those who…
Which yeshiva should I go to?
Hi Heshy, I just found your site (through the amazing post you did a while back on the politics of yarmulkes) and have enjoyed reading it. I admire how you try to find an amusing path through all the ideological…
Frum Feeding Frenzies
Frum Feeding Frenzies by Chaya Miriam Fried Jews clearly have a something attached to their Jew Gene that makes them lose their minds whenever they see a table of food. I don’t think there’s any real mystery to how this…
10 step guide to becoming a Baal Teshuva
The flaming BT is one of the most interesting and talked about phenomena in the kiruv world. I’m certian that there are whole seminars devoted to the subject of people becoming too frum, too fast, and within the frum world…
Dear Heshy: Hating on BT’s will not solve any problems
Dear Heshy, I follow you on facebook fairly regularly and noticed your post on what you hate about baalei teshuva. Now before all of your fans jump me for being offended by something you wrote, I read your site and…
The Nut List
By Charles Zucker Anyone who believes less than me is a heathen. Anyone who believes more than me is a nut. I’m a patchwork Jew. I’m a collection of memes and tropes and minhagim. I’ve clearly gotten more religious over…
Why Baal Teshuvas are bad for the frum community
I already know this post is going to disliked by some of you, but I hope that some of you will be open minded enough to read through it and understand that this is not against the entire Baal teshuva…
The latest in frummy hocks: BT Insurance
by Chaya Miriam Fried I used to joke that every beis din should have insurance, kind of like errors & omissions, for cases in which they convert someone whose observance level goes south as soon as they come out of…
Why Baal Teshuvas need to make art
Guest post by Pop Chossid Baal teshuvas think that because they’re new to the world of yiddishkeit that their words dont’ matter. Or they’re afraid that they’ll say something wrong, something that will turn people away from Judaism or condemn…
Frum Inconsistencies: Don’t Judge Judaism by the Jews
One of the toughest things I’ve had to do recently is to try and explain frum inconsistencies to people who couldn’t get a grip on reality. The reality that Orthodox Jews are not perfect and in fact they are inherently…
What people really think of Baal Teshuvas
This meme, one of the first I’ve posted is very true.
21 ways not to be a Harry
A Harry is one of those terms you hear in the yeshiva world that you don’t hear anywhere else. For someone to even call someone else a Harry would automatically relegate them to some distant yeshiva past because modernishe folks…
Matisyahu gets heter to eat on Yom Kippur for Parnassah purposes
It seems that Matisyahu is trying to stick it to the frum world by going off the derech in a very public manner. First he chopped off his beard, which is almost as bad as coming to shul in those…
If an FFB goes OTD and then comes back on the derech is he considered a BT?
Dear Heshy, I have a predicament which I’m sure you can help me with. I grew up frum, fairly yeshivish by some standards and then during my year in Israel I decided to go off the derech. I have since…
Off the derech people are miserable
I don’t know anyone who’s happy and off the derech. If they were so happy, why would they keep having to tell us religious Jews how silly we are, couldn’t they just be happy with their decision and leave us…