Reply To: Going off the Derech

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#1181472
Sam2
Participant

Write or wrong: Someone made a comment to me the other day. He told me how in certain places, OTD kids become a parody of what they are taught that OTD kids do. He told me he once had someone ask him, “How can you eat Chalav Stam but not do drugs?” By making every little point into a major sticking point, you reinforce the notion that just like a member of your community wouldn’t wear a colored shirt, so too they wouldn’t break Shabbos. Maybe you need him to realize that it’s possible to be a good, Frum, Halachah-observant Jew without meeting every stricture of your community. He clearly doesn’t want to be part of that community-at least, not right now. But maybe he will find a place where he is comfortable, and maybe that will involve wearing a colored shirt and keeping Shabbos. But when you make everything an equally major point, then Shabbos and Kashrus are much more likely to go out the window along with the white shirt than the white shirt staying together with Shabbos and Kashrus, etc.