Reply To: Going off the Derech

far east-Generally speaking, in and of itself I don’t think wearing jeans has any connection to yiddishkeit. However, if in a specific community, all the religious people wear black suits and white shirts, and the kids who are off the derech wear jeans and t-shirts, then wearing jeans and t-shirts means something, right? I do believe that he is trying to find his own path, his individuality like you said, and that may mean trying on a lot of different ‘looks’, including pierced nose, and orange hair etc. But I think that by setting himself apart from the religious in his community, he is also setting himself up to leave completely, bc he is creating a situation where he will have had such a negative response from all the religious people in his community, that it will convince him he was right to leave it in the first place.