“this makes the case that there should be meaning associated with yeshivish clothing, because again, it gives a person what to identify with and standards to uphold for himself. i know people first hand that were able to get out of certain situations because of the white shirt and black pants. it’s an expression of how religious a person is.” please respond to this
in response to: “It could very well be that Rav Miller zt”l intended the opposite. The levush has no meaning. Since people tend to look for meaning in random places, he made up some positive thinking that could go into our standard clothing. His point is that they should think more. Not just dress the part.”
youre right about thinking more for sure, but definitely not about the dress part. ” It’s the
great achievement of demonstrating our loyalty to Hashem with
our clothing, our externalities, that has given the Am Yisroel the
merit to continue to exist. And therefore, the more we use our
clothing and externalities to serve Hashem, the more we preserve
the existence of the Am Yisroel forever and ever. ” theres no reading in between the lines over here. it’s clear as day what he’s saying. he’s saying very clearly that its both dress the part and think the part.
and why would a yu boy every put on a hat? or really why would anyone ever wear a hat? if it really didn’t matter then the yeshivos would have changed it by now, or better yet they never would’ve done it in the first place. the fact that they all made a levush and kept it shows that it means at least something, otherwise they could have just made a dress code of you must wear a collared shirt or look mentschlech. why does rav chaim want people to wear payos? why did the chazon ish want people to wear payos? why is that when rav hutner ztz”l heard that the temanim called their payos simanim he started growing them? its pashut, levush. makes. a difference. it isn’t everything, not even close, but does something for sure.