AAQ>> “BLACK-HA(UGH)TINESS”
Avram > <vehemently disagrees>
Ugh, I thought it was a good pun. If it does not apply to you, then it is not intended for you!
I am referring here to people changing their family/community mesorah based on some theories, however elevated. Why does a grandfather in a turban or in a beret need to endure his grandson in a hat just because the grandson won’t find a shidduch otherwise?
here is a related mesorah: R Naftali Amsterdam, who actually had a smicha, was dressing so lowly that his wife complained to his teacher, r Salanter and the Rav paskened that while preventing haughtiness is definitely a good middah, but doing what a wife wants is chesed that overrides working on your middos, so he somewhat upgraded his dress code.
When R Amsterdam (who, I think, never was in Amsterdam) arrived to EY unannounced to prevent excitement and went to the house of his chaver R Itzele Peterburger (who taki was a Rav in that city while on vacation from his humbleness), the neighbors said – Hello Rabbo, to which he replied – I am not a Rabbi.
Now, my question is: why did they know he is a Rabbi if he was not dressed in a black hat?