…With a Mustache, beard , Black hat , Dark Suite and white shirt it can be difficult to distinguish different people in a large room. Even relatives whom I know well can be hard to find?
Is there some Inyan where everyone is supposed to look exactly the same and some individualim is allowed?
There is an inyan called “al tifrosh min hatzibbur”. Meaning there is a great maylah for a community to maintain a certain solidarity.
It seems that your question is…why do the members of the Lakewood community- rabbonim and baalei batim alike, all dress and look like Rav Ahron Kutler who began their community and they continue to look up to as their standard to this day? Is that correct?
BrawinwasheD: The Alter of slabodka used to encourage his talmidim to be individuals. That is how he could have talmidim ranging from Rav Aharon Kotler ZT”L to Rav Meir Chadash ZT”L to Rav Dovid Leibowitz ZT”L to Rav Hutner ZT”L. Today’s black-and-white dress and soundalike gedolim biographies is part of the trend turning yiddishkeit into a sedom-betel.
Are you bringing a proof against wearing black and white from “individuals” like Rav Ahron Kutler, Rav Meir Chadash et al.? Have you ever seen a picture of them dressed?
lolkatz Where is “penguinism” (everyone dressing in black and white) brought down in halacha? This is just as much bal tosif as simchat bat. Furthermore, many Rebbes wear beautiful colored robes by their tisches. Why is color assur for their chassidim?
There is no halacha to wear black and white, but it is part of a mesorah. Simchas bat is not. Chassidim work very hard to maintain their mesorah and by not waering black and white, they would be breaking that mesorah. Also, I have seen navy blue tisch bekishes.
IS: I know that among my MO friends I can quote V’yoel Moshe, Rav Shach, and all sorts of other charedi rabbanim and rebbes on anything from Torah to the most controversial political issues but among my yeshivish friends I can’t quote a pshat Rav Aharon Lichtenstein said on a Ro”Sh in gittin.
That is absurd and I think you know it. I have heard plenty Yeshivish Rabbonim quoting from Chassidishe Rabonim. Go find me a yeshivah that doesn’t have a sfas emes on the shelves or even a nesivos shalom. The R”Y of Lakewood East loved to tell a story where he heard Rav Ahron praising the Satmar Rebbe. The point is obviously that certain Rabbis are not recognized as valid dissenting opinions. Those are the ones that are not quoted.