A visit to Crown Point

A few short blocks along Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn house the Latavich Chasidic Community. A visit to this area is like stepping back in time to 19th century European shteltes. About 15,000 members of this community practice the Chasidoc life as it was done in Russia for generations. The Latavich brand of Chasidism is worldwide and is the largest group of Chasidics in the world. My wife and I spent four hours touring this area and being briefed by Rabbi Beryl Epstein, who serves as public relations guide for the group. Among the places we visited were the synagogue, the world headquarters of the group, and the building where Torahs are repaired. Joyce and I make many vists to Manhattan and have been doing so for several years. This trip to Crown Heights, easily accessible by subway from midtown Manhattan on the 7th Avenue Line, was by far our most memorable trip.

Without going into too much detail here it is important to understand that the study of the Torah and adherence to over 600 rules prescibing the way one must live govgerns one's life Children spend most of their waking hours studying Torah to the exclusion of more traditional academic pursuits of American children and adolescents. I asked if they also studied traditional philsophical doctrines--Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant and the like. The answer was no. These writings may contain many approximations to the truth but only God's word, as written in the Torah, is the ultimate truth.

The Chasidic are pure in thought and deed. They are modest in their dress. Men must not touch a woman other than their wives, even to shake hands, as my wife found
out. Married women wear wigs so as to avoid attracting men to them sexually. Men must not allow a blade to touch their faces and so grow long beards that remain untrimmed for life.

I deal here with only one of many revelations I found interesting. Behavior must be dictated by both heart and mind, but of the two the mind is supreme. Thus passions are controlled by reason. My association here, and the sole purpose of this blog, is to draw a paralel with cognitive behavioral psycholgy of Beck, Ellis, Seligman and others. Cognition determines behavior and feelings. Treatment is in the form of cognitive restructuring to correct irrational thoughts tha drive self-defeating, painful,inappropriate, and destructive behavior. That, along with more traditional behavioral approaches, are often successful and are evidence-based. The Chasidic would be cynical of such a short circuited approach to a healthy life as compared with a lifetime of study, prayer, and rigid adgerence to God's word as handed down at Mt. Sinai. One does not require a therapist to go to Heaven but a rabbi may help.