Picture your average “chassidishe bocher”— smashed black hat— smaller, probably, than your average Litvishe yeshiva bocher— suit jacket, white shirt— untucked— dark casual to dressed pants, black sneakers or dress shoes. Dapper? Perhaps.

Why?
I’m not about to get into the whole history of how yeshivos decided they were going to create a dress code, mainly because I don’t know what happened. My opinion is it’s a bandaid— a quick superficial fix for bigger underlying issue— you are more than your clothes! Your emotional authenticity or whatever is greater than and surpasses your clothes. This is at least part of the talk bochrim need to hear.

However, what we see on the outside is a result of an underlying philosophy and world outlook. (It’s also the reason why we don’t wear ties and Rabbi Chodakov would tell the bochrim going on Merkos shlichus to shine their shoes). Yes, opening your second button defeats the purpose of going tie-less and you might want to tuck in your shirt, but nowadays if you’re on mivtzoyim most people won’t notice, i.e. know your crowd. Also the open second button thing is weird on a “rabbi,” it’s so— dare I say— risqué? Let’s face it, clothes affect how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us.

First of all, there is such a thing as an inyan shlili, and an inyan chiyuvi. An inyan shlili (literally, an exclusionary concept) is a concept which negates another idea or behavior. An inyan chyuvi (literally, an obligatory concept), on the other hand is an idea which demands a specific behavior or another specific idea.

Before we apply this concept, let’s leave it on the back burner, and explore the place materiality has in Chassidus.

We all learned in Tanya— and if you haven’t yet, it’s in chapter 7— that there’s such a thing as klipas noga, which is a mix of good and evil (and the Alter Rebbe mentions there that the majority of this world is evil and that good is mixed into it). That being said, we have a specific relationship with klipas noga. That relationship is to deal with it, to incorporate it into our life (which is an extension of G-d Himself) and thereby uplifting the quality of this klipas noga making it holy.

For example, we use leather (and other kosher animal parts) for tefillin, wool (the sheep version of fur) for tzitzis. More modern examples exist in the hundreds of people the Rebbe encouraged to continue their musical careers, their art, academic studies, etc. as long as it was in a Torah appropriate manner. Ok, we’ll leave this on the back burner.

In Kitzur Shulchan Oruch (chapter 3) we are taught (as part of the mitzvah of not dressing and behaving like pagans and idolators) that Jew dresses a certain way; not too shabby, and not ostentatious or gaudy. In certain epochs, we wore— either voluntarily or by force— clothes that were different from our neighbors in addition to living— many times by force— segregated from the people of that place.

Iskafya. You hear it being thrown around a lot at farbrengens, but what does it mean? Literally, it means “forcing” or “suppression.”
“Of what?”, you might ask. Of evil of course! Not you, G-d forbid, G-d loves you and wouldn’t want to suppress you, that’s crazy.
Suppression of the evil within physicality is part of uplifting its quality to becoming holy. That happens through small (sometimes big) acts of self control. After all, my body and my animal soul (who I sometimes relate to more than my G-dly soul, which is when it feels burdensome) are made of physical stuff. Which means that there is tons of potential G-dly energy, goodness, etc. to be unleashed. On the other hand, there are things worth changing and redirecting.

I’m saying, “redirecting” on purpose, because we live here— on planet Earth. And you still have to wear clothes and eat and breathe and stuff, and that’s the point. Not to somehow figure out how to completely eradicate our physiological needs. It’s not about fasting, going without sleep or any other form of ascetism— that would be contrary to why we’re here.

If we are here to bring Moshiach or a dirah betachtonim (dwelling place for G-d in the lowest places)— on planet Earth— then it’s specifically in the lowest places where we need to bring Him!
Whoa! Not so fast, there’s still such a thing as evil and stuff that G-d doesn’t like that we should stay away from.
Okay, I think I beat around the bush long enough…

White shirts are blank. They match everything. So does a conservative colored suit. It costs more money and more time to find matching colors and to combine them properly and to not look like a clown.

But really, the point of the minimalist wardrobe is to free you and your mind of the constraints of physicality so you can connect to G-d and also incorporate physicality in your relationship.

Still want to look good? So sharpen up, or dress down, whatever. Everyone has their challenges. The nerdy guy who doesn’t mind wearing what every other bocher in zal wears might find it more challenging to have a normal conversation, or daven or whatever.

Are colored shirts “chassidish?”

The answer is maybe, it depends on you.

Heres a link to a forum where you can find more rants on the subject.

This leads us to a whole discussion on tshuva ilo’oh… To be continued…