contrast

 I went to two vorts tonight. The first was yeshivish, half-American, agudah type. You walk in and pass women who are lingering in the doorway. They are not immodest, but they are not the pinnacle of modesty either in dress or deportment. They were expensive clothes. The men are all in short coats. The young men don't look so happy. I get this sense of disappointment that they are not a gadol sort of thing. Some of the men are latzy, some overserious. I stay a while. It doesn't feel so religious to me. I feel nothing. Feels kind of dead. 

Then I went to a Yerushalmi vort. Lots of NK guys. It was like a cloud was lifted from the room. Long coats, long payus. No women in site. Nobody passing through the mechitza as happened in the other place. There was a mekubal, there was a Brisker rabbi. They were very impressive. There was a happiness to the people. They were talking with each other. Reminded me of Rabbi Miller's comments about Jews in the old country, how they were happy people. I felt as if I was dealing with people who cared about the entire religion. I could breathe and I felt religious there. I felt, so these are Jews. 

It's hard to find this experience in America. There are special people in various places, but not such a concentration usually. The materialism overwhelms the best of us.