decadence

I took a count of the number of ads for Pesach resort vacations I saw recently in a Jewish newspaper and stopped when I got past 20.  I was just on a “fum” website and was immediately hit with a pop-up ad for “Shabbat in Cancun.”  Mind you: some of same places running these ads won’t run an ad or article with a picture of even a modestly dressed woman because, after all, “hatzne’a leches,” we have standards of tzniyus, but running ads for decadent luxury resort vacations is somehow OK.  (My wife recently blogged about a book that mentions a Rothschild who had an entire separate Pesach house.  Perhaps that’s the next level of escalation.)

I guess if you make a million dollars a year, blowing a few tens of thousands on Pesach is really not a big deal.  It’s a matter of proportion.  But then I start to think that judging by the number of these programs, there must be plenty of millionaires in our community (baruch Hashem!), and I start to wonder why are our yeshivos all struggling for cash.  There is obviously something wrong with my hashkafos because every one of these programs has a litany of Rabbis offering lectures and shiurim and daf yomis -- not only do they approve, they participate. 

 

I've posted about this in the past and realize it is a lost cause.  The trend is to offer more luxury to the kosher consumer, not less.  My hunch, though, is that you won't find someone who knows Ketzos sitting on a beach in Cancun -- it's a delusion to think you can live in both worlds.