For most of the 20th century, Torah Judaism in the U.S. was very weak. There was very little learning of Torah going on and people were primarily interested in money and material success. As a result, Reform and Conservative Judaism were very successful. People thought that Orthodoxy was going to die out. People wanted cultural and social Judaism w/o the encumbrances of Halacha.
But then things started to change. More and more Yeshivos and day schools were built, there was NCSY, Chabad, community Kollels, young charismatic Rabbonim who were able to lead communities to greater levels of observance and other factors. People understood that if you wanted authentic Judaism you had to be Orthodox. So Reform and Conservative communities became weaker and weaker and Orthodoxy saw an unprecedented resurgence. BARUCH HASHEM!!!!
That is the story in a small blog-post length nutshell...
But the Torah Judaism of the American Jew is different than it once was in the old country. The average Frum person today wants to be a good Jew. He learns daf yomi. He spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to give his children a Jewish education. Women are careful about going to mikva, go to shiurim and daven and say tehillim a lot more than maybe their mothers did. All good!! But the American often wants not only quality ruchniyos but ALSO over-the-top-super-duper-gashmiyus. He wants to live in a mansion. He wants to drive very expensive cars. He will wear a watch that can cost in excess of 10-20-30k. He wants to go on vacations not b/c he "needs a break" but b/c there is an entire culture of vacations. What is called "the gvir culture". Cruises!!! People LOVE Kosher Cruises [or "Kosher Kruises"]. Last Pesach, Frum Jews spent an estimated 300 MILLION DOLLARS [!!!!!] on Pesach programs. Everything is GLATT Kosher. Minyanim galore. Nothing missing - not in ruchniyos and not in gashmiyus. And food. Our entire culture seems to revolve around eating.
That is what people want - over the top ruchniyus and over the top gashmiyus. There are people who want their sons to study in Brisk and other top Yeshivos and they also want to smoke weed during their sunday afternoon fress-b-ques. They want maximum pleasure. Ruchniyus is pleasurable and so is gashmiyus and people want both. If you say something about the right way for a Jew to live his life and spend his money - some of these people get VERY ANGRY!!! "Don't tell me what to do with MY hard earned money!!!!".
Ok. I won't. But what do HASHEM and His Torah tell you about what to do with your money??
Can one have THE BEST of both worlds?
I have my reservations [not at a Pesach program or at a restaurant, though. A different type of "reservation"].
Says the Mesillas Yesharim [13]:
עוד אמרו (תנד"א כו): עד שאדם מתפלל על דברי תורה שיכנסו בתוך מעיו יתפלל על אכילה ושתיה שלא יכנסו בתוך מעיו.
They further said (Yalkut Shimoni 247:830): "before a man prays that the words of Torah enter his innards, he should first pray that food and drink not enter them".
ונבאר עתה הפרישות הטוב. ונאמר, כי הנה אחר שהתבאר לנו היות כל עניני העולם נסיונות לאדם, וכמו שכתבנו כבר למעלה והוכחנוהו בראיות והתאמת לנו גם כן רוב חולשת האדם וקרבת דעתו אל הרעות, יתברר בהכרח שכל מה שיוכל האדם להמלט מן הענינים האלה ראוי שיעשהו, כדי שיהיה נשמר יותר מן הרעה אשר ברגליהם. כי הנה אין לך תענוג עולמי אשר לא ימשוך אחריו איזה חטא בעקבו.
We will now explain the good type of Separation. After it has become clear to us that all matters of this world are trials to a man, as we wrote earlier and demonstrated with proofs, and likewise after we have truly realized man's great frailness and his close disposition to all evil, it will perforce be clear that man should do whatever he can to spare himself from these matters in order to protect himself from the evil which is at their feet. For there is no worldly pleasure which does not draw after it some sin in its heel.
דרך משל: המאכל והמשתה כשניקו מכל אסורי האכילה, הנה מותרים הם. אמנם, מלוי הכרס מושך אחריו פריקת העול, ומשתה היין מושך אחריו הזנות ושאר דברים רעים. כל שכן שבהיות האדם מרגיל עצמו לשבוע מאכילה ושתיה, הנה אם פעם אחת יחסר לו רגילותו, יכאב לו וירגיש מאד.
For example: food and drink, when clean of all dietary prohibition are permitted to eat. But filling one's belly draws after it removal of the yoke of Heaven, and drinking of wine draws after it licentiousness and other evils. All the more so, once a person habituates himself to satiate [his belly] with food and drink. For then if but one time he lacks fulfilling his habit, it will greatly pain and disturb him.
Due to this, he inserts himself in the rush of business toil and acquiring possessions in order that his table be set as he wishes. From there he is further drawn to wrongdoing and theft, and from there to taking [false] oaths and all other sins which follow. He thus goes away from the divine service, and from Torah study and prayer.
So if one believes that this world is merely a PREPARATION for the next world - he should take heed of the words of the Mesillas Yesharim.
