On the Mussarnik Hostility to Weddings During Ellul

Why do many Mussarniks discourage Yeshiva boys from getting married during the month of Ellul? Because it harms the yeshiva spirit they believe Ellul should represent (not this, either). In some places, they go so far as to forbid friends from attending the wedding.

The Chazon Ish famously disagreed, approvingly calling such timing “grabbing more mitzvos before Yom Hadin“.

There are multiple angles to explore here: Establishment\individuals, dis\regard for holiness and marrying early, un\faith in people, bare authoritarianism, Torah wisdom\”Mussar“. And (especially in yesteryear), I can see a problem of שמא יקדימנו אחר.

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‘That Public Men Publish Falsehoods Is Nothing New’

Be Angry At The Sun

That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante’s feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.

[Anonymous submission.]
From here.