After years of threats and warnings and debate, the restaurants around the Mir are being shut down at 11pm. The order has come down from the neighborhood council. This is being enforced with a threat that the Badatz Eida hechsher will be removed from any restaurant that does not comply.
The administration of the Mir Yeshiva is playing along, or has their own agenda in putting an end to this phenomenon as well. The administration has announced that the bachurim are not allowed to be in the local shops after 11pm during the week, including Thursday nights and Motzei Shabbos - especially in the shops that have no hechsher.
To strengthen their position, the Mir further announced that they will be putting out light refreshments nightly for the boys between the hours of 11:00pm and 11:30pm.
That's some serious nightlife excitement in the Mir!
The restaurant owners are not making a public fight of this, despite this taking a bit hit on their income, and at least publicly, are expressing support for whatever decision the rabbonim come to.
source: Behadrei
without being critical of the decisions made, as it is not my place to discus that and the yeshiva has the right, or obligation, to keep their boys in line, and the neighbors deserve peace and quiet at night, I think the yeshiva solution is funny.
First of all, how long will it actually last? Will they stop putting out food after 4 nights or 7? Maybe they might make it two weeks?
Second, will the soda pop and rugelach really be enticing to the boys who until now were eating shawarma, hamburgers, shnitzel, pizza and the like?
Third, night life is about more than light refreshments, and more than about food. They go out to hang out, shoot the breeze with the friends, get into a different atmosphere. The yeshiva won't be able to replicate that, even if they put out good food and keep it going for months.
Fourth, if they cannot go to the shops right around the yeshiva and the pop and rugelach in the yeshiva dining room are not a good enough replacement, the boys will not just go to sleep, or back to the beis medrash, instead. They will look for their night life excitement elsewhere, further away from the yeshiva.
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I can understand having a curfew for the sake of the residents. They deserve quite at night (especially after 11!). But, if this is done just to keep the Bachurim in line, I don't agree with it. Shop owners shouldn't have to suffer for the deficiencies of the Mir's Hanhallah.
ReplyDeleteThat should be quiet, not quite. Though they could have that, too.
DeleteIsn't it chulent Thursday nite?
ReplyDeleteBochurim have feet. They will simply congregate and eat at establishments immediately beyond the “curfew zone”.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the Mir and I want to clarify that this decision was NOT made by the Mir administration, as the article slightly implied. It was made by the Bada"tz Eidah Hachareidis, which gives the hashgacha on most of the eateries in the area. The Mir administration merely stated agreement with the Bada"tz's decision and designed a plan to accommodate it's talmidim in light of the new reality.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted further that the policy only effects eateries which are under the supervision of the Bada"tz in question, which is most but not all of the local shops. Some have remained open late because they are under Rav Rubin or others. And the new policy is for the establishments in quite a wide radius - by no means just in the area of the Mir. The signs put up by the Bada"tz announcing this about a week or two ago said the policy would be for "Meah Shearim, Beis Yisrael, Shmuel Hanavi, and the surrounding area" (if memory serves; it was certainly something to that general effect, which I say to highlight that this covers a huge area and not just the Mir neighborhood, which occupies only a small portion of the Beis Yisrael neighborhood).
This would also seem like an appropriate place to say that my experience at the Mir has been indescribably good. The yeshiva truly cares for its talmidim, which is remarkable for an institution so massive. Much as I agree with some of the article's skepticism regarding the effectiveness of the yeshiva's new refreshments plan, I think it should be noted that the yeshiva is seriously sticking its neck out for the talmidim here. It's not as if until now the yeshiva was sponsoring talmidim's late-night snacks, such that they would be at all obligated to make this sort of new motion as compensation. They are doing this as an attempt to make the Mir experience maximally pleasant, which is a theme I've experienced consistently over the course of my time here. I can't praise the Mir enough and can only say that I consider myself massively lucky to be here.