When will the Mic actually Drop for some people?

Disclaimer: I have watched one Mic Drop segment - from a cousin - and it inspired me to write an article about the nature of emunah and fallibility of humans.

Publicly sharing our innermost secrets and our darkest moments is all the rage these days. Of course it's 'best' if you've survived some adversity, but that's far from a prerequisite. Social media encourages us to put ourselves 'out there' and live a life of conspicuous consumption that borders on exhibitionism. Those who speak out are applauded as brave, and sometimes raised to hero status.

Is that the Jewish way? I'm not sure. The blessing of mah tovu oholecho Yaakov was that everyone's tents were arranged so that no-one could directly look into each other's tent. Nowadays, the walls of our tents have been ripped away.

Mihu Chossid

Notwithstanding my disdain for labels (like "ultra-Orthodox"), the issue of Chabad identity and its markers is an important one that is worthy of exploration. Let's consider some of the responses to an earlier article:

In response to a question from Dr David Weiss, the Rebbe said: "When a Jew endeavours to take a step forward in the service of G-d and the love of his fellow man every day, I am happy to consider him my chassid" and in the name of Rabbi Manis Freidman: "The question of who is a chasid has to be asked and viewed from the Rebbe's perspective, if we could ask the Rebbe today who are his Chasidim, would he point to you?"
This was countered by another comment: "... it is likely the Rebbe was telling Dr Weiss something he needed to hear. We have a much higher aspirations to be considered a chosid. Many of the young people today who don't act very chasidish are probably taking steps forward in their service of G-d and the Rebbe would consider them a Chosid.”
I’m reminded of the story of a regular at a Chabad House who kept asking the shliach if he could start
wearing a kapote,

Aspirational Chabadniks

I was once asked by a litvisher guy who was involved in outreach: "What is Chabad's secret sauce? What are the tactics that make Chabad so successful?" This question is coming from someone who is also in the outreach business, sees an outstanding example and aspires to be similarly successful.

In the global philanthropic community, similar questions are asked by those interested in finding ways to help young people engage with their Jewishness. This is something being addressed by some of the largest and most innovative foundations in the world,

Cleanliness is next to Chassidishkeit

Our shul recently marked the yahrzeit of Reb Nochum Zalman Gurewicz, on Tisha b'Av. Many people in the community have a diversity of memories about Reb Nochum, whether it was watching him say tehilim in almost every free moment, or his kadish and davening at the amud. In a great reflection, Isaac Balbin reminded us of a few of his attributes and lessons we can learn.

One that stuck out for me was that Reb Nochum was always impeccably dressed, with never a thread out of place.