Sholom Aleichem

The following was written by Sholom Aleichem. So funny how its applicable in today's society...

Frummy mishugas never changes!

But something happened: in the last forty or fifty years a ray of worldly light has stolen into our corner of the earth and has reached even into our very synagogues, even there where the impoverished lads sat with their tomes. There you found them secretly snatching their first taste of secular food, some rhetoric as an appetizer, then swallowing - or choking over - a Russian grammar, with maybe a few chapters of a novel for dessert. From studies like there, naturally, no Talmudic scholars or famous rabbis emerged. Instead. Jewish youths wandered off into the world and were ruined, became doctors, lawyers, writers of prose and verse, teachers - and plain non-believers. Not a single rabbi who was worth anything. That is, there were a number of rabbis. But what kind? Crown rabbis wished onto us by the czar, whether we wanted them or not. As if he had said, "Here is a loaded bomb; hold on to it." But let us proceed...

-Sholom Aleichem in The Lottery Ticket.