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We're about to enter the heartbeat of the Jewish world. 770. Once you go in, there's no going back.
An inside look at the secretive Hasidic Jewish community in New York, exploring their traditions, lifestyle, and beliefs.
Key Takeaways
- Hasidic Jews maintain a highly insular lifestyle to preserve religious traditions and community values.
- Strict gender roles and modesty laws govern daily life, including hair covering and dress codes.
- Education is centered on religious texts and philosophy, with minimal engagement with secular knowledge or technology.
- Community self-governance includes patrols and courts to enforce internal rules and safety.
- The community's strong spiritual connection to Israel and anticipation of the Messiah shape much of their worldview.
What the video covers
- The documentary explores the Hasidic Jewish community centered around 770 in New York, known for their strict religious adherence and closed-off lifestyle.
- Hasidic Jews avoid modern technology such as the internet and television to preserve their traditions and values.
- Women follow strict modesty rules including shaving their hair and covering it with wigs or headscarves at all times.
- The community runs its own internal systems including patrols, ambulance services, and religious courts, sometimes acting like law enforcement.
- Education focuses heavily on religious studies, Jewish mysticism, and Hasidic philosophy, with limited exposure to the modern world.
- Married couples observe strict practices including periods of abstinence and modesty patrols to enforce dress codes.
- The community is deeply connected to Israel, praying towards Jerusalem and hoping for the coming of the Messiah.
- The documentary includes perspectives from Beatrice Weber, a woman who left the Hasidic community, sharing insights on life inside.
- Filming inside the community was challenging and required special permissions, highlighting the group's desire for privacy.
- The video also touches on political connections and the community's influence within New York City.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Hasidic Community and 770 Headquarters
- 01:30Women's Modesty and Hair Covering Traditions
- 03:41Inside the Synagogue: Prayers and Study
- 05:16Challenges of Filming and Community Interaction
- 06:58Life and Beliefs: Messiah and Religious Education
- 08:50Community Patrols and Internal Law Enforcement
- 12:00Daily Life, Technology Restrictions, and Modesty Patrols
- 15:00Insights from Ex-Member Beatrice Weber
- 18:54Community Influence and Political Connections
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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They're the most religious community in America. Hasidic Jews. A closed-off group with hundreds of thousands of members.
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They're all over. Our minds and our hearts are always with Israel, and our prayers are directed through there.
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In the heart of New York, surrounded by skyscrapers and modern life, there exists another world. One that lives by its own traditions.
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Have you ever logged into the internet in your entire life? No. It's the most dangerous thing for a person.
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Have you ever watched television? No. The deeper we go, the more we feel like we don't belong here. Before anything else, they always ask the same question.
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You Jewish? No. You Jewish? No. Can we interview you? These neighborhoods look completely unlike the rest of the city. They run community patrols that, in certain situations, appear to take on responsibilities similar to law enforcement. They also have ambulance services and religious
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courts for internal matters. They can make a citizens' arrest. They're getting now permits for upping their security and stuff like that.
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Even a small local diner here can become a stop for powerful political figures. Donald Trump was planning to come here.
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Oh yeah. I have 10 kids myself. If I would not have taken breaks, I would have had 15, not 10. Before choosing to stop having more children, they are expected to talk to a rabbi and decide together.
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Let's say I have 10. Why don't I have 12? I have to ask God.
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Many married women here follow a strict tradition of shaving their hair. Outside, they cover it with a wig or a headscarf. Do women keep their hair covered even when they're alone with their husband at home?
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Yeah, you have to cover your hair the whole time. And for nearly half of every month, married couples don't touch each other at all. Not even to pass something directly from hand to hand. So this is a warning to people who don't dress
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modestly. Volunteer groups known as modesty patrols sometimes look to see whether other Hasidic community members are dressed appropriately when out in public. Alongside this, beneath the central synagogue, there are also passageways that cannot be seen from the street. I'm going to go inside their
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homes, businesses, and synagogues and even film their biggest gatherings inside their headquarters. Also, a woman who was once married to a rabbi and later left the Hasidic community will share things you've likely never heard before. But before we continue with the
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documentary, join me in supporting the children of Palestine. Giving them the same opportunities to simply be children just like any other is very important to make a difference. Please check the link in the description. It's early in the
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morning. We're heading into the global center of a Jewish movement, Hasidic Community. As they are largely closed to outsiders, we were only allowed in with special permission.
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Now we're going to go downstairs where the synagogue expanded to literally underneath the sidewalk to get more room.
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A few people connected to the community believe that the isolation of the Hasidic culture should be documented.
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I hear the noise already. Yes. With their help, we found a way in, but filming inside this closed-off world will be extremely difficult. The sound is growing louder.
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Okay, you ready? You guys film me? They were chanting and dancing in a circle with intense devotion, waving welcome Messiah flags. They believe the Messiah is their promised leader who will one day bring a new divine order to
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the world. Where are we? So this is the actual synagogue and these boys come from all over, mostly Israel. And as you can see, there's a lot of noise. Very interactive, very in-depth.
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I have never been in a place like this before. So, there's prayers here in the main synagogue three times a day, but the rest of the day, it's a study hall. And right now, they're studying Jewish mysticism, Hasidic philosophy. Here, it's
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very full of life and energy. And these young boys are so full of passion. How many students are here? Probably 500.
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During the month of the holidays, there'll be a thousand. And they pray towards the eastern wall, towards Jerusalem. Our minds and our hearts are always with Israel, and our prayers are directed through there.
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What are you reading? So I'm reading a summary of the whole Tanya. How many hours a day are you reading? Is it like below 10 hours?
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No. No. For sure. More than 10 hours? Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of time.
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Yeah. But the time goes when you do something fun. So time goes in a fun way.
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Are you trying to memorize the whole book? Yeah. I'm trying to memorize the theme of the book. Are you from Israel originally?
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Yeah, I'm from the Holy Land. You live here? I'm here a few years. Yeah. What will you do for a living after a couple of years from now?
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God is going to provide the money. We don't have to worry about that. Everything's going to work out. Lots of people, they worry about all the money, money, money. Then they get locked into something pursuing that.
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They receive religious education in this building from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. They eat here. They nap here. They are really not taught to plan for conventional careers. Their education includes very little teaching about the modern world. They don't use the
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internet. Their exposure to general education and global culture is limited. Are you Jewish? No.
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You guys are Jewish or No. Jewish? No. They try to put similar clothes on us and other stuff, but we did not accept.
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We are not Jewish and we came here for only filming. At times our cameras were briefly taken from us just like this.
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That's the charity box. Before you pray, you're supposed to give some charity. Look at all these charity boxes.
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All of them. These are all different organizations, schools, and this is a big charity box.
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This is a different place. People around me are dressed in a similar way. I feel like I stand out. It seems like their eyes are on me. And here you can see little babies.
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How old is the baby? Baby is almost 3 months. What is the baby doing here?
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Um, to pray. While men and children pray in this area, women pray in a separate upstairs gallery divided by darkened glass.
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Before the first prayers begin, many Hasidic men step into the mikvah, a ritual bath believed to cleanse the soul. The ritual bath for the men. They go every morning and then for sure on Fridays, and boys go on Fridays. Fridays
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also. I'm so grateful that my ex-husband, he did not let the boys go. I'm a mom of 10. I was married to a rabbi.
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This is Beatrice Weber, a woman who left the ultra-Orthodox community. Later in the video, she will share what life inside the Hasidic community was really like from her own experience.
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You look at the world now, it doesn't seem so united, right? So people think, oh, we're getting so far away from the coming of the Messiah. But the truth is, just like a mother gives birth, then that month is the hardest month. So the
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world is sort of shedding the final challenges and hopefully we'll have Messiah very soon.
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Their education also includes the traditional Jewish hope to return to Jerusalem and one day see the holy temple rebuilt. Behind the wood-paneled wall you see here, a passage was discovered beneath the synagogue. It stretched for dozens of feet and
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contained clothes, boxes, and other personal items. So, we'll ask the lead rabbi what it actually was. There's also a very important and big gathering taking place in a private setting in their synagogue, something most people never get to see. We'll come back here
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to capture it, but first, let's get to know them better in their own neighborhood. Can we interview this guy?
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Let's ask. We're in the middle of New York City, but we rarely hear English. Most people here speak Yiddish or Hebrew.
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What did he say? What happened? I don't know. He froze. Without Rabbi Cats by our side, we felt more aware that we stood out in the neighbor.
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A lot of them just looked away and kept moving. is turning away. See, I said there going to be a lot of turn.
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Can we interview you? Excuse me. Can we interview you? We want to learn about culture.
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I don't want to be on camera. We have zero luck. He said no to you, but yes to me.
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What is like to work around here? Live around here. I'm a crane operator. Yeah. You're not Jewish, right?
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I'm not Jewish. I'm a Puerto Rican American citizen. How is life for you around here?
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I work in a Jewish community for the past 15 years and I do a lot of crazy jobs. They all stick together and they all help each other out.
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So many women with babies coming. Yeah. Following the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Hidic Jews are one of the fastest growing communities in the world with birth rates high enough to nearly double their population in every 20
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years. And today it stands around 100,000. Eight and a half months after I was married, I had a baby. 11 months later, I had another baby. If I would not have taken breaks, I would have had 15, not
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10. I went to a rabbi and said, "Please, I need a break. It's too much for me.
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It's too hard for me." So without the rabbi's word, you cannot take a break.
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Yeah. Cuz he's like the word of God, basically. According to official figures, large families in New York may be eligible for a range of public benefits. For example, a family of 10 that meets the criteria could receive around $26,160
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in food assistance and $13,600 through the child tax credit. Medicaid coverage for a household of that size may also have an estimated value of around $75,000 per year. Altogether, for 10 people living under one roof, the combined value of public benefits and
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healthcare coverage may amount to more than $100,000 per year. Like if you look at the data by zip code and you can see like there's a very high reliance on government services.
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You speak Jewish, Yiddish, English? English. Yedish and English. English. English or Yedish? English. English only.
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No. We have a lot of non-Jewish people coming here. It's worse and worse and worse.
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How important is modesty in I don't know what is modesty. Why you asking? We have something which nobody has. One Torah and one God. This is the way. So what else?
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Why do families in Hassidic culture have so many kids? He has to help me.
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He asked me, he asked me why the kidic family. So many kids. And I want to understand the question. Why do you mean so many?
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What is so many? Let's say I have 10. Why I don't have 12? I have to ask God.
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Excuse me. Can we interview you? No. Yeah, they tune a video for for the They mostly speak to people within their own community and don't really interact with us.
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What is his life philosophy? Are you Jewish? No. If you're not Jewish, it's impossible to understand the beauty of a Jewish life.
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Do you have a smartphone? No. Why? It's the most dangerous thing for a person to have one.
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Have you ever logged into internet? I never logged in. A smart person learns from other people's mistake. There's too many people that were injured physically, emotionally, mentally. It's so you have everybody knows it.
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You have never logged into internet in your entire life. No. Do you know Michael Jackson?
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No. Do you know Cristiano Ronaldo? People in this community live a kosher lifestyle. Meaning that what they eat, wear, watch, and consume is expected to be in accordance with Jewish law.
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You know when they say the dangers of the internet, Yeah. you're coming. They smell internet. So they go, "Ah, camera, internet, go away." You know, many people here avoid technologies that give direct access to the outside world.
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Everyone we see has a kosher phone. We came to this store to see what it is.
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What is a kosher phone? Means a phone like the old times. Their phones are only talk only. Nothing besides doing it. No texting.
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No texting either. Nothing. No internet. No WhatsApp at all. Why? Internet is sure very bad. It's make you sure busy whole day.
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Do you watch movies? No. Sure not. Do you know who Elon Musk is? No.
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Tom Cruz? No. We know where the rabbi is, not more. Have you ever watched television?
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Sure not. You're saying no. As if it's normal to say no. In this community, it's normal to say no.
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Even though you want to watch some of your own footages. No, I don't want to see.
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What about cameras? Cameras, the same thing. We have cameras. You can only make pictures.
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These cameras are not able to take videos. It's not just photos. The people we talk to here reject the very idea of recording their own memories.
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Video is a thing that you go into the video and when someone look at video for 10 minutes, the eyes starts to jump.
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Okay. When you take videos, even plain videos from me, you are getting connected to video and every time slowly slowly you start to watch videos. So the policy is no video at all. Let's take you to other videos. So even a video of
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someone not wearing this and that is also not considered kosher. Even like a video of you would not be kosher.
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Who made these rules? Grab us. It feels like I traveled back in time. Going to the menu.
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There's calculator tools. That's it. That's it. Only this. Only this. There's no way to send SMS.
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No way to search anything. It's like a walkie-talkie. Yeah. Then I noticed the computer sitting on the desk.
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This is a computer. Sure. But it can connect to internet. It have internet with the filter. It have the sites that I need to work and when I want to open other site comes up that I can't.
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So there are certain companies that modify phones and computers specifically for this community removing internet access completely from all devices.
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This is the company that they make the filters. Technology awareness group. I don't want people want to watch it be on YouTube or whatever.
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No, but it's not for it's not for Oh, I see. So, what was interesting was we asked him to do the interview and he said no. Not because he doesn't want to be interviewed. He doesn't want somebody to go onto your channel to see the
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interview and then get lost in your channel. Maybe not all of my videos are ker according to him.
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A short way down the street. I spotted something unusual. This is like their own social media.
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Oh, but it's not on social media. It's on the phone. You call the number and then you choose what story, which rabbi, inspiration. It's all on the phone. It's a dial up.
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If you look at the advertisement, it's all man. Yeah. A platform of empowering to guard your eye with word of the day and selected discussions of firstirhand stories.
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Press three. Basically, these guys are either listeners or they're they're influencers, so to say.
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Very different. I have never seen such a thing like that. In Brooklyn, we saw community patrol vehicles using emergency lights and sirens. We still don't know exactly who they are, but they seem to be responding to a situation involving local residents. The
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next time we see them, we'll understand what role they play here. What is this called? The sidewalks. What is the meaning of it? Why do you keep it long?
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This is like to show that you're Jewish. It says in the Torah, it says it should be by but the two sides. Boys begin growing payout after the age of three and continue to keep the practice into adulthood. For centuries, cyblocks have
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been worn to show Jewish identity and pride and community support. What are you wearing right now?
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This is a tit from dating back over 3,300 years. And if you count up the various knots and strings and add them together, there's 613, which reflects the number of guidelines that God gave us. You see, they're hanging out.
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They're there to remind who put us here and what we're here for. In addition to ziti, acidic men typically dress in formal clothing.
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So, this is kind of our uniform. This is it's called a kapata, which is an overcoat. I'll put on a white shirt.
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I'll put on a black hat. I'll swipe the brim down like this, you know, and then it, you know, it's kind of a different look.
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And of course, beneath their hats, they wear a kipa at all times. Some people are very, very serious about wearing these are swim caps. The men wear these when they're swimming.
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Wow. It is next level. Another detail we noticed is that most people here wear very plain eyeglasses that look almost identical.
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It's about modesty, so they want to stick to one style. This is one style for like everyone. Like it goes from the age of 13 and up.
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The Torah commands all married women to cover their hair. Do women keep their hair covered even when they're alone with their husband at home?
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Yeah, you have to cover your hair the whole time. You know, women from the Satma community shave their hair. I shaved it for 20 years my hair. But as we stroll through the neighborhood, we rarely see women wearing scarves.
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Instead, we see women with perfectly styled hair. To understand how this works, we came here.
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You just need some Give a second cuz Yeah. You can't see the woman's hair covered at all.
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So, just making sure everyone's covered up. Yeah. Oh, okay. Here we go. I am a wig maker and seller. We cover our elbows and we cover our knees. And after marriage, we cover our hair as well. So, you could cover your hair with
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like a hat or scarf, but we use a wig cuz it's just much more beautiful and much more natural. And then when it's done, it can look like mine. can see you have a wig.
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I'm wearing a wig. Yeah. I thought it was real hair. No, it's a wig. You can see it up close if you want. This is I didn't know that.
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Yeah. Biblical commandment is to cover your hair, but you take it to the next level cuz we just want to look good.
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So, how much is this one? A piece like this is called virgin hair. It's sourced in Brazil. It's authentically beautiful. It's 6,300.
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In this community, for some, modesty comes with a high price tag. A Jewish woman who chooses to cover her hair with a wig spends an average of $65,000 in her lifetime. My hair is not as gorgeous N cola as a wig is like it's a play
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around, change colors, length, styles. It's so versatile. According to Jewish law, actually your body is not as important as your hair is. When a woman is walking in front of you, you can stare at her hair and get
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lost in thoughts and come up with all kind of, you know, desires. So hair is considered more sensitive than body. Here they wear wigs too. So doesn't it make here here? That's actually interesting is that the Sar people and a lot of
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people and this is something very controversial and I'm probably going to got a lot of hate for saying it but I I'm an equal opportunist. If you look in the Torah, I don't like to say Bible. If you look
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in the Torah in the five books of Moses, woman is supposed to be beauty. Woman is supposed to entice the man to love God.
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Like we were talking about earlier, though he tried to explain, we were still left wondering how covering natural hair with a beautifully styled wig that still looks like real hair is understood as an expression of modesty here. From such a young age, I believed
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everything I was taught. So if you didn't follow something that you were supposed to, maybe tomorrow you'll be in a car accident. Someone would get sick and then, you know, the rabbis would say, "Oh, this person got sick. We all
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need to repent. You know, women should make sure their skirts are long enough." This bus serves a local Orthodox Jewish community. It mostly runs between these neighborhoods. We're continuing to explore the neighborhood for now, but later today we'll return to the
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synagogue where we'll take you inside a large private gathering usually closed to people from outside the community.
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May it be favorable in your eyes to bless Israel at all times. There's a button here. So, this actually is one of the very Let's see who it is. Okay, that's Hatella. That was the private organization, the private ambulance. But
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because the community stays away from smartphones, they've asked to leave this here. They call the police or the firemen.
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Yes, we do have our own like security, you know, they can make a citizens arrest. They're not like arrestable. They're getting out permits for upping their security and stuff like that. Oh, this was surprising. We're about to take
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a closer look at this neighborhood's local patrol groups, who they are, and what they do. In this neighborhood, ultraorththodox residents often keep one another informed and sometimes contact Shaim or Shamira when they have concerns about safety or daily life in the
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community. In a place where unfamiliar faces are notice quickly, this kind of mutual awareness can make people like us feel like we stand out more than usual.
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The driver of our bus took our picture. We weren't exactly sure why, but it felt like he might have been trying to let others know we were there. We felt like we were drawing more attention than usual. My cameraman thinks a few people
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may be walking behind us, but I don't know if that's true. We'll step away for now and come back later with Rabbi Cats, who can help guide us through the area.
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On the street, I spotted several local patrol vehicles with cameras, emergency lights, tinted windows, emblems, and blue and white markings. At first glance, I thought they might be official vehicles because of some of those features. There is Shamira Mobile
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Command Center. What does it do? So, basically, it's like a community watch. The NYPD is very busy and the Shira gives like a helping hand. You know, they know the community, they know the residents, they know if something's
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suspicious. Shmira in Hebrew means to guard, to protect. They can do like a citizens arrest. You know, something goes on, they alert each other.
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Do they also have uniforms? They wear Yeah. certain like t-shirts and hats. Yeah. Do they have right to carry gun?
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I guess if they have a New York state uh carrying weapons, you know. And this is cave rim. This is like if somebody has a flat tire or they get locked out of their car. Cav in Hebrew means friends.
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And here's the hatal. Hatsella is the Hebrew word to save. So this is a volunteer ambulance core made up of strictly uh community members here. And it's amazing cuz the response time is so much faster because they're very well
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acquainted with the community, the streets, as opposed to the 911. When you call, it could be difficult for them to find and locate. There's a whole bunch of these ambulances in very strategic spots. Are you Jewish?
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Oh, no. Can I ask you a question? Yes. You Jewish? No. You have 2 minutes?
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No. Like, what kind of cases are they attending to? Muggings, stealing, assaults. The rabbi did not seem to want to go much further on this topic while the cameras were rolling.
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All right. But uh this community may also refer certain internal disputes to religious courts within their tradition known as a Beth den. In some cases, these rulings can be recognized under American law. But in close-knit communities like this, some
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people may find it hard to refuse a Bethden process because they may worry about their place in the community.
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Rabbis came out and said, "You first have to discuss it with your rabbi before you report it to the police." Later that night, we visited a gathering where the community was raising donations for families. The goal was to
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help them afford to have more children. In just the 15 minutes we were there, more than $400,000 was collected.
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They're collecting money and their goal is to reach 1.2 million for this night. Today, we'll uncover the neighborhood's most surprising details, enter a Jewish home, and witness the synagogue's main gathering from the inside. We are now on Lee Avenue in Williamsburg, where the
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measures taken to isolate the neighborhood from the rest of the world are unusual. You see this here is actually a uh a blocking so people don't see inappropriate advertisements on other random trucks.
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Wow. Yeah. They tend to cover it because a lot of times modern trucks will have inappropriate advertisements. before it tore it completely blocked the entire view from the bridge.
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So this is a a warning to people who don't dress modestly. Don't bring modern inappropriate clothes.
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No shirtless, no short or tank tops, no barefoot. Volunteer groups known as modesty patrols sometimes look to see whether other Hitittan community members are dressed appropriately when out in public.
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So like these are magazines. So for example, if you look at the magazines, you'll see no women's face. See these are Jewish movies. They do have kosher films.
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All the brands are local. There are no McDonald's, no Starbucks, no chain restaurants. Then we visited a local restaurant and were surprised to learn how often political figures come through this place.
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Donald Trump was planning to come here. Oh, he was supposed to be here at 1:00 and my father passed away at 10:00 in the morning. So, we can everything. Whatever we eat or is is based on on the culture,
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our local food, which is chicken cutlet, stuffed cabbage. We have fish and we have other stuff. We try to stick, you know, moderist, you know, try the way this is the way to bring up our kids, you know. I have 10 kids myself. I got
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nine boys and a girl. They have their own brands of stores. We all learn to like each other and we all help out each other. So, there's not really like big chain stores like you won't find like uh Toys R Us here. We
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have Toys for Us. They mostly shop within their own community where money tends to circulate among neighborhood businesses.
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Why there's no chain store? Because why would I not support my brother? You know, a lot of the hidic people from Winsburg own properties in Manhattan.
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Here, almost all the toys reflect the hidic Jewish world. Children grow up surrounded mainly by the culture of their own community.
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No Barbies here. If it has a face of a girl, they try not to display it.
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Sometimes they they'll just cover it. From a very young age, children become familiar with the community's values and traditions. Alongside the toys, the store also carried a wide range of books and other items. Among the story books on display were titles such as Escape
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from Iran and Saddam Game over. Religious Lego sets are very popular among children, especially this Holy Temple set, which represents the most important symbol in Jewish history with roots dating back nearly 3,000 years.
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So, we pray before we go to bed. This theme is going to bed and waking up in the morning. So, this is a mini set.
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This is called Shabas Tat to educate the children as to what it's like to be an adult. He gets to pretend that he's the father of the house and he wears the hat that only a father would wear and he
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makes the blessing on the wine that only a father would do. All the kid toys have appropriate clothing.
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Yeah. Yeah. Once you go out in the secular world, you get toys for the kids like dolls that affect them at a young age. So I cannot let my kids play with them.
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I remember I was maybe 10 and I was playing with a first cousin, a boy. I had a girl cousin that was like two years older than me and she was like, "Even cousins, never mind friends.
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You're like you're not allowed to talk to each other." Twin set. Is this because most people have twins here?
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People tend to have a lot of twins. Yes. Among the toys on sale are sets featuring bride and groom figures. Here, most of the toys we see reflect the same way of living. And we couldn't find any figures representing other roles like
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scientists, artists, or athletes. Do people date each other before marrying? So, you usually have like matchmaker that would set you up. Um, they would be like, "Oh, I think you and him might really like each other." There are some people that that can date
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really quick because there's no touching each other. They meet in a house of the parents.
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In the Bible, it says that Rebecca married Isaac and then afterwards they loved each other. So, we were told love comes after marriage. If my parents decided that this was the person I was going to get married to, I was going to
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marry them. If a bachelor person wants to stay bachelor, what would they think of him or her?
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It's like not even considered a possibility. According to Beatatric, religious beliefs here can influence many parts of daily life, including the relationship between husband and wife.
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There's a lot of rules like about when you're intimate. The light's supposed to be off. But then there's also like the separation time, right? After you get your period, you're considered impure.
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You have to wait two weeks. You have to have it sleep on different beds. So, you have two beds. You're not allowed to touch. Like, you're not allowed to hand something over to your husband, right?
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So, you take the baby, you put the baby in the infancy, then the husband picks up the baby from the infancy. So, for the health of the month, for Yeah. Yeah. It's very intense, you know. I kept all the rules. Women who
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were pregnant weren't supposed to go to zoos cuz they weren't supposed to look at animals cuz some of the animals weren't kosher animals and they could like make the baby be like impure. In this community, even the architecture
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follows religious law. Oh, it's also interesting. They all have porches straight to the sky.
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Why? For once a week, a whole year, we have the holiday of Sukkot. We build these huts and the idea is to sleep under the sky.
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They sleep on open air balconies to understand how it felt like when their ancestors wandered the desert after leaving Egypt.
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Look, every building has so many fences on the uh windows. There's a commandment in the Torah to build a protective guard rail around a home to prevent danger.
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And these religious laws extend into the home as well. Before leaving the neighborhood streets to attend that massive gathering at the synagogue, we came to Rabbi Schlommo's house to get a closer look at the private lives in acidic households. Look around. Tell me
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if you see anything that looks a little peculiar. There are two of everything almost.
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Exactly. Two stoves, two microwaves. It wasn't that it was buy one get one free.
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This side of the kitchen is dairy. So, anything that my wife wants to cook, dairy will go into this oven. Only dairy goes into that microwave or that dishwasher. We have two dishwashers as well. Now, in the evening when she's
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making meat, this is the stove that's used. We got to keep meat and milk separate. So, if I just had a steak, I can't have coffee with milk. There is all for non-dairy products. Even the plates are separate.
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Oh, yeah. In the cutlery, this is only for meat. If this touches to say cheese, you won't use this for meat.
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It depends. It's a good question. If you ate some cottage cheese with this and it was cold, then you can just wash it and put it back. But if it was hot, then you got a problem. Then you can't use it.
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For some Orthodox families, a newly purchased kitchen utensil is not considered fit for use until it has been dipped in a pool of rainwater three times. This is done for every kitchen item.
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Are there any times that you take off your keeper? No, cuz this keeps you conscious that you're not the only person that exists. There's someone above you that put you here for a purpose. Think about that. Be conscious
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of that. When you take a shower, when you're sleeping on No, but even when you go to sleep, you go to sleep with it on, it falls off.
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Yeah, it does. But you don't take it off because Judaism and serving God is at every moment whether you're going to the gym, going to the doctor.
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Can you talk about Shabbat? Just a day of rest. All week you can work and work and make your money. Shabbas comes, everything is done. God created the world in 6 days and he rested on the seventh. And then God told the Jewish
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people that we should do the same thing. So that's the focus of Shabbat. On Saturday, we don't open or close electricity before we light the candles, which ushers in Shabbat. We turn on whatever we want on for the weekend. I
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want this light on, I want this light off, etc. And some people have timers.
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They go on, they go off on their own. So the lights, if the lights are on, you leave it on. If it's off, you leave it off. You don't change the status of anything. But then somebody came up
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with, do you want to read in bed and you have no light? You can't open the light and you can't close it. What do you do?
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So a Jewish cup came up with this. So this is called a Shabas light. So you get into bed, you read your uh whatever you're reading, your magazine, and now you want to close the light. But it's Shabbat. You can't.
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But the light is on, right? The light is on. I didn't turn it off. I just blocked the light. You can block the light. You are allowed to do this, but you're not allowed to turn it off. You open your freezer and
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the light goes on. Oh, that's a problem. What do we do? Jewish cup and then do this.
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So, whenever you open your freezer, there ain't going to be no more light. You won't turn on any lights.
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Since cooking is not allowed once Shabbat begins, meals are prepared in advance and later warmed through a special oven setting.
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So, this oven turns into a warm if you hold down the right buttons. Special features.
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See what that says? Sabbath. You're doing it before Sabbath. You set it for exactly what temperature you want it to be at, how long you want it to be on for.
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What else you can't do in Sabbath? Carrying from a private domain to a public domain.
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Work is prohibited on Shabbat as the day is meant to avoid reshaping the physical world and instead focus on rest and spirituality. For observant Jews, daily life pauses and in rare cases, certain restrictions might complicate emergency situations.
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When I had my first baby, like he went to the synagogue and I was like, she was a premature baby and then I remember going to the doctor and the doctor was yelling at me why it took me a few hours
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to come in. I'd been like laying in bed and I should have been in the hospital, but instead he went to the synagogue and he didn't want to call the ambulance because it was like shabas, which is 100% wrong. And I was too scared to call
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because, you know, it can't desecrate. But meanwhile, I could have like my baby could have died. The rules of Shabbat are taken so seriously that observant Jewish people avoid using electronics, cooking, working, driving, or carrying money and keys. To make daily life
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possible within these rules, some communities in New York have created an arov marked by wire stretched between utility poles. The thin wire you see about me is called arrow and it's vitally important. If this wire snapped right now, older people wouldn't be able
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to use their walkers and sick people wouldn't be able to use their medicines. So, look, there's the sign over there.
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Yeah, it says Arab. Yes. An Arab is a religious boundary that allows people who observe Shabbat to carry certain items in public areas. In New York, one Arab stretches roughly 20 m around Manhattan, while another extends about 55 mi across large parts
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of Brooklyn marked by wires attached to utility poles. These boundaries require regular inspection. The Manhattan Arab alone is reported to cost around $200,000 a year to maintain. Just before entering the synagogue, Rabbi Katz began giving blessings out on the street.
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Now, it's time for the moment we've all been waiting for. Let's attend the main gathering at their lodge.
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Are you guys Jewish? No. There we go. Oh, the muzza. This is the little piece of parchment which has those portions of the Bible. And every time we walk by, some people touch it and kiss it. It's offering protection on
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the house and the synagogue. And here we go. When I entered the sanctuary, men of all ages were already deep in prayer.
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They're very united as if everyone we came across shared the same purpose. Before prayer, they put on religious items on different parts of their bodies.
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I'm doing a mitzvah right now. This is called to fill in. To bind the words of God, you put one box on your arm towards your heart. And this expresses the love that a Jew has towards God. You put one
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on your head. This expresses the intellect. A Jew, you have to think about God. In the Bible, it says the box has to be between your eyes. So, you have a mirror.
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And then you make sure I got the prayer belt. And they're singing in anticipation of getting ready for the prayers.
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is fully covered. They keep reminding themselves of the rules by singing, reading Torah. As you can see, the lead rabbi is right there and the crowd watches him closely, taking their cues from him.
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Sometimes we feel like people are keeping an eye on us from a distance. They never stop praying. They've been constantly praying since 10:00.
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It may be favorable in your eyes to bless your people Israel at all times.
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Many of the people here don't just read the Torah. They read it. They live it and see it as the absolute truth.
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They started singing all together. Along with praying for the well-being of the state of Israel, the people here pray and sing for their holy temple to be rebuilt. But the site where they believe it should stand is already home to
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Alaka, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Rebuilding it on this exact site would mean the two religious sites could not exist there at the same time. And this site is in East Jerusalem, which the United Nations considers part of the
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Palestinian territory. They sway while praying as an expression of focus, devotion, and spiritual intensity.
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Allow to film. Yeah. One for you, one for a friend. This website, very important website. Please go to that website. A lot of the information how to make the world a better place. Hidic communities also accept converts and some of the people
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we met openly encouraged us to learn more about Judaism. We were created by God for one purpose.
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I can feel a certain caution in the air for this hidic community. This place is almost like the Vatican of New York City in a city that never sleeps. Prayer here seems to continue almost around the clock.
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He's putting on fill in the black boxes for the first time. Now he's a grownup, right?
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He's a grownup. Now we have a boy here. He's turning 30 is taking responsibly.
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The boys go from wearing, you know, color shirts and slacks to the full suit, the full black hat. They become a man. Only white shirts always. And then by the time they turn 13 for high school, there's no academic studies at
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all. Inside this synagogue, behind the wooden panels you see along the walls, a passage was discovered in 2024. It was nearly 65 ft long and contained mattresses, clothes, boxes, and other personal items. When authorities came to inspect the area, some people refused to
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leave. What is really under the synagogue? The tunnels. So, actually, there weren't tunnels at all. It wasn't a tunnel. was breaking open a wall to make a door from one building to the next building. They didn't get permission and they did it on
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their own. So, they were uh disciplined. Rabbi Freriedman described it as a simple wall opening, but given the extent of the digging, authorities considered the situation serious enough to take legal action.
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Do you ever feel regret of leaving? No. Beatatrice once occupied a prominent position in the community as the wife of a rabbi, but she later left it. She explained her own experience after leaving and how personal the conflict
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became. My family tried to take away all the children from me. I experienced such betrayal.
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We turned everything Beatress told us from her own point of view into a separate video.
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I lived in Israel for 6 months. This special video goes much deeper than the moment you saw in this documentary and it contains everything you need to know about the Hidic community. The video then moves on to other questions.
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How does the hierarchy work? I also want to understand how this community sustains itself financially.
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That is a good question. However, we've released this video exclusively for our channel members and only those who become members will be able to watch it. YouTube's join feature is a membership system that allows viewers to support our channel with a
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small monthly contribution equivalent to the price of a cup of coffee. Your support is extremely important in helping us continue producing these highbudget videos. As soon as you join the channel, you will also be able to watch the special video containing
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Beatric's full interview. To watch this video and support our channel, click the link I'm pointing to and become a member. The membership renews automatically every month and can be cancelled at any time. See you in the special
Topics:Hasidic JewsJewish communityNew Yorkreligious traditionsmodestyJewish educationclosed communityJewish mysticismMessiahBeatrice Weber
