Franklin's Tower 🧢 📟

Did you ever notice how Orthodox Jews couldn’t care less what the world thinks of them? Not a little. Not secretly. They truly, completely, deeply don’t care. They’ll walk through an airport looking like they time-traveled out of 1850. Pray out loud in a hoodie or a hat while people whisper. The men grow beards, wear hats, let their tzitzit hang out. The women cover their hair with wigs, scarves, hats (depending on your heritage)—like queens from another world. And they’ll show up to your office two days late because it was a holiday no one’s ever heard of. And they won’t apologize. Because you can’t even imagine what their life is. You can’t imagine what it’s like to disappear from the world—fully—every single week. Shabbat comes in and they’re gone. Just gone. No phone, emails, group chats, news, and no chaos. You could be calling them a hundred times. The world could be in flames. They won’t pick up. And they wouldn’t even know. And honestly? They don’t even care. While the world is busy arguing over the next divisive topic, they’re sitting around the table with their eight kids. Singing 1,000-years-old songs. Wearing their nicest clothes for no one but each other. Eating and talking about the weekly Torah parsha or the current holiday, Walking to shul in the rain without an umbrella—because it’s muktzah (forbidden to carry or touch). It’s not just that they are screen-free or tech-free. They are world-free. And it doesn’t stop there. You can’t imagine what it’s like to live on a calendar that makes no sense to anyone else. To be out of office when no one else is. To fast for 25 hours on a random Tuesday in July or September. To miss concerts, meetings, deals—because it’s Pesach, Sukkot, Purim, or Tisha B’Av. To need kosher food and say no to 98% of restaurants—not because you’re picky, but because there’s a God, and He is watching. You might think they’re disconnected from the world. Maybe. But somehow, many of them still manage to own buildings, run multimillion-dollar companies, donate billions to charity, raise big families, live rich lives. They vanish for Shabbat, disappear for holidays, leave early Fridays—and yet they’re still there at the top. Still getting it done. How? Because when you live with clarity, you waste less time chasing noise. Because when your values are ancient, you’re not shaken by what’s trending—because your values were already tested, again and again, and they won. Because when you know who you are, you don’t need to keep proving it. They don’t care what people think— Not because they’re rude or arrogant. But because they already have something better than approval: conviction. Their compass doesn’t point to likes or clicks. It points to Sinai. And once you’ve stood at Sinai—even in memory—you just see the world differently. So yeah, they’re not ashamed. Not of their prayers. Not of their outfits. Not of the way they live. Not of the rules that guide them. They’re not trying to be different. They’re trying to stay loyal. To something eternal. In a world obsessed with changing, they’re holding on. And that kind of confidence—that kind of freedom— You can’t buy it. You can’t fake it. You can’t even imagine it. But they live it. Every day. Proudly. Openly. And they wouldn’t trade it for anything.