New York Times journalist Joseph Berger writes in his book The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America:
Suddenly, in what looks like a whimsical scene out of a Truffaut movie, a Hasid wheels by on a beat-up bicycle, balancing his round black hat on his head. But he is not taking a leisurely ride or training for a triathlon. Instead he has the frenzied look of someone on an urgent errand.
Indeed, no one is strolling, dawdling, loitering. The walks are clipped, fevered; nothing is frivolous or indolent about anyone’s gait. Everyone is hurrying to do the work of the Creator… There is much to squeeze in. In addition to work or schooling, there needs to be a time and place for prayer, study and the fulfillment of the various rituals that define the week and the season.
