Back So Soon?
I got some interesting feed back on the last post. Some of you were very happy with what I wrote and fully agree with the content. Some of you were very upset for several reason. How could I hate my fellow Jews? If I define who is a Jew doesn't that make me like them? How can you lump a whole society together?
OK, well first off I don't hate anyone ( maybe Nazi's). What I feel is a combination of disappointment and disgust. As has been pointed out by many people, this generation has more people studying Torah than perhaps any other in history.
I think this is a very good thing.
Yet many people believe that the study of Torah is the end-all. They become very smart in the nuance but not in the practice. Then some people take that even further and decide that they and everyone else should live within the strictest definitions of Halacha that they have chosen for themselves. They feel that by them doing so they are better and those who don't are worse and don't count as part of the Jewish nation.
This is disappointing and unacceptable. These people could be at the forefront of the country and instead are loathed by a majority of it. They could truly be a light unto nations, but instead they dim the light.
Some people did not like that I said Haredi society is off the derch.
When thinking about how one can define a Jew I am reminded of the Cutheam. They were a tribe that converted to Judaism ( because they were afraid of lions,which makes sense to me) It was said that they did some mitzvahs with such zeal that they did them better than the Jews. Yet we do not consider them Jews. There is much more than that to being a Jew. Sure, the external is part of it, a big part, but without the humility, the caring of your fellow Jew etc.. maybe you are just a learned Cuthi? According to Jewish tradition the Cutheans are those who call themselves the Samaritans. In Hebrew, שומרים those who guard the Torah.
Sound familiar?
So how can you lump a whole society together. Surely they are not monolithic, who is?
I know not everyone is the same, thinks the same, dresses the same ( skip that last one) etc.. but we are all given free will. It is actually at the crux of our existence ( Kabbalah class for another time) so if we choose to live a certain way, dress a certain way, follow a certain rabbi, it is because we chose to do so.
This leads to more questions.
Are people responsible for their choices? If we elevate someone to a position of power , does his actions reflect on us ( my american friends do not have to answer)?
Well today I saw this, which was taken at yesterday's anti government rally:

For those of you not understanding what you are seeing, It is a yeshiva student, protesting his need to register at the Israeli draft office, ( not to be drafted )wearing a yellow star with the word "JUDE" on it, to equate his treatment to the treatment my family got in Poland.
I have some more questions.
Why isn't everyone around him beating him up?
What demented teachers / family does he have that somehow in his deranged brain he was taught that this was OK?
Why is this not illegal in this country? I wonder what would happen to an Israeli Arab who did the same in protest.
Why is Haredi society allowing their children to be brought up thinking this is OK?
Maybe it is not all of them you say, perhaps. What I do know is this happens all the time. Policemen are called Nazi's and policewomen , whores.
Where is the leadership???
Where is the outrage in the Haredi public???
Who is responsible???
If your Rebbi is not condemning this, and you think this is wrong, why don't you say something???
As I said this is not an isolated incident, it is constant. There is never a condemnation.
Never.
So yes I put them all in one group. Do I know Haredi people I like? Sure I do . Some of them are the kindest, most giving people in the world but I no longer financially support any of them.
As a goof, next time one of the Haredim you give money to come collecting, ask him what he thinks of this picture. After he tells you how appalled he is , ask him what his Rebbi said about it.
I know I am too close to this. I grew up with stories of what real Nazi's were like. When I see a photo like this I lose my sympathy for these people completely
That does make me a bad Jew.
It is hard, but I am working on it.