: What I Learned Today.
Here's an email I got Friday:
BS"D
Ultra-orthodoxy is broken. Really broken. And it cannot be repaired until the people at the top stop missing the forest for the trees and stop playing pretend with crime. The leaders pretend that frum crime is not a big deal because it is really anti-semitism in disguise. They pretend that frum crime is okay since Jews have been wronged for so many years. They pretend that frum crime is okay because it's just a few people here and there and crime levels are lower than in other groups. They pretend that frum crime is okay because it's hard having a business/paying tuition/being a man /keeping kosher. These leaders pretend that frum crime is okay because these assaults and crimes are being done in the name of a greater good, whether that is protecting people from the evils of autopsies or allowing the Rubashkins and Spinkas and Madoffs of this world to give more tzedakah.
And the followers of these leaders have not been taught to question and to think for themselves. So they defer to the wisdom of their "gedolim" and corruption prospers and more and more people become disenchanted with religion.
It's relatively easy to see how new religions or sects get started. It's not about believing that some dead messiah will arise and save us all. It's about people eventually getting fed up with the idiocy and leaving en masse. But they still need the comforts of religion, so they invent some new story. And eventually those people also start missing the forest for the trees. And they start worrying about separate bus lines instead of rabbis who trade conversions for sex. And they start worrying about autopsies instead of preventing and prosecuting murderers. And they start worrying about the hechsher on their meat instead of the honesty of their businesses. And so it goes.
P.S. As for those who compare poor Shalom Mordeche with the rebbeim who were jailed and with Mendel Baylis, there are two options. One is that maybe those rebbeim were also criminals and that history was sugar coated too. That's an option. Or the other option is that you are sullying their good names and trivializing their horrific experiences by comparing them to white collar criminals who happen to be Jewish and frum. Which is it?
Tags: chabad, criminals, hypocrisy, rabbis, rubashkin
Here's an email I got Friday:
BS"D
Last Monday night over 1300 women met in Boro Park for an unbelievable evening of chizuk. You can listen to all of the speakers on Kol HaLashon. Call (718) 906-6400 When you hear the prompts press 1 for English and then 8 for Guest Men speakers and then 7 for the Kinus Pidyon HaShivuim for Shalom Mordechai. If you have to hang up while you are listening, if you call back anytime on the same phone you can just press # and it will take you right back to where you were the last time. If you would like to make a donation over the phone you can call: (718) 735-0200. Tell them that you are making a donation for the Pidyon Shvuuim for Rabbi Rubashikn. Have a wonderful shabbos,
So I called. And I learned many things.
First of all, I learned that the terrible things that happened to Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin are not an attack on him, on an individual. No! Chas' Ve Shalom to think that! This is an attack on all shomer-mitzvos people, on shechita itself and on anyone who is not ashamed of looking like a frum yid. This is an attack against me and against you! This is a government gzeirah against shechita which signifies only the beginning of the evil anti-semitic decrees that are soon to come, because we all know that an attack on shechita is just the beginning. This is a blood libel- just like the Baylis trial was. And the jurors- yemach shemam.
I learned that giving money to the Rubashkins' Pidyon Shevuim cause should be my highest priority in tzedakah and that this helige yid is sitting in jail to protect Judaism itself, much like the Alter Rebbe did in Russia. And the pain of the Rubashkin family *is* the pain of all of klal yisroel ! Also the Rubashkins were feeding all of America, through ruchniyus and gashmius and be'ezras Hashem, this appeal will be successful and Reb Shalom Mordeche will be sitting soon at his seudas ho'dah! B'meheira, B'yomeinu, Amen!
Okay, I'll tell you the truth. I knew all these things already.
But having read this particular horrible news item, all this rhetoric really, really struck me the wrong way. Okay, this psychotic father is mentally unbalanced and he killed his child. Every community has its share of crazy people. But this part: "sadly, a few dozen members of the community arrived at the hospital and tried to assault police, perhaps fearing an autopsy,"-- that is not normal. They are afraid of dishonoring the dead, so they assault the living instead.
So I called. And I learned many things.
First of all, I learned that the terrible things that happened to Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin are not an attack on him, on an individual. No! Chas' Ve Shalom to think that! This is an attack on all shomer-mitzvos people, on shechita itself and on anyone who is not ashamed of looking like a frum yid. This is an attack against me and against you! This is a government gzeirah against shechita which signifies only the beginning of the evil anti-semitic decrees that are soon to come, because we all know that an attack on shechita is just the beginning. This is a blood libel- just like the Baylis trial was. And the jurors- yemach shemam.
I learned that giving money to the Rubashkins' Pidyon Shevuim cause should be my highest priority in tzedakah and that this helige yid is sitting in jail to protect Judaism itself, much like the Alter Rebbe did in Russia. And the pain of the Rubashkin family *is* the pain of all of klal yisroel ! Also the Rubashkins were feeding all of America, through ruchniyus and gashmius and be'ezras Hashem, this appeal will be successful and Reb Shalom Mordeche will be sitting soon at his seudas ho'dah! B'meheira, B'yomeinu, Amen!
Okay, I'll tell you the truth. I knew all these things already.
But having read this particular horrible news item, all this rhetoric really, really struck me the wrong way. Okay, this psychotic father is mentally unbalanced and he killed his child. Every community has its share of crazy people. But this part: "sadly, a few dozen members of the community arrived at the hospital and tried to assault police, perhaps fearing an autopsy,"-- that is not normal. They are afraid of dishonoring the dead, so they assault the living instead.
Ultra-orthodoxy is broken. Really broken. And it cannot be repaired until the people at the top stop missing the forest for the trees and stop playing pretend with crime. The leaders pretend that frum crime is not a big deal because it is really anti-semitism in disguise. They pretend that frum crime is okay since Jews have been wronged for so many years. They pretend that frum crime is okay because it's just a few people here and there and crime levels are lower than in other groups. They pretend that frum crime is okay because it's hard having a business/paying tuition/being a man /keeping kosher. These leaders pretend that frum crime is okay because these assaults and crimes are being done in the name of a greater good, whether that is protecting people from the evils of autopsies or allowing the Rubashkins and Spinkas and Madoffs of this world to give more tzedakah.
And the followers of these leaders have not been taught to question and to think for themselves. So they defer to the wisdom of their "gedolim" and corruption prospers and more and more people become disenchanted with religion.
It's relatively easy to see how new religions or sects get started. It's not about believing that some dead messiah will arise and save us all. It's about people eventually getting fed up with the idiocy and leaving en masse. But they still need the comforts of religion, so they invent some new story. And eventually those people also start missing the forest for the trees. And they start worrying about separate bus lines instead of rabbis who trade conversions for sex. And they start worrying about autopsies instead of preventing and prosecuting murderers. And they start worrying about the hechsher on their meat instead of the honesty of their businesses. And so it goes.
P.S. As for those who compare poor Shalom Mordeche with the rebbeim who were jailed and with Mendel Baylis, there are two options. One is that maybe those rebbeim were also criminals and that history was sugar coated too. That's an option. Or the other option is that you are sullying their good names and trivializing their horrific experiences by comparing them to white collar criminals who happen to be Jewish and frum. Which is it?
Tags: chabad, criminals, hypocrisy, rabbis, rubashkin