Do We Live up to our Billing as a Wise People?

New Rules in New Square (Dusizneis)

One thing none of us should ever do is laugh at the customs of others. And yet I find it almost too difficult to hold back if the new Takanos (rules) of New Square listed in the pictured poster are legitimate and not someone’s idea of a joke. 

I say ‘almost’ because the consequences of these rules are not funny. They are requirements of a Shaliach Tzibur (an individual leading a prayer service). Required even for those Halachicly required to lead - if they are capable of it – on the yearly anniversary of the death of a parent (Yahrzeit).  Here are those rules in translation  from Dusizneis: 

1. …you (may not) trim your beard.

2. You must dunk into the mikva that very day.

3. You must wear a "gartel' (special belt) but it cannot be from the same material of the clothes that you wear

4. You (may not) have any smartphone, computer, tablet that doesn't have a filter

5. …you (may not) use social media, such as whatsapp (without a filter), twitter, instagram etc 

I understand that each religious community is entitled to their own customs. We should respect that. But to deny permission to lead the service to someone required to do so - because (for example) he trims his beard or wears the wrong kind of Gartel seems to not just be absurd, but seems to contradict Halacha.

I have been very critical of this particular Chasidus before. For far more important reasons than this. So it does not surprise me that much. But it does add to my belief about how far removed  they are from normative Judaism. And because of how isolated they are from the rest of the world, I’m sure most of them don’t even realize it. Or don’t care. Or both.   

Rav Avrohom Pinter (Yahoo News)

New Square Chasidus is one type of Charedim. There other types of Charedim. Like Rav Avrohom Pinter of Stamford Hill - the Charedi section of London. Not that he didn’t have critics in his own community for some of the things he did in the past. But there is no doubt about his Charedi credentials. Nor any question in my mind about the heroics that took his life. From YahooNews: 

When the British government ordered a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, Pinter went door-to-door in northeast London to deliver the public health warning to the ultra-Orthodox Jews in his community. Within days, the 71-year-old rabbi had caught COVID-19 and died. 

I will not second guess his decision to do something he must have known was dangerous to his health. But I have nothing but admiration for his motives and determination to spare his community from this highly contagious; very deadly disease. I’m sure there are many things we disagreed upon. But when it comes to doing things for his community, I can’t hold a candle to him. 

Dayan R' Asher Weiss (Wikipedia)

There is yet another hero in the Charedi world that has the courage to tell it like it is. As I have mentioned in the past, Rav Asher Zelig Weiss is one of the most widely respected Poskim in Orthodoxy. Both the Charedi world and Modern Orhtodox world (Centrists)  have relied on his Halachic expertise. From the Jewish Press here (in translation) is part of a recently published  statement: 

“Shame covers our faces as there isn’t a day whose curse isn’t worse than the day before, and every single day the victims of this disease depart, including Rebbes, Roshei Yeshivas, great teachers of Torah, and rank and file Jews, and thousands are groaning in pain and suffering. And we cannot claim, ‘Our hands didn’t spill this blood.’ 

This is the right attitude. We must look inward and not blame everyone else for our troubles. It is apparently pretty clear to Rav Weiss (and to me) that there were people that died needlessly because too many of us were not as careful as we should have been.

Not that I should need to repeat myself so many times. But I have no choice because the laxity on the part of so many of us - regardless of Hashkafa - keeps increasing! The virus is still here. People are still getting sick and dying. We need to keep up and perhaps even increase our resolve to stay as safe as we possibly can under the circumstances we are given.

To keep hearing the denial about how serious this plague still is makes me wonder just how wise a nation the Jewish people really are!