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| R’ Gershon Edelstein (VIN) |
One may ask, ‘How can I reconcile those two obviously contradictory statements?’ The answer is rather simple. The Charedi world is not monolithic. It consists of a wide variety of observant Jews. There are many factions within it.
This does not mean that some factions consist of purely fine people that are modest, unselfish, charitable and would all give you the shirt of their back if they thought you needed it. There are bad apples in every group. By the same token there are good people in groups that are the antithesis of most of those values.
But I have come to believe that some segments of the Charedi world are as a group the antithesis of what a observant Jew should be like. It is from those ranks that behavior which in my view so often ends up being a Chilul HaShem stems. And often hurts innocent people either physically, mentally, or both. It is therefore important to distinguish between groups and even individuals within groups. There are two recent examples of this. The first is from the Jewish Press:
A large police force operated on Saturday in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and surrounding localities to enforce the Purim night curfew and prevent mass gathering. In some places, stones were thrown at the police and officers were injured. Damage was done to police vehicles. Several suspects were arrested.
He second is from VIN:
A chareidi youth came to the house of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein Wednesday and attempted to physically assault him as he was returning from delivering his shiur in Ponovezh. He was stopped by household members who summoned the police after he attempted a second time to attack the rabbi outside his house…
Eyewitnesses said that the suspect came towards the Rosh Yeshiva in a threatening manner, shouting criticisms regarding the vaccination and the matter of drafting yeshiva students.
Unfortunately the mainstream Jewish media does not always make distinctions when they report stories like these. The average reader might then generalize to all Charedim. That is clearly wrong and ought to be rejected at every opportunity.
This doesn’t mean we can’t ever criticize Charedim. But it should be done with a loving hand, without vitriol. With a purpose of advocating positive change. They should never be vilified. There is far more that is good about the Charedi world than there is bad. Except for the communities that generate the above mentioned behavior that in each case was a Chilul HaShem.
It should be made absolutely clear at every opportunity that the Charedim in those segments of observant Judaism do not represent the broader mainstream Charedi world. It should also be made clear that the perpetrators of the above-mentioned outrageous behavior are not just a bunch of misguided youth acting on their own.
Now I’m sure the actual stone throwers in the first example and the anti-vaxxer fellow that attacked R’ Edelstein in the second example were acting alone without the approval of their rabbinic leadership (who may have even condemned it). But their behavior did not come out of nowhere. There is little doubt in my mind that their behavior was just a more extreme expression of the attitude of their respective communities. An attitude about the State of Israel, its leadership, and police that is about as negative as can be. They are seen as enemies of Judaism comparable to the worst of humanity. Calling a cop a Nazi is not all that uncommon in these circles.
So it should be no surprise that some of their youth does more than just yell at the police. The fault lies with all of their people who have been misguided by a leadership that preaches those values. They have been indoctrinated to reject all secular Israelis as the dregs of society whose values are the antithesis of Judaism and treated accordingly. And lately as was the case in the second story, they treat even other Charedi religious leaders the same way - accusing them of colluding with the ‘enemy’ Jewish state.
The Charedim I know see these people as abhorrent. Same as I do. The values taught in those segments have are not their values. Just because all Charedim have in common a high level of religious observance does not make them the same. They are as different from each other as fire is from water.
The Charedim I so often condemn here are the same Charedim the majority of mainstream Charedim condemn. It is important to make that distinction to anyone that might otherwise condemn the Charedi world as a whole. That is what is called painting with a broad brush. Declaring the innocent guilty is just as bad as declaring the guilty innocent. One can disagree - even strongly - with their Hashkafos. But at the same time we must recognize that what unites us if far greater than what separates us.