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| The Toldos Aharon death trap in Meron (Times of Israel) |
Let me start with the good news. Mishpacha Magazine had a picture and brief bio of each of the 45 victims. And they had several more articles that delved a bit deeper into the lives of some of them. That was a much needed addition to all the rhetoric dealing with this tragedy. It personalized it - making it more that just a statistic. A sobering reminder that these are all people with families that are now suffering. Needlessly in my view. People whose future has been irreparably altered. I have to give Mishpachacredit for doing that.
The bad news is the preponderance of self flagellation that many of these religious personalities are telling us to do. Almost all of them are telling us to turn inward one way or another. That what happened is somehow our fault. Because as a people we are simply not religious enough. Whether it is Tznius issues, or not enough Torah study, or that there is just plain too much Sinas Chinan (baseless hatred) in the world. Or just the general idea of looking inward at ourselves individually, examining our weaknesses and correcting them. All being suggested as possible reasons. In some cases expressed with certainty. God must be sending us a message. That was the theme.
I have no doubt that these people may be right in some cases about our shortcomings. In fact I was particularly drawn to the idea of Sinas Chinam being the most widespread significant failing of our time. Something that factors mightily into my thoughts about the fleeting unity many of us saw happening almost immediately after the tragedy happened. Which, sadly, will not last in my view.
But in my view it is a mistake focus on any of those things as the cause of that disaster. If one reads some of those articles more carefully it would be hard to miss the elephant in the room. I think they know who is responsible. By misdirecting our focus they do us a disservice.
I understand that they do not want to assign blame to people they consider religious leaders or their acolytes. They surely feel that doing so would lack Kavod HaTorah. And that our opinions don’t matter anyway since we are not in any way involved with the investigation or the remedy. They tell us to focus on the spiritual message instead of playing the blame game.
I’m sorry, this isn’t a game. And focusing on our own failings is the wrong message. Only those completely blind to the realities of such vast overcrowding don’t know who is at fault. They know very well who is responsible. They are just not saying it. And thereby do us a disservice.
There are those that will say that now is not the time to assign blame. That the bereaved are still grieving. And that in any case the vast majority of us have absolutely nothing to do with Meron; or with the actual investigation of the cause; or what should be done to prevent it.
First of all I cannot imagine that the suffering now taking place by the bereaved does not contain at least a subconscious element of blame. How could it not?! If I were a parent who lost a child that way, I would be livid!
Sublimating our grief and anger into communal or individual introspection will not prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. What might help is international outrage at the people responsible. They must be made aware that they will not be given a pass for this.
To one extent or another, they have blood on their hands. They have to know that the people they usually give Mussar to know that. And that passing the buck here under the guise of blaming the tragedy on our own shortcomings - whether real or imagined - will not work this time. It is NOT about us. It is about the people that are directly and indirectly responsible. For a list of who that might be I urge everyone to read yet another excellent post by Rabbi Natan Slifkin.
I have just about had it with blaming ourselves for tragedies that clearly have nothing to do with us. The same kind of self examination has been promoted about the reasons for the pandemic. Where so many of us, including prominent religious figures, were dying or suffering from COVID. Some of our rabbinic leaders were telling us that God was sending us a message about that too. With some of the same issues being suggested about that as are being suggested now. And the pandemic isn’t even over yet!
To me the message of the pandemic was to be careful about our health and do what is necessary to prevent death, illness, and suffering. Religious leaders instead said God was sending us a different message. A spiritual one based on whatever their agenda might be.
As I keep saying. We all need to improve our lives. That is a given. None of us are pure. We all have things we know about ourselves that could use improvement. But to cast every tragedy in such terms does not serve us well. It ignores the obvious – or at least minimizes it.
Self examination should begin with the people responsible for allowing a tenfold overcrowding of an event with little if any real Halachic significance. They know who they are. And we all need to get angry about it. And stop blaming ourselves for a horrible tragedy that could have easily been prevented. And yes. I am angry!
Off my soapbox.