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| Meir Gloiberman and Mordechai Binyamin Rubinstein: killed at Givat Zev (YWN) |
A shabbily constructed makeshift bleacher section filled with Stoliner Chasidim collapsed. Two people were killed and 184 people were injured. 2 souls lost in a tragedy that should have never happened!
Whenever tragedy strikes our people, the reaction of the Charedi world is predictable - seeing every tragedy as a message from God. We are given a variety of suggestions from assorted rabbinic leaders about what that specific message might be. At the very least we are told to look inward and see what our personal failings are and improve them. We have heard it all before. All the suggestions are about spiritual concerns.
That was the response to all the tragic COVID deaths suffered early on by Charedim which were proportionally much higher than the rest of the world.
That was again the response after the tragic deaths of 45 innocent religious Jews in Meron. The same predictable list of our spiritual shortcomings that need improvement. I haven’t heard the latest talk about which of our spiritual failings ‘caused’ the latest tragedy in Givat Zev. My guess is that it will be more of the same.
There were also those who said that ‘silence is golden’. Meaning that we shouldn’t be playing the blame game right now. Instead we should just be allow those who lost loved ones to grieve in peace. - adding that we don’t really know exactly what happened anyway and shouldn’t be speculating.
On the other hand there were some brave souls in the Charedi world that have actually suggested that ‘the enemy is us’. That it is the fault of the Charedi world that these these tragedies happened. Last week’s Mishpacha Magazine had a rare editorial by its publisher, Eli Paley, who dared to suggest that very thing. Albeit not without the standard apologetics that accompany any such communal introspection. Which mostly has to do with leaving the spiritual analyses to rabbinic leaders as the real cause for our misfortune.
But once that disclaimer was made, he zeroed in on who he thought was responsible for what happened in Meron. Which is the hodgepodge of small rabbinic groups who have been in charge of that event without the slightest understanding of what the dangers really were. Although Mr. (Rabbi?) Paley added the obligatory ‘Let’s blame the government, too’ rhetoric, I think his message was clear. The responsibility for that tragedy rested largely upon the Charedim in charge who routinely reject any government attempt to interfere at any level – even with respect to safety concerns. As a card carrying member of the Charedi world who publishes a weekly news magazine I’m sure he knows that.
Despite the apologetics, it took lot of courage to assign blame and suggest that the rabbinic authorities in charge of Meron are woefully ignorant about safety procedures. And to suggest that the government which has the infrastructure and knowledge about security measures in large crowds should have been in charge.
But if one wants to look at the spiritual side - then the obvious question is why? Why are so many of the recent tragedies affecting primarily the Charedi world?
If the message from God is the ‘usual suspects’ (like various versions of communal the lack of Tznius,, not learimg enough Torah, Lashon Hara, Sinas Chinam, or even each one of us looking inward for self improvement…) how many times must we be told the same thing before we ‘get it’?
Maybe the message is different than those being offered.
I know I have said that knowing what is on the mind of God is impossible in our day when God’s face is hidden. We have no direct communication with God nor do we have prophets that can tell us what He wants from us. We can only guess. That is all the rabbinic leaders are doing. They are guessing based on their own spiritual leanings about what they see are our communal spiritual failings. But in my view they may be missing the forest for the trees. If wee keep getting deadly messages even after all those suggestions have repeatedly been made maybe the real message hasn't been articulated yet.
Is it possible that what is missing is the opposite of what some of them are suggesting? Maybe ‘Frum shaming’ us is the wrong approach. Maybe, just maybe God is telling us that we have gone too far in the ‘Frumkeit’ department.
Is it possible to be too Frum? It think it depends on how you define ‘Frum’. In my view the way it is currently defined by the right, actually does harm to the fabric of religious communal life.
To take one obvious example of what I mean, it is in how the Charedi world has been dealing with issues of Tznius. There are many manifestations of that - but to choose one - it is the erasure women from the public square. Whether it is in refusing to publish pictures of women in any of the Charedi print media, or in the lengths some of the more extreme segments among them have gone to separate the genders. Not to mention the growing number of individual extremists within the larger extremist factions that attack women who they see as violating their community Tznius standards. Sometimes verbally. Sometimes physically. There have been many incidents like that. Which have been defended by their larger community.
Maybe God is telling us that we should stop the Frumkeit race and to go back to a time where we were more concerned about being Ehrlich rather than about being Frum. To be Ehrlich is to be sincere about our service to God. Not about outdoing some other group’s Frumkeit.
Like I keep saying. I am not God’s accountant. Nor do I dare speculate about what his message might be.
In my view the real blame lies with those who reject the outside world in its entirety. It is with their inherent attitude that ‘we know better then everyone else because we are more religious than they are’.
The truth is they do not know better. They know nothing when it comes to public safety and are arrogant enough to reject and disparage those that actually do know better. Whether it is about health or public safety.
But… OK! If they insist there is a greater more spiritual message that the Charedi world should be receiving, maybe they should have enough humility to know their own limitations. And to acknowledge the fallacy of the ‘Frumkeit chase’ and reverse that trend.
You never know. It hasn't been tried yet. That may be the best solution of all.