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| Jerusalem Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar (All Israel News) |
I am not even talking about how Limudei Chol is increasingly being dismissed as irrelevant, wasteful or even harmful. Although that is unfortunately true about their attitude, I am talking about something else. Which is the tendency among many Charedi Mechanchim (teachers of Torah) to unapologetically disparage all non Jews - referring to them in unflattering tones as ‘The Goyim’.
I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating in this context. I will never forget my shock listening to a recorded shiur (religious lecture) by a Charedi Mechanech given to his high school students disparaging non Jews as the epitome of evil and debauchery. That have the values of an alley cat. And that therefore we must distance ourselves from them as much as possible. While he cautioned that we must not be public about our very appropriate disgust of Goyim, it is nevertheless the absolute Emes L’Amito - the depth of the truth in Torah! This was from a Mechanech in at a mainstream Yeshiva high school in America.
I was absolutely outraged and disgusted after listening to that.
I understood his motive. Which was surely to influence his students not to associate with non Jews for fear of their very negative influences expressed in his tirade. Which he no doubt believed was Mussar - a lesson in Torah ethics.
(That was not the only instance of disparaging non Jews I encountered. I heard a recording of a minor Chasidc Rebbe in Brooklyn spouting the same message. Although cautioning fellow Jews to be cordial to them he said the following: ‘In your heart, you must HATE them!’)
I need not explain how false their tirade against ‘the Goyim’ are.
Sure - there are a lot of non Jews that are like that. But there are plenty of Jews that are like that too. Some of them even religious. At least outwardly.
These tirades against ‘Goyim’ as a group are immoral, and wrong. I am convinced that - as a percentage one can find as many acts of Chesed among non Jews as one can among religious Jews. I know MANY instances where non Jews went way out of their way to help others including those of us that are obviously religious Jews. I do not for a moment believe that these are exceptions any more than when a religious Jews behaves in this way.
In fact when I hear a story about how a religious Jew did something extraordinary for a fellow Jew followed by a ‘Mi K’Amcha Yisroel’ - I tend to cringe a little bit because I know that there are plenty of non Jews that have done the same thing under similar circumstances.
The consequences of this constant haranguing against all ‘Goyim’ as immoral reprobates that ought to be avoided like the plague has some seriously negative consequences. Which was recently manifested by some Charedi students in Israel passing a group of nuns and spitting near them as they passed. It appears that this is not a isolated case. Apparently kind of disgusting behavior seems to be catching on:
Over the past several years, Christian clerics, primarily Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian priests and nuns, have complained of Jewish youth cursing them or spitting on them as they passed through city streets in Jerusalem.
While the incidents are not new, The Jerusalem Post had an article on the phenomenon in 2009, Christian clerics state they have seen an increase in incidents since the coalition government came to power.
There were also several incidents of vandalism against churches or religious property in the Old City earlier this year...
Tuesday morning, Jerusalem’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar released a statement condemning harassment of Christian clerics in Jerusalem.
Needles to say I am pleased to see him saying that. But this is kind of like closing the barn door after the horses are out. The damage and danger caused by the kind of poisonous tirade issued by that Mechanech is incalculable. Damage their spirituality, and toa danger to the entire Jewish people.
This is not Torah! It is one thing to explain what constitutes immorality and bad values. It is another to attribute them to an entire people just because they are not Jewish.
The question is, what can we do about this now? Was R’ Shlomo Amar’s condemnation enough?
Hardly. While it is a good start, there needs to be change. There needs to be an entire restructuring of what we teach our youth. Goyim must NEVER be treated as a monolith of evil. They need to be judged the same way we are. By the content of their character. Not by the sterotypical negative way that some of our Mechanchim about just about all of them. This only way to achive a positive end to this horrible situation is if the next Gadol HaDor mandates that change.
Will it happen? We shall see.