I am very worried.
As people are aware, there is a real problem going on in Yerushalayim right now, in the Hareidi sector. For anyone who has been studying Torah in a cave, minding his own business, a short recap:
- Mayor Nir Barkat announced a few weeks ago that a parking lot was going to be opened on Shabbat.
- Hareidim rioted.
- Mayor Barkat canceled the opening. A week later, he announced that a parking lot in an area somewhat farther from the Hareidi community was going to be opened on Shabbat.
- Hareidim rioted.
- A pregnant Hareidi mother was arrested while leaving a meeting with a social worker, and placed in a cell for three days without bail. One of her children who was extremely ill, allegedly at her hands, was taken from the family, put into the hospital, and is improving in health. It was suspected that she had Münchausen syndrome by proxy.
- Hareidim rioted.
I am worried because otherwise level-headed friends of mine are doing something they NEVER do when it has to do with our camp: they are believing what they read and hear in the MSM.
I have a lot of questions about the stories I have heard about these incidents; but first let me state a few impressions clearly.
Rioting is bad. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't persuade. I don't think it changes anyone's mind when the Hareidim do it over events like these, when secular college students do it over increased tuition, when the kipah seruga crowd does it over a razed home in the middle of the night, or when the Arabs do it over their latest bout of hurt feelings about anything. Rioting doesn't win hearts and minds. It improves nothing.
It is not possible to force people to keep Shabbat. Since my earliest awareness of Torah Judaism, it has been clear to me that the maxim about catching flies with honey rather than with vinegar is true. I have known many people to become Torah observant due to a well-prepared Shabbat meal or a kindness extended by a child from a Torah-observant home. I have never heard of a single case of a person being screamed at about his hedonistic lifestyle saying: "Gee! Glad you pointed that out! Hurry -- get me some tefillin!"
The Jewish people as a whole does not need to feed the wolves of the world press any more choice meat. When we publicly battle each other, Esav gives us much more world attention than we need. We give ourselves great big black eyes when we publicly flip out, instead of dealing in reasoned discourse. This close to the coming of Moshiach, the Satan surely must love when we behave so incredibly divisively. I can see the headline in the Gehinnom Daily Trumpet: "Sinat Chinam increases during the Three Weeks! Jews 0, Hell 49!"
So here are a few of my questions, before I assume that the entire Hareidi world has gone bonkers.
- Was there any negotiation with the Hareidi leadership prior to the parking lot announcement?
- Why was a pregnant mother who was assumed to be sick not gently taken to a mental hospital for observation?
- Was the rav of the alleged child abuser/ill woman approached prior to her arrest by the police?
- How many people, of which sects, are involved in the riots?
- What is the response of parents, educators, and rabbis in the various Hareidi communities to their own young people?
- Why can't my friends and loved ones in the Dati community read Hamodia, Yated Ne'eman, Mishpacha magazine, before they assume that no one in the Hareidi camp is protesting the riots, rather than assuming that the Hareidi world is "ish echad b'lev echad" -- one man with one heart? Do they have to post signs for us to read, and print articles in our papers, before we will give them the same careful analysis we expect the world to give us? We, who are the constant victims of the viciously-spewed expressions "settlers" and "obstacles to peace" in the MSM?
- When will we Jews stop feeding the Satan such lavish meals, made entirely of each other?
--Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu Rabba, 26:6
Anyone interested in hearing another side, please start here: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot -- Again, by Jonathan Rosenblum.
Hat tip to my friend, Sarah Lipman, a techie-dynamo and brilliant eim ha-banim smeicha, buried deep in the Hareidi world.
12 comments:
Thank you thank you THANK YOU Ruti for asking so many of the questions that are bothering me as well as some others.
Rules of thumb:
Do not believe ANYTHING you read in ANY paper (even Hamodia, Yeted or Mishpacha, or Makor Rishon or ANY paper).
Do not discuss how you would do it differently. You are not in control on any level.
Expend your energy in loving one another, seeing the good, and weighing your words. Remember, we see the world through a keyhole.
If you read this past Shabbat's English Hamodia, you will get a totally different story about this mother and her child and all the rioting. The secular media loves to inflame any story that vilifies the Haredi world. I know many Haredim and they are good descent people who give of themselves every day. We mustn't let a few 'bad apples' destroy an entire population.
Miriam, I don't disagree with you. But I pass through the Bar Ilan intersection every day. Last week, I had to literally take my life in my hands to cross streets there because the traffic lights were vandalized and the traffic police were doing their job: focusing on the cars and not the pedestrians. That intersection has had numerous deaths of pedestrians in the past and I was just plain scared last week.
This was not "a few bad apples." This was not tens, but a couple hundred rioters. Yes, the rabbonim came out against the violence. But this is exactly my point. If HaModia is saying "a few bad apples" they are just as guilty of misrepresentation of the situation as Ha'aretz or any other paper.
I personally know of numerous times HaModia and Yeted have published "facts" that were mistakes. I don't trust newspapers, and I don't think anyone should quote them as holy writ or absolute authorities. EVERY newspaper has an agenda to push. There is NO objective reporting these days. Even if they are trying to be objective, they are going to make mistakes. The reports have personal opinions and that WILL affect how they report a situation.
That's why I'm begging klal yisrael. Just go to each Jew you know, and love that person. Forget about the media. We have one Torah and one Land and we are one People. We don't need a dozen newspapers.
MAN! Will I be glad when the Samech Mem lets up. I'm tired.
Thank you, but why is your friend "buried"?
Thanks for the reminder. There are hotheads on all sides. We must not let them pull us down to their level. G-d said it clearly, we must love the fellow Jew. We are fighting ourselves. As we fight, our enemies get bolder and fire up the furnace for Satan. Jerusalem is burning. We can not build the Temple while we destroy each other.
May we make peace between all Jews and see the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem soon. Princess, great pictures and well done. Bear
"Rioting doesn't win hearts and minds. It improves nothing."
I don't think I can agree with that statement. I think that without a reasonable forum where ideas and opinions are discussed and reasonable compromises can be reached, riots are unnecessary. And given your point #1 followed by point #3, point #2 (rioting #1) was certainly an effective means of conveying their message. In other words, rioting worked. As they say, crude but effective.
There was negotiation. Which turned out to be lip service. When a politician flexed his political muscle against an ethnic because he thinks he can, that's offensive and truly bigoted.
There are many problems with this whole issue on many political and religious levels, but I think that the more we support the notion that Yerushalayim is really our Ir HaKodesh, and the Jerusalem Municipality should not be trying to contrive ways for the city to condone a chillul Shabbat, the sooner the government will realize that they have a higher responsibility and Authority they have to answer to.
Oy..At the rate we are going in our Sinat Chinam we may never C"S see the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash (may it come speedily, in our days!) But Klal Yisrael MUST WAKE UP and realize that if we do not begin to love eachother we will destroy ourselves C"S.
Please Klal Yisrael, I am not saying that I am perfect, but if we do not admit that we have a problem we will never get on the path to fix. Please keep in mind, especially in these next few days, remember why we are in exile, and that ACHDUS (loving our fellow) is the only way to see the end of this Galus. I am tired, I want to go home, and I want home to be a place of Ahavas Hashem, Ahavas Torah, a bayis neeman and a day of Shabbos for all eternity, BIMAHEYRA BEYAMEINU!!! We are all brothers and sisters, lets show our Tati that we are listening to the messages He is sending us, that He is waiting for us to make Tshuva Shleima!!!
To all of my brothers and sisters, may Tati open up your hearts to not only love Him and His Torah, but that we all learn to love eachother, "Ish Echad, B'Lev Echad"!!
Rioting does NOT work. Three years ago, there was Haredi rioting over a guy who was accused of killing his son. "Blood libel" screamed the riotors. Today he sits in jail, despite all his supporters.
Two years ago it was a Gay pride parade. "Abomination" screamed the rioters. Now it is a yearly event.
Parking lots will be opened on Shabbat and child abusers will go to jail. The only thing riots do is display the intolerance and sheer primativeness of many so-called religious people.
As far as the parking lot situation the method of protest is
both stupid a slap in the face to
those normal haredium who live thier lives and let others live thiers. Jerusalem is a city dependent on tourism and a majority
of the tourist are not even Jewish.
Something had to be done to accomidate them. Rioting asnd rock
throwing is not the answer. In fact
it is a desecration of Shabbos.
The woman accused of abusing her
child was handled poorly by the
police. Her being pregnant should
have been taken into consideration
and she should have been put under
house arrest or taken to a mental
hospital not thrown in jail. But
again rioting is not the answer.I
am also concerned that young children are in the front of the
rioters from the pictures I have
seen. Destroyng traffic lights and
burning garbage also only turns
the public against them as who
is going to have pay for the damages they caused.
The situation hurts those who are
really against violence. But they refuse to speak up.
You are insightful, as always, Ruti.
For Rickismom... Am I "buried"?! "Embedded", perhaps? My "self" is not "buried" by haredi culture -- rather, my "haredi-ism" is an expression of my self and my relationship with Hashem.
If you follow the Twitter link to me that Ruti left at the end of her post, you might have some stereotypes shattered.
Sarah
Just two things;
1. When in doubt consult the Torah as there is where you find the truth.
2. to quote my first Rav from before i became religious, Rav Garcia who had over a million followers said, "All i want to know is are you kind".
As we approach the last of the 9 days that is the real question, Are you kind. When we realize that the letter Aleph is the first letter of our alphabet, as a letter with the gematria of one it teaches us one G-D. however when you spell it out, Aleph-Lamed-Pei = 111, this stands for one G-D, one Torah, and one Jewish people. once we remove the labels we are all Jews and that is what we need to remember. If we can't get along in the holy city of Jerusalem as one people what hope is there for us. when all Jews respect each other and then we respect G-D and his Torah then there will be hope.
That is my two NIS now i will go back to my cave to study.
flies with honey- good point.
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