emunah, tefillah, a little mussar, and a shmeck of geula

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Sinas Chinam 201



In EmunahSpeak: Sinas Chinam 101 Rabbi Mordechai Willig explained, in the name of the Netziv, that the sinas chinam that our rabbis have tagged as the prime reason for the destruction of the Bayis Sheni was not limited to those who (were imagined to have)"wronged" a person. Rather, it extended to those who served Hashem differently. If one would see a halachic leniency, he would brand it heresy, and distance himself from that person. He would then mistakenly justify attacking that person, even to the point of murder.

Rabbi Willig went on to bring it a little closer to home by adding that The Netziv lamented that such internal hatred within the observant community existed in his time (the late nineteenth century) as well. Hating someone who "wronged" us is necessarily limited. With how many people can we fight over money or honor? But if we hate those who differ with us on matters of halacha or hashkafa, the sinas chinam is unlimited. Unfortunately, Orthodox individuals and communities with different halachic practices and/or ideologies are still guilty of this type of sinas chinam, which is preventing the ge'ula.

That was the good news.

The bad news is that Netziv lived over a hundred years ago and we have been in a free fall ever since.

If recent events in Eretz Yisroel are any indication we may have reached bottom, which in turn brings a ray of light in its train because it is difficult to fathom how it could get much worse.

This is how Jonathan Rosenblum described the action in a recent column:

I watched footage of police rescuing a chareidi man who made the mistake of wandering in his IDF uniform into Meah Shearim on the way to visit relatives. He had to barricade himself in a building after being surrounded by an angry mob, and required a phalanx of policemen to get him out.

The phenomenon of chareidi soldiers in uniform, or even out of uniform, being verbally accosted and made to feel otherwise unwanted has spread far beyond Meah Shearim. Wallposters against "chardakim" (chareidim da'at kal) can be seen in chareidi neighborhoods around the country, with religious soldiers in uniform portrayed as missionaries. These attacks by chareidim on one another recall nothing so much as the bitter internecine fighting in Jerusalem that preceded the destruction of the Second Temple.

And in case you’re wondering, you read it right the first time.  Jonathan Rosenblum is not given to hyperbole.

This term, chardakim, is a cute little addition to the balkanization of what used to be known as Am Echad.  We now have Dati Leumi, Chareidim, Chardal, Chardakim, and Chilonim amongst other designations. 

In light of both the Netziv’s lament and Jonathan Rosenblum’s recent observations we need to add at least one more category, and to fill that slot I would like to put forth Chareilonim .

For generations we have made Shabbos observance the threshold by which we bestow the designation of Orthodox upon a Jew.

That’s not good enough anymore. 

Too many people for all too many years have been slouching under the radar with that seal of approval.  Shabbos was meant to be a minimum threshold, but all too often as of late it is representative of a maxed out Yiddishkeit head to toe in black and white.

The litmus test for religiosity should be defined in terms of how one conducts oneself in relation to the halacha as opposed to how one dresses, and the halacha takes in a lot more territory than Shemiras Shabbos.

Query:  What business do we have with Jews who have shamelessly dislodged the laws of Loshon Hora and Richilus from their moorings in the Torah as if they didn’t exist and who treat chilul Hashem as if it were a mitzvah assay (positive commandment)?  And what business do we have with those who conduct themselves as mafia thugs by raising a hand to a fellow Jew?

Enough already.  This is not what we’re supposed to be about.

So who are the Chareilonim anyway?

Just like the Chareidim that they appear to be, the Chareilonim  tend to be strict in their Torah observance, but all too often the Torah that these Chareilonim observe is not Moshe’s, but their own.

It’s time to cut ‘em loose.

We have to walk away from this halachic and hashkafic car wreck and close the door behind us.

In EmunahSpeak: Ahavas Chinam 101 we said that: 


it’s not enough simply not to hate those amongst us who vilify the State of Israel or who believe that the establishment of Medinat-Yisrael is the atchalta-degeula.  


We also have to love them.  


And who said it was going to be easy.