Extremism

I’m just gonna come out and say it – I don’t much care for, nor enjoy, the Mea Shearim neighborhood. It’s not so much the neighborhood itself, but rather the religious extremism, separatism, and intolerance that bothers me. (An interesting choice of words - in contrast to the”Friendly Confines”).

The issue of intolerance I’m referring to extends far beyond the communal demand for tzenua (modest dress) for women. From “Kosher L’Mehadrin” buses (as if the buses everybody else in Israel rides on are not “kosher” enough) to six year old boys assaulting fellow Jews simply b/c they snapped a picture of them playing during recess, I find an attitude and lifestyle that has brought divisiveness and scorn amongst brothers.

It seems that for many in the Ultra-Orthodox community, “learning” Torah has not imbued upon them the critical values and ethics contained in the age-old tenet “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Or perhaps, they’ve decided to apply these values only to those wearing the official “religious” garb consisting of black hat, long beard and payot, white shirt, and black pants.

In my humble opinion, this type of extremism will be more far reaching and more dangerous than the extremism exhibited by the politically right-wing settlers dedicated to holding the Land of Israel for all our brothers and sisters.

We all know stories of women being taunted and/or pelted with garbage, rocks, etc… by “religious” Jews b/c their sleeves weren’t the “correct” length, and that cars driving thru on Shabbat run the risk of leaving Mea Shearim with a broken windshield, but today I witnessed something beyond all that. A twenty-something American, sporting a rock and roll t-shirt and wearing a kippa sruga and tzitzit hanging down over his trousers, pulled out his camera for a picture of Haredi boys playing in a park. As soon as one of the boys spotted this guy peering thru his lens, he called to the other kids in Yiddish to charge this poor fellow. All of a sudden there were thirty or so little Jewish boys w/ kippot and payot screaming, picking up stones, dirt, and anything else they could get there grubby hands on, running towards this poor guy. Picture taking guy scurried away very quickly. As disturbing as all of this was, it was even more upsetting that no adult, parent, or teacher made any attempt to reprimand these kids. It was as if their behavior was completely normal for little Jewish children.

As we see with our Muslim enemies, here again is an entire generation of children being taught to distrust, dislike, and disavow other Jews. Is it any wonder that secular Jews feel such animosity towards the religious?

The saddest part of this story is that, like me, most of you will hardly be surprised to read any of this. That’s quite a statement on the society we’ve created amongst ourselves. What kind of chilul Hashem was this behavior? Should the foreign, Gentile tourists pouring into our country witness this kind of behavior amongst Jews? What kind of example are we setting?

And this leads to the ikkur (main point). If we have no qualms about showing the world we don’t care about each other, why should the world care about us? Should we really expect the world’s sympathy for the Jewish people when we can’t even get along with each another?

What happened to tikun olam? How are we going to perfect the world and bring the seventy nations together as one if we can’t even get along with each other? Have we not learned anything? Do the lessons of the Torah mean nothing? How can we study the words of the Torah and not apply them to our daily actions?

The Beit HaMikdash was destroyed not b/c Jews stopped performing the mitzvot, on the contrary, the generation of the Beit HaMikdash was filled with Talmidei Chachamim (learned in Torah) and baalei mitzvot (observers of mitzvot). Rather, the downfall of Hashem’s resting place was brought about b/c of a baseless hatred between “religious” Jew and fellow “religious” Jew. The problem then was the same as it is now. Each Jew felt the he was more “religious” than the next and he held others in contempt due to their difference in religious holdings.

And more than two thousand years later, most of us still don’t “get it”. How “religious” are we if we ignore G-d’s commandment to treat each other with respect and love. As long as we continue to ignore our relationships with our fellow man, our relationship with G-d will suffer.

Looking at this from the opposite perspective, what would happen if the world saw us actually embracing each other with love and respect regardless of how learned we may or may not be? A look at how animals interact with each other may give some insight into how a behavior shift among Yiddim may change the public attitude towards us and even towards themselves. Take tigers for example. Everybody loves them. We watch these shows on The Discovery Channel and see these gorgeous cats clean each other, protect each other, play together, and hunt and eat together. None of us can resist seeing a mother tiger care for her loved ones. Seeing the little pups playing together always pulls at our heart strings. And yet, in reality, these animals are vicious killing machines that prey on other animals and humans as well. They could kill any of us in a minute. Still, we love these creatures b/c the scenes we see on TV depict beautiful animals playing gently with each other and generally caring and helping one another.

On the other hand, most people feel much less concern for animals such as hyenas, jackals, spiders, and various reptiles b/c these animals tend to leave the family unit very early on and concern themselves only with their own personal well-being. Documentary films about these animals usually focus on their ruthlessness and skills as hunters and predators.

I’m sure you can see the lesson to be learned from this comparison. Human beings instinctively feel compassion for, and respond positively, to the family that shows care, concern, and love for one another. Unfortunately, human beings tend to instinctively think of themselves first and exhibit less concern and care for others. And we are no different in that regard from anyone else. It is overcoming this tendency towards selfishness that should be a Jew’s life-long goal so that we can come together to bring warmth, closeness, and happiness to the world. If we can accomplish this among our own people, in our own land, the rest of the world will notice. And that’s a good thing.

It’s obvious that there are many great things going on in the Jewish world today. One of them is the kiruv (outreach) work being extended from the religious community to the secular. I think it may be time to consider a new angle which would bring kiruv to those in the religious community who may have missed the message of such teachings in the Torah.

Peace

posted by Avi G @ 01:13