Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor?
I have a neighbor who is born to fear heaven and walk uprightly.
But I saw two things about him that made me question whether he was a good neighbor that the Sages recommended sticking with, or the opposite…
- One of his rabbis in the yeshiva, whom he greatly respects, was convicted of indecent acts against boys in court. Again, after he had served his sentence, another indecent act became public… [but no official complaint was filed…] But the neighbor organizes with his wife, sons, and daughters and several other students, they, their wives, their sons, their daughters, and all they have, a pilgrimage to this rabbi to encourage him… and ignores the ruling and continues his depraved actions without a ruling…
2. He has no problem at all [and claims that this is what he is going to do, may God have mercy on him] voting for someone who has been bribed, cheated, and broken trust. Again, he ignores and makes excuses with all sorts of possibilities. An elephant would be more likely to pass through the eye of a needle than the probability of the excuses…
3. The wise and truly wise neighbor mentioned above, organizes a meeting of several students with their rabbi, their wives, their sons, their daughters, and everything they have… with their rabbi who has studied Torah for many years. What is the problem? Their rabbi was convicted in court of committing indecent acts… and a few years after he was convicted, there is again a clear case that has come to me like this again [but no complaint has been filed with the legal authorities…] The aforementioned ignores this. And he continues to go to his rabbi and all the others, and organizes with other students like him. As always, and is not afraid of desecrating the Shas…
It is difficult to teach a virtue that is free from the abundant intellectual limitations, since it is truly a matter of genius.
All in all, he is both a good neighbor [apart from the two aforementioned drawbacks] and a good friend.
Should we treat him as good and strengthen him as suggested by the sages, or rather, run from him because he is ready to corrupt the people and everything. The main thing is that his desires be fulfilled in the matter of honoring his rabbi, and voting for someone he assumes is against the left. And does he not care about the corruption?
I struggle with this every day.
What is the rabbi’s advice?
What would the rabbi do in such a case?
One may not agree with his opinions and actions, but there is certainly no obligation to distance oneself from him. Quite the contrary. There are many who believe and act like him, and basically it is usually a matter of their lack of trust in institutions and not of justifying the actions themselves. If he were to justify these actions, it would be problematic. But if he does not trust the court rulings, that is his opinion and his right, and perhaps also his duty, to act that way.
2. “Voting for a person convicted of bribery, fraud and breach of trust” I assume that the intention is to vote for the Shas party led by Deri. Since the totality of the positions and interests of that voter probably coincides with the actions of the Shas party, it seems almost irrelevant to me to examine the tsitzits of the party chairman Deri. Especially since he is overall a very successful politician who promotes the expressed will of his voters well. Especially if we are talking about Prime Minister Netanyahu and the specific tribes that will be in his future coalition.
One can propose all kinds of normative structures by virtue of which it is “prohibited” Even for the individual to vote for a politician with a transparent bribe hanging behind him from thirty years ago, even if today he promotes exactly what I want, but to think that this is some supreme and self-evident postulate to the point that anyone who does not accept it is subject to some level of criticism that is ”appropriate” not to connect with him is beyond delusional (unless it is all tactical considerations, and then that is a different matter). Would a noble creature like you be willing to associate with someone who honks on the road after only 5 seconds have passed since the traffic light turned green and the vehicle in front of him does not start?
All those who received money from the state in the context of Corona and unemployment, received bribes.
There is no other word to describe it.
In a normal state of affairs, without bribes, the system should have collapsed.
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