Q&A: An Article I Published About the Coronavirus Among the Haredim
An Article I Published About the Coronavirus Among the Haredim
Question
Have a good week,
I very much appreciate your response, and I would be glad to hear your thoughts.
I hope you understand that the conclusions from the article are more far-reaching than what I could write in the article. And one of them is the shattering of this whole idea of the “great ones” and their ability to see far ahead—even one meter.
https://iyun.org.il/sedersheni/dealing-with-the-corona-crisis/
Answer
Hello.
I read what you wrote. Fascinating and infuriating at the same time. You wrote well and described things without whitewashing or embellishment.
I have three comments on what you wrote:
1. The risk in improper behavior is also to the rest of the public, not only to those who themselves are not being careful, and not only to Haredim. So even if you personally think that Torah protects and saves, and that you yourself are not at risk, and perhaps you think your Torah study will also protect others, it is still not fair for you to make decisions for others who think differently. Don’t they have the right to determine their own means of self-protection? (Especially since, according to your view, the Torah does not protect or save them.) Who appointed you to make decisions for the public at large?
2. Every statement by a Haredi representative outwardly (whether in the media or toward secular people), even an ordinary citizen, is a lie. There is not one word of truth there. I long ago realized that what they used to tell as a joke about Nixon is the plain truth regarding Haredi apologetics: what is the sign that Nixon is lying? When he moves his lips.
3. I understand that you could not write this even if you agree with it (I don’t know what your position is on the matter). In my opinion, the root of it all is the very conception that everything is in the hands of Heaven and that Torah protects and saves. The problem begins with the theology. In my opinion, this is a mutually agreed-upon lie, repeated because nobody has the courage to admit (even to himself inwardly—what is in the heart does not reach the mouth) that at least nowadays it does not work. That is why all the distortions follow, because they are trying to defend a thesis that does not prove itself and never works. If people would honestly admit that it is simply not true, obedience to the instructions would be self-evident. In my opinion, this is the root of the evil. The invention of “effort,” as though everything is in the hands of Heaven but we are supposed to play these little games of making effort, is a bad joke.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand—the link leads to an article that Rabbi Michi has already brought up several times in his columns and referred to. Is there a mistake here?
No. It just came up now from an old email correspondence.
Rabbi Michi,
Regarding point 3: the theological view that “Torah protects and saves,” and the whole issue of providence in general, is shared by many religious people as well (see, for example, Rabbi Rott), and not only by Haredim, so why is it דווקא Haredi society that takes the theology to an extreme interpretation?
Does that mean the religious are less “religious,” or that the Haredim use theology only as an excuse for their general conduct and it is not really the root of the problem?