It Doesn't Have to Be This Way...

"Through Love, and Not Hatred, Do You Bring People to Torah"

At the Beit Shemesh Rally on December 27th, 2011

       Recently there have been some pretty intense dialogs in Israel regarding the recent encroachment of the extreme Haredi factions on the social rights of women. Women have been photoshopped out of community publications, women have been demanded to move to the back of the public bus,  little religious girls have been spat on and called "whores" on their way to school because they were, at the ages of 6-12, apparently viewed as sexual objects by grown men and therefore chastised for their less than "modest" dress code.

     While it is true that perpetrators came from a fringe group of only 150 families in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, the ramifications that their actions have are far reaching and spiritually damaging for each and every Jew.  When events like this happen, they creat a rift in the trust that people have in one another. When a non-observant person sees that people who are  supposed to be emissaries of their religion act in such a shameful way, a part of them breaks off from the rest of their people. In this case, the "secular" Jewish Israelis are furthermore justified in their break from Judaism, and most of all, Torah values.

      Every year, hundreds if not thousands of young Israelis flock to India in search of a spiritual experience; looking for guidance, wisdom, inner peace, and serenity. Many find themselves through taking up residence in ashrams, through psychedelic drug use, or through turning to other religions such as Buddhism, Hari Krishna, and even Christianity. For a reason, these young Israelis feel that what they search for cannot be answered by Judaism. I don't blame them. If someone who was supposed to be the epitome of Torah and Jewish Observance instead showed hatred for me or a group I identified with, how could I be expected to want to come closer?

      To the extremists, to the religious fanatics, to those who envoke the name of Torah when in reality they distort its teachings, or the men who impose religious coercion upon the less observant around them, I remind you: Through love, and not hate, do you bring people closer to the Torah.