This happened at 2 kiddushim. This makes a crisis??
Judaism isn’t a way of life where things work in such linear fashion: break rule – you are bad – scream @ you not to break rule or keep rule – you are good.
So, letter writers, look at this in 360 degrees. First and foremost, who says we can extrapolate two kiddushim to all women in all circumstances? We can’t, so whoa, boy. Tone down the rhetoric – rabbanim “screaming”? “Many” of us are afflicted with this? No klal yisrael? “Drunken animals”? Please.
Second, you letter writers out there and all who agree and condone the rhetoric – let’s stop judging. You see some women dressed not quite as they should. They are “pruste chayos”? They are the reasons for there being “no klal yisrael in 20 years”? Their conduct is so hideous so as to “make us sick”?
Let me ask you – do you know these ladies? Are you sure that they have no redeeming qualities vis a vis yahadus at all so as to label them “pruste chayos” and demand a rabbinic “screaming”? Those are strong words – think before you use them. Do you know what supreme acts of tzedaka and chessed they may have done? Do you know how each of these “pruste chayos” treats her fellow Jew? Do you know the strength of their prayers, the struggles each deal with? I really don’t think so.
Let me tell you a story of a lady I know, one that should you see her, letter writers, you might deem to be a borderline “pruste chaya”. I know of a situation where a person with a family desperately needed a certain item, a very, very expensive item, without which wouldn’t have been life threatening but would’ve afflicted this person with terrible embarrassment and sent this family no end of shalom bayis problems for years. This person heard that this lady (who some would deem a pretty much “pruste chaya” should they just simply glance had such an item for sale and purchased) had such an item for sale, so they bought it. Came time to pay a week later. The lady told the fellow that B”H she didn’t REALLY need the money now; the person needed the item more, so why don’t they just pay a nominal sum, say the small cost of what she incurred advertising the item, and leave it at that? I don’t think she wrote this off to ma’aser either, folks.
Is she a “pruste chaya”, my friend? Is she so terrible and evil that the likes of her will cause klal yisroel to vanish? Do we need screaming sermons railing against the behavior of such women? I have the utmost respect for such a lady. Do you?
Think before you spew such invective. Learn that the R’ Shlomo Carlebach message of ahavas klal yisrael and being non-judgemental as the forefront of yahadus in galus aren’t just quaint and cute musings that dance at the fringe of yahadus, OK?
Knee jerk reactions, “kol koreh”s, sizing up a person in 2 seconds; these are all easy, all cop outs in and of themselves. Learning to love one another and to accept and judge are much harder, but oh, so worth the effort. Because THAT is what HKBH wants of His children.
Did HKBH give us the Torah and powers of tochahcha to be so self-righteous?