Pashuteh Yid:
It seems to me that this is not really about tochahcha at all. #1 I doubt these people bashing you really care about you so much to want to help you improve (which I think is a prerequisite for giving tochacha –correct me if I’m wrong on this one guys) #2 If they really sincerely want to fulfill the mitzvah of Hocheach Tochiach, they probably would word themselves very differently.
Rather, I think this is more an issue of kanaus if anything. These people, who are so steeped in Yiras Shomayim and Limud Hatorah and Ahavas Hashem, just can’t bear to read words that display crooked ideas (in their view) against Hashem and His Torah, and therefor they feel a need to protest, lmaan hashem.
It reminds me of a story I once heard in the name of one of the Gedolim. He was asked why when a secular Jew drives his car on Shabbos do people scream “shabbos!” at him. What does it help? Will it stop him from doing it next time?
He replied that when a child falls and hurts himself, he cries. Why? Does it help? No, but “ven es tut vei, veint men!” When it hurts you cry.
That’s real kanaus. I don’t know if this is the real thing or not, but in one of your posts you advocated the Rabbonim making an asifa and banning all kanaus. The “kanaim” you describe (the acid throwers) are indeed a fringe element and what they do goes against the Torah l’chol hadayos. But think about it, will they stop doing these things if an asifa were held about it?? The asifa would simply be a waste of time because these thigs do not apply to normal people.
But then there are some special individuals who are real kanaim, who see a major chillul hashem, and get up there and protest it, sometimes at great risk to themselves. I heard recently in the name of R’ Ephrayim Wachsman that when the b’nos moav were infilterating klal isroel and causing the men to sin, and the whole story of Zimri’s brazen act transpired, no one knew what to do. All the yidden stood around crying, helpless. Only Pinchas got up there and knew what to do. He did the right thing (risking his life in the process) killed Zimri, and thereby stopped the plague.
Hashem later said that if not for Pinchas’s act of kanaus He would have detroyed all of Klal Yisroel.
(Pinchas took his spear -“Romach”- to do this deed [which we would say today was an act of VIOLENCE] , which brought about “Rachem”, [transpose the letters] mercy from Hashem, as this saved Klal Yisroel.)
Today , says R’ wachsman, we have a simlar situation of imorality going on, and we all stand around helpless, not knowing what to do, crying. But here and there we have a kanai like Pinchas who gets up there and knows what to do, and that is what will save us. Ban kanaus? I think not. But maybe we can learn what kanaus really means, being zealous for Hashem and the Torah, not for any personal reasons.