Joseph, I’ve been to the hafganos. The hooliganism is exaggerated, but it does exist. I’ve seen the burning dumpsters and other behavior. Yes they’re a minority, yes the policemen are overly violent, etc. but there is a reason my chareidi cousins and most normal chareidim avoid the hafganos. there are reasons why the Brisker Rav refused to attend any hafganah, and the one time he did it was when they hired people to keep the peace and prevent hooliganism. the people who attend these things instead of learning are not exactly the charash umasger of Yiddishkeit. There are reports on another Jewish website how these rallies caused a decrease in support of money-starved frum institutions by the non-Orthodox. In other words, these rallies are causing LESS Torah, not more Torah. it is what the chazon Ish spoke about above. Beware the yetzer hara when it wraps itself in righteousness. Seeing chillul Shabbos should nauseate us to the point where we feel a need to make a mecha’ah. But the actual mecha’ahs cannot be making Hashem happy. Learning Torah and doing mitzvos will do more to ease chillul Shabbos than hanging out at the mecha’ah.
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