Reply To: Blaming the Same Gender Unions: A Personal Rant

A question was asked of me by “Naysberg” (probably Joseph) and I will respond. This will probably be my last response on this topic. I made my point, and I stand my this initial point (that we should look how to better ourselves when tragedy strikes vs. blaming others). The current nature of this conversation, whilst interesting, is far enough away from my initial point that I will choose to step away.

JayMatt: How do you feel about the aforementioned actions of Rav Miller, Rav Kaminetzky, Rav Cohen, et al?

1. Don’t ask me how I feel about the actions of gedolei yisroel.

I have no right to “feel” anything about their actions.

2. I’ll answer the following question “Having heard the actions of the above 3 gedolim, do you still stand by your position”.

Yes

There are a number of reasons why people protest:

A: Because they believe the protest will inspire change

B: They dont believe it will inspire change, but they feel they shouldn’t be silent on the matter, lest people believe they agree

C: They dont feel it will inspire change, but by protesting you are reminding yourself where you stand on the issue.(Mussar for one’s self)

Let me tell you something, the reason for the protest wasn’t “Option A”. Why were there only 40 people with him? Why not make an announcement in BMG and get everyone to go?

When there was a parade in Yerushalayim, there were many protests leading up to the parade. Friends of mine went to R’ Shturnbuch to ask about it. He replied “You’ll notice, I only signed the notice for 1 protest”. He was holding either options B or C. He told they guys to go to that one protest, and not leave yeshiva for any others.

I’ve been in Eretz Yisroel for about 13 years, I only remember once where R’ Eliyashiv zt”l said to go and protest, and that was in regards to the situation in Emanuel, where they were going to imprison the parents of school children when the school denied entry to some students. Never once did he say to protest anything “mishkav zochur” related

So if R’ Cohen and the other Rabbonim only got 40 people, and R’ Shternbuch said to only go to 1 protest, seems to me that the protests were supposed to accomplish something else.

Additionally, from what I can recall, there WERE Gedolim who said to vote for a “pro-toeva” candidate in an election not too long ago. Apparently, they decided a decision on whom to vote for was not as simple as “Just pick the Anti-Toeva one”

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=41515

And getting back to the initial point, why would we be punished to harshly with a hurricane for not doing enough? Seems like those who say to protest, do so in a very limited way.