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One of the creatures Hashem created in this wonderful world is the ostrich. The ostrich is often (mistakenly) said to bury its head in the sand when it is scared. The idea is that if you can’t see it, maybe it doesn’t really exist, and you won’t be affected.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that many people are the same way. They don’t want to know the truth about many things that go on. The saying goes, “Ignorance is bliss”. But is it really?
Let’s face facts. There are always going to be people who do things which are wrong. It doesn’t matter whether the population you look at is Jewish or not. Skin color, hair color, eye color – it doesn’t matter. Nobody is perfect, and there will always be those who do bad things. Why do we try to pretend otherwise? All it does is make us look bad.
For example, a number of years ago, a school was told that someone there was doing inappropriate things. Instead of dealing with it, the school said “lashon hara!” and ignored it. What happened? Others were hurt. Eventually the truth came out, and it was a huge chillul Hashem! Never mind the lawsuits which can cost the yeshiva millions of dollars!
Last year, a man was convicted of doing inappropriate things. His victims were other Jews! Yet there were rallies to proclaim he was framed, and drives to raise money for him. I understand, we need to feel for our fellow Jews. But what about the victims who are Jews as well? What about potential future victims, who are also Jews? Also, what about the press coverage, when Jews protest in the streets trying to protect someone like that? Again, a huge chillul Hashem!
We need to stop pretending that everything is great. Jews do things wrong and get into trouble just like non-Jews. Ignorance isn’t bliss. It often causes a huge chillul Hashem. It’s time to open our eyes and see what’s right in front of our faces.
DaMoshe
Once upon a time there was a clear distinction a yid was a yid a goy was a goy and that distinction kept people in line. There used to be a concept of realJewish pride and a recognition that ‘ i’m a yid I’m different I don’t do this stuff. America is a melting pot and we became very assimilated I mean even the frum Jews we are so goyish that our grandparents who lived in Europe before the war would not be able to tell us apart from goyim. I’m being harsh but to a certain extent that is true of many frum Jews today. So yes you are correct the modern day Jew is often no different and can be compared to the non Jewish population. Yes once there was a clear distinction and we knew a Jew would never do ABC today that is all out the window and we are only marginally better than them.
The original quote is “When ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise”. Obviously here the ignorance isn’t bliss, so it would be wise to wise up.
I disagree WIY i think these problems are not because we are too assimilated but because we are too cloistered, we live in a bubble in this bubble you can be a good husband and good father and beloved by the community for your acts of kindness but because we are so closed off inside this bubble we become oblivious to the feelings of those who are not in our community.
When people feel that only frum yidden are important they sometimes think they can skirt the laws of the land and treat those others like second class citizens and should their crimes become public knowledge they know they will be protected by the community who will scream anti-semitism!, there are anti-semites who will hate frum yidden no matter what, but there are also those who will become angered with us based on our actions and our attitude.
If there was a city in Wyoming that was predominantly made up of Norweigan-Americans and the Norweigans had all the power and used their power to favor themselves and treated the non Norweigans with disdain and disrespect and felt superior to them in every way I know if I lived there I would dislike Norweigans even thought most of the Norweigans are kindhearted people the actions of a few cast a pall over all of us, cause and effect, we don’t own this world and we are in golus we should show gratitude to the government and residents of this kind medina.
There is also a huge lack of leadership when there are known law breakers in our midst and they are given kovod solely for their money that is a huge problem we cant turn a blind eye to those who willingly and continually defy and break the laws of the land.
Ignorance is bliss, but it doesn’t last and it is followed by torment.
People in Brooklyn do not live in a bubble. Except for certain Chassidish groups like New Square…most religious Jew do not live in a bubble. I do think that the concept of am hanivchar has been so badly distorted to the point that today many people just feel that being Jewish means I can do what I want and I’m above the law.
“because we are so closed off inside this bubble we become oblivious to the feelings of those who are not in our community.”
I think there is a general lack of respect and middos even within our communities. It has nothing to do with bubbles.
The OP implied that the yeshiva screaming “Lashon Horoh” was ignorance. I challenge that. The yeshiva knew, and probably lots more about specifics and the subject in general. The accurate word here is “DENIAL”. There was a conscious choice to disbelieve the claims and to dismiss them because that produced the desired outcome or prevented other projected negatives. Well, it backfired, as denial usually does when it ultimately fails.
I think the post should redirect itself to the concept of Denial, not Ignorance.
By the way, don’t go perpetuating that myth about the ostrich. False accusations are bad even for animals.
Unfortuantly people sometimes will only see good and not see evil.
Many times someone will go to a Rav with an issue with someone and the Rav will say that averich is such a mench, there is no possible way he could have done such a terrible thing and not belive it and therefore nothing will be done
No, but I noticed that there was nothing about animal dignity.
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