Need to counter anti-chareidi media with chareidi achdus

I live in RBS A and the past week all the papers are full of anti-chareidi incitement, highlighting Bet Shemesh. Today’s news items included a religious woman knesset member boarding a mehadrin bus in bet shemesh with a TV crew, to try and incite the men to do something to stir the already burning fire further.

As Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz stated in his response to all of this, 99% of the chareidi population are not kanoim and have no problem travelling on mixed busses. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with having separate busses for those who wish to sit separate.

In order to see the wood from the trees, we need to separate the two incidents that made headlines internationally.

1. A schoolgirl was spat on by a fanatic from RBS B. This is part of an ongoing battle by the fanatics against a girls school for dati leumi girls next to their neighborhood.

2. After some paparazzi got a photo of a sign in a totally religious neighborhood in Bet Shemesh, which had been there for 10 years and never bothered anyone, the police came to take it down and this caused a small commotion which may or may not have gotten out of control, but was caught on camera and was blown totally out of proportion by every news outlet including CNN.

As a result, the leftists have gone on a major anti-chareidi campaign that got so out control (death threats on Facebook) that the prime minister had to make a statement yesterday to the effect that the majority of chareidim are law-abiding citizens to prevent blood-shed.

Since this second incident, innocent chareidim have been harrassed and even beaten all over the country. Of course these incidents are not reported to the same media!

The damage has been done and the chareidi population has been portrayed in a total skewed fashion. This is not us! We are not fanatics. Most of us travel on mixed busses and are normal.

We are a special community who are holding on tight to our values in a world that has lost all sight of morality and normalcy whilst anyone trying to portray a modest look is scoffed at!

We remain an Am Kodosh while most of the world have fallen prey to the Sitra Achra.

We need to be extra careful to avoid chillul Hashem at all cost!

We need to be mekadesh Shem Shamayim wherever an opportunity arises.

Whether at work, in the supermarket, while driving, walking in the street etc.. we need to make sure that we are abiding to the Laws of the Country and behaving in a way that befits a Yid. We want people to point at us and say WOW! Look at what a Jew is supposed to look like.

We also need to take a serious look at all this internal fighting between different groups within the chareidi spectrum. Ashkenazi, sephardi, chassidish, litvish. Who cares!!!! WE are all yidden and we all stood at har sinai. No-one is telling you to marry someone who is from a different background, but the sinas chinom is horrific. Scenes of violence between chareidim is the worst kitrug on klal yisroel.

Let us use the incidents of the past week to unite in our fight to remain true Torah Yidden and live by all 5 volumes of shulchan oruch.

Let us be extra careful in not judging our fellow jews. Let us watch every word that comes out of our mouths and ensure that it is all positive speaking.

Let us stop looking at what “yenne” is doing/wearing/driving and try be happy with our lot because this is exactly what Hashem wants us to have.

There are so many areas that we need to improve on. Let us join together in a super Ahavas Yisroel campaign and see how we can love every Jew and bring them closer to their Heritage.

Let us eradicate all the sinas chinam among us and reverse this bitter Galus for once and for all with the coming of Moshiach.

He is so close and that is why there is so much kitrug to prevent his coming at all cost.

Let us wake up to this fact and reverse it!