17 Responses

1. To the author,

   In your brief letter you wrote, “we are now a much bigger group than we were since before Churban Europe.” Excuse me? Need I remind you that six million Jews were killed in Europe, at least half of which were fully Torah-obserrvant? Contrary to what people in frum areas may believe, there are not nearly as many frum Yidden in the world today as there were before the Holocaust. I know that yeshivos spend little to know time teaching history, but you really need to get your facts straight. If you meant to say something else, then please edit your writing before submitting it to a widely-read blog.

2. Many Dr.s who works with Cancer would tell you that Cancer is very significantly high in the Jewish community [I’ve heard it from quite a few].

   It’s a message, but at the same time we have to realize that Eisov got this world, and Yaakov’s existance in this world is only for the next one…

3. Someone once asked this question to HaRav Avigdor Miller Z”L. He answered that there were always troubles in Klal Yisroel. The difference is that today we are B”H a tremendous “klal” and we’re growing larger and more together so it only seems like it’s worse than before.

4. “We are now a much bigger group than we were since before Churban Europe.”
   Really? We have 6 million new Jews to replace those lost? There has not been any assimilation either?

5. I have no idea whether there are more or less troubles and tzaros affecting Klal Yisroel – both the prat and the klal – than there were in the past. Different and new troubles? Sure. But, MORE troubles? Who knows?

   But, with the advent of Radio, TV, Internet, and other forms of (Mass) Media, the world itself is one, big, instantaneous multi-media community. For example: As little as 30 years ago, if someone died in Israel, R”L, who in the USA would know about it? Now, we find out about w/in a week, via fund rasising pamphlets for the family this person left behind, in papers, and email.

   So, it may not be that the quantity of tzaros has increased from the past. But, our ability to spread and obtain the news about these tragedies has increased.

6. In the past, and not just in the Jewish community, things were swept under the rug a lot more than they are now (although it’s still common to try to hide problems).

   And be fair, the author obviously meant that we are a bigger community than we were at the end of churban Europe.

7. I have to agree with Lawman that since the age of internet news whether good or bad is spread within a few minutes compared to hours, days or weeks.This is why we are hearing news on a wider scale.

   So in closing may the news we hear or read only be of simcha AMEN

8. there is pleanty of simchot, gemach’s,bikur cholim’s ,tomchei shabbos’ chaveirim, hatzolah,misaskim…..and many other great organizations as well ,in our large community. never forget there are two sides to every story and two sides to every coin. we may have or share of tzarot but we, as a community have b”h a lot of good too. mi ke’amcha yisrael.and lets not forget that we are still in galut, soon we will be out of it forever AMEN.

9. We forget Chasdei Hashem in that before modern medicine and vaccines, women dying in labor and childhood deaths were very common. People used to die from infections that today we barely give a second thought to. We have so much good today, that most of the poorest people today live better than the rich of 200 years ago. All Hashem wants is a thank you.

10. I couldn’t agree more. Until recently, Jews didn’t know about every single tragedy that happened throughout the Jewish world.

    In fact, I’m not sure why the newspapers and news websites (ahem) feel the need to publish these stories. I don’t know if these stories are really considered news. I personally hate spreading bad news.

11. One more thing. I remember R’ Matisyahu once spoke about this rosh hashana time. He said people will say, this past year was such a hard year. They’re thinking of all the tragedies. No one remembers all the older singles that got married, all the people who had children after numerous years of being married etc.

12. Horav Elyashiv
    has said its never been so bad

13. If every birth of a child was reported on the news as quickly and with as much of a sense of deserving of note as every death, R”l, we would not be under the impression that the “bad news” is so overwhelmingly outweighing the toivos that we have on a constant basis. The reason why every birth does not make it to the news is because we take the good for granted and thus do not view it as being particularly noteworthy, whereas whenever there is “bad” we are very upset by the fact that our “heavenly utopia” has been disturbed and we feel a need to dwell on it.

    When I was still a bachur in the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, one of the guys in my dirah mentioned the concept of the so-called “Murphy’s law”. I explained to him that that “law” is absolute kefirah, in the actual literal sense of the word.

    In this week’s parsha Paroh says to Moshe, ‘Who is Hashem that I should listen to Him?” – He was koifer in the very first of the 13 ikarei ha’emunah. Chazal reveal to us something very telling: “Vayakam melech chadash asher lo yadah es Yosef” – “And a new king arose who did not know about Yosef (i.e. all that he did for Mitzrayim)” was the source of Paroh’s statement of “Mee Hashem”. This king, explain Chazal (according to one opinion), really was the very same Paroh who had known Yosef and all that he had done for Mitzrayim very, very well. Just he made himself as if he did not know about it – he simply conviently forgot the major, historical events of the recent past in order to do with the Jews as he wished.

    From here Chazal teach us a very important yesod: kol ha’kofeir b’toivaso shel basar v’dam, sofo lichpor b’mee sh’amar v’hayah ha’olam, one who denies the good bestowed upon him by a fellow human being will ultimately come to deny the Ribbono Shel Olam.

    We, in turn, can cull a very important yesod from these words of Chazal: that at the root of kefirah (in the sense of denying the existence and/or mastery of Hashem) is being a kafuy tovah, one who does not recognize the good being bestowed upon him. At the root of denying the existence/mastery of Hashem is denying all of the endless kindness and goodness that He does for a person.

    Someone stubs his toe and says, “Why?! Why does this always have to happen to me?! Ahh..that kills!…..” Such a person would thereby be expressing his acceptance of the so-called “Murphy’s law.” If this poor soul would only have counted the myriad steps that he took successfully, without any mishap (and let us not forget that every step is an absolute wonder of so many details working together in such a complex way: circulation, respiration, nerve impulses, muscular contractions, balance maintained by three tiny bones in the inner ear, the delicate arch of the foot, proper focus of vision, etc., etc., etc.) he would be so overawed by the immense goodness that he is constantly experiencing that he would find himself struck dumb by an absolute inability to ever express even an iota of the gratitude that he owes the Bore Olam. This recognition would cause him to live with a constant awareness of how much Hashem loves him and wants only his good, such that the moment the one out of ten thousand (or many more, I unfortunately have never counted) steps goes wrong, the immediate and automatic thought that will strike him will be, “Oh no! What’s wrong? Why has Hashem suddenly shown me a sign of displeasure? What have I done that must have caused this punishment?” In other words, he will immediately and automatically uphold the words of Chazal: “yissurim ba’im alav yefashpeish b’maisov” – “if afflictions come upon him let him analyze his deeds.”

    So yes, we are still very much in galus and there are, Hashem yeracheim, many tzaros for which we really do need to be davening for on a canstant basis, but, the fact that we may have an unbalanced view of and an unhealthy reaction to the “bad” we experience verus the “good” that we experience is merely a function of the fact that we are so prone to taking the good completely for granted and therefore not taking proper note thereof, whereas the “bad” really upsets us and receives an abundance of negative attention.

    May Hashem help us to not be like Paroh, rather we should be like our father Ya’akov who said “katonti mi’kol ha’chasadim u’mi’kol ha’emes asher asisah es avdecha.”

14. #12,
    Do you have first hand knowledge of what he was referring to and the context? Are you saying that he meant that it’s worse now than being in Europe during the Holocaust?

15. There are R”L many tzaros that we hear. But, there are B”H also so many good things that we hear.

    Bottom line is that it’s all what you focus on. If you are looking for the positive, you’ll find it.

    Besuros Tovos!

16. I think that overall the comments made on this topic have expressed both perspective points of view and a chance to think about something that happens so often. Ironically I was having the same converstaion with a friend today as we hashed around the different thoughts as well. Remember communication is growing in leaps and bounds, so not only do we hear about things faster, we are also hearing from more people from more far away places.

    Question though……why are some people so quick to jump down other people’s throughts? For the purpose of this article, does it really make a difference if we now have more or less than 6 million people? What terrible insult has this author perpetrated by stating what they feel as a fact when others feel different? Why must we find the need to side step the point being made so that we can vent our frustrations over something that is trivial (and for the record….I’m calling the “need to chastise someone over a detail (which isn’t so far off the mark as you make it sound) as something trivail and not worth the energy that is being wasted. So don’t start yelling at me for minimizing the churban in Europe) Lets face it, while I doubt you could find 6 million religious (or 3 million) in USA, we are not localized to any one region and the Klal is something global.

17. There were many plagues and total families were wiped out with flu and viruses, there were deaths in childbirth, etc – Most people today make it to normal long lives – Each illness however is an earth shattering tragedy and there are way too many people that are unfortunately sick, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We all know the answer – Take out a Gemorrah and Learn! Do Chesed! Do Mitzvos! Stop wasting so much time pontificating and analyzing!