MOChassid

The rambling thoughts of a Modern Orthodox Chassid (whatever that means). Contact me at emansouth @ aol.com

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Running Out of Time

Scary stuff From Rabbi Horowitz

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posted by MoChassid @ 12:13 PM  

16 Comments:

  • At 9:50 AM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    If I knew then what I know now, it's possible that I would be inclined to act accordingly.

    I never thought I'd say this, but the more I see and understand about how stupid, myopic, and clueless the Orthodox establishment is, the more I want to vomit.

    Without question, the Internet has brought much of this light.

    It's also possible that the idiocy that goes on today (i.e., kollel entitlement, out-of-control chareidim in Israel, delusional welfare-dependent chassidim, jackass "gedolim" making the most preposterous statements, same jackass "gedolim" targeting the pettiest inanities to ban, blanket rabbinic and parental support of unrealistic marriage expectation by unworthy, uneducated boobs, the train-wreck adherence to a certain rabbi in israel, the astonishing shortsightedness of those who perpetuate an unrealistic, counterintuitive method of dating for marriage, a total lack of ahavas yisroel by rabbinic leadership, corrupt batei dinim, the crass commercialism of yiddishkeit, chumros being presented as halacha, the promulgation of ridiculous segulos, wealth worship by yeshivas and mosdos, godol worship and dogmatic insistence of rabbinic infallibility, proliferation of outrageously redundant non-profits, so-called "gedolim" WHORING their so-called "gadlus" to promote rip-off tzedaka organizations, halcyonic paeans to undeserving sperm lottery winners, should I keep going?) didn't happen years ago.

    But whatever it is, we don't have a youth-crisis. We have a godol-crisis.

     

  • At 12:29 PM, Blogger MoChassid said…

    SW

    How do you really feel?

    By the way, I totally agree that it's all about a horrendous lack of leadership.

     

  • At 1:36 PM, Blogger kishke said…

    I totally agree that it's all about a horrendous lack of leadership.

    How is people choosing to leave the derech, which has been happening for millenia, a function of today's "horrendous" leadership. Not that I'm enamored of certain so-called leaders, but I think you're lacking some perspective.

     

  • At 3:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    SW

    Yikes! That's all I can say!

     

  • At 3:45 PM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    "Not that I'm enamored of certain so-called leaders, but I think you're lacking some perspective.

    I think you're lacking a clue.

    And just to prove that I'm not just being gratuitously nasty ... Who do you think promotes these ills? Is the the gedolim? You think they don't? Well, if they're so allpowerful and infallible, why can't they see what is as plain as day to 13 year olds?

    Why can't the so-called gedolim, who have so much to say about every red herring they can find say nothing when "crisis" after "crisis" appear short of "we must pray," and "shame on those untznius women" or any other cynical red herring they can dredge up.

    I read something so nerve wracking in the Jewish Star today. On simchas torah, some drunken idiot puked all over the bais medrash in shor yoshov. But that's not the story. The kid was determined to be seriously alcohol poisoned by a doctor in the room and hatzoloh was called.

    Hatzoloh arrived and began treating the drunk kid. Then the drunk patient kicked one of the volunteers in the head and the police had to be called. When things calmed down, they prepared to transport the nearly comatose patient to the hospital. Suddenly the drunk's friends began to argue with medics telling them the kid was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital; They loudly acused the volunteers of kidnapping their drunken retard friend and were generally antagonistic and disrespectful.

    Hatzolah took the kid to the hospital, where the drunken dope's parents were waiting and they gave the volunteers a mouthful, completely diesregarding any aspect of what happened other that they disagred with hatzolah's decision to take the kid to the ER.

    OK ... still with me? The whole shebang I just described was the content of an article in the Jewish star last week. The focus of the article was mostly on the vile behavior of the jeering friends, the ingratitude of the parents, and the general lack of regard for the sacrifices of hatzolah volunteers, with a healthy mention of the drunk.

    Well, this week i open the paper to see that some jackass local rabi took the time to write an eloquent letter expressing how disturbed he was that the article spent so much time highlighting one person's drunken antics, when instead the article should have been focused on the beautiful hakafos that people spent all day away fromtheir families to participate in.

    Is this rabi an f--ing retard? He's distrubed that the article wasn't abour hakafos? He's disturbed?

    Why isn;t disturbed at the jaw dropping disrespect of a bunch of shiftless, useless, overindulged schmucks with nothing better to do than stand around making comments and second guessing medical personnel treating a stupid person who drank himself stupider.

    Why isn;t he distrubed that there wasn't an outpouring of rage that a group of boys stood around watching as a hatzolah volunteer was kicked in the head and didn't have the sense to keep their mouths shut?

    Where are there "leaders"? Why aren't they walking the streets in sackcloths and ashes on their heads lamenting the state of our coming generations, instead of posing with pushkas like homeless supermodels to shill some bullshit charity created to glom more money for a shiftless useless generation of bearded coatracks?

    You don't blame them? Let us know when you decide to wake up. and let's just hope we're all still here when that happens.

     

  • At 5:14 PM, Blogger kishke said…

    So some story about some rabbi with his head screwed on backward is supposed to be representative of an entire society. Yeah, that really proved you're not being gratuitously nasty. Right.

     

  • At 11:14 PM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    "So some story about some rabbi with his head screwed on backward is supposed to be representative of an entire society."

    the way you put it, no. The way it is, yes.

     

  • At 12:02 AM, Blogger kishke said…

    Please, you're like every other fanatic who has one Big Answer to every question. In your case, the Big Answer is "it's the gedolim's fault." This supposedly explains every problem, from dating to segulos to non-profits to rip-off tzedokos, and all the rest of your poisonous screed. You suffer from exactly what you accuse the charedim of - obsession with gedolim. Only in their opinion (that is to say, in your version of their opinion) the gedolim are the source of everything good, whereas in yours they are the source of everything evil. Both views are equally unbalanced. Which is how you sound - unbalanced.

     

  • At 12:17 PM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    Sheesh ... talk about a monolithic point of view.

    As Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

    When a group of individuals know their universe of followers look to them with unyielding admiration, they have a responsibility to act in a manner that reflects leadership and integrity.

    The leadership that rules pan-charedism is increasingly idealistic and unrealistic. Their action indicate that they are dangerously out of touch with the They make snap decisions based on inaccurate information and refuse to take responsibility when such mistakes result in with far-reaching negative consequences.

    They do nothing to combat dangerous trends that originate from the purely materialistic interest to look frummer, and self-gratifying selfishness to feel frummer.

    These leaders perpetuate, at best, by ignoring, at worst, by encouraging, unhealthy social behaviors to the point where great harm comes to many Jews, while they, as leaders, make no effort whatsoever to repudiate the behavior, or remediate their mistakes.

    The At-Risk Crisis, the Shidduch Crisis, the Parnassah Crisis, the soon-to-be-coined Apathy Crisis -- every one of these is a direct result of someone with influence having been being asleep at the wheel.

    Even worse, the very fact that these are termed “crisis,” -- a term traditionally used to describe random, unforeseen and unprovoked calamities -- hints a cynical means of distancing oneself from blame and absolving the leadership of personal responsibility.

    Incidentally, laying the blame on the klal to learn more, daven harder, castigate untznius women, etc. etc. is hardly taking responsibility. It’s pawning off the responsibility for leadership on others. It’s a way of saying, “What do you expect when this is what we have to work with here? When you guys pull your weight, we’ll get moving.”

    It’s disgraceful behavior and believe me, it trickles down from the top. I learned that when you see someone drowning, you close the gemarah and dive in to help. They do anything but.

    Furthermore, by saying nothing as the oylam just builds bigger, fancier, more marble-clad yeshivas and shuls, and nodding as the mainstream does little more than blow hot air paeans to the majesty of Torah learning that they champion, as the back-pat themselves in eternal self-congratulating over having “sown the seeds” of a generation that has more torah learning than ever before -- the leaders of right wing Orthodox are steering this ship into for one hell of an iceberg.

    If you need examples, look at the earliest posts that you so easily dismiss as bitter ranting. And if you still disagree, then I hope you enjoy your wide-eyed, close-brained existence. All I can say then is that I'm jealous.

     

  • At 12:45 PM, Blogger kishke said…

    Now that you have adopted a more civil tone, I'm glad to respond to your argument with substance rather than invective. Unfortuantely, I don't have time right now, but I'll try to get to it asap.

     

  • At 1:46 PM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    Wow ... Kishke must sure be busy. Or is it that he has no response. I am right, you know. god knows there's plenty of trouble in the Modern Orthodox community, and how.

    But that doesn't excuse or minimize the reckless destruction of Chareidi Yiddishkeit by miserable, irresponsible, shortsighted leaders and brainless, spineless, clueless adherents.

     

  • At 7:12 PM, Blogger kishke said…

    I am impossibly busy right now, both at work and at home. But I will try to make time for this. Patience.

     

  • At 10:19 AM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    Looking forward.

     

  • At 3:51 PM, Blogger -suitepotato- said…

    still wonderin' said: "As Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, "With great power, comes great responsibility." "

    Weird Al said: "If you missed it, don't worry, they'l say the line... again and again and again..."

    IOW, it has been and will be said and no one will pay attention to it as long as it remains a duck-billed platitude and not something taught repetitively through example and lesson from childhood.

    Why do you think that the news is filled constantly with an obvious, open, anti-Christian slant? It is NOT non-Christians but estranged unobservant Christians who are throwing the stones. And what do those who still (at least publicly) believe faithfully do? They react. You get the media-tastic Christian religion war.

    What Jew wants the same thing? Of course this is frightening to those given to the long view. However, it is exactly a lack of faith on the part of those who promulgate the faith that leads to it, so still wonderin' is somewhat right if over the top dramatic.

    Living your faith by example, and displaying happiness and contentment in it, being an excellent person and making it clear that your faith is what makes being excellent to others possible, is the way. Hypocrisy is to children as blood in the water is to sharks.

    All this split-the-church-anytime-you-disagree-faith-free-socio-political-club nature of today's Protestant Christianity and the resulting morass and furor should be a warning to Jews.

    However, it must be honestly faced as to what the root cause of all that is: unbelief masquerading as belief, faithless rote repetition with no spiritual exploration of the underpinnings, and above all else supreme hypocrisy and failure to live the life you espouse honestly.

     

  • At 4:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Still Wonderin'
    While I agree with almost all of what you say (especially the inane letter sent to The Jewish Star) I disagree with your tone. Not because it is disrespectful but because such tone is usually ignored by those who should be most affected by the arguments. I would love if you would craft your agrguments in a more delicate manner. This way more people might pay attention to what you have to say.

     

  • At 7:14 PM, Blogger and so it shall be... said…

    "I would love if you would craft your agrguments in a more delicate manner."

    Hmmm. Now, I wonder how that would look .... ?

     

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