Leah Vincent et. al.

I've read the New York Post and Unpious.com articles on Leah Vincent & her new book. Her story is both fascinating (in & of itself) and stomach-churning (that her parents could chuck her out because she corresponded with a boy & bought a clingy sweater for crying out loud). These people (her parents) and I share the same religion??!! Shame on them! Ugh. What a pity that some people have chosen "casting out of" instead of "reaching out to." I think it sad (very) and telling (also very) that in the Yeshivish world frei (free in Yiddish) means someone who has become unreligious, i.e. gone off the path.

I deplore both the hivemind/herd mentality and the tendency of some orthodox & ultra-orthodox Jews to circle the wagons and cry "Ultra-orthodox bashing!" at any and all criticism of any aspect of orthodox & ultra-orthodox life, as if our faith teaches that anyone or anything is infallible and immune to criticism. (This is not say that ultra-orthdox bashing doesn't exist of course. After 25+ years here in Israel I've come across all sorts of secular bigots who will gleefully bash and jeer at the ultra-orthodox.) You saw this in the reaction to the New York Post's initial coverage of the Stark murder as well. By the way, I thought that these articles (here & here)  in the Forward were the best I've seen on the stark murder.

What bugs me though about o'dox and u-o'dox lowlifes (as opposed to secular lowlifes) is that you would think that the bits of cloth we cover our heads with would mean something, that all this stuff in the Torah about morality & ethics and treating our fellow human beings (not just fellow Jews; I was at a Shabbat table last Friday when somone brought up the you're-not-really-required-to-break-Shabbat-to-help-a-goy-in-danger-but-we-do-it-anyway thing, I wanted to throw soup at him) would sink in just a little. There's a(n otherwise absent) terrible chilul Hashem aspect when it's an ostensibly (!) o'dox/u-o'dox person caught doing something nefarious.

On the immune-to-criticism thing, I find it disturbing that in many o'dox and u-o'dox circles criticism of "gedolim" is considered a huge no-no (#3, for example). I remember listening to the radio in the car on the way home the day Rav Ovadia Yosef (z"l) passed away. Someone criticized something he had said (he said lots of outrageous stuff) and the program host shut this person down right away and said, "You can't criticize the Maran." Why the hell not? Avraham Avinu questioned God Himself yet we cannot question other human beings? Sez who?

Good night!

nb