The sickness of Orthodox Jewish Leaders

Having left the orthodox world long ago I am the first to admit that I have forgotten a significant amount of what I learnt all those awful years in Yeshiva. However, one item I do recall having been told over and over, which is especially timely given the upcoming high holidays, is the qualifications for a 'rasha'; a bad individual.

I remember that those who do bad to others, or with foresight cause bad to befall others, is the primary criteria. As all ortho jews are taught before Yom Kippur, God does not forgive sins that a person commits on other people. One must ask forgiveness from the individual or group that they have harmed.

an excerpt from today's Jerusalem Post:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of Yisrael Wallis, who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in jail for killing his three-month-old son Yitzhak by shaking him so violently that the baby flew out of his hands and struck the wall with his head.

The incident occurred on August 2, 2006. Wallis was looking after the boy when he started to cry. According to the verdict of the Jerusalem District Court, the young father became impatient with the baby because he wanted to sleep. In his anger, he began shaking him violently.

Wallis also admitted that he had bitten the baby in the face, pinched him in the neck and chest, and slapped him.

Yitzhak fell into a coma and was taken to the capital's Shaare Zedek Medical Center suffering from internal bleeding and from bleeding in the retinas of his eyes. Doctors found other signs indicating physical abuse, including teeth marks on his face. The boy died eight days later.

According to the indictment, Wallis was upset with the baby because he was born with a defect in his neck muscles.

During the trial, haredim rioted against the fact that the suspect was being held in custody in jail. Eventually he was released until his conviction on July 2, 2008.

End Excerpt

And as we know this was merely one example of Haredim protesting to free one of their own from the clutches of the govt. We can review their protests against autopsies when their is suspected murder. We can review their protests to free the mother who nearly starved her child to death. We can review the haredi ability to block the govt from protecting the other children from that same mother. We can review the protests against the municipality of Jerusalem having allowed a parking lot to be opened in Jerusalem. And we can review the stoning of the police who are called to break up domestic disputes in the haredi society (read as spousal abuse).

I don't blame the haredi society as a whole for the individual acts of madness and repugnance that this father or that mother committed. However, when the community is told to rise up in protest, in violent protest, in these people's defense, how many more people are harmed?

Can the Rabbie who control (or at minimum closely guide) these people not be Rashas? Can these rabbis be anything but learned evil people? How many wives will be beaten with no savior because of these protests? How many children will be beaten or molested with no hope in sight because of these protests? How many murders will go free to kill again because of no autopsy? How many people will be threatened and maimed because of protests over a parking lot? And the rabbis not only sit by and do nothing to stop this behavior, they create this behavior and foment this behavior.

These rabbis are evil by the most basic definition of Jewish law. They cause immense and unending harm to others; to the weakest and most innocent others.

And then every ortho jew must ask themselves how they can admire those people and remain in that fold? Obeying such evil and rotten and sick minded leaders.