There are three reasons Hassidic Jews live together in tight-knit and often insular communities. The first is shared values. The second, a strong support network and security in number. And the third is a desire to filter out some of the corrosive elements of outside society from corrupting their children.
All three have been undermined by the brutal murder of Leiby Kletzky by Levi Aron. Where did Mr. Aron stem from? Yes, he dresses like an orthodox Jew. But one can only pray he is mad. Because Judaism, as a religion, commands the highest sensitivity to all life and even inanimate objects. Moses was not permitted to smite the waters of the Nile or dust of Egypt because both had saved his life. Cruelty to animals is one of Judaism's most severe sins. How could a man schooled in the Jewish tradition of the infinite value of life butcher a boy into pieces?
As for a strong support network, one assumes that this is the reason Leiby's parents agreed for him to walk home from camp. No one can now imagine how their unspeakable pain is being now compounded by extreme and unjustified guilt. Why did the boy walk home? But that's the whole point. Borough Park is a safe neighborhood. It's the reason you choose to raise a family in a community surrounded by people who are never total strangers. They share your faith, your values, your way of life. So your kids are never in danger. When one family is in trouble, all come to the rescue, as was evidenced by the outpouring of help to find Leiby in the first place. Therefore, when Leiby got lost he walked over to someone who, though unrecognizable as an individual would have been very familiar to him as a member of his community, in other words bearded and with a yarmulke or a hat. Someone safe.
I have long argued that one of the factors that has led to the national child obesity epidemic is parents' fears for their children's safety, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Children are no longer permitted to walk to school because parents' don't want them to bump into sickos. The net result is that they don't get the exercise they need. But in the case of a child in a highly orthodox community the thinking would be that the child is safe because unzere, 'our own people,' are around to help and protect.
But Levi Aron is not unzere. Not only is he not part of the religious Jewish family, he is not part of the human family. He is a beast of the field, a cold-blooded predator, devoid of any spark of G-d or hint of humanity. He is a man without a soul, a spiritless hominid.
Which leads to the most important question of all. In most cases where a child is abducted or brutally murdered by a predator, the child had already been a mark. A pedophile would have been at a playground or on a street corner studying a child who is then abducted. But in this case, a child became lost and he approached a man for directions who turns out to be a diabolical fiend. One can only hope and indeed assume that there aren't that many crazed killers stalking Borough Park. So how could it be that the child ends up asking the one psychopath who just happened to be at his dentist to pay his bill? In other words, what was G-d thinking? We Jews believe in divine providence. Nothing happens by accident. So a child gets lost and the only person who is around for him to ask ends up being a schizoid killer?
Which brings me to my final point. I said the third reason why religious Jews live together is to protect their children from corrosive influences, to filter out elements of the popular culture and the media which are unhealthy for a child's development. My G-d, given that's the case, how do we make sense of a child being killed in a neighborhood set up to protect children?
We will never understand a mind like Levi Aron. Nor should we try. I just read that he is on suicide watch and wish he weren't. If he killed himself it would be no great loss. He is not human anyway. But I wish I knew what celestial purpose could possibly have been filled by an innocent child innocently bumping into someone who would murder him.
The G-d who we Jews love and to whom we have been, and will continue to be, so tenaciously attached for thousands of years has a lot of explaining to do.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
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"If he killed himself it would be no great loss. He is not human anyway."
Yes, he is. You and I may not like it, but our little band of primates has some unsavoury characters. Denying this man his humanity is another way of ignoring the problem.
It points up the dangers which are not only engendered, but fostered, by the assumption that individual morality can be discerned by one's garb. The very insularity and presumed "safety" of the Hasidic community is exactly what has enabled such things to happen -- and such matters as child molestation, etc. still are happening in the community today. These victims need to be told that it's not only OK, but a mitzvah, to speak up tell their stories, so as to expose the bad elements within.
I suppose the possibility that “G-d” doesn’t exist never crossed his mind…
You had me until you said this.
You obviously do not understand how our justice system works, or waht a laoss it would be for all of us if we adopted your attitude are took to pre-judging some of the accused, or stopped trying to prevent the mentally ill from hurting themselves.
Who are you to decide whose life is worth saving and whose is not?
We put animals down who have gone rabid or are not fit to live in their own society because of bad genetic wiring etc, sometimes we WISH we could do this to these 'bad seeds' among us - of course we can't! But we can only wish they come to some kind of end.
When a child abuser in my family (by marriage), died several years ago of a massive heart attack, EVERYONE who knew about it was relieved he was gone. When Bundy was finally executed years ago I finally could relax some of my own anxiety (I knew two of his victims and lived in an area where he 'hunted'.)
I know I will get flak about my comments but they come from personal experience not just anonymous online opining.
Really? I understand your feelings of hurt and questioning, but I have to say, that is a foolish last statement. Who is the created to accuse the Creator? If G-d is who you say He is, who are you to question His ways? I recommend Job 38 or perhaps Isaiah 55:8-9:
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith HaShem. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
While I don't understand the ways of G-d, or evil men for that matter, I do fear G-d, and I won't accuse Him, or demand anything from Him. He does not owe me an explanation.
Doesn't the Gemara teach that no one is beyond redemption, even those for whom their death atones (G-d forbid)?
Also, how did we get onto the subject of childhood obesity in all of this?
Just a little confused...
If it wasn't for God, you would have nothing to not believe in.
Back to the Rabbi - sad to see a mind so tightly closed as to reject even the desire to understand. That's religion for you.
The fact is that he is Jewish and lived in their community and was thought to be safe because he was "one of them".
Lesson that needs to be learned is that just because he was "one of them" doesn’t make him safe.
Levi Aronn did share their faith, their values, their way of life, but that didn't save Leiby Kletzky, that put him in danger with him.
Sorry to bust the bubble, but Hassidic Jews living in tight-knit and in thier insular communities are not immune to dangers of the world. The Kletzky family learned that too late.
My prayers go to the community and the family.
Being brought together is the goal of abusive power hungry people who want to enslave humanity to indulge their own whims and that seems rather pointless.