Trouble at the top (Tisha B'Av 5769)

As I have said before, this blog is not a confessional (that's not how Jews deal with sins), but occasionally I feel the need to relate one of my own weaknesses, because it relates to the things about which I wish to talk

Today's weakness is k'vod harav. We are supposed to -- automatically -- give respect to Rabbis, as well as non-Rabbis who have reached a high level of Torah learning (including women.)

The trouble is, both real life and history show that just attaining that level of learning does NOT automatically confer judgement or wisdom. But the recognition of that learning often gives access to a 'bully pulpit' to allow wide dissemination of the owner's poor judgment.

My friend Ben Jacob sent me this once: (if anyone knows the source of the quote please email me so I can credit it properly)

The Komarna Rebbe, Yitzhak Eizik Yehuda Yehiel Safrin, relates an incredible story of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidism, that he received from Yehiel Mikhel of Zlotchev:

On the road one day, the Besht went into the forest to pray minha (the afternoon prayer). His disciples saw him strike his head strongly against a tree and shout and cry strange cries and abundant tears. Seeing this they were stunned. They asked the holy man what was going on.

He replied that he saw, by means of his holy spirit, the generations which will exist just before the coming of the messiah. He saw that rabbis would be as plentiful as locusts, but that they themselves will be the ones to delay the redemption because they cause separation of hearts and baseless hatred.

It rings true, except for one thing. Sadly, it seems like this is so not only at the end but during every generation! Today is Tisha B'Av. According to Midrash this day is cursed because the Jews cried at Chet HaMeraglim. The 10 spies that caused this were all 'Heads of B'nei Yisrael.' (BaMidbar 13:3) And in Eicha(1:14 and 4:13) Yirmiyahu blames (among others) the false prophets and the Kohanim. (False the prophets may have been, but scholars they were.) Of course, the story of Kamtza/bar Kamtza and the second destruction is full of Rabbis. (Gittin 55b-56a) There were Rabbis sitting there when bar Kamtza was thrown out of the party and publicly humiliated. They did nothing. Either they didn't want to get involved, or they didn't care. And the end of the story has the Haredi stubbornness (euphemistically called "modesty") of Rav Zecharia ben Avkelos, which is what the Gemara blames for the destruction.

There are so many other examples. Korach was a talmid chacham, also, for instance. And Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, in his preface to his sefer Eim Habanim Semeichah, blames the frum Rabbis of Europe (himself included) for many of the deaths in the Shoah! Because they viciously opposed the Zionist movement and reviled any frum Jew who wanted to make Aliya, they kept all those Jews in Europe to die at the hands of the Nazis yimach sh'mam. Not only could hundreds of thousands of Jews have been safe in Israel, he writes, but with that many more frum Jews in the population, Israel could be a dati state today!

It goes on today. Disregarding the latest corruption arrests in the U.S., many of the public statements and actions of 'great Rabbis' seem designed to do nothing but set Jew against Jew, encourage sinat hinam against both Jew and non-Jew, and avoid facing the real problems that are keeping us from the Geula...all in the name of Torah.

So I am afraid I will continue to have difficulty in automatically giving Kavod to any talmid chacham. I will not mention anyone by name, but I am afraid sometimes you will figure out about whom I am complaining. All I can do is pray that those gedolim who really do deserve our respect can influence some of the others to return to the true responsibilities conferred upon them by their learning. Maybe then we can get back on the path to Geula.