But here's the thing, Lazer. Stuff like this... It doesn't help. At all.
We've been flooded with letters of grieving people asking about the meaning of this. All I can say is that Nathan and Raizy were undoubtedly flawless tzaddikim whom Hashem chose as ritual sacrifices for all of Klal Yisroel. Such a tragedy obligates every single one of us to wake up, assess ourselves and return to Hashem.You know what isn't going to bring anybody close to anything remotely resembling traditional Judaism? Suggesting that innocents being killed in tragic, senseless accidents is part of God demanding ritual sacrifice. In such a tragedy anybody with an ounce of sense and humility is obligated to do nothing more than say a prayer for the dead, support their families, and shut their damn mouths.
The couple's last name - Glauber - is Yiddish for "believer". We have nothing else to lean on but our emuna, our belief in Hashem.Stop. Just stop. Stop the pat answers, stop pretending to know what God's "plan" is to make horrible car accidents make sense, and stop leaning on gematria or surname etymology or any other nonsense a first year yeshiva students learns in Half-Assing your Drash 101. People are dead, and this is not ok. Give condolences, start a charity fund, but PLEASE, no more. People are watching and hurting, and this... isn't helping anyone.
3 comments:
I've encountered this kind of thinking before. A new mother whose baby died* asserted her infant was "sent" by God for the sole purpose of seeing her mother light Shabbat candles once and then "God reclaimed her" because He needed the baby to be an angel. It seems to be a way of rationalizing anything bad that happens to Jews without actually blaming or doubting "God's Plan" which an Orthodox Jew simply cannot do without losing his/her faith. After all, how CAN a believing Jew explain how a loving God can allow tragedy, whether personal or something as major as the Holocaust? To a person of faith, nothing can ever be random. I agree it is nausea-provoking, but there it is.
*It's a long story, but this woman's previous baby had been stillborn, and there was considerable evidence that she might have smothered this one. She was obviously seriously mentally ill as well as being haredi.
I find that the deeper a person thinks he is the more linear his thinking pattern.
So he looks for cause and effect, sees a quick one and tries to give a deep answer to it.
As for real cause and effect, as the old story goes the rabbi was asked what sin the community was committing because it had suffered so many traffic accidents. His reply was the sin of not driving more carefully.
Garnel, very well said.
Even though I am not Orthodox, I agree some of Lazer Brody's videos. However, his statement about the Glaubers as being a "ritual sacrifice" is really off the deep end. We cannot presume to know the designs of Hashem. "My ways are not they ways, saith the Eternal". We just have to trust in Hashem. Speculation about Hashem's actions and assuming a kind of direct cause and effect is borderline heresy in my personal opinion.
Dave.
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