Jews gone wild?

Two seemingly unrelated incidents occurred over the last two weeks. The unfortunate violent incident in New Square and the Anthony Weiner scandal seem to have little or nothing to do with each other, besides having Jews involved at the heart of each matter. Or do they?

Those who attended my Shavuos night shiur learned that nothing happens on this Earth without God's will - not even (possibly) what seem to be random evolutionary processes. As the Zohar says, there is not even a blade of grass that does not have the voice of God behind it, saying "Grow!" When incidents occur such as the two mentioned above, we need to try to find a message buried inside and heed that messages well. Jews, especially Orthodox Jewry, are taking it on the chin. The media coverage of these two incidents is incessant and so negative that we must take a lesson from what's been perpetrated and work from that silver lining towards some kind of tikkun.

There is a famous story told over in the Talmud, in Avoda Zara 17a, about a serial sinner, Elazar ben Dordia. Elazar had visited every harlot he could think of or reach. He found out about one that he hadn't visited yet and decided to make the journey. Once reached, she rebuked him sharply and told him that he had no share in the World to Come, whereupon Elazar laid down, cried and repented until his soul left him and died. A voice from heaven then announced "Rabbi Elazar has merited life in the World to Come". Rebbi, the great redactor of the Mishna, wept when he heard this and proclaimed "some labor an entire life to merit a share in the World to Come, while some do it in a single instant!"

The message, I think, is clear: these two incidents are examples of the Rabbi Elazar ben Dordia story in reverse. Anthony Weiner had accomplished much as a politician, had his whole political life ahead of him; all gone, in a puff of smoke, because of a few minutes of indiscretion. New Square is renowned for its pious works - its charity, chessed, and spirituality have few rivals, yet with one extremely brief incident all that is nearly forgotten, at least to the "outside world", at least for now. Or, to put it another way, "yeish mi she oveid es olamo besha'ah achas" - there are those who can lose their share in the World to Come in one instant".

We need to weigh everything we do, everything we say, against the measure of desecrating God's name. We Jews can labor our entire life doing good works and establishing a good name; the memory of those deeds and that good name can easily vanish with astonishing swiftness with one brief word or action.

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We've all heard about the terrible events that occurred over the last week both in Japan and the earthquake there, and in Itamar regarding the horrible murder of nearly an entire family.
As most of us folks know, pur'anios (negative events) can occur in the world "because" of us, the Jewish people. That's not to say, like those medieval Europeans did during the Black Plague, that we actively cause bad things to happen, rather what it does mean is that we need to look inwards with intense introspection to see how we can improve on something, do something, refrain from doing something. These are messages to us that we need to critically look inward.

Which brings me to this opinion piece on matzav.com about the Japanese earthquake. I generally agree with the sentiments of the author - that we need to examine ourselves thoroughly in the wake of such tragedy and set our priorities appropriately. But then he sticks this paragraph in the middle. I posted the article link, but I'm posting it here in part to save for posterity because Matzav will probably "edit" this article in time. This is copy/paste, not a paraphrase:
"Hashem’s revenge on the Japanese people, whether because they were allies with the Nazis in WW2 or because they incarcerated and cruelly treated three innocent Yiddishe neshamos whose innocence is clear to all except for their kangaroo court, was all enveloping utilizing all the elements to demonstrate His decisive omnipotence. No man made advanced technology could stop or even slow the earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown and volcano. Everyone stood helpless, stunned and paralyzed as Hashem with one swift blow used His elements to demonstrate as He did to Pharaoh in Mitzrayim that in merely seconds what seems to be one’s reality is no longer. "


This is a terrible, dreadful and grossly hubristic thing to say, let alone hypocritical. Who are we to understand WHY Hashem chooses to do what He does with the natural world? Traditionally, we can only know the reason Hashem has done something to someone or some people through prophecy, which we no longer have. Do the Jewish people have no issues, no public desecrations of God's Name, to account for?? And if you deign to think that you know exactly why Hashem does what he does, why no explanation for the Fogel family, A"H, or the residents of Itamar? What did they do "wrong" to deserve such punishment as "hashgacha pratis"?! This paragraph has taken what could have been a wonderful piece and twisted it into something abhorrent, ugly, and despicable. Who are we to purport to be judge, jury, and executioner for the Japanese people as a whole, when we as a people have been quite successful lately at dragging God's name through the mud? 


It goes without saying that we all should have the remaining Fogel family in in mind during our tefillos. It should go without saying as well that we should have the people of Japan, also creations of God, in our mind as well. It should go without saying that these tragedies should force us to shine a flashlight on ourselves, not outside.