Is the frum community not partially responsible for today's alienation from Judaism, because of the failure to reach out, or because they are too unfriendly to non-conformists, and so on?
ANSWER:
There's no question, everybody is responsible for his fellow man. Kol Yisroel areivim zeh lazeh, we're all guarantors for our fellow Jews. Even the biggest resha'im, when they do misdeeds, the guilt is shared by Klal Yisroel.
However, we have to beware of unduly blaming the frum Jews; there's a certain attitude of enjoying knocking the frum Jewish community. We have to study this and know that there's a certain anti-Semitism in Jews themselves. When Jews knock the frum community, it's nothing but an echo of anti-Semitism in their own hearts. We have to spend a lot of time studying the virtues of the frum community and appreciating them.
What nobility we see, how GRAND is the lifestyle of today's frum community; when you walk in the streets and you see young women with big families. They're sacrificing everything in order to bring up a generation. The little boys all wear yarmulkes and tzitizs out, and the little girls are so frum dressed. You have to love the frum community, you have to appreciate them. It's an unusual phenomena to see people who can ignore the environment and live according to their ideals, and their ideals are the noblest mankind ever saw.
Do you know how many people are giving one tenth of their property for maaser, for tzadaka? Can you equal that anywhere? They keep taharas hamishpacha, their houses are completely kosher, expensive mezusos on every doorway, expensive tuition for the children in the yeshivas and the Bais Yaakovs. These people are sacrificing and laboring for their ideals, and they're loyal.
Therefore instead of looking for faults in the frum community - there are faults, everybody is to blame if there are irreligious Jews, certainly it's our job to reach out and bring in people - nevertheless you have to be aware that this may be a symptom of a weakness that we are responding to the outside attitudes towards the frummer. We have to understand that we have another obligation and that's to love the frummer, and to look up to them. You have to understand that there was a nes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu did, in the last fifty years that there emerged a frum modern Jewish community.
Professionals, frum physicians, frum lawyers, frum teachers, frum computer people, a big population of professionals and all loyal, and many are lamdonim, they go to shiurim. It's remarkable what has happened, the Torah explosion. You don't remember how it looked 50 or 60 years ago, I saw it, and therefore I could appreciate the GRAND development that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has blessed us. Let's hope it'll continue to increase.
Torah institutions are increasing, they're getting bigger and bigger, and today some yeshivas are so packed, they don't take in children anymore! That's a remarkable thing. And therefore we should be happy at that, and we shouldn't look for ways and means of knocking them.
Now there could be some times here and there is a frum Jew who is dishonest, here is a frum Jew that doesn't have good manners, but by and large they're the best people in the world! And exceptions don't prove any rules.
Therefore we have to say, ashrei ha'am sh'kocho lo, how fortunate is the nation that this is its lot, ashrei ha'am she'Hashem Elokov.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
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