shmad

What amazes me is that certain organizations had no problem even taking kids out of yeshiva to rally in NY against an imaginary situation of "shmad" (as they called it) and protest in public against the State of Israel, but when there is actual shmad, when there are Jews actually being killed because they are Jewish, like in the case of Sarah Halimi, these same groups are out to lunch.  

You know what it looks like to show care and concern when you see injustice done?  This is what it looks like:

That is sadly not one of our rallies.  Do we care less about our causes than they do theirs?  Does anyone really think that a letter to some officials is enough to make a real difference?

Shamd is when the gvt targets our religious practice.  That's exactly what the courts found that NY State was doing, writing that Cuomo's “rules can be viewed as targeting the ‘ultra-Orthodox [Jewish] community...”  Yet where were the protests?  Where was the outcry?  A lawsuit that takes months to work its way through court is the best we can muster?  Shame on us.  Why am I not surprised that another major organization is throwing grant $ at shuls to try to come up with ways to to get people to return to davening now that things are opening up.  Who'da thunk it that when your wife can go to the supermarket wearing a paper thin mask and fight through the aisles filled with shoppers before Y"T or Shabbos so you have a nice brisket but the shuls remain locked (as was the case last year on Shavuos in many places), that people would get the message that shul is not so important?  

Everyone knows the pasuk that speaks about וַתְּהִ֚י יִרְאָתָם֙ אֹתִ֔י מִצְוַ֥ת אֲנָשִׁ֖ים מְלֻמָּדָֽה (Yeshayahu 29) but most people I think don't know the continuation:  לָכֵ֗ן הִנְנִ֥י יוֹסִ֛ף לְהַפְלִ֥יא אֶת־הָעָם־הַזֶּ֖ה הַפְלֵ֣א וָפֶ֑לֶא וְאָֽבְדָה֙ חָכְמַ֣ת חֲכָמָ֔יו וּבִינַ֥ת נְבֹנָ֖יו תִּסְתַּתָּֽר