My sister told me about a speech given by Attorney Ben Braffman at a recent "Asifah" of several thousand on erev Tisha B'av run by the Agudah. (She saw the link on Yeshiva World News. I'm not a regular YWN reader.)
I have no idea what the Agudah thought when they invited Attorney Braffman. As a noted Orthodox criminal defense attorney who has defended many, many frum people, I think that they wanted him to scare the crowd into legal behavior. What they got instead (or in addition), was an extensive rant against the underlying values of the Chareidi world: no jobs, no education, hiding from the secular world. He makes every Modern Orthodox complaint against the chareidi world out there - and he was invited by the Agudah to do it!
Over and over again he says, "You live in a secular world. You have to take part in that world. You can't only take. You have to give back as well."
"We no longer can use the Shoah as an excuse. We can and should never forget...but you can't continue in this generation to say 'I lie because my parents lied to get out of Germany.' They had a right - it was mesiras nefesh, because the government was trying to exterminate the Jews. That's not how it is in the United States in 2009"
All well and good. I agree wholeheartedly.
But listening to Mr. Braffman speak, underlying his entire speech was the very "us verses them" mentality that contributes to the elitsm that enables frum Jews to convince themselves that there's nothing wrong with lying and cheating from the government. After all, they're only "goyim."
The following are some direct quotes from Mr. Braffman's talk:
"It's always been that way, there's always been an Amalek who wanted to kill us."
"...goyishe law firms that thirty-five years ago wouldn't hire a Jew."
"You don't have a goyishe kopp..." (Why aren't there more frum/Chareidi doctors and lawyers?)
"I'd be very happy to represent goyim for the rest of my life."
"The media always sees Jewish blood as cheap, and it's biased and it's anti-Semitic, and that's just the way it is. Jewish blood is cheap, especially in the media."
"Who puts on the lights - you? The Goyim who work for ConEdison do it."
"A friend of mine who is a goy..."
The "everyone hates the Jews" mentality is precisely the social environment that fosters government or insurance fraud. "It's only from the goyim. And they hate us and want to kill us, so why not steal from them." (my paraphrase).
Is there anti-Semitism? Of course there is. But just like we can't use the Shoah as an excuse to lie, steal and cheat, we can't use the crutch of the "goyim" either.
I would have expected a respected lawyer like Mr. Braffman to know that as much as anyone.
It's frightening how much we think alike. Here are my comments I posted on the Orthonomics blog about the speech:
ReplyDeleteHe unfortunately provided some mixed messages:
-they really are out to get us, therefore we need to be conscious of our behavior at all times
-they aren't out to get us, therefore we need to be good citizens and stop trying to game the system
Which is it?
There seems to be three justifications used when Jews are caught breaking the law:
1. They're out to get us, so we need to take all we can
2. It's too expensive to live as a frum person, the only way to make it is to cut corners
3. Everyone else is doing it (variant on #2)
(there's also, "because I can," the Madoff rationale, but that is more rare.)
It's easy to counter #1 by pointing out that modern Western countries (and the US in particular) allow us the freedom to learn, daven, dress, and truly live the way Hashem wants us to. Not only that, the government provides subsidies for our schools and our poor, and the US government even funds and protects our foreign interests more often than not. How DARE any Jew think that they are justified in subverting even the most minor laws of this great country?
If you can break down #1, then #2 and #3 are, in some ways, the easiest to address. If you don't have any justification other than "this lifestyle is too expensive" you have to find a way to make the lifestyle less expensive, or you change the lifestyle. The Torah certainly does NOT allow you to skirt taxes so that you can keep your son in law in kollel.
Oh, but wait, no, they're out to get us. (I believe he meant the media, primarily, but the damage is done.) If they really are still out to get us, some will remain justified in whatever they can get away with. Until they're caught.