Tel-Chai Nation

The Times of Israel has an article about how the Haredi community's gurus, if anyone, continue to put their heads in the sand when determining why Coronavirus struck them so badly. For example:

...Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian branch of non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodoxy, told followers that their community was bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic because secular Jews weren’t as prone to divine retribution as the religious, whose sins are judged more harshly by God.

In other words, this "rabbi" was diverting blame to those they consider secular, and not willing to recognize that Haredis can also make mistakes. The real issue is:

The higher infection rates in the communities have largely been ascribed to overcrowded conditions in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, their intensely communal nature and the initial refusal of rabbis, including Edelstein, to endorse social distancing measures and the shutting of synagogues and other religious institutions.

This attitude began to change for many of the ultra-Orthodox as the virus burned its way through their communities, with many eventually acknowledging that a lack of preparedness and resistance to taking early preventative measures played a large part in the unfolding tragedy. (Some members of the community have continued to flout regulations, with hundreds of people crowding together in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday on Monday evening, hundreds arrested on Tuesday in clashes at Mount Meron in the Galilee, and large crowds at another illegal gathering Tuesday in Jerusalem.)

While this is the good news, there's still those who scapegoat the easiest targets:

Among the ultra-Orthodox, wall posters known in Yiddish as pashkevilim, which urge the community to undertake various courses of action, are an important method of communication. The National Library’s ephemera project, which has been gathering material related to the pandemic, has collected several blaming the pandemic on women.

“Horrifying discovery: Corona epidemic = lack of modesty,” one such poster seen in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem announced, using gematria, or Jewish numerology, which ascribes a numerical value to letters and words and draws significance from words or expressions with equal values.

According to the poster, both “corona epidemic” and “lack of modesty” have a numerical value of 900, indicating a conceptual link. [...]

Another poster shared by the National Library’s ephemera project, this one in English and with an American phone number — recommends that women should join the Tzniut [modesty] Challenge and rid their closets of inappropriate outfits in order to “arouse the mercy of heaven.”

According to a WhatsApp message seen circulating among Haredim in the United States, God “is sending us an unprecedented and powerful message” and “any woman who makes her wig more modest will be blessed with protection.” Married Haredi women cover their hair, many of them with wigs that have drawn rabbinic irritation for being too attractive.

Needless to say, this declaration of female sexuality as anathema is offensive.

In one article, Aviner mused that the disease could be a divine response to “moral relativism or postmodernism,” which he said has caused people to value their own judgment above that of God.

He also suggested that “in every evil there is some good.” In the case of COVID-19, he elaborated, this good was the shutting down of “almost all gentile culture,” including academia and leisure travel.

Hmm, not sure what culture he's talking about, and if he won't make distinctions, then he's screwed up royally. All this one's done is gloat over a gentile's (non-Jew) misfortunes, which is offensive.

Anyway, this is why living in a vacuum with little or no knowledge of world affairs and science can be extremely dangerous. That's why the insularity espoused by these phonies makes their lifestyle so otherwise bad.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, londonistan, misogyny, Moonbattery, United States