Opinion

I always say that a speaker loves to get some kind of feedback when he concludes his speech, even if it’s just “sh’koiach!” It means that at least someone noticed that he was speaking. The same is true with a writer. Even the most seasoned writer still loves to hear some kind of acknowledgement of his thoughts. Naturally, positive feedback is much more appreciated than negative. But negative feedback is better than no feedback. At least someone paid attention to the fact that you wrote something.

 As the saying goes, “Those who don’t know, speak. Those who do know are silent.” Or as the Chazal put it, “A word is worth one sela and silence is worth two” (Midrash Koheles 5:3).

The parshiyos that we read this past Shabbos, Tazria-M’tzora, are difficult to expound upon. They almost entirely deal with the now long-obsolete matter of the skin disease that afflicts a slanderer. His body, his house, and his belongings can be determined to be infected with tzaraas by a local kohen. His purification involves being banished outside the “camp of Israel” until pronounced ready to return. As the Torah states, “He shall dwell in isolation; his dwelling shall be outside the camp” (VaYikra 13:46). As Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains, one of the worst punishments a person can face is isolation, being cut off from our fellow human beings. Don’t we know that all too well!

It’s great being a liberal. You don’t have to give much thought to your positions or the repercussions. Just come up with a catchy phrase that makes you feel good all over. Need to deal with a serious problem? Create another one to solve it. Don’t like the burden of respecting the life of the unborn? Just say you’re pro-choice and let the baby be killed at full-term. But you don’t like the state taking the life of a murderer? Just say, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” means the state. Don’t like women being harassed at work? Just come up with #MeToo, and poof! The accused is done away with, with no due process. Feel that the poor criminals are being discriminated against by not being able to post bail? Just do way with bail altogether. Too bad on the rest of society. Feel bad for illegal immigrants being incarcerated for violating the law? Call them “undocumented” and now they get better treatment than you or I do.

This article will be shorter than I intended. First of all, given what is taking place, my head is not completely tuned in. More importantly, I was going to write about the greatness of the Jewish community, as well as the epic failure of some of its religious leadership.

 A few weeks ago, the 107^th precinct held a synagogue security meeting for all of Queens South. The meeting was chaired by Queens South commander David Barrere and included numerous police officials and officers. Many fine members of the Jewish community from our area to Far Rockaway were in the audience. Our representatives, State Senator Joe Addabbo and Councilman Rory Lancman, sat at the head table.