These are simple, even naive, questions, but they have bedeviled me for a long time

It is not yet Pesach, so I take the liberty of asking not the traditional four questions but five. These are simple, even naive, questions, but they have bedeviled me for a long time, and I have no good answers. Maybe you do….

1. The Israeli governmental horse trading and politicking over whether or not COVID lockdowns should be extended for another week, or for a half-week, or canceled entirely, is infantile and embarrassing. Is this a government or a kindergarten? Thousands are infected and dying, the COVID has unknown mutations, the country is worried, but these politicians seem more concerned with their personal ambitions than with alleviating the pandemic misery. This is a national emergency: Why cannot such crucial medical decisions be left in the hands of the scientists and doctors and epidemiologists? Certainly a seasoned scientist is better qualified to make such decisions than a seasoned politician. Why should politicians have veto power over recommendations of medical experts? Just wondering.
2. On another subject: Do the Israeli police deal as roughly with COVID violators in the upscale neighborhoods of North Tel Aviv or Jerusalem’s Balfour Street as they do with violators in Meah Shearim? One has the distinct impression that the former get kid gloves, and the latter get truncheons. Is it possible that the police, fueled by an anti-chareidi media, have a built-in prejudice against chareidim and act out their frustrations against those with beards and peyos, while at the same time ignoring the mass violations of non-chareidim? And by the way, why has the media, after all of its finger pointing at chareidim, not followed up the recent video and eyewitness accounts that suggest that the infamous Bnei Brak bus was likely not torched by chareidim at all? Just wondering.
3. On the other hand: Do very pious Jews, especially the younger ones, ever worry about chillul hashem, desecration of G-d’s Name? Does it occur to anyone that any kind of disturbance or violence — even when the police are overly zealous — creates negativity for Torah and for all observant Jews across the board? A yeshivah bochur is able to discipline himself and exercise supreme self-control in the face of the many daily temptations in his path. How is it, then, that he cannot exercise self-control when it comes to chillul Hashem versus kiddush Hashem, sanctification of His Name? Even if only a tiny fringe minority overturns garbage cans, throws rocks at the police, and calls them Nazis, does it occur to this minority — who would never eat anything not bearing the strictest kashrus hechsher — that the resulting desecration of G-d’s Name is a far more heinous transgression than eating treif? Have they never been taught that peaceful resistance to brutish police behavior would be mekadesh Sheim Shamayim, sanctify the Name of G-d? Just wondering.
4. On the same note: Pious Jews often deride nonobservant Jews for being selective as to which Torah mitzvos and practices they choose to observe and which mitzvos they choose to ignore. But are not some of the pious occasionally guilty of similar selectivity when they ignore the many Torah and halachic directives to preserve life — v’nishmartem, et al — in order to attend mass gatherings and mass weddings in the thousands (not exactly a fringe group) in clear violation of COVID health standards, thus endangering themselves and others, creating scorn and anger against all observant Jews, and provoking anti-Jewish antagonism in America? Just wondering.
5. And finally, related to this: Why is it that when a very pious Jew is seriously ill, G-d forbid, he will quite properly seek out the very best medical expertise and follow his advice to the letter, but in the throes of a pandemic, with millions dying around the world and the death toll approaching 5,000 in Israel alone, when the very best medical expertise declares that mass gatherings — especially without masks — are a mortal danger to self and to others — why does this same pious Jew ignore the medical expertise and willfully participate in mass gatherings? Just wondering.

These matters are not new. They have been analyzed, dissected, explained, interpreted, and debated from every conceivable angle. Of simplistic answers there is a plethora. But even good complex answers are in short supply.

And so, in my naivete, I remain… just a wondering Jew.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 848)