Rabbi Horowitz Looses Control

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz has been busy recently. He is well known on the American scene for his work with abused children, and is considered by many to be something of a maven in chinuch. I've always respected his opinions as the seem well thought out, and based on experience.

I'm loosing my respect for him very fast.

Here's an article he wrote recently (excerpted). My comments in green:

Dear Readers:

The visual images and media descriptions of young men who dress like my children and yours throwing dirty diapers and rocks at police officers and burning garbage bins are vile and disgusting – in my humble opinion, a far greater chilul Shabbos than all the secular Jews driving in Yerushalayim.

I wrote about this recently. Don't claim you've seen men throwing diapers and rocks, say what you really mean. You read about it in The Jerusalem Post (more on this later).

Maybe it is just me, but throwing stones to prevent the desecration of Shabbos is about as logical as a librarian yelling, “STOP TALKING” into a powerful megaphone at the top of her lungs whenever someone whispers in the library. Or like a group of vegetarians celebrating their accomplishments by hosting a communal barbecue.

The demonstrations were purportedly called by our gedolim shlit’a in Eretz Yisroel. The large and beautiful Friday Night group Kabbolas Shabbos may have been initiated by them. However, the overall campaign to make these hafganos are unquestionably planned, prepared and led by “askanim” not gedolim.


...I don’t for one moment believe that our aged and overburdened gedolei hador shlit’a are being informed by the askonim who plan these demonstrations, what the “last 150 pages” look like – the disgusting images of burning garbage cans and pitched battles with the police that are broadcast worldwide in real time.

Right. That's because they don't read the Jerusalem Post.
Burning garbage? Do they need to be informed? You only need to have a nose, if you're anywhere near Mea Shearim. You can smell it a mile away.
Why should our Gedolim not be able to ask a few simple questions? If there demonstrations that people have been arrested, well, wouldn't that imply something had happened? You wouldn't ask? Oh I see. It's because they're getting 'aged'. Just what do you mean by that? Senile? Not quite all there? Perhaps they just think a little slow? Just what do you mean?

Honestly, I don’t think the process by which these demonstrations are planned is led by the gedolim at all.
...I had the great ze’chus of working for and with Rabbi Moshe Sherer zt’l for the last few months of his life when we started Project YES. So I am very familiar with the correct way to approach da’as Torah. Each and every time we had a question, Rabbi Sherer, who after 50 years of leading the Agudah, had the full confidence and respect of the gedolim, humbly asked for advice and then began planning.

So you know about Da'as Torah. Let's see.

I suggest that all askanim take a hiatus of at least one full generation where we stop protesting about other people’s sins and start looking inward. Maybe Mr. Krause should worry more about the hundreds of our sons and daughters who are in Israeli clubs on Friday night smoking pot, than worrying about secular Jews parking their cars on Shabbos. Maybe Mr. Krause should worry more about the pedophiles in our community who are violating children, more than those outside our community who are violating Shabbos.

Maybe you should not voice your opinion about any subject in the world unless it's the one that is the most important. So for you, it's child abuse. Since there nothing more important, maybe you should worry more about child abuse. Maybe you should never correct any behavior you consider inappropriate, because you need to worry about more important things. Maybe this whole line of thinking is ridiculous.
I've heard this type of talk too many times before. It always comes from someone who just can't stand someone else looking more pious than themselves. Just let everyone deal the problems they deal with best, and get along with your own thing.

So while all our askanim are talking a well earned rest, who is helping the Gedolim get their message out? Do you want them to personally call up the printers? Or would you prefer they just remain closeted up while we take care of ourselves? Da'as Torah! We should all ask every single question we ever have direct to the Gedolim themselves. Start making a long line by their doors (it's only for a generation). Don't trust anyone.

Those of us who have any positions of influence in our communities must speak up loud and clear and call this behavior what it is -- a disgraceful Chillul Hashem and a distortion of Torah values -- in the loudest and most unequivocal terms. I am convinced that those of us who don’t, will have to give din v'cheshbon for not having done so.

Or maybe we should should ask advice from Gedolim. Right, that's how Da'as Torah works? So who did you ask?

But now we get another article.

Dear Readers:
Did you see the ugly picture in the papers this week of the elderly charedi man in Yerushalayim shaking his fist angrily in the face of a police officer? Well, he is your spokesman and he was kind enough to represent you before millions of readers worldwide last week while you were sitting at the Shabbos Seudah singing Zemiros with your children. And the charedi young men who threw rocks and burned garbage cans regularly over the past few weeks? They were your spokesmen too. Nice.

Big difference. One is an angry man, upset at chillul shabbos. Yes, he should be representing us. Chillul shabbos should upset us. If it doesn't, then he's not your spokesman. But that's your problem. The second is a lie.

The writers and editors of the Jerusalem Post never met you nor did their millions of readers. They don’t see your Tefillah and Chesed, the respect you show your parents, and the dignified way you raise your children with Torah values. All they see are these hooligans.

If you don't protest chillul shabbos, they still won't see it. But the honest truth is, they are the one's who write the articles and decide whether to describe demonstrators as such, or as a violent mob. All the dancing around won't help anyone here. You didn't see otherwise, you weren't there. All you did was take an article in the Jerusalem Post at face value, believed everything it said, and now you come with your complaints.

If you are as horrified and heartbroken as I am that this is the case, now is the time to do something. It is rather simple. Just fire them. How? By writing a letter to the editors of Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post saying that these hooligans don’t speak for you. That might not completely do the job, but it is a great first step.

Let's not forget here all about how Da'as Torah works. You ask and you humbly accept. So tell us please, who did you ask? Don't you realize that you are liable to create a far bigger chillul Hashem than anyone? don't you think a decision like this should have been taken at least in consultation with someone bigger than yourself?

The dynamics of Eretz Yisroel politics are complicated. They come with years baggage, and if you don't live here, or have lived here, I don't believe you can expected to grasp the basics of the conflicts. That being so, your interference makes things worse. You proudly declare to the secular newspapers that you don't have the same values as Eretz Yisroel shomrei Torah uMitzvos. That's something they will be only too delighted to here. I hate to say it, but soon you'll see exactly what they decide to do with voice - and it won't be to your liking at all.

Let’s finally get these violent hooligans fired as our spokespeople.

Let's get rid of you as our self appointed spokesman.