The secular media is looking for religious and Haredi people who did not treat the day (Yom HaShoa) with proper respect, either via barbecuing in the park somewhere or not standing for the siren... and the religious press is looking for secular people who did not treat the day with proper respect, via playing basketball in the park or not standing for the siren or whatever.
It is good to see the annual national custom of Yom HaShoah has not been abandoned.
Like the story of the shul that every year the membership would argue whether the custom of the shul is to sit or stand when the Ten Commandments were read from the Torah. Eventually an observer said let's find the oldest guy who was a founder of the shul and ask him what the minhag is.
They locate Yankel in a nursing home somewhere and pay him a visit. The gabbai asks old Yankel if he remembers the original custom.
Yankel asks what happened in shul last week. The gabbai describes the scene - they stood up and the others screamed at them, the others remained seated and the standers screamed at them..
Yankel thought for a moment and said - that is the minhag! We fight about it every year.
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The story about the minhag of the shul being to fight and scream was, I believe, actually about whether or not to say Av HaRachamim on Shabbos Mevarchim during sefirah.
ReplyDeleteSadly true.
ReplyDeleteAl tiftach peh lasatan, but I once heard Rabbi Lamm say that someone showed him a Jewish paper printed during the Shoah and it was full of infighting.
Yes the good news is that the infighting actually used to be worse! There's a lot of hope!
ReplyDelete