I don't know what happened.

An Arab boy was found murdered in the forest of Jerusalem early this morning.

So far that is all I know.

I do not know who murdered the boy. I do not know why that person murdered the boy.

A young boy was murdered, and that is horrible, for whatever reason, by whomever it was done.

Another thing I do know is that the public has no idea yet who is responsible for this, or why.

Yet, many, be it politicians, media or just regular people, were very quickly jumping on the assumption that it was perpetrated by "settlers" as an act of revenge for the kidnap and murder of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali.

And many others have been assuming that the murder was committed by other Arabs, be it family in an honor killing or other Arabs as part of a family feud, or other Arabs as part of some criminal activity.

And I have even seen some assume that this is some sort of blood libel - Arabs killed the boy and made it look like a "settler" revenge plot just to turn the media and public momentum away from backing Netanyahu's efforts to dismantle Hamas, and turn the blame on the evil settlers.

The one thing in common is that nobody yet knows, yet people are making assumptions. The problem is not making assumptions - not really. he problem is that they then publicize these assumptions, logical or illogical as they may be, and throw blame and accusations around based on them.

Another thing I find interesting - in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali, so many people were writing all over the internet and in newspapers and in chat groups, about how necessary it is to avenge the deaths of the three boys, how we must wipe out Gaza, how we must flatten PA Hebron, yadda yadda yadda - and then when the accusations start coming about the murder of an innocent boy (whether the accusations are baseless or not), suddenly everybody says a Jew would never do that!

Let's let the security forces do their jobs (according to reports they responded very quickly to the information when it was first reported), find who did this, and then we will know who to blame and what to fix.

Adding to the list, Rav Ovadia and Rav Sherman have both announced that the recent tragedies, specifically the recent fires in the Carmel Forest are the result of improper judges. They referred to psukim and quotes from the Gemara as proof.

Besides for the fact that the list is continuing to grow, so basically what are we supposed to do or think to fix it, it makes me uncomfortable when we blame others for things. Yes, the gemara says inappropriate judges are the cause of x, y and z. Chilul Shabbos is the cause of a,b, and c. Laxity in issues of tzniyus is the cause of h, i and j. Does that mean it is everyone else's laxity that is causing the problems? Did God want us to inspect everyone else's behavior?

Perhaps we should be less concerned about laying blame at everyone else's doors using the gemara as our proof that it is their fault, and more concerned with figuring out what we, the frum community, the frum people, can do to improve and what lessons we can learn for ourselves from these tragedies. If it is due to inappropriate judges, maybe there is something wrong with the judges we appoint to our batei din, or maybe there is somethign lacking in the level of respect we give to them. Chillul Shabbos - maybe we are lax in certain aspects of chillul shabbos. Tzniyus? bittul torah? you name it and I am surwe we can find ways to apply the issues of laxity to that realm.

Yes, of course the gemara is right that chillul shabbos is the cause, not enough love of the mitzvos and Hashem is the cause, inappropriate judges is the cause, tzniyus and pritzus is the cause. But it is our judge to inspect our ways and behaviors and figure out where to improve, rather than to inspect other people's ways and behaviors.