1. In our Israeli reality, many things happen every week or two: terrorist attacks, a fatal accident, shaming, a prime minister going to jail, a prime minister's wife being accused of disgraceful disrespect for employees. There is no shortage of it.
The fatal accident on Route 402. I was sitting at home at the time of the accident. Everything was still vague, the news channels were changing the report from minute to minute. The accident site was moved from Route 431 to Route 1, and with it the death toll rose.
In those moments when I understood the fatal event, I couldn't help but remember myself traveling on this line two years ago to a wedding in Bnei Brak. I remembered how busy this line was, and I thought to myself how high the probability was that the line would be packed with many children and probably also families dressed in Shabbat clothes on their way to the wedding, and instead of being happy, their relatives would receive extremely sad phone calls. And unfortunately, that was the case.
The heart hurts and is torn, and the evil thought has come true. But unfortunately there are those who still distinguish between secular and religious Haredi blood. They forget that we are all Jews and belong to one people and our enemies do not distinguish between the types of sectors. And unfortunately, seculars are less hurt by Haredi who die, and Haredi are less hurt by seculars who die. Yes, there are those who do feel pain, but less... Here is a problem that must be addressed at the root.
For some reason, I don't think many people understand the seriousness of this.
2. Speaking of painlessness, Egged published an ad that did not mention the names of the dead, while supposedly referring to the dead as a "black bloc." After the ad was published, my initial reaction was anger. I found it extremely outrageous. I felt the urge to write a column, but before I could even utter a word, secular rabbis such as Shelly Yachimovich were quickly assigned to the defense. In my opinion, this was a welcome move.
But wait a minute... I thought to myself. With all due respect to Yachimovich's joining, perhaps we were too quick to draw conclusions, perhaps this is a human error, or more accurately, "common human idiocy," which is why we make quite a few mistakes and why thinking is not our strong suit. We shouldn't immediately draw conclusions.
In fact, this is our main problem, that we have become an insensitive shaming nation, with social media as its legal system. It is impossible for anyone who has Facebook and starts writing ridiculous posts without any evidence or facts to be a "media person", anyone who posts becomes a judge, and his responders are their own lawyers.
Even after the fatal accident on line 402, I didn't rush to follow the crowd and tell stories about that "Maise's" driver, like: 'I also drove on this line once and the driver drove like a madman, but actually I'm not sure it was him at all'...
Well, well, apparently sticking to the facts doesn't really "wink" at everyone. Let me clarify my position: In my opinion, every person is innocent until proven guilty. And gentlemen, we are not the judges, leave the judgment to those who are responsible for judging who is right and who is not.
3. To illustrate my point, I will refer to Mrs. Sara Netanyahu.
For some time now, rumors have been circulating - allegations of inappropriate and immoral behavior by the wife towards the Tabernacle workers. While Sarah Netanyahu was slandered from all sides, and became a hated woman and a punching bag, I sat on the sidelines and did not accuse her of anything, not even in my thoughts. I am not a judge, and in my eyes, until proven otherwise, she is innocent and what has been said about her is a fabrication.
We must internalize that not everyone judged on Facebook is guilty. The shaming phenomenon has long since surpassed the limits of imagination, to the point where today it seems that everyone on the street has to be worried that someone will 'get mad' at them and post nonsense online, thus making them the talk of the day.
There is a limit to stupidity. This week, shaming reached new heights when a photo of a soldier and a woman who dared to put their feet on the seat on a bus was released, "mercifully spared," and thus became "wanted." I don't think it's right, even though their feet were resting on a backpack that was placed on the seat (look a little closer at the small details before drawing conclusions). But in my opinion, someone here crossed the line when they took their picture.
Hence the calls to harm them. The road was very short. Yes, yes, harming them! , Every person with an iPhone takes out and takes a picture, judges and passes sentence in a matter of seconds with zero thought about the consequences. If once the shaming was only at the level of the late Bracha, and even caused his suicide, today it may harm not only people against whom someone has something personal, but each of us "just because it comes". .
I'm not exaggerating. We can't know how cruel the shaming we'll do will be, and know where we've crossed the line.
Did someone say, "You shall judge your neighbor with justice"?
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