And it happens again.
Someone is doing something terrible, and this 'someone' comes from a certain sector that I also happen to belong to, and in this case - the affiliation is not just to the sector: we are from the same city and even the same neighborhood. It didn't help that I don't know the man and have never heard his name. Now I am expected to fend off waves of attack that see me and my friends as guilty.
There is no norm more repugnant to me than that every time an ultra-Orthodox person is arrested following some criminal incident, all ultra-Orthodox people must immediately apologize. But this time, in this shocking case, despite the fact that I have nothing to do with the matter, and despite the understanding that no one in the world can or has the right to come to me with a complaint, I have a strong need to stand up and say: My hand did not shed the blood.
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The Torah teaches us in the parsha of a beheaded heifer that if a body is found outside the city and the murderer is not known, the elders and dignitaries of the nearby city must come and conduct an unusual ceremony that involves beheading a heifer with a shovel, and then say with a congregation: Our hands did not shed this blood.
And the question is almost inevitable: Why should we suspect them of having spilled the beans? Moreover, even if the murderer came from their city, how does this have anything to do with them?
Wires and wires of excuses have been made about this basic question, but today I realized that I finally understood for myself the need to stand up and say: "Our hand has not been spilled.".
Unapologetic: We are not them
The episode of the beheaded cart and the proclamation of the elders includes two different aspects: One is the shock that erupts when it becomes clear that from among our midst a man emerged whose soul is so cruel, and who is capable of painting things that even a Gentile would not expect.
The soul feels the need to rebel and say we had no part in this, the problem was out of our hands.
However, there is another aspect, directed at those righteous people who act out of pure hatred, and in Beit Shemesh there is no shortage of such, which I find offensive. These people behave as if their front yard were not filled with human filth and other scum and a breeding ground for shame.
They take advantage of every instance in which an ultra-Orthodox person has committed an injustice, and immediately demand that the entire ultra-Orthodox community stand in line and apologize for its existence. For these people too, we need to stand up and declare: "Our hands have not been spilled.".
No one has the right to come to the entire public demanding an apology when it is about the act of an individual who does not testify to the whole. These people should be told: "Go to your own yards, to your own homes, and see how much filth you can find before you come to judge others.".
Billys Model 2014
And for the body of the act. I have deep sorrow for the soul of a Jew who was corrupted and passed away, when he acted with such cruelty even against an uncircumcised man.
About a hundred years ago, the Beilis trial took place in Russia. The trial accused the Jew Beilis of murdering a Ukrainian boy near Kiev. Beilis was put on trial even though the authorities had information that a woman named Vera Chibiryak was the murderer.
After several years of a complex and difficult trial, Jews from all over the world united in an effort on Beilis' behalf, including rebbes and rabbis, including the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Shalom Dober Schneerson and rabbis from across the United States.
One of the rabbis was the Rebbe of Chortkov, who, in a meeting with the expert attorney representing Beilis, Rabbi Yaakov Maza, quoted to him the statement of the Sages: "You are called Adam, and none of the nations of the world are called Adam." He explained that when a Gentile falls into trouble, he stands alone, whereas when a Jew encounters difficulty, the entire nation stands and mobilizes for him as one person.
This is the meaning of 'you are called Adam' – that is, in the singular.
The trial reopened, during which the prosecutor sought to prove that the Jewish Talmud incites against Gentiles and sees Gentiles as inferior beings. The evidence? The aforementioned sage's statement: "You are called Adam, and none of the nations of the world are called Adam.".
Rabbi Maza asked for permission to speak and presented the Rebbe's interpretation - and added: The proof of the truth of the interpretation is before us - "Here all the Jews of the world are mobilized for one Beilis from Russia. If it were a Gentile, who would be interested in it except his acquaintances?"
In the end, Bayliss is acquitted, but from the historical trial we are left with one great truth: We are called human because we are all one people, mobilized together for each other. This people has signs, and the first of them is that we are merciful.
When a Jew is capable of committing such a cruel act, it becomes clear that he represents neither his people nor himself, and all that remains to be hoped is that this act will not bring danger to other Jews, and that the desire for revenge that also stirred among us following the murder of the three boys will not be translated into actions by our neighbors.
