חטאתי
As I have reviewed my recent writings in light of the abundance of feedback I've received, I would like to apologize for two matters.
1) My preamble to the ad published in the Jewish Link detailed the drama that led up to its publishing (as I understood it). This allowed some to make the incorrect inference that the RCBC as an entity sought to censor my writings. That is not correct and I apologize for contributing to that misunderstanding. It is correct that some Rabbonim, upon seeing an early version of the article, advised against its publication.
2) I recognize that my passion to find a healthier and happier place for our children and the frustration of watching what I consider to be terribly misguided efforts, all poured out in this space in my critique of a communication from a local school. Whereas I fully stand behind the substance of my remarks, I apologize for including the name of the school, for not giving recognition to the supreme efforts of the stellar educators/administrators on behalf of their students and for contributing to a tone and style of dialogue that is not appropriate for our community, especially in matters of such seriousness.
I just went through the pain of creating another Goggle account just to post this.
ReplyDeleteI am blown away by this Gershon. As someone who sometimes agrees and often disagrees with your views, one thing I have always admired is the strength you exhibit in being willing to speak on behalf of the most vulnerable in our community. But you also have many who don't like your style, feeling that you are too abrasive and are too quick to advocate for radical change. This is clearly the trait that we find in many successful politicians.
But what you have done here is unlike almost anybody else with your personality. You have humbled yourself and publicly admitted that you could have done better. Not backing off the message you feel the need to deliver but admitting that you could have approached things in a more sensitive and thoughtful way. That is a great mussar for all of us coming so soon after Yom Kippur.
I can only hope that some of the people who have posted such awful things about you on social media this past week do their own cheshbon hanefesh and acknowledge publicly what you did here. Consider me really impressed. I now have even more respect for you and everything you are doing. Moadim L'simcah!
Yasher koach, Gershon. May there be Shalom in our communities, the receptable for brachos from Hashem.
ReplyDeleteHome run Gershon. I'm sure you don't view it this way, but this is the best thing you've ever written. And I say that as someone who thinks that you normally write brilliantly. Yashar Kochacha!
ReplyDeleteAll the decrees are really coming from Hashem.
ReplyDeletePlease let us see Hashem’s rachamim in our current matzav. So many things we are experiencing now are somewhat reminiscent of what happened to the Jews in the ghettos before they were sent to concentration camps or killed in the ghettos - but Hashem is doing all this now with great compassion.
The Jews in ghettos could not have large gatherings for simchos or otherwise. They could not daven together in large groups. They waited on lines to get their food. Levayos were conducted quickly with few people, etc.
Although we may be restricted as to where we can go, baruch Hashem we are not afraid of a bullet in our back, chas v’shalom. We may not be able to have children in shul, but baruch Hashem there are many, many Jewish children in our homes. We may not be able to all dance with a Torah this Simchas Torah, but baruch Hashem, every shul has many sifrei Torah and there are no “scraps of siddur, bullet holes, bloodstains on the floor.”
Listen to this song and read the lyrics below – and let’s turn to Hashem on Shabbos and Yom Tov and thank Him for His compassion, and at the same time daven with all our heart and soul for the yeshuah THAT CAN ONLY COME FROM HASHEM! Thanking Hashem can bring nissim v’niflaos, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1nD3evC0Vs
The Man from Vilna from Journeys
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
From evening until morning, filling up the Shul with song
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to clutch close to our hearts
In their place we held the future of a past so torn apart
We ran as one towards the shul, our spirits in a trance
And we tore apart the barricade, in defiance we would dance
But the scene before our eyes shook us to the core
Scraps of siddur, bullet holes, bloodstains on the floor.
Turning to the eastern wall, we looked on in despair
There’d be no scrolls to dance with, the holy ark was bare
Then we heard two children crying, a boy and girl whom no one knew
And we realized that no children were among us but those two.
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
From evening until morning, filling up the Shul with song
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to gather in our arms
In their place we held those children, the Jewish people would live on.
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
From evening until morning, filling up the shul with song
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to clutch an hold up high
In their place we held those children, Am Yisrael Chai”.
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
From evening until morning, filling up the shul with song
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to gather in our arms
In their place we held those children, the Jewish people would live on
Am Yisrael Chai
The Jewish people would live on.
The Jewish people WILL live on.
PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH OTHERS BEFORE SHABBOS/YOM TOV.
The first part was a understandable clarification. The second was an apology. Apologies don't help with your enemies, and are not needed by your friends. Tone and style are in the ears of the beholder. I have seen several doctors, so eager for the limelight, happily characterizing anyone who agrees with them as fools, murderers, or worse. I've not seen any apology from them, nor do I anticipate any forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteWe all want civil intercourse, just like we all want peace in Israel, but it does no good when the goodwill is entirely on one side. To apologize in this climate just plays to the type of people who just quarantined your kids. I wouldn't do it again.
*disagrees, should be.
Delete