The very opening line uttered by the chazan on Kol Nidrei concludes with: “We give way to pray with the transgressors among us.” This is based on the Gemara (K’risus 6b): “Any fast that does not include the transgressors of Israel is not a fast.” The meaning of this is that the Jewish people are the sum of its parts. To be whole, we cannot discount any of our parts, even if they do not match the rest of the body, unseemly as they may be.
There is a well-known Torah organization (no need to mention its name, as my intention is not to focus on that institution) that recently announced its new motto as “We’re In It Together.” This new slogan began as the organization started responding to the hatred of Jews being spread by The New York Times, especially against Orthodox Jews (besides their awful bias against Israel). Of course, they are right. We need to react with force and unity.
In a letter to the executive of the organization, I applauded their efforts, but asked if they are serious about their campaign against The Times. As I have been writing, all the slogans and billboards in the world will not be as effective as a massive rally in front The Times’ headquarters. I also asked if they were serious about being “in it together”? If so, they should show that by including all sectors of Judaism in this effort, even the secular.
Unfortunately, my letter, which included a check to that organization, never reached their office – likely due to a rash of mailbox thefts taking place here in Baltimore.
My son Simcha, who I must say is a (very) thought-out young man, holds firm opinions about Chabad-Lubavitch. While he appreciates the unparalleled work they do worldwide, he nonetheless objects strenuously to their messianic reverence of the Rebbe zt”l. Moreover, he is bothered by the fact that Lubavitch always seems to be outside the mainstream of klal Yisrael, the people of Israel. They decidedly do things on their own in all their endeavors, never in concert with any other representation of Judaism.
Simcha happens to be close with a Chabad rav in Flatbush, Rabbi Yosef Vigler, giving him the opportunity to pose this question to him. Why does Chabad not participate in the activities of the rest of klal Yisrael, instead electing to take its own path and create its own ecosystem?
Rabbi Vigler’s response was quite enlightening. He told Simcha that almost all the Orthodox organizations he can think of work within Orthodox parameters and primarily serve the needs of the Orthodox community, which is laudable.
However, Rabbi Vigler pointed out, the Orthodox community is perhaps about ten percent of American Jewry. Is that “klal Yisrael”? Hardly. Chabad, he explained, works with klal Yisrael, the majority of the Jewish People. The term klal Yisrael, as used by others, is actually more exclusionary than anything Chabad can be accused of, claimed Rabbi Vigler.
That answer gave me a new appreciation for Chabad, faults and all. It also made me appreciate how Orthodox Jews, burgeoning as we are, baruch Hashem, still have a myopic vision of Jewish life. Very sadly, the majority of Jewish people have abandoned the Torah and are abandoning Jewish continuity and Jewish interests. This has indeed become the new situation that klal Yisrael faces.
When the chazan opens Kol Nidrei this year with a plea to include the transgressors, pause for a moment and think: Does that mean me? Have I been neglectful of His People? That is an awful transgression.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
