The Way It Iz

Often in life, we find ourselves asking, What if? What if I had taken that job? What if I studied harder in school? What if this decision or that outcome were slightly different? Almost exclusively, these questions are focused around how unlucky we are to be in the situation we are in. What is far less likely is the exact same thought in a positive light. Wow! Imagine where I’d be if I hadn’t been so lucky is not as common a thought.

On Sunday, The Orthodox Union held their biennial convention at the Young Israel of Woodmere. It was the final convention of outgoing President Moishe Bane, and the official election of the new administration, including new OU President and Kew Gardens Hills resident Mitch Aeder.

When I was in elementary school, every time we went on a field trip of some sort, we were reminded that when we are out in public, we have to be on our best behavior. We are not only representing ourselves and our school, but by wearing our yarmulkes on our heads, we are representing the Jewish people, and the rest of the world will see that and determine opinions of the entire am Yisrael on how we behave. I never really bought into that as a child. I saw other school trips out at the same time as our school. We all behaved pretty much the same. Part of me even assumed that other schools made the same speech to their students. “You will be representing all black children,” or “as Christians, it is your duty to uphold the blah blah blah.” I always thought it was just a way for teachers to scare us into being good so their job would be easier.

Over the last several weeks, three prominent individuals have been accused of spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric, but the outcry has been seemingly uneven. However, if you look into each instance, it becomes obvious as to why these three individuals received the outcomes they did. Spoiler: It has very little to do with anti-Semitism.

We are all taught as children that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of sin’as chinam, or baseless hatred among fellow Jews. I had always been of the opinion that this was a direct punishment from G-d. Hashem looked down on us and saw that we, as a nation, were being hateful towards one another, and as a punishment, He destroyed Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash, and sent the people into exile.

By now, the election is over, and we probably already know who has control of the Senate, the House, Governor’s Mansion, and a host of other seats up locally and nationwide. So yay! - or boo! - depending on your party affiliation. Of course, there are probably some elections that we still don’t have the results for and may not for a while now, so I think we can all agree: grrr.