There is a Ramban on last week’s Parsha, (Korach - 16:4), that speaks about Aaron’s silent reaction to Korach’s challenge of Moshe’s leadership. He states that Aaron did not protest one word during the entire event. He instead just allowed Korach to continue in his self aggrandizement. Aaron held his peace and deferred to Moshe.
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch in his Sefer on Chumash uses this Ramban as a metaphor to show that there are times to protest and times not to. Protest is not always the answer. Protest for its own sake can and will often be counter-productive.
Rabbi Sternbuch is one of the leaders of the Edah HaCharedis. They have called for massive protests against the scheduled homosexual parade in Jerusalem that will ‘shake the foundations’ of Jerusalem. In light of his interpretation of the Ramban, I think it is a bit incongruous of him to be supportive of that. Of course one could answer that even if there is a right and wrong time to protest… this is the right time. But is it? Obviously, as stated here before, the Gerrer Rebbe doesn’t think so.
But now it seems the Sefardi leadership, and rabbinic leaders in the world of Yeshivos don’t think so either. I guess they must have read my blog on this issue.
The reasons given are a bit different than mine. The claim is that they do not want to expose their students to this lifestyle at all and massively protesting it would surely do so. But I wonder if that is the sole reason? It isn’t as if a Yeshiva student doesn’t know that such behavior exists. It is after all mentioned in the Torah. And one would have to be blind, deaf , deaf and dumb not to know what is going on in the world. Yeshivos have in fact had incidences of homosexual behavior taking place amongst its students right on their premises. And what about homosexual abuse stories that keep popping up in Yeshivos like Torah Temimah?
I can’t help but believe that there are other compelling reasons along the lines I have stated: That massive protests will be counter productive and could lead to violence. Innocent people could get hurt. Over-zealous protesters may commit violent crimes in the name of Kavod Shem Shamyim, in the name of God, and thereby creating an even bigger Chilul HaShem than the one they are protesting! On top of that they would be taking away valuable time from Torah learning.
Whatever the reasons are, I salute and support this decision to avoid the protests by these rabbinic leaders… and wonder where Rabbi Sternbuch is?
