Friday, October 23, 2020

Selfish Deceptions

Photo for illustration purposes only (TOI)
I wish I could say that this kind of thing is an anomaly. I used to think so. But I see it again and again. It is not an anomaly at all. It is almost a way of life. Maybe not for all or even most. But for a heck of a lot of them.

The idea that a group of religious looking people will take matters into their own hands because they don’t like the rules they must live by, must be a religious doctrine for a lot of Chasidic people. It isn’t just Satmar. It isn’t just Belz. Or Vizhnitz, Or Skvere. Other Charedim have done it too. As have Religious Zionist Jews, secular Jews and non Jews. There are a lot of people that don’t like playing by the rules.

But it just seems that the lion’s share of violators are from large Chasidic groups like those I mentioned. It seems like almost every day a story like this from the Times of Israel pops up. I don't know for certain if they were Chasidim, But I would not be too surprised if they were: 

Police on Wednesday dispersed an ultra-Orthodox wedding held at an unexpected location — the Arab village of Kafr Qasim, east of Tel Aviv.

The reason for the choice in locale was because the bride and groom wanted to avoid detection while holding a wedding that violated coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings

Under the partial lockdown in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, weddings, like other outdoor events, are capped at 20 people. 

An eyewitness… said the revelers played Arabic music over the loudspeaker in an effort to blend into the surroundings… 

The wedding was reportedly held at a venue owned by a Kfar Qasim resident and video of the event showed dozens of guests not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. 

If they can get away with having a wedding with 10,000 guests, they are going to do it. If they can get away with opening up schools secretly by using side doors, they are going to do it. If they are prevented from having a wedding in Bnei Brak, they will go to an Arab city and have it there. 

I have no issue with Israeli Arabs. I have an issue with the dishonesty and deceptive lengths supposedly religious Jews will go to get what they want. Which now appears doing something like this 

Even if they don’t believe what health experts are telling them and consider government implementation of restrictive measures unnecessary and unfair, they are breaking the law. Which they apparently also do not much care about. Nor do they believe they may be spreading the virus to the more vulnerable among them. What about those of us that do care and believe the experts? They don’t care about us either. At least not as much as they do about themselves. 

Why are they like this? Why is it so easy for them to lie and deceive when it suits their purposes? 

Thankfully they were caught: 

The police announced in a statement that they broke up the wedding and fined the owner of the venue NIS 5,000 ($1,480) after accidentally coming across the gathering while in the area on an unrelated operation. 

I just hope no one gets sick or dies because of what they did.