[Avodah] "The Great Miracle of the Volcano Shutdown "

[Prof. Levine]

At 06:20 AM 5/3/2010, Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer wrote:
>I have a real problem with these stories in general, and I guess this
>case really underscores why. Just imagine the other stories that are not
>being circulated on the internet. Young mother/child/groom/ whoever on
>waiting list, desperate for transplant, the right liver finally available
>and s/he finally on top of the list - but could not fly to Belgium due
>to the volcano and, r"l, passed away...

>I happen to think we in our generation, and especially from an
>educational standpoint our young people, are more in need of examples
>of tziduk hadin and moving forward in life despite disappointment,
>loss and suffering, than we are in need of further gushes of chicken
>soup for our already entitlement-ridden souls. Because this genre has
>become so ubiquitous, and we are encouraging people to identify (as if
>they could!) `hashgacha pratis' in their lives, I fear we are weakening
>rather than strengthening the kind of emuna needed to make it through the
>real lives most of us lead, the ones in which people die, illness hurts,
>and hopes are dashed, at least sometimes....

>I don't know, I just feel sometimes we in the frum community live
>in a haze of wishful thinking we have allowed and sometimes even
>encouraged. I don't mean to be a downer but to say, let's recognize
>and fix our problems rather than distracting ourselves from them. For
>every heartwarming story circulated I'd like to see at least one story
>that calls us to action, and I mean action to take responsibility for
>our dysfunctionalities...

I could not agree more with this response. These sorts of stories
(which are almost never verified) are not, IMO, a plus for Yahadus.
Is our belief in Hashem and the truth of his Torah so weak that
we need a constant diet of such stories to prop it up. I think
that these stories fall within the general framework of what
the writer of the letter in this week's Hamodia Magazine (See
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/hamodia/yissachar_zevulun.pdf )
labeled "Push Button Judaism."

YL