[Avodah] Chillul HaShem when NJ are the observers

[Meir Shinnar]

WRT spitting at churches etc as "minhag avoseinu", we should separate out two separate issues that I think have been confounded.

1) Did minhag avoseinu include expressions of revulsion at Christianity?  there, I think there is good evidence that there was such a minhag,  conditioned by what someone cited Rav Tendler as a Pavlovian response to centuries of persecution as well as theological issues.  whether such expressions are still necessary/appropriate today is something that can be argued.  For those  us who follow the Seride Esh's positon that the Meiri's approach is the binding halacha, this minhag would not be appropriate - but RZS is right at the existence of such a minhag


2) Did minhag avoseinu ever include letting the object of revulsion KNOW about the expression - as, in the current issue under discussion is the problem - that not only are people discretely spitting and expressing their revulis, but spitting directly and onto people? This was the main foocus of the discussion - not how an individual thinks or acts in private - but what he does to others.

I think that it absolutely clear that there was never such a minhag.  One never expressed the  revulsion so that the object would perceive it. 
One can argue about the reason - but it is clear that it was not the minhag - and therefore one can NOT claim that one is following the minhag

The discussion here  has focused on hillul hashem, and for those of us who follow the Meiri, the notion of hillul hashem does apply fairly naturally - as one  views oneself as part of a more generalized community of moral and religious individuals (in addition to being part of am hanivchar..)

Another  reason is, of course, the issue of danger.    On a simplistic level, it is the danger to the individual - and one can argue about, for those who truly believe in it, one is allowed to assume the danger ("mesirat nefesh"). Today, such danger is small (even if caught by the police, the punishment is not very severe.  I think underlying what happened in Israel is this perception that it is safe - and therefore one SHOULD express the revulsion publicly (and I sense that this underlies RZSs position - if expressing the revulsion is a minhag, and it now can be done in public safely - it should be, and is even, in RZS's terms, a kiddush hashem showing one's commitment.

There, is however, another danger - a communal danger to the entire community.  there is a category of things that are assur or muttar mishum evah - and it is hard to think of something that will generate more evah in the Christian community than Jews spitting on their religious sympbols/functionaries.  This is not an immediate danger to the individual spiitting - but it is a major one to the entire community - that has to respond vigorously  It seems absolutely clear that this action of public spitting is assur mishum evah  - and one could even  make a reasonable argument that those who are spitting may have the status of a mosser - as they endanger klal yisrael


Meir Shinnar