[Avodah] Kamtza /Bar Kamtza

[Joseph Kaplan]

"Response to a piece on Kamtza /Bar Kamtza:
The interesting question to me is whether there is self-awareness. If
your analysis of R. Zechariah b. Avkulas is correct, was he aware of the
deeper personality issue (paralysis of inappropriate humility) or did he
convince himself that the reasons he gave for his inaction(Offering up a
blemished animal could lead future generations to say that this is
permitted, and killing Bar Kamta could lead to a belief that blemishing a
sacrificial animal is punishable by death) were his true drivers, I would
suspect that it?s the former and, if so, wonder how you convince anybody to
step outside themselves and realize that they are rationalization a deeper
personality issue. This is especially true for leaders who are put on a
pedestal IMHO. Thoughts?”

I think Joel hits the nail in his penultimate sentence. You probably can’t convince anyone of a personality issue in the moment; it probably takes serious therapy. And this is especially true of a leader. So you have to be careful about giving to much deference to the pedestal and, indeed, ignore when the situation demands and, if necessary, remove  from positions of power the person making the inappropriate decision. I used to blame RZVA for the churban, but in this regard he’s behind two groups of chachamim: those who attended the party and were silent when Bar Kamtza was insulted and those who were silent when RZBA made his decision and didn’t take whatever actions were necessary to ensure that such detrimental decisions were not permitted to stand.
 
J