Though I've received dozens of comments through my email, no one has commented here yet. Since my hope is that this post might encourage some thoughtful conversation, I'm taking the unusual step of sending the first comment myself - perhaps that will spark some of you to reflect here, or to use the piece for generating meaningful conversation in your own community.
I've been thinking a lot about these boys, appreciative that one friend challenged my harsh decree - chillul Hashem - which came from a place of not wanting to just let them off the moral hook even though they are clearly reflecting their parents and teachers. I shared with another friend the fantasy that if the boys and their elders could see a film of what had occurred, not showing the pants I was wearing which would put me on the other side of righteousness in their eyes, how would they view this behavior? Head covered against the morning cold, I would look much more like them, and without the context of where I had just come from and what I had just been doing - full-throated davening with a tallis - would their eyes widen in horror at this attack? How can we work at crossing this divide? I ache for the soul of our people.
Though I've received dozens of comments through my email, no one has commented here yet. Since my hope is that this post might encourage some thoughtful conversation, I'm taking the unusual step of sending the first comment myself - perhaps that will spark some of you to reflect here, or to use the piece for generating meaningful conversation in your own community.
I've been thinking a lot about these boys, appreciative that one friend challenged my harsh decree - chillul Hashem - which came from a place of not wanting to just let them off the moral hook even though they are clearly reflecting their parents and teachers. I shared with another friend the fantasy that if the boys and their elders could see a film of what had occurred, not showing the pants I was wearing which would put me on the other side of righteousness in their eyes, how would they view this behavior? Head covered against the morning cold, I would look much more like them, and without the context of where I had just come from and what I had just been doing - full-throated davening with a tallis - would their eyes widen in horror at this attack? How can we work at crossing this divide? I ache for the soul of our people.