The Rabbonim of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah are getting blasted all over the place.
I am not their lawyer [they probably couldn't afford my fees]. But I do want to make two points.
1] One can disagree without being disrespectful. There is a tremendous amount of disrespect going around. One who is מבזה תלמיד חכם is חייב נידוי with all that entails. The Internet is a venue that breeds disrespect and as Torah Jews we must be very vigilant not to fall in with the current form of discourse.
2] If very knowledgeable people who have spent their whole lives learning Torah and have mastered Shas and Poskim say something - it is worthwhile trying to understand them them.
They made it exceedingly clear that what has been going on is of great consternation. We feel the pain of all Jews. We daven for them. We are one people. We truly care. We want the best for everybody. But the rally was not conducive to the environment a Torah Jew should find himself. That is their opinion. They are CERTAINLY entitled to an opinion and everyone is free to follow or not follow their directives. No coercion.
Let us understand: There was not ONE speaker who represented Torah. Not one. A Christian Pastor? Yes. A Muslim woman who claimed that Islam loves Jews [😲😲]? Yes. An Actress? Yes. Two secular singers? Yes. Mixed men and women [when many Poskim hold that public events must be separate - מדאורייתא, as per Succah 51]? Yes. Kol Isha? Yes. Non-Jewish and left wing politicians? Yes. This clearly did not meet any standards of what the Torah community wants to be part of. Many would argue that the value of achdus overrides all of the problems. OK. But that is not their opinion. It was also not their opinion that this rally would actually save lives. If it would then for Pikuach Nefesh they would have said otherwise. But they obviously didn't think so.
Why can't they have an opinion which again is based on decades of learning Torah? All together among them you have HUNDREDS OF YEARS worth of learning. And they all agreed that this even was not appropriate for Torah Jews. Unanimous. Maybe they were in error and Rav Schachter and the other Rabbonim who attended the rally were correct. Who knows. I am a nobody and my personal opinion on the matter is worthless. Maybe אלו ואלו דברי א-הים חיים. But this verbal violence against these Rabbonim is out of line. Humility is called for. People who are certified ignoramuses in literally every area of Torah have strongly held opinions on matters where they clearly have no qualifications. They just read a lot of twitter and social media and that is how they develop opinions. A veritable Phd. in ignorance and shallowness. One should try to have an עין טובה and be מלמד זכות instead of bashing. If one does want to feel resentful - maybe it should be directed at the organizers who went to great lengths to make sure that this event would not be appropriate for all segments of Klal Yisrael [not that this was there intention - but it was the outcome].
Here is the letter:
