Just Like You

I ended last week’s column by stating that the “work that needs to be done in healing our rifts is finding ways for Americans to come together, to meet and talk, and to see each other as they are.” Now I’d like to follow up with some further reflections on that theme and a relevant personal experience.

One day last week, this text appeared in the spam message box of my cellphone: “It’s very difficult to discern if today’s essay is a product of achzariyus (cruelty) or ignorance. Either way it’s unfit for print.” Without even checking, I knew who had written it. They’re actually the words of a frum Jew, someone who runs a chinuch institution for tinokos shel beis rabban.

For some background, much of the feedback I receive to what I write here is positive, but certainly not all, and when people register their upset, I sometimes reach out to them via email, offering to talk about the issue they’ve raised.

Well, one Erev Shabbos  several years ago, someone sent an email to my address at the magazine with a subject line that read “Krume Deois.” Intrigued, I read on.  “Bnei Torah are not impressed with a phantom gadol baTorah, nor do I trust your ability to assess one, present to one, or understand his response. Your advanced vocabulary and terrific writing skills have not extended toward a mature understanding of this world or on how our heilige Torah views it. You blindly trust lies and allegations thrown by those who hate morality and you defend media who work to advance the gimmel chamurois. Please stop writing and rather attend a shiur in Chumash Rashi to be mechazek your emunah.”