For These I Cry - Moshe Rabbenu's Existence and Leadership Came From Not Giving Up on the Underdog

Please be sure to read the entire blog post before responding. As I have learned, there are pros and cons to both sides. And too much "unknown." The larger issue I am raising and addressing is a solution for the neshamas of those who will likely be lost in the longer-term.

Parshat Shemot

by Rabbi Avi Billet

When one reads through Parshat Shemot, one can easily become enamored by the background story that produced Moshe. Whether it’s the defiance of the Pharaoh’s decree in his being placed in a basket, rather than thrown in the water; whether it’s all the anonymous women in 2:1-10 who save him; whether it’s the fact that he ends up growing up being nursed by his own mother (with Pharaoh paying her to do so!) and then in the palace of the king, the story is incredible. And the sacrifice everyone around him is giving so that he can survive is inspiring.

Then, when we go into his stories in his early experience in Egypt and Midian, we find him standing up for a Jew being beaten by an Egyptian, then for a Jew being beaten by a Jew, then for women who were being harassed by shepherds. All victims were underdogs. According to the Midrash, what brought him to the Burning Bush was his looking out for one lost sheep! Even a sheep who can’t fend for himself is an underdog.

The Talmudic tale that claims how Moshe came to be born is even more enamoring. After Pharaoh made his decree that all boys were to be thrown in the Nile, Moshe’s parents separated, in order to prevent the birth of boys. And Miriam, their daughter, effectively said, “In preventing boys from being killed, you’re preventing girls from being born. And who knows? Maybe a boy will be born, he will survive, and be the leader to take our people out of Egypt.” So Amram and Yocheved reunited, they had a boy named Moshe, and that boy saved the Jewish people.

All those who did not give up on Moshe allowed for him to become who he became, and he in turn did not give up on those who were abandoned by those around them.

I am a rabbi of a shul. In the last few weeks I’ve been on the receiving end of a grave concern, which is facing the future of our communities. My training is not in science, but as a rabbi, my job is to listen. 

I have heard two sides in the discussions about vaccination. One side – the mainstream position – is that vaccinations have eradicated some illnesses, put other diseases at bay, and keep everyone safer. The other side is that some vaccinations are unnecessary to give to little children and others have a track record of causing what are called "vaccine injuries" in many documented cases, as proven by drug company payouts from lawsuits.

The mainstream view is well-known and needs no defense. The other view is certainly not mainstream, but I have discovered that it is much larger than “fringe.” People are genuinely afraid of vaccines and the possibility of life-altering injury. Of course all parents are obligated to do research (one need not be a doctor to do research) and make what they feel is the most informed decisions for their families. It has been made clear to me that no amount of policy-making will get those in the smaller camp to change their view, as their homework has put them in this path of believing vaccines are not the best choice for their family. (In other words, "the debate is settled" is not a good answer.)

My biggest issue in the debate concerns the character assassination done against those in the non-mainstream camp, which is most disgraceful. While there are extremists on both sides, not everyone is “extreme.” But the majority shuns the minority in a way Beit Hillel never did to Beit Shammai. This happens in very emotional issues - sometimes we forget our "middot." 

What concerns me is the immediate result, which is real and before us, as opposed to what might be a possibility, depending on the season. And what I am asking for is solutions to the following problem. 

Those who are non-conformists in this issue are faced with the reality that their healthy children are being kicked out of schools and yeshivas.

And this should be a concern for all of us.

Because here is what has happened in the aftermath of these full-sweep policy decisions.

• Hundreds of children have been thrown out of schools. 
• Families are not inviting unvaccinated children to birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs. 
• I heard a story of a rabbi who would not convert a couple, because a condition of conversion is that their children will go to day school. Since they choose not to vaccinate, and their children will not be allowed into day school, they can’t convert. 
• One colleague told me of people in his shul who normally cook food for families with a new baby, who spoke of not cooking for a family that just had a baby, who also do not vaccinate their children. 

Where will this end? Will we be asking potential suitors if they are in the not-vaccinate camp? Will potential shidduchim be called off or never introduced over this? Will families stop talking with each other, and cousins no longer be able to play or hang out together?

We are a community who has moved to the ends of the earth for drug addicts, those with alcohol addiction, people who are “Off the Derech,” Baalei Teshuva and converts (many of whom are feeling isolated and marginalized on account of their own vaccination stance), children with special needs, resource rooms for the academically challenged, making schools nut free for the child with an allergy, and many other support groups for the widows, divorcees, singles and needy.

Assuming that the reasonable people I have met are not crazy, and don't want their personal stance to become the standard for all (they are not "anti-vax," they just want free-choice in this issue), most arguments against them start with absolute character assassination, including the label in the quotes in the parentheses in this sentence. “They are murderers!” “They want my children to die!” “They brought it on themselves!” “Let them start their own schools and shuls.” “Let one of their children get sick and die so they’ll learn the lesson.” “Let them send their children to public school!”

Seriously? There is a significant difference many of us may have in so many areas in philosophy of community, fitting in, and doing what everyone else does. Now, some people think differently, and they are thrown out completely?

That was Amram’s attitude. In kowtowing to Pharaoh's decree he was destroying the potential lives of all the unborn - including females not subject to the decree and males who might avoid it through subterfuge. Not to mention that every now and then some full-sweep decrees are overturned when reconsidered on account of the wrong nature of the policy (Pharaoh had said "Every male child is to be thrown in the River" which included Egyptian male babies!)

Had it not been for Miriam, Moshe never would have been born. 

Those who are militant about this (in both directions) are demonstrating a “sinat yisrael” (hatred of one's fellow Jew) I have not seen in my lifetime. And the neshamas of many precious children are being sacrificed as a result. Who’s to say which one might become a great scholar, rabbi, leader, or otherwise, and now will not because they will not be given the education their parents were hoping for them to receive in the place they felt was best for their children?

While I do not profess to touch Moshe Rabbeinu’s radius by thousands of feet, I can learn from him to look out for the underdog. We, as a community, can not justify throwing hundreds of Jewish families out. We must find a better solution.