One of the questions I receive most often is about Rabbis and community support for frum fraudsters, many people think that the frum community’s support of those engaged in fraud is one of incredible hypocrisy and this can often lead to a major crisis of faith. How can I be frum, yet look to the leaders for guidance, when they themselves support corruption and are willing to receive money from fraudsters?
I too have felt the hand of the yetzer harah pushing me towards crisis of faith for faulty reasons such as fraud in the frum community. It’s a tough thing to deal with, but once you realize that most of those perpetuating the fraud are tremendous do untold amounts of chesed and give lots of money away to tzedaka, you begin to realize that the growing voice of hatred toward to the frum community is merely the yetzer harah trying to make us think that fraud is hypocrisy. In reality, without fraud (which is considered halachically ok because stealing from goyim who steal from us by making us pay for public school which we would never send our kids to) many frum institutions would not be able to exist.
Think about all of the local shteeblach that only exist because of the property tax loophole, that allows one to save thousands of dollars by merely having a shul in their basement. Do you realize how much money is put back into frum institutions from that loophole alone. Where would those poor Monsey families go to if not for those who have tremendous mesiras nefesh in building multi family homes without specific permission from the anti-semitic local government. What about those in real estate who have tremendous mesiras nefesh by building section 8 qualified homes for kollel families?
Unfortunately, there are many who to are not willing to admit their self hatred and call these baalei chesed hypocrites, not only do they point fingers of hypocrisy, but they blame Daas Torah for supporting these people who are the back bone of the frum community. It is if they don’t realize that in order to be a big baal tzedaka you must skirt around the law to do it. None of these people are violating Hashems law, all of these people are sacrificing in order to help klal yisrael.
Please stop pointing fingers and saying that fraud and hypocrisy has led to your crisis of faith. It’s sad that you cannot see through your self hatred to the beauty of these individuals.
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