This one speaks for itself

I find it very hard to work without some background noise. From what I learned in Psychology many years ago, this is an adolescent phenomenon that I should have outgrown decades ago, but it seems I never did.

So, with the coming of the Nine Days, I switched from my favorite New York Oldies station to my favorite New York News station. (Yes, I know I'm in Israel but old habits die hard) That means I was listening Thursday as the news broke. First it was an FBI sweep of corrupt politicians. Then suddenly the word "Rabbis" started to pop up. Within hours it was clear that a number of frum people, including 5 Rabbis, were being rounded up as part of a major corruption scandal, including money laundering and even organ trafficking. (Here's one of the earliest articles.)

Of course everyone is proclaiming their innocence, and we don't know who is guilty and who isn't. But I find it hard to believe that they are all pure and innocent, and more importantly, the chillul Hashem damage is already done. One of the early on-line headlines read "Rabbis as crime bosses." And, not only did it quickly blow away the news of an American who had been helping al Qaeda and shooting at U.S. troops in Pakistan, when the imam of his mosque was asked about it, he was able to respond that you can't blame the mosque or Moslems any more than you can blame Synagogues or Jews for those Rabbis that just got arrested!

It's not a coincidence that this happened during the Nine Days. Not only is this the time of year when many bad things have befallen Am Yisrael, but it is another reminder from Hashem that we are still doing the sins that brought about the destruction!

Will this wake us up? Will we stop wasting our time blaming everyone else and start putting our own house in order? I would like to believe so, but past performances make me fear that it will not be so, and I fear for what else God has in store for us until we finally come to our senses.