Taking Oneself Out of the Klal

There is a halacha in Pirkei Avos (yes it's in the mishna, Hillel said it, and it's a very explicit order, not a suggestion) that tells us one should not separate oneself from the Tzibur.

Many of us in the anti-Establishment blog world have been upset and writing about the Chareidi world and how it has hi-jacked Torah Judaism. Many Chumras have been pushed on the rest of us because the Chareidiim insist on them, most notably that of "Glatt" kosher meat (and chicken, though I'm at a loss to explain that one...), we see more and more black hats in shuls, even Modern Orthodox ones, and more and more people in that world are content to allow their rabbis and their "gedolim" to do the thinking for them.

But there is something we of the mainstream/left leaning elements of Orthodoxy have to remember: We are the majority in the Orthodox world. The Chassidim are, and always have been, perfectly happy to stay in their little worlds without pushing their way of life on the rest of us. That's great and I admire that they have adhered to their set of rules as well as they have while largely dismissing the rest of the world. The rest of the Chareidim are pretty much the Yeshiva/Yeshivish world, which is not particularly large. By doing the things they have been doing, from "Gedolim" worship to being chumra happy to merrily putting people they don't like in Cherem in order to prevent those people's "dangerous" ideas from spreading in the Chareidi world, they have essentially been taking themselves out of the Klal. They are the ones who are being Poresh Min HaTzibur - separating themselves from the rest of the Jewish Nation.

I say: Great! Let them separate themselves. What do the rest of us care? Leave us alone, do your thing, and go as crazy as you want to. Just give the rest of us who are happy to follow halacha without all the Nareshkeit of Chumras on top of Chumras, over more Chumras the courtesy being allowed to be who we are. Allow us to have non-glatt meat if we want it. Allow us to dress in a tznius manner without looking like shapeless lumps. You want to think we are yet another "non-kosher: form of Judaism? Great! Just leave us alone and do your thing.

Bottom line: The Chareidi world has taken itself out of the Tzibur, out of the mainstream of Klal Yisrael. It is now up to the rest of us to continue upon the path of Lo Sasur Yamin O Smol - to not deviate right or left, and continue upholding Jewish law without living in a Taliban-like fundamentalist society.