Disgusting Events

Hi all (assuming anyone's still reading this!). I guess yesterday's events are bringing me back out again. I'm sure I don't need to quote any articles or link to anything. It's already quite well known.

There was a big sting operation in New Jersey, in which, among others, a bunch of Chareidi rabbis were arrested for money laundering. Now, obviously I have no sympathy for these scumbags. They broke the law AND halacha, and for that I simply say what I've been saying all along: These groups, with their chumrahs and "holier-than-thou" attitudes, are simply not frum. They disgust me. This is a prime reason why. Not only are they simply NOT shomrei Torah and Mitzvos, they also make all the rest of us who DO try to live a Torah observant life, and even those of us who don't but simply live lives as good people, look awful to the rest of the world. In short, it's pretty damned embarrassing.

But there's more. The informant the articles mention, the witness who was undercover for about two years, is ALSO a "frum" Jew, one under indictment for fraud (not sure what else to call being busted for writing and bouncing a $25,000,000 check), who volunteered to the Feds to bait and incriminate others JUST to save his own skin and get a lighter sentence. Isn't that lovely? He is a Moser, in the worst sense of the word. And here we are in the middle of the Nine Days leading up to Tish'a B'Av, our national day of mourning when we commemorate the destruction of the Batei Mikdash, which God destroyed because of (at least in the case of the second one) Sinas Chinam and people turning others into the government. This is a prime example of the Kamtza/Bar Kamtza story. But at least in THAT story, one may understand WHY Kamtza (or was it Bar-Kamtza? I can never remember) did what he did and caused the destruction of the Bais HaMikdash. He was terribly embarrassed and no one spoke up for him.

In this case, this guy got others guys busted just to get a lighter sentence. What a disgusting example of a Jew at his worst.

In the question of who is a worse person here, the money launderers or the Moser (informant), I'm gonna go with the informant. How can a person with ANY kind of conscience do something like this?

Oh, and I might add his father is a very popular and well-known rav in NJ. I've actually met him.

In truth, I'm beside myself with disgust. And then people wonder how it is that Moshiach hasn't come. Is it really any wonder?