Jumping To Conclusions

Soon after Shabbat ended I saw some of the headlines.

ULTRA-ORTHODOX PASSENGERS ASSAULT STAFF ON EL AL FLIGHT OVER SHABBAT

Ultra-Orthodox accused of violence on two planes from New York due to fears they would arrive after sundown Friday

Chaos and violence as El Al flight delayed: young flight attendants were hit and verbally attacked by ultra-Orthodox passengers

As I jumped to the obvious conclusion that these so-called religious Jews had defamed HaShem’s name on flight LY002 I was horrified. Then scepticism kicked in.  Just because I read it on the news doesn’t necessarily mean it’s so. Later, when sitting with a group of friends and discussing the story I protested their quick condemnation of the ultra-Orthodox Jews.

“Maybe it’s not true,” I suggested.

“You’re too nice,’ I was told.

I wasn’t being too nice. Nor was I being naïve. Like my friends I learn the laws of avoiding gossip. Like them, I’ve seen our own settler community maligned in the media.

Still, there are times when I fall into the trap of believing first and then checking the facts afterwards. That same evening I objected to my friends censuring the ultra-orthodox, I blasted an unnamed father who reportedly brought his child, sick with measles, to visit the child’s new-born sibling in the maternity ward of a hospital. Labelling him an idiot, it was only later I remembered that I don’t even know if the event really took place. I was not going to make the same mistake with the ultra-Orthodox on flight LY002.

By Sunday morning there were already articles quoting passengers from that flight who claimed there had been no violence. Once again, just because it was on the news didn’t necessarily mean it was so. However, I have a neighbor who’d been on the nightmare flight and spent Shabbat in Athens.

“There was no physical abuse,” he told me. “At least none that I saw or heard about. There were those who stood, refused to take their seats, and hurled verbal abuse at the flight attendants. Sometimes the ultra-Orthodox can be difficult.”

So, as I asked some six months ago, who do I believe?* A reporter who may have an agenda or someone I know and respect? My mother taught me to believe a half of what I hear and a fourth of what I see.** That, combined with the Torah laws of judging fairly, giving the benefit of doubt, guarding my speech, and being careful not to listen to evil talk should keep me from jumping to false conclusion too quickly.

We may never know the true story of what happened on board El Al flight 002. I want to be smart but, more important, I want to be nice. I want to try to believe the best of others.

* my article from May 10^th, 2018

**my article from April 26^th, 2018

My novel, Growing With My Cousin, a good winter read, is available at Jewish bookstores and on line at  http://www.feldheim.com/growing-with-my-cousin.html or

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Cousin-Ester-Katz-Silvers/dp/194635113X/