Our Gemara on Amud Aleph describes a number of wiley exploits that Jews have done throughout the ages to evade persecution and still fulfill mitzvos. It is important to understand that deep within our culture is a mistrust of government and authority. We have spent millennia outwitting and evading hostile governmental forces. There are even halachic allowances made to sometimes permit oaths and other kinds of chicanery to avoid submitting to unfair tax collection (see Mishna Nedarim 3:4)

The challenge of our present modern life is that oftentimes our government is fair and just, and we need to heed to its rules. Yet patterns of behavior and deeply held cultural beliefs do not die quickly, and possibly even for a good reason. During some of the more absurd Corona virus crack downs, certain communities kept yeshivas open. This was right out of the cultural playbook from when the Jews evaded the Greeks a long time ago, during the miracle of Chanuka, by making small gatherings in hidden locations. While some objected that it was a chillul Hashem, I cannot condemn parents of large families who were stuck at home with their children languishing. It’s hard to believe any of the medical statistics on Corona out there, because there are incredibly vested interests, but commonsense would tell us that children don’t die of corona anymore than they die of the flu. That is, if they are not well with other kinds of serious diseases like cancer, opportunistic infections take over. Children probably died and were made Ill much more from being stuck at home and losing a year of adequate schooling, than ever died from corona.

Yet, as we have discussed numerous times, much of the Torah is about balance. Our mistrust of governmental institutions cannot lead to wanton and disrespectful disregard for the law. That’s when we have the phenomenon of enough religious people in jail for a minyan and daf yomi, and too many of them in the newspapers for having committed financial crimes. It is a relatively new phenomenon to have a somewhat trustworthy government that actually serves the people and doesn’t discriminate, so I can especially sympathize with communities that in general reject secular values and do not feel beholden to law when it runs against their customs and traditions. It’s a tough call whether the government should be dictating educational standards, and yet they are not doing it out of hostility like the old days, at least most of the time, and at least until they start imposing ridiculous woke agendas on the curriculum.  

So, it’s important for us to be good citizens, use common sense and common courtesy and behave well, at least until they start systematically persecuting us again, please God it should never come.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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