A video of a guy I had never seen before and still don’t know the name of was recently posted on a rather random WhatsApp group that I am on.
In the video, a heimish man films himself complaining about a litvishe man who apparently didn’t say Kaddish Yasom quickly enough for him. To make matters worse for our disturbed filmmaker, the Litvish man didn’t even conform to the Sfard Nusach for Kaddish – Hashem Yeracheim! (Sarcasm intended)
Putting the stupidity and pointlessness of the video itself aside, there is something that bothered me tremendously about it. I have now seen that same video posted across multiple WhatsApp groups I’m on, and in each case, the other members of the group engaged in spirited discussion over whether the man has a point or not.
May I ask a question: Who cares? When did we become people who give a flying hoot about what a random person’s opinion is – so much so that we’ll sit and argue ourselves senseless over a random incident, knowing full well that our own opinion about it makes no difference either?
Once upon a time, to have your opinion heard and cared about by masses of people, you had to be a somebody in the first place. If you weren’t a rav or a known civic leader, nobody was going to pay attention to you – and why should they?
But now, with the advent of WhatsApp and social media platforms, literally any random person is awarded attention and oftentimes undeserved respect simply because they took a video of themselves and sent it to others. Why?
This bothers me very deeply because I’m worried about why we think the way that we do. Is our thinking nowadays guided by thoughtful people who earned themselves the right to be taken seriously, or are we being guided by people who are nothing more than dopes on WhatsApp?
I fear the answer is the latter.
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15 Responses
If you are on a rather random WhatsApp group then what are you expecting? That everything you see is going to have Chochma and Daas? Most people who post on social media (myself included if it makes you happy to see me acknowledge it) are not the cream of the crop of the frum world. To put it nicely. Their postings and comments reflect and make that obvious. The less you have to do with such venues the better.
Anyone failing to add “V’yatmach Purkanei V’korev Moishechei’ when saying kaddish clearly loses his chelek of olam habah.
If it bothers you then just ignore these random people who don’t even know you or give a hoot about you. All they are trying to do is show off by video what’s bothering them and on their minds.
Let’s face the truth, if the Israel-Hamas war was really bothering you then you would post on social media crazy true live videos of Hamas shooting innocent civilians and other muslims would say about you exactly what you wrote in your letter above.
A psychologist
Simple solution, exit those whats app groups. Nobody “needs” to be in a group that’s shares such videos. I’m in many whats app groups. They all revolve around family or Torah. Quite ironic that someone could share their opinion about people who share their opinions for attention.
The extreme irony of this article makes me think that it was written as satire.
The author feels that we shouldn’t be making such a big deal about a silly WhatsApp video, so he wrote an op-ed about it!!! 😅
And who exactly are YOU???????
It’s called free speech.
Times have changed for the better
Do a Hilary Clinton: take your Smart Phone and smash it with a claw hammer.
Why bother responding?
Who cares what this random dope thinks?
And that’s the reason I don’t have WhatsApp!
No, I don’t have a flip phone. I just don’t have WhatsApp. Hated those million chats, don’t want or need to be on any.
I should have followed the opening poster’s advice and not read his post.
Adar is approaching!
So with Yeshiva world you don’t even need Whatapp to hear every “yoyos” opinion
last week I went to a wedding in Lakewood and there was a minyan Maariv in the kabolas ponim room and the Minyan took about twenty minutes, the ten of us who didnt leave because we needed a minyan missed most of the dancing (the reason we were at the wedding)
when someone goes up to an amud be mindful of everyones time and if you take too long you might just be complained about on whatsapp.
I am not familiar with the specific story you mention above but if someone goes up to the amud in a nusach sfard shul and does not follow the minhag of the kehila he is a poretz geder and tifrosh min hatzibur.
FYI
The guy is correct. The Halacha is that when saying kaddish (and kedusha) you must conform to the nusach of the shul.