A reader asked that we publish the following:
“My daughter was walking on Severn Road towards Taylor. She heard a commotion, shouts and hollering -behind her. When she turned around she saw a deer charging straight at her with Jewish young men chasing it from behind with their shouts. She knew not to run, but rather to stand still. B”H the deer veered away from her, and the Jewish youngsters continued chasing it. I don’t know if they saw my daughter, as they were focused on the deer. Dangerous!”
Not much to say here. Can you name all of the “aveiros”/ transgressions in this story?
mann says
IE: Deer
No Aveiros. Kids will be Kids
Sarah Leah says
It’s kids behaving badly and putting the safety of themselves and others at risk!
BeSafeDontBeStupid says
Fortunately it worked out ok. Lets say the deer turned around ran in front of a car. Car lost control hits telephone pole or whatever. Not exactly impossible. Not good to teach kids to play around with risks. Besides that its tzar baalei chayim and freaking out another person.
Harvey Galligan says
“they should net be sent to prison for doing a crime but to a mental home for being stupid” – Jonathan Gotti (about his son)
Mordechai says
First, B”H no one was injured. These children need to be taught about treating all living beings with respect. I addition to being taught about wild and domestic animals.With regard to the question that was asked, I would suggest the following halachas were compromised. Tzaar Baalei Chayim, if the deer was being bothered. And chilul Hashem, if passersby were viewing these Jewish people acting in a less than dignified way.
Midos says
I would also say that because of their actions, they completely frightened the little girl, they may be begeder of a nirdaf, or a rotzeyach. They were purposely and recklessly chasing “being nirdaf” a wild animal that could have caused great potential harm to someone else, to the point that the little girl “feared” for being injured. Certainly she must have turned white, heart beat increased, etc… all of these items put someone who “scares” someone else in the geder of a rotzeiach, R”L. Whatever happened to people just being mentchen. The lack of respect in our generation is absurd!. Lack of respect for the elderly, for each other, and for animals. Didnt one gaon even respect “his shoes”. Meaning that after his shoes were worn and needed to be thrown out, he didnt just throw them out, but set them aside for a while, then when the time came that he decided to throw them out, he woudl wrap them and literally say to them, thank you dfor serving me for this time period. (edited) We are cruising down the path of sinas chinam and the reprocussions of that. Wake up people!!
Midos says
It’s an Olam Hasheker. You know what i am talking about. Most people won’t come out and say it, because then you are considered as speaking heresy and a complete Apikores…But if you have a head on your shoulders and are “normal” you know what i am talking about. I think it is time to put aside the lies and fooling ourselves, and need to stand up for what’s right. Period.
Kavod HaTorah says
The Gemora relates how a certain Tanna was so holy – that his body did not decompose after he died – but a worm was seen crawling out of his ear. He appeared to his wife in a dream and explained that this scenario was because he heard someone belittle Torah Scholars and he did not oppose them.
Whatever the connection is between bugs in strawberries and being a mentch is beyond me. But to publicly disgrace our Gedolim is unacceptable. Do you want to be the one responsible for the worms crawling out of the ears of the multitudes who read the information posted on this wonderful website?
I am not coming to justify or challenge our Gedolim – I know that I do not know everything and they know more than I do. I do not know what they comment on and what they do not comment on.
But one thing is for certain that some kids gone wild (which has happened in all times – for anyone that knows history) and bugs in strawberries and an incident with a girl with short sleeves have nothing in common – unless someone needs hashkovik answers.
Local Yokel says
While all the issues mentioned above are certainly germane to the incident, are children chayav?
Children need to be taught. About treating animals with respect. About risks of wild animals being unpredictable. About taking such risks near streets and other people. About what the consequences might have been. About how the young girl felt.
When children think about these things they become more wise. If we simply condemn them as fools, ingrates, and lacking in midos, they aren’t all that likely to gain compassion, wisdom, and use their ability to think ahead.
Make the moment teachable and be happy it wasn’t any worse, B”H.
John Deere says
Looking at the broader issue, are we all noticing a considerably larger deer population in Cleveland Heights? We all need to be more attentive than before.
Shocked! says
I want to echo the sentiments of “Kavod HaTorah.”
“Midos” may have chosen a nice name, but your tone and words do not reflect good midos. We know one side of a story and a sketchy side at that. How old were the children? How many? Were there some actions that we don’t know about?
Baruch Hashem, I am a father to children who would generally not do these types of things, but children make lots of mistakes in learning how to become responsible adults. Have my children made foolish mistakes? Unfortunately. Were these children wrong? Sounds like it. But, first, you don’t know and second, they are children.
Your words which put down Gedolim are reprehensible! (And, frankly, I’m shocked that they made it past the moderator.) Maybe you would toss me under the bus with the people with “irrational chumros,” but I stopped going to supposedly “frum” news sites because of disgusting rants like yours.
Please, Dear Moderator, take these horrible words off of the site. I, for one, will not continue to enjoy this otherwise wonderful site if words of hatred towards Gedolim are allowed here.
Original submitter of story says
(Ed: This comment is from the father who intially submitted to me this story).
Since our story was published our daughter (who is not a young child) told us that the perpetrators had short beards or sprouting beards. I told the moderator that I was pained by the person who wrote “kids will be kids” but forgave the person by the next morning. I told the moderator that the story itself, and as I just now thought, an article that asks “what aveiros…” – can cause G-d forbid rifts between people and G-d forbid rifts in a community, as we can see by the comments. This was not my intention. This was a plain safety story. I plea that parents teach their children, for that is a relationship, even if it looks like they are not listening. Children with beards were chasing a deer coming straight towards my adult daughter. She was terrified. Please see your children.