Looking at Israel, well, their behavior makes me think they're not exactly spawning many petty saints these days.
I wish I could argue that, but I can't. :( And the population that thinks they're raising tzaddikim are mistaking obsessive isolationism and religious rigidity for holiness. Removing themselves from the modern world and its temptations is exactly the opposite of what is required of a tzaddik. And if you get the impression that I have little to no patience with the Haredim, you're right.
I think it's a bit rude to say it to their face, if you already know what they are, because then you know they won't be able to see themselves and it will just embarrass them. If you don't know what they are until after you've said it, just quietly back off the topic.
I'd never quite thought about it as rude, but you're probably right. I've seen it in action, though. I was present when a couple of friends were trying to explain to another why people were going to so much trouble for her when life was throwing an entire bucket of fastballs at her, because she considered herself "nothing special". "You're the kind of person people throw themselves on a grenade to save" one of her friends told her, and she took it in and thanked him, blushing, but she was clearly still mystified as to why her friends felt that way.
A Holocaust survivor blocked the door during a school shooting so his students could escape.
I remember that, and remember wondering at the time if he was preserved during the Holocaust in part so that he could preserve another on that day. And yes, reading the accounts of his life before that event, it was clear that he was a tzaddik. I wonder how many lives he saved in other ways before that. I'm betting it's beyond counting.
By the bye, slight linguistic detail: the tzaddikim aren't petty saints. That implies that there are more major saints, and there aren't. They're living saints. They're considered only a step below the angels, seraphim and cherubim. Human and mortal, yes, but holy and already living so that the divine essence of their souls shines through.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Tzaddikim
Date: 2017-09-17 12:42 pm (UTC)I wish I could argue that, but I can't. :( And the population that thinks they're raising tzaddikim are mistaking obsessive isolationism and religious rigidity for holiness. Removing themselves from the modern world and its temptations is exactly the opposite of what is required of a tzaddik. And if you get the impression that I have little to no patience with the Haredim, you're right.
I think it's a bit rude to say it to their face, if you already know what they are, because then you know they won't be able to see themselves and it will just embarrass them. If you don't know what they are until after you've said it, just quietly back off the topic.
I'd never quite thought about it as rude, but you're probably right. I've seen it in action, though. I was present when a couple of friends were trying to explain to another why people were going to so much trouble for her when life was throwing an entire bucket of fastballs at her, because she considered herself "nothing special". "You're the kind of person people throw themselves on a grenade to save" one of her friends told her, and she took it in and thanked him, blushing, but she was clearly still mystified as to why her friends felt that way.
A Holocaust survivor blocked the door during a school shooting so his students could escape.
I remember that, and remember wondering at the time if he was preserved during the Holocaust in part so that he could preserve another on that day. And yes, reading the accounts of his life before that event, it was clear that he was a tzaddik. I wonder how many lives he saved in other ways before that. I'm betting it's beyond counting.
By the bye, slight linguistic detail: the tzaddikim aren't petty saints. That implies that there are more major saints, and there aren't. They're living saints. They're considered only a step below the angels, seraphim and cherubim. Human and mortal, yes, but holy and already living so that the divine essence of their souls shines through.