Maarit Ayin is the prohibition on doing things that might give people the wrong idea. For instance, you’re only going into a non-kosher McDonald’s to use the bathroom, but if someone sees you going in there, in the garb of an orthodox Jew, it’s going to set tongues to wagging.
Therefore it’s a no-no.
And pretty much, that’s exactly what has happened. Tongues are wagging. People want to know what is going on with this: these interfaith “praise” (i.e. psalm) sessions.
But when anyone asks these rabbis to explain the rationale behind these gatherings, they get hot under their (clerical?) collars. They tell us we’re ignorant for asking and chutzpadik, too. They say we don’t know the Halacha and that in questioning them we’re the ones committing the prohibitions.
And then they tell us that if we have any questions, they’ll be happy to answer them in private. And then they ignore our private messages.
How do I know? It happened to me. It happened to me in this thread on Facebook. Rabbi Pesach Wolicki was tagged and it was suggested he could answer my questions.
Now I don’t blame Rabbi Wolicki for finding this kind of annoying. Click on the link and read the thread. He, Rabbi Wolicki, is basically being called on the carpet in public to explain to people he doesn’t know, what this is all about. He is being asked to defend the practice of gathering with Christians to say psalms.
I also felt put on the spot, because I don’t know him from Adam. My guess is he is a rabbi well-respected by the National Religious community, though I confess I’d never heard of him before he was tagged on this thread of mine. But I felt forced to ask him because he’d been tagged: Okay, why are you doing this?
But I never received an answer.
Several times he suggested that those commenting on the thread message him privately and he’d be happy to discuss the Halachic ramifications of these gatherings, but apparently to the exclusion of yours truly. He claimed his derisive tone was a response to what he heard in MY tone, though I was sincere in my attempts to engage him in polite debate. He also implied I am ignorant of Halacha.
Maybe so. But I know what my Jewish neshama tells me. It says these gatherings and interfaith dealings are WRONG. I am still the same woman who refused to attend Glenn Beck’s Jerusalem rally where I’m told the name of the Christian deity was invoked.
As I told Rabbi Wolicki, it’s clear that everyone can come up with a reason to explain why these gatherings are WRONG. The question is why would these gatherings be deemed OKAY by rabbanim in the first place?
I don’t get it. And the rabbi won’t answer me. Therefore I’m forced to conclude it’s about funding.
I have tried to understand. My wanting to understand this is why, for instance, I started this thread with the comment: “Discuss.” I listened to my friends as they attempted to defend these gatherings and the fundraising for churches. I even told off a guy who made a comment (subsequently deleted by me) insulting to Rabbi Riskin, for whom I have a great deal of respect.
I genuinely wanted to hear why this sort of interfaith work is okay. Mostly because I don’t want to believe that rabbis are doing something wrong. I preferred to give them, the rabbis, the benefit of the doubt.
This is why it’s particularly troubling that I’m not receiving answers.
As I’m NOT receiving answers, I am going to stick to my gut reaction that everyone has a right to pray according to his own beliefs, but that when people of different faiths pray together (or praise, or whatever the heck they want to call it–it’s a rose by any other name if you ask me), they dilute and contaminate their individual theologies so that the sum total of the experience ends up in the minus column for both.