Nowadays, we sometimes hear about kanaus, a more forceful and aggressive approach to giving mussar. We also hear vocal condemnations of it. Does the Torah condone acts of kanaus? Are there situations where one should take a more aggressive stance?
There are certain situations that call for a militant approach — specifically, against people who are attempting to drive other Jews away from the Torah. In such a situation, if one attempts to intervene peacefully and is unsuccessful, he must combat their efforts with whatever tactics are necessary. But even then, one’s intentions must be purely l’shem shamayim. The kana’i must be motivated not by his personal dislike of the sin or the sinner, but by his concern for Hashem’s honor.
One well-known kana’i in recent generations was Rav Amram Blau, the head of Neturei Karta, who passed away in 1974. He famously mounted an opposition, with great mesiras nefesh, against a movie theater in Yerushalayim that was open on Shabbos. Every Friday night without fail, he showed up and blocked the cashier’s window, even putting his head inside, to protest chillul Shabbos and to try to deter customers. He was a familiar figure to the police, although one imagines that they hardly considered him an ally.
Yet a 1996 Jewish Observer article revealed that participants at Rav Blau’s levayah witnessed those same policemen crying. Rav Blau somehow managed to convey to the policemen that he did not consider them his enemies, that he was waging the battle solely against Shabbos desecration.
Reproduced from Living Kiddush Hashem by Rabbi Shraga Freedman with permission of the copyright holders, ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, Ltd.
