How can challenging common assumptions and practices lead to greater achdus?
In the short-term, it is certainly more convenient to ignore the issues and blindly follow the status quo. An honest and analytical assessment will naturally bring disagreements to the surface, which can seem to reduce achdus. However, only by bringing serious issues to greater light and exploring them in an open and intellectually honest fashion can we repair the many rifts in our fractured community. A healing process often involves great pain, but the consequences of blithely overlooking serious problems in our community are unthinkable. The community as a whole and each individual in it must be introspective and continually seek to improve, even though change can be difficult and uncomfortable. We must dialogue in a healthy fashion and put the betterment of ourselves and the community before pride and fear of change. Q: The first point in “The Covenant” states that “it is fundamentally wrong to judge someone based on non-Halachic externalities”, and that this is even an act of sina
