Acting Like Sheep
As Jews, it is my belief that we have an obligation to be independent thinkers and not blindly follow. It’s our most basic mesorah, and that’s why we’re practically the only religion which wasn’t swallowed up by Christianity. I already hear you asking about emunas chachamim and my answer is as follows: No person, not matter how great they are is God. I’ll openly say that I’ve seen more than one occurence where the same shailah is answered differently about the same matzav by the same rabbi. This happens because people know exactly how to word and ask their questions, and cajole and plead, until the answer they want is received. Think about all the egocentric askunim who get a psychotic thrill out of banning anything they can possible think of.
What I’m getting at is that in general people don’t need to go to Rabbis to ask them which color socks to wear (i think i stole that phrase from somewhere). Thank God we have the torah written by Hashem which says very smart things like the fact that having superstitions is assur. When a shailah really does exist– whether or not to play or go to a concert with separate seating is not a shailah in my opinion– people need to do their correct research and consult with the appropriate rabbi. Asking a gadol hador a personal question is an ill conceived choice, because they don’t know you. Ask a rabbi who knows the situation.
Following blindly is fatally dangerous. The horrific story which I will not even mention proved a intensely frightening point: A jew who follows blindly can be no different than a Nazi. That was the Nazis defense: we were just following orders. It’s scary to think what happens when we perceive people as God. They can very well become senile one day– after all they’re only human– tell people crazy things and then people who are brainwashed — because the Israeli chareidi system does in fact brainwash– will go ahead and kill themselves if that’s what they’re told.
Frightening thought indeed.