I said I was going to leave this alone, but I can't.
1) To slander the Jewish communities of South Florida by painting with a broad brush about chillul shabbos and tnius, is abhorrent. To further smear the hashkafa of "their form of religion" like they're distorting Yiddishkeit is disgusting, as are the snide comments about the YI movement as a whole. One sammyp was enough, thank you.
2) To equate not shaming people for their struggle to keep mitzvos with other's flaunting of a rav's psak in the name of frumkeit is disgusting, elitist, and the height of a false equivalence. And as
@Sam Finkelstein pointed out, the actual argument itself was also blatantly untrue. Shuls bar people from kibbudim all the time, for a host of reasons, and you not seeing it while you were here on vacation doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
3) Not one of you live in South Florida. Just because you vacation here or know a few snowbirds or transplants, doesn't mean you know this community or any South FL community. The fact that you are bringing up Miami , Boca, and West Palm Beach tells me you have zero clue what you're talking about, regardless of how many retirement shuls you all may have davened in. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but to have an opinion on something you know nothing about
is stupidity. (Btw, look up
@reed, the man you just addressed like he's some street thug.)
4) A letter went out from a conglomerate of shuls representing a variety of hashkafos in South Florida, signed by rabbis and doctors alike. It very clearly defined the stance of the majority of the frum communities in South Florida regarding the opening of shuls in accordance with local government directives and the coalition of pulpit rabbis, doctors, and poskim. This YI is not operating in a vacuum.
5) Florida is not NY. Most people here have not had the virus. We are also experiencing a
huge influx of people migrating from NY and NJ who
have been exposed and/or infected. As you all can attest, there have been many people who have not been as careful as they should have been after exposure/infection. There is a great fear among the local high risk population who need to source their necessities from the same places that these tourists are shopping, and the community leadership needs to address that as they see fit.
6) As
@aygart said, when prominent members publicly flaunt the psak of the rov, it needs to be called out. To equate a chazzan, a baal koreh, a maggid shiur, or a board member with the rav is stupid. They are members of high visibility, and maybe even a lot of Torah knowledge in some cases, but they don't get an opinion in piskei dinim. Such public disrespect needs to be addressed, both from a community standpoint and from a halachic standpoint. If there are concerns about the psak that was made, there are proper avenues to address them. Disregarding the psak and the rav is not ok and should not be tolerated in any shul.