Let us now try to deal with the problem that many of you have difficulty understanding. Why must the entire community atone for eating non-kosher meat if they did so involuntarily and unknowingly ?
In order to understand this we must analyze what caused Moshe Finkel to commit this crime against both, God, as well as his fellow Jews.

Moshe Finkel was not ignorant of the law. In fact, he was a very learned man in Torah and Talmud. He was the Baal Koreh (designated public Torah reader) in his synagogue for many years. He also taught the daf yomi which is the daily Talmud class every morning. He surely knew right from wrong and what the consequences of his actions would be. Why would he do something like this ?

The answer is MONEY. It was the pure greed for the almighty dollar bill that caused him to sin. And the community around him helped to foster an atmosphere that valued money above everything else. Those of you who have visited Monsey lately could not have helped but notice a lot of new construction. Many of these new houses are McMansions which are very ostentatious. People are selling houses in the Boro Park & Flatbush sections of Brooklyn for 2 million dollars and moving to Monsey. That kind of money goes very far up here and there are some tremendous houses being built, with everyone trying to outdo his neighbor. People are making elaborate weddings and bar mitzvahs just to show off. Even the charity donations in synagogue have been a contest to see who can donate the most. The Rabbis have been reluctant to talk out against this because they like all the money that is coming in to their institutions. However, in the process, the poor man is not only ignored, but often times embarrased as well, for not having the where-with-all to donate large amounts. This is the type of climate that gives rise to the type of sin Finkel committed. That is why the entire community must undergo a catharsis to purge them of these false values and there is no better time to do so than before the High Holidays when we will all be judged as to our fate for the coming year.
                                                SOL ZELLER