Heresy hunting Olympic season is upon us: it is fun watching Chareidi columnists competing to see who can be most shrill in denouncing Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. What adds to the irony is the fact that they have nothing new to say. They have become an echo-chamber, repeating one another; R. Frankfuter (at Ami) and Rabbis Lifshitz and Birenbaum (at Yated and Matzav) repeat what R. Gordimer wrote on CrossCurrents, all of which is then regurgitated by R. Shafran. (-at every outlet available. In the last few weeks R. Shafran has written a variation of the same essay on CrossCurrents, Times Of Israel and Haaretz.) On a serious note: it is symptomatic of the vacuum left in orthodox leadership by the passing of gedolim like Rav Shach, Rav Soloveitchik, Rav Moshe, Rav Eliyashuv and others. That void has unfortunately been filled by mashgichai kashrut, columnists and political functionaries. There is no doubt that one can raise legitimate critiques of YCT. (Im the first one to admit that there are many) Addressing them, however, requires knowledge, nuance and sophistication, something thats sorely missing in these columns and blog posts. Heresy is one of the most complex questions in Hallacha, something we at Chovevei have been debating for years. Pat and simplistic approaches might work for the Chareidi community, but we are not Chareidi, we are modern. A Modern Orthodox posek needs time to resolve questions of such monumental significance. Issues like womens Talmud study, bat mitzvah and the like, which pits tradition against modernity, took a long time to sort out. Heresy is no different. It poses huge challenges to a religious Jew who is committed to Halacha and to modernity. Erring on these matters, one way or another, is extremely consequential and detrimental to peoples lives. נצחיות התורה makes us confident that we will eventually figure this out but it will take time, nuance, knowledge and sophistication, not loud voiced newspaper columns, to get there. Before we even start that conversation, however, one needs to ask the more important question of priority. When the orthodox community (ultra and Modern alike) is plagued by a devastating יצרא דעריות problem, is heresy really the most important thing to tackle right now? One cant help but wonder if the Chareidi chorus isnt but a smokescreen, covering up the real problems plaguing their own community.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:38:19 +0000
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