And I thought I was done with this issue.
Back on January 4th, I wrote an essay criticizing a member of the Charedi rabbinate for disparaging Modern Orthodox rabbis. It had been made known to me that Rabbi Shimshon Sherer had publicly labeled them Misyavim, equating them with the ancient Greeks who tried to convert Jews to their Helenistic ways and false gods.
I have subsequently received some correspondence by one of Rabbi Sherer’s supporters defending his rabbi’s comments and accusing me of taking them out of context. To this I can only say the following: The fact that he said them in a disparaging context is clear even to Rabbi Sherer's defender. The "out of context" he referred to was one in which he was quoting someone else. But that does not make the comments any less damning. He believes what he said about Modern Orthodox rabbis.
I have never met him, but I’m told that Rabbi Sherer is a wonderful and inspiring individual who is normally quite gracious in his relations with leaders of other streams of Orthodoxy. I also understand the passion Rabbi Sherer must have for his view that tampering with Metziztza B’Peh is tantamount to tampering with Bris Mila itself and that bowing to government pressure now, may ultimately be a slippery slope to government interference in Halacha itself. Surely that was his motivation in so strongly condemning Modern Orhtodox rabbis. Perhaps he even sees it as a Shas Shmad and as such we are required hold on to even slightest Mitzvah to the extent of Yehoreg VeAl Ya’avor. He is entitled to be upset and to express his views in the strongest possible terms.
But to call a group of sincere God fearing rabbis Misyavnim, crosses all lines of decency, in my view. And it doesn’t really matter in whose name he heard it said in different contexts. It is reminiscent of the time that R Eliya Svei referred to Dr. Norman Lamm as a Sonei HaShem, an enemy (or hater) of God!
Is this what our rabbinic leadership has been reduced to? And people wonder why I don’t think today’s Gedolim measure up?
In a follow up letter the writer stated his strong disagreement with my view on the current state of Gedolim. He cited the oft quoted Gemarah from Rosh Hashana justifying the view that indeed every generation has its Gedolim: Yiftach B’Doro K’Shmuel B’Doro... that no matter how great the disparity of this generation is compared to a previous one, we still have them and we must listen to them. But where are they? And who says that Agudah can decide who is and who isn’t? When members of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah, like Rav Svei start disparaging others in such a giant fashion, is it any wonder that other Charedi rabbis in that community feel free to cast Modern Orthodox rabbis as Misyavmin?
My Rebbe, Rav Aaron Soloveichik was certainly a Gadol. Even though he was the acknowledged Rebbe of the Yoshev Rosh, he was never invited to join the Moetzes although he probably would have declined in any case. When the Moetzes pulled “My Uncle the Netziv” off the shelves, no one was more upset at them than my Rebbe was. I remember it as if it were today. He basically said that those who banned the book would barely be worthy of being students of that book’s author. He considered it a Chutzpah!
My Rebbe was always a role model for me. There is no reason I should stop now.
