On his blog On The Main Line Mr. MacDowell posts a letter from a Charedi student from Yeshivas Chaim Berlin who laments the fact that there are so few legitimate Torah based resources that deal with contradictions between Torah and science. Not that there haven’t been any published, but that the vast majority of them do not deal with all the questions raised by science, or that they use “bad” science to refute the rational arguments and conclusions made of the constant flow of scientific data that increasingly reinforces those questions . The legitimacy of these conclusions are held by virtually all of the scientific world community, whether atheist or Torah observant.
The writer whose intellectual honesty does not allow stifiling of his questions says that it would not affect his level of Mitzvah observance but in effect admits to a crisis of faith which in large part were answered by Rabbi Slifkin’s books.
So what’s his problem? His problem is THE problem which is at the core of the ban on Rabbi Slifkin’s books. His Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Aaron Schechter, has condemned the author several times... most recently in his appearance in Teaneck. I am convinced that Rabbi Schechter’s condemnation is rooted in the original ban on the books by R. Elyashiv. It is highly likely that his perception is that Rabbi Slifkin acted in a manner that was inappropriate to R. Elyashiv. I do not know how Rabbi Schechter got his information, but I doubt that it was first hand or that his sources were unbiased. I doubt that he heard Rabbi Slifkin’s side of the story. Rabbi Schechter joined in the assumption that the prevailing attitude in the Charedi community about Rabbi Slifkin’s impudence is true because of the universality of the condemnation by Israeli rabbinical figures and American rabbinical figures such as Rabbi Aharon Feldman who contacted R. Elyashiv personally and thereby reached his own anti-Slifkin concusion. I cannot say that this for a certainty but it is my strong suspicion.
But the damage is done. R. Elyashiv has spoken. And it seems like virtually all rabbinic leaders seem to have fallen in line with his view to the extent that they can call Rabbi Slifkin’s writings Apikursus or Rabbi Slifkin a “near” Apikores or worse.
But this letter writer demonstrates exactly why this is such a huge problem in the Torah world. The questions this letter writer has will not simply disappear. As a thinking community the Torah world cannot ignore these questions forever. Forcing oneself to remain ignorant of them will only go so far... and will only prevent the most indoctrinated among us to ignore them. We cannot permanently adopt the policy of “Fun A Kasha Shtarbt Min Nisht” (...no one will die from having a question unanswered) forever. As the questions get stronger, that attitude will disappear. And the danger of large numbers of Torah Jewry turning to apostasy becomes more of a reality. The true believers that remain will be those who increasingly withdraw from reality by indoctrination, lack of intellectual honesty, or fear of losing their Olam HaBah. That last motivation is a real strong one but is it enough to force the intellect to deny the question once it is raised into conciousness? Will a doubt that emerges through the incidental encounter of a piece of scientific data that contradicts a belief ever really leave consciousness? Can an individual’s blind faith overcome his rationally based doubt?
This is the danger that the current Charedi approach to Torah poses. We are witness to it through this letter and as the letter writer states he is not alone amongst students of Chaim Berlin. Other Charedi Talmidim there have these issues as well.
My suspicion is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. How many more Talmidim are there in the finest of Charedi Yeshivos that have had these doubts themselves but are afraid to make them public? I’ll bet there are a lot. And if the blogosphere is any indication I think there are a lot more than anyone could ever imagine. The anonymity of the blogosphere enables Charedim to express their doubts without having to reveal themselves to the public scrutiny of a very unforgiving Charedi community hierarchy and/or peer group.
Without books such as those Rabbi Slifkin wrote the danger of losing our best and brightest is real. I think the Agudah realizes this and that’s one reason they published Professor Levi’s words about respecting differing points of view in Torah Judaism. But I do not think it goes far enough. It was too vague and did not address the issues head on. If Charedi leadership wants to lead Torah Jewry and not lose its best an brightest, it needs to go the extra mile in the spirit of Elu v’Elu and clearly state that books like Rabbi Slifkin’s are completely acceptable Torah viewpoints right along with the more fundamentalist ones. If that happens, we can go back to the time where scientific discoveries no longer cause the crises of faith this Chaim Berliner and many others currently have.
