This past Monday Rabbi Student featured a link to an article on his blog by Rabbi Amos Bunim. It was referenced in the context of cooperation with heterodox movements and quoted Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. The portion excerpted there angered me. I commented there about how sad that the bashing of the Rav goes all the way back to 1956.
What happened is contained in the following excerpt”
“(W)hen 11 rashei yeshiva met and issued an issur against the Synagogue Council of America and the New York Board of Rabbis. Rav Kotler was the chairman of that meeting, and he requested that there be no mention of the issur until he had a chance to discuss the matter with Rav Soloveitchik. However, an overly zealous individual (not one of the rashei yeshiva) found out about the issue and publicized it before Rav Kotler had the opportunity to meet with Rav Soloveitchik. Rav Kotler was very upset and he told me, “This day is a tragic day in the history of Judaism in America.”
How astute of Rav Aharon Kotler to make the observation that because of that event, this was indeed a historically tragic day.And even more tragic is the fact that there are no voices like that today in that community.
I have mentioned many times my grief at the way Rav Soloveitchik has been and still is treated by the right. So I will not go into that here.
But it is worth noting that the substance of Rabbi Bunim’s words are really about an entirely different matter and the article is well worth the read in its entirety. It is a very strong critique and warning about the direction of orgnizations like Edah (now defunct) and more importantly Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT).
Rabbi Bunim compares the origins of this Yeshiva to that of the origins of the Jewish Theological Seminary. I don’t know that I would go that far but I certainly understand where he is coming from.
Yeshiva Chovevei Torah considers itself the true inheritors of Modern Orthodoxy as they see Yeshiva University taking a hard right turn away form it. I do not agree with this assessment but I will say that there is a much greater right wing presence today that there was a two or three decades ago. But in taking upon itself the mantle of Modern Orthodoxy (or more accurately the left wing of Modern Orthodoxy) it has also taken upon itself the advocacy of many controversial innovations, many of which were opposed at least in spirit if not by actual Halacha by Rabbi Soloveitchik, YCT, founder Rabbi Avi Weiss’s own Rebbe. Innovations include support for women’s teffilah groups and other feminist oriented institutions.
Rabbi Bunim calls these compromises and equates them to those institued by the Conservative movement in the early stages of its developement. Like YCT, JTS was founded by Orhtodox rabbis who, like YCT believed that they needed to speak to a consituancy that would not accept the old European model of observance and that in order to survive, Judaism would have to make concessions to the reality of the modern world that was America.
So they eliminated the Mechitza, in an attempt to make the Jewish house of worship more like those common in America. This compromise led to another one which of course is much worse permitting a clear violation of Shabbos. They permitted driving to Shul. They rationalized that since they were driving to go shopping anyway, the may as well drive to Shul. That was the beginning of the slippery slope that is now bearing its inevitable fruit: the realization by some of the movement's more reality oriented rabbinic leadership that the Conservative Judiasm can really no longer be called Halachic.
No, I do not think that embracing feminism as YCT does, is comparable to eliminating the Mechitza. Eliminating a Mechtiza is a violation of Halacha according to all Poskim. But, the WTGs they support (to continue the example I cited) altough not technically violating Halacha does seem to fit the parallel of a compromise with a modernity that is the beginning of a new slippery slope. The following excerpt illustrates why:
“We have lived for centuries by the teachings of Chazal, including “Kol kevodah bas melech penimah.” To anyone who has studied the feminist platform, its roots and notions will be seen as the antithesis of Torah thought. The direction and tone of these organizations regarding the role of women are following the beat of a different drummer. The great poseik of our age, HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l, found the concepts of women’s minyanim and sermons very foreign to Torah.”
So even though there is no clear Issur it is not that difficult to envision an eventual slide away from Halacha as more and more pressure for greater equality and change is exerted by feminists upon the Left wing rabbinic leadership. I do not say that this will happen for a certainty. But it is not an impossible result.
I am told that there are YCT graduates that are doing things that are quite radical. In one instance in a small community one such rabbi joined a Reform Kollel. Are we are actually witnessing the beginnings of that slippery slope today? Is YCT the 21st century version of JTS?
