The Jewish Observer had an interesting article by Rabbi Yisroel Greenwald in its most recent addition. It was entitled “Unity Through Diversity”. When I saw the title, I thought, hmmmm... maybe they’ve been reading my blog recently. Maybe they have finally realized that there is an entire segment of Orthodox Jewry that has been excluded as illegitimate, not having a "Torah True" Derech. Indeed the article does talk about precisely this issue. The idea being that there are indeed different paths in Avodas HaShem. It actually does address a few items that I have written about and has explained them in ways similar to mine.
Daas Torah was one of those items. In a very uncharacteristic moment of truth, the writer who I assume was reflecting the views of Agudah, actually admitted that their own Daas Torah is not “THE” Daas Torah and that in fact there is no one Daas Torah. I found that very refreshing. It is uncharacteristic because they invariably state that they follow Daas Torah and they define it as what their Moetzes says. And even though they have always conceded that they are not the holder of the keys to Daas Torah when asked, they certainly didn’t act like it. The subliminal message has always been, “The Gedolim have spoken” as if there were no other Gedolim. So, this concession was very pleasing to hear.
I read the article hoping to find even the remotest nod to the inclusion of my own Centrist Hashkafa of Torah U’Mada. I was disappointed to find no such nod. The article ended up being just a general exposition of the idea of the mutli-faceted dimensions of Torah. Indeed a nice concession to Emes. But it remains in doubt as to exactly what they deem worthy of inclusion and what they do not.
I can just hear my critics saying, “Common, give it a rest already!” I would have, had the article not have been written. But it was. And it is only half a loaf as far as I am concerned. To make me happy I would need full Hashkafic partnership with them in the Elu nV'Elu sense. Had the article mentioned even one aspect of my Hashkafa as a legitimate albeit different approach, it would have been a tremendous step toward Achdus. But it didn’t.
They did mention a rather sad story about an Hashkafic incident regarding a Sephardi Minhag. I guess they accept Sefardi Hashkafos as legitimate. And the story was quite enlighteneing as to how some of their Mechanchim biased their students in very negative ways. A Sefardi student who is today a big Posek went to an Ashkenazi Yeshiva as a chlid. He did not wear his Tzitzis out. He kept them tucked in. When his Rebbe challenged him on it, he answered that it was his Mesorah to keep them under his garments. The response from his Rebbe was: “Sefardishe Am Ha’aRatzus (Sefardi ignorance)! He insulted the young boy, his parents, and his entire culture with one intemperate and insulting phrase which was, unknowingly to this Rebbe, entirely false.
That Rebbe had it drilled into him at some point in his own education that his way was the only way. The Mishna Berurah Paskin’d one should wear their Tziztis out and so it must be. He thought, obviously Sefardim are just ignorant and this is a Minhag Taus. But it was his own ignorance that was lacking and led him to make such a a disparaging comment. And this was not an isolated incident. I heard this kind of rhetoric all the time when I was in Telshe about Mizrachi (Religious Zionism). By the time one goes through that system of education one has gotten a fairly sizable dose of rhetoric like this. The products of this type of Chinuch often end up preaching the kind of arrogant holier than thou attitude one often sees here... that looks at others as ignoramuses at best, and intentional sinners at worst.
It was nice to see an article point out the evil of teachers like that. This ignorant attitude persists to this day in some teachers.
So even though I applaud this “baby step” taken in the Jewish Observer article, I am unsatisfied as of yet. I await another article that will compliment this one. I await the time when they will say. Elu V’Elu Divrei Elokim Chaim about all Torah Hashkafos including mine. Only then will the title of that article have true meaning. Until then we will continue to see the kind of comments often seen on this blog which totally de-legitimize the Centrist Hashkafa of Torah U’Mada. And we will continue to see comments that allow some rabbis to put that Hashkafa outside the pale and bad mouth its adherents to their congregants. My message to brothers in Agudah: Congratulations on a first small step. But there is work to be done.
