An article by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter (Torah U’Madda Journal Volume 8) opens up with the following incident. It is a classic illustration of one of the fundamental differences between the Hashkafos of certain Charedim and Centrist Hashkafos.
The Yated Ne’eman had published a biography of Rav Eliyahu Dessler upon his fortieth Yahrzeit. It told of the Hashkafos of his father, Rav Reuven Dov, a Talmid of R. Simcha Zisel Ziv who was in turn a Talmid of R. Yisroel Salanter.
Rav Simcha Zisel founded a Yeshiva which included the teachings of the Russian language, history, geography, and other secular studies, in addition to the normal Yeshiva curriculum. He felt that Balei Batim would have to know more than Torah and Mussar in order to succeed in life. Rav Reuven Dov learned in that Yeshiva and absorbed the Hashkafos of his Rebbe and made it his goal to transmit what he had learned in his Yeshiva to his son Rav Eliyahu. True to those principles, he made sure that world literature was included in his son’s curriculum, including many classics translated into Russian, among them, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. All this in the Yated.
You can guess what happened next. A letter to the Yated was published excoriating the editor for daring to publish such things. How dare they say about this Gadol V”Atzum that that he read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”?! What does this teach our Bnei Torah?! How will this advance their Yiras and Ahavas HaShem?!
This is in a nutshell is how some in the Charedi world think. We had a similar letter to Mishpacha Magazine just recently, upon which I commented.
*And such attitudes are what result in banning of historical volumes like “The Making of Gadol.” To them truth is not as important as making sure people have the “right” Hashkafos. And currently those Hashkafos deny any value to the kinds of subjects Rav Dessler studied in his youth. Studies that he never repudiated. And of course as the book “Making of a Gadol” tells us, it wasn’t only Rav Dessler who read world literature. Rav Ahron Kotler did too, as did Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky. They believed such studies had enough value to spend their very valuable time on them. Of course that was in addition to their Torah learning which was primary and took up the vast majority of their time. But none of them ever repudiated reading world literature either. R.Yaakov had even mentioned reading Shaekespeare in his Shiurim.
One of the most famous incidents along those lines was a book written by Professor Marc Shapiro about Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the Seridei Eish. In a well researched and documented biography Professor Shapiro tells us details about Rav Weinberg’s life that to the Charedi world are extremely unflattering to them, including correspondences he had with Dr. Samuel Atlas, a professor at the Reform Hebrew Union College. Dr. Shapiro also documents severe criticisms Rav Weinberg had with Agudah. Much of this in letters he had discovered written by Rav Weinberg to Rabbi Atlas.
At the time the Charedi world was understandably upset by all this. First they believed that unflattering information should never be made public. And secondly they believed that the private letters written by any individual were meant to be kept private and divulging them violated Halacha. I’m not sure how since he had passed on. But I’m not here to discuss that aspect of it.
What I point out is that the best defense against those who say that secular studies have no value is truth. The truth is unassailable here. These Gedolim studied Mada. Not only the Mada of science or math which I’m sure they studied too. But the study of literature. And that is what some in the Charedi world want to deny the validity of. Literature, they say is a waste of time.
The truth of history cannot, and should not be denied. What the Gedolim of the 20th century did, how they conducted their lives, what they learned, how they acted to others, Jews as well as non-Jews should be lessons for us and never be ignored because of the politics of our time. And that’s all it is. Politics.
The politics of the “right” in this instance is to insure their hegemony over the masses. Politics created in an unrealistic fear of assimilation. Understandable perhaps because of how they viewed Haskala, which led to masses of Jewry leaving observance. They blamed it on assimilation. There may be some truth to that but their response to it is way over the top, as I have said many times.
It is in that context one should read an interview the Jewish Press had with Professor Shapiro.
Here are some interesting excerpts:
Jewish Press (JP): Rabbi Weinberg wrote, “For the members of Agudah, every unimportant rabbi who joins them is considered a great gaon.” Can you elaborate?
Professor Marc Shapiro(MS): Rabbi Weinberg wrote in his private letters that politics in Agudah circles is what makes you a gadol; it’s not how much Torah you have. They determine that Rav Soloveitchik is not a gadol because he’s not in their circle. Rav Elyashiv was never considered a gadol when he was with the [Israeli government] rabbanut.
(JP) Rabbi Weinberg wrote that “perhaps we [the Jewish people] also bear some guilt” for anti-Semitism. What did he mean by that?
(MS) Rabbi Weinberg raised the possibility that perhaps the way Jews treat non-Jews contributes to anti-Semitism. He no doubt had in mind things such as how the Jew treated the Polish peasant and wondered if this didn’t have some impact on how the Poles viewed the Jews. Many Orthodox Jews thought it was okay to be less than honest in their business dealing with non-Jews.
Rabbi Weinberg argued that we must formally declare that we hold like the Meiri [13th century French sage], that all the negative things in the Talmud against non-Jews were only stated with regard to the wicked pagans of old, but didn’t apply to non-Jews as a whole.
We must relate to non-Jews just like to Jews, being absolutely honest in all monetary matters and regard them as having dignity as creations of God.
There are other very fascinating and controversial items in this interview. The interview is generating comments about banning Proffesor Shapiro. But I don’t think he will banned anymore that Rabbi Slifkin was. Only certain of his books were banned. But perhaps the Jewish Press will for publishing it.
* This essay originally had a portion inadvertantly left out at this point. It is now restored. I apologize for the inconvenence.
