No matter how many times I address this subject, it probably isn’t enough. But this time I address it with a sense of hope that things are truly changing. There is silence no more. People are finally noticing that the emperor has no clothes. I am referring to the latest of a number of articles written by prominent Charedim decrying the way ‘the Gedolim’ are handling problems.
To be sure, they still venerate their Gedolim and reiterate the requirement to listen to their every word. But that disclaimer aside, the message is very clear: The Gedolim are being manipulated by zealots. And this hurts them. Their authority becomes increasingly undermined every time that happens.
This time it is Jonathan Rosenblum. Just to repeat what I’ve often stated, I am one of his biggest fans. Not that we always agree. But we do agree a lot. And on the primary point of his article, we are one.
In an article in Mishpacha magazine (re-published on cross-currents) he basically rips apart the Askanim. And he does it masterfully. Askanim are those people who surround Gedolim like Rav Elayshiv. They shield him from the public, and feed him information filtered… and often distorted… through their own biases.
Had this article been written by me, I would have been ripped apart by my detractors… as I often am when I write about these things. I would be called a ‘Gadol basher’. Or a Charedi basher. But this time it isn’t me. It is Jonathan, who has for quite some time now been part of a group of dedicated prominent Charedim who call a spade a spade. And they do so without fear of consequences. I think this is his strongest piece yet. And I honor him for writing it.
Here is some of what he said. I hope that ‘those responsible for all the new Takanos are paying attention.
A talmid chacham once explained to me the rare, but not unknown, instances of wives of kolleleit dressing inappropriately. When they were in seminary, he said, they were told that certain colors of stockings were forbidden. When they noticed that competing seminaries had different forbidden and permitted colors or that the forbidden colors changed from year to year, they concluded that nothing they were taught about tznius was really halacha.
Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshivas Ner Israel, told a group of new chasanim how he had called a certain husband to make an appointment to discuss the latter’s shalom bayis problems. The man replied that he could not come that night because he would be baking his matzos one at a time, in a private kiln, far out of the city. “He was trying to impress me,” Rav Feldman said. “He would have been shocked to know that I viewed him as a murderer – someone who was killing his wife and children with his stringencies.”
THE DANGER OF UNDESIRABLE, long-range consequences is even greater with respect to communal-wide bans than with respect to individual stringencies, which can, at least, be tailored to the spiritual needs of a specific individual. When applied to a large public, the danger of unforeseen and negative long-range consequences is multiplied many-fold.
With respect, to any particular ban issued by the collective Torah leadership of the generation, there is only one response: We must follow. It is not for us to debate the propriety of this ban or another.
At the same time, very few bans are initiated by the gedolim. Most often the initiative starts with well-meaning askanim. And with respect to them, it is possible to discuss, in general terms, some of the long-range consequences of a multitude of bans.
Well-intentioned askanim may often view a letter signed by the gedolim banning a particular activity as the quickest and most effective way of handling a problem. But that may be a short-sighted approach, especially if the ban takes the place of chinuch. The late Rosh Yeshivas of Chaim Berlin, Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, used to say that one does not educate with issurim. Issurim may be necessary, but they are at best a very rough chinuch tool.
When bans are widely ignored, the negative consequences are twofold: the authority of the gedolim is diminished and those who do not obey are endangered. As a community, our most precious resource is the deference and respect accorded to our gedolim. There are many communal problems that can only be resolved through the direct and forceful involvement of the acknowledged Torah leaders – i.e., finding places in high school seminaries for all our daughters.
But like any precious resource, the authority of the gedolim must be carefully husbanded. Too frequent reliance on that authority can lead to its declining force. Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, once convened a conference of yeshiva principals and demanded that they all make space in their institutions for newly arrived Russian immigrants. “And if we don’t?” one asked. Rav Yaakov replied that anyone who did not would be read out of the community. Like all threats, the effectiveness of that one depended on being infrequently invoked.
The dangers involved when the explicit words of the gedolim go unheeded impose a tremendous responsibility on all community activists who press the gedolim to sign on to their pet projects. They must be careful to provide the gedolim with only absolutely uncontestable facts, without a trace of exaggeration. And among those crucial facts would be: How will the community respond? Will it, for instance, boycott a particular bus line for weeks, in order to force the bus company to install separate seating buses on that route?
Of course I can’t tell ‘the Gedolim’ what to do. Compared to them, I am a peon. And despite the popular conception about me, I would never have the Chutzpah to do so, anyway. But were they to ask my advice, here is what I would tell them: Get rid of your Askanim! They may mean well but do not serve you well and may destroy you... and Klal Yisroel in the process.
