The title of this post was recently used as a pejorative against one of the heros of the Charedi world, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz. As he explains in his latest column, it was made as a comment on his website by someone who calls himself ‘Mark’ …which is very likely not his real name.
Mark, who sometimes comments on this blog as well, took Rabbi Horowitz to task for publicly airing his thoughts. In a previous column, Rabbi Horowitz questioned the wisdom of Charedi politicians in Israel using their political clout in an area of relatively trivial importance. Especially when the negative fallout to secular Jews in Israel was so great.
In Mark’s view, there was little chance of anything positive resulting from such a column. Mark then decided to give Mussar to Rabbi Horowitz. He said that by saying these kinds of things he has become the ‘favorite rabbi of bloggers’ who in his view are a bunch of Charedi bashers. He therefore encouraged Rabbi Horowitz to to reflect on the how his writing 'adds wind to the sails of those who bash charedi society '.
Rabbi Horowitz did indeed reflect on Mark's comments and came up with some great questions:
1. Do we have a ‘free press’ in our charedi community? Are issues that are of paramount importance to our community discussed freely in public forums, such as our newspapers?
2. Is a ‘free press’ permitted by the Torah?
3. Are discussions of matters that affect our community helpful even if they do not result in swift, obvious positive change?
4. How, for that matter, does effective change take place in the Torah community?
5. What percentage of the members in our community would feel “safe” to sign their name in a letter to the editor if they are writing about a subject that they feel passionately about?
6. Is Mark correct that earning the respect of the bloggers is a sign that I ought to ‘do teshuva’ or is it a sign that the “unspoken-for majority” respect charedim who have the courage to openly discuss the real issues we face.
Here are some of my thoughts.
Many sincere Charedim often ask, ‘What is the purpose of blogs like mine?’ What can be gained by speaking out? It only leads to disrespectful replies in the comments section.
Well that is sometimes true and I try to edit or delete ‘line crossing’ comments whenever I see them. I don’t always succeed but I try. But the answer to those very good questions is that speaking out in a public forum can make a difference. And I think we may be seeing the beginning of that difference right now.
Those who argue that Charedi leadership do not read blogs anyway... so all that is left is the disaparging comments… are wrong. The leadership may not read every word that I or others may write. Most probably don’t read them at all. But they know what we are saying, and they know what the responses are. And that can move them to act.
Charedi Rabbanim who privately agree can become encouraged by blogs (and by other means) to have the courage to finally stand up and speak out. And if enough of them do, the leadership will have no choice but to listen and hopefully make some changes for the better.
In recent weeks, several Charedi Rabbanim have done just that. They have spoken up and shown resistance to pressures to keep quiet. Just to name a few recent examples that I have written about: Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum, Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz, and even nonagenarian, Rabbi Menachem Poresh. But one of the first was Rabbi Yakov Horowitz. And that’s why he is a hero.
Blogs are not the only things that will motivate change. But as the current best means of public expression in the Charedi world, it is definitely a factor.
Modified: 9/12/07 4:38 PM CDT
