Jonathan Rosenblum must be reading my blog. In a column that appeared in Mishpacha Magazine and that has been reproduced at cross-currents, he writes of a poison - albeit a necessary one - that the Torah world is currently ingesting.
In re-establishing the Torah world of pre-holocaust Europe a new model was created: that of men learning full time while women are the primary bread winners. This he correctly points out is counter to the Torah’s mandate for mankind as established at the very beginning of the Torah. Men are supposed to be the bread winners, not women. By women working 'with the sweat of their brow' to bring home the 'bacon', the Torah mandate has been turned on its head. And in the process created so much stress on the family that the divorce rates are at record levels.
Jonathan considers this to have been a necessary evil. He compares it to lifesaving chemotherapy. This is unfortunately something I have become all too familiar with. My grandson is currently undergoing a second and more dangerous, but lifesaving version of it now.
It is a good analogy. In saving the ‘patient’, a type of ‘chemotherapy’ had to be ‘administered’ that has some very toxic side effects.
I have made many of the same arguments about this problem he does in this article. In fact I don’t think there is anything in this article that I haven’t said myself. But in making this analogy it truly paints a picture. The Torah world we have today is not a normal one. It is a world that is undergoing a form of chemotherapy.
In order for the greatness of Torah learning that was pre-war Europe to be able to be established on these shores from virtually scratch, the ‘chemotherapy’ of our current model was established. Women work to support full time learning by their husbands. In the Charedi world of Yeshivos this has become standard operating procedure.
But just like chemotherapy can have negative consequences, so too does this new model for the Torah world. And just as doctors do everything they can to minimize the negative side effects of the chemo, so too should the Torah community do with the negative side effects. The new ‘topsy turvy’ model the Torah world has implemented a very toxic ‘chemotherapy’.
The only point of contention I have with his article is the positive spin he puts on the limitation placed on women by some of the rabbinic leadership. He writes:
An example of such ameliorative efforts (whether successful or not) would be the curricular reforms imposed last year on post-high school Bais Yaakov studies in Israel. Those reforms were predicated, in part, on the fear of young women becoming “careerists,” with all the attendant implications for their roles as wives and mothers.
I view limiting women’s education in any way as a negative. But I agree that the intent was good. It is interesting to note however that Jonathan questions whether indeed this has even worked.
Be that as it may, the implication of Jonathan’s analogy is the following. Just as chemotherapy treatment is not the goal but a toxic means to a goal, so too the should the current toxic status quo in the Torah world not be the goal.
The patient has been cured. I think that time has long passed. He no longer needs that toxic treatment. The Torah world of Europe has been not only rebuilt, it has been surpassed - certainly in terms of sheer numbers. It is time to give the patient his life back and return it to normalcy.
