 |
| My 12th grade Rebbe (HTC), Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, head of Agudath Israel |
I don't know who it is, but I applaud that Rabbi’s concern. However I still question why he chooses to remain anonymous about it. I felt then, as I still do that had he put
the power and prestige of his own name behind his feelings instead of asking a
prominent writer (Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein) to write about it, the impact
would have been much greater.
Dr. Finkelman uses this as a jumping off point to ask why
this Torah personality felt he had to hide his identity from the truth. If he
truly felt he was espousing a Torah viewpoint, why not come out and say so?
What was he afraid of?
Dr. Finkelman provides us with an answer: The infamous
Kanoim (religious zealots). We all know about them by now. These are people who ride
roughshod on rabbinic personalities and try and manipulate them under the guise
of standing up for Torah values. There are consequences when a given Gadol
doesn’t listen to them.
I recall an instance where a Torah personality said something
similar to Jonathan Rosenblum about another important issue. He was afraid of
being called a ‘Fake Gadol’ by stating his opinion on the matter. He therefore
chose to not address the problem personally and allowed Jonathan to do it in
his stead.
I have said it before and I will say it again. No matter how
altruistic one is - if he is afraid to speak the truth out of fear of being
attacked, that is not leadership.
Now I am sympathetic to someone that fears the consequences from a zealous group of ‘defenders of the faith’. If someone is not in a position of leadership
that is one thing. But if he is, then he is required to stand up and to lead.
Although I do not hide behind an alias, I am not in a position of
leadership and do not face the kind of zealotry that these Rabbinic leaders
must face. However with a relatively large readership that spans the entire
spectrum of Orthodoxy and beyond - I have certainly experienced some of that
zealotry. It is not pleasant when it
happens. And it affects my family. I almost stopped blogging a while ago because
of it. But I feel it is important to speak the truth as I see it
and understand it. Occasionally I have
suffered the consequences for that and have been attacked (verbally) on more
than one occasion.
Whatever pressures I have felt, multiply that exponentially
for a Torah personality of national or international repute. I therefore completely
understand when a rabbinic leader fears the repercussions
of his words. So even though our situations are similar, they are not comparable.
Perhaps it is easy for me
to judge, not being in his shoes. But the truth is that if one is a leader one must rise to the
occasion and overcome the fear. If we are to be a people of the highest morals,
values, and ethics, it behooves our leaders to be unafraid to teach us what
they are… even if it upsets a few zealots.
I would go a step further, if I were in his shoes. I would condemn these Kannaim and put them in
their place publicly and de-fang them. They should be identified and
told to cease and desist from the overly zealous pressure they put on their leaders. On the pain of excommunication (or something akin to it) by a Beis Din.
All of this begs the question about the actual value of Daas
Torah as the Charedi Rabbanim teach it. The fact seems to be that
there are issues they believe in which are not publicly addressed. And yet at virtually
every Agudah convention at least one speaker, talks about the importance of listening to Daas Torah and hammers away at it.
Daas Torah defines what Agudah is all about. But if their rabbinic
leaders cannot express their Daas Torah fully and freely out of fear, what is
it really worth anyway? Partial Daas Torah is not Daas Torah. It behooves the membership
of the Agudah Moetzes and other rabbinic leaders of prominence to reassess their fears and stand up for their beliefs. And
not fear telling the people the word of God as they understand it.
