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| Ad from PTI where R' Schneierson is a Shoel U'Meishiv |
I’m not going to comment on the substance of Rabbi Daniel Schneierson’s post on YWN. People can make their own judgments about the importance of chemistry between a dating couple. I will just say that a lot of what he says has merit - but I reject the idea that chemistry is not important.
What troubled me about his essay is the following offhand
comment which he puts into parentheses: Nowadays
no one really frum has a TV…
With this comment he has just wiped out of Orthodoxy most of
observant Jewry including many Charedim. (I don't know him personally but if he not Charedi - he sure sounds like it in this post.)
I am not going to debate the value of TV. I’ve discussed
that issue many times. Suffice it to say that many of the criticisms of the
right are true. But just like the internet, there is both good and bad in TV.
And just like the internet, it ought not be banned or treated like Chilul Shabbos
to own one as Rabbi Schneierson does.
The problems with TV do not begin and end with Charedim. Nor
even with Jews. There are many people who feel that TV is nothing more than a
vast wasteland. And that one could spend their time much more productively
without one. You don’t have to be a Charedi Jew to know that. Nor is it lost on decent people of all
religions that there is way too much immorality on TV. I’m not going to argue any
of that because it’s true.
But to make a blanket statement that nobody Frum has a TV
anymore (especially in a sort of humorous good natured tongue in cheek sort of way) proves just how isolated the fellow is… and how isolated he wants his community
to be.
Not because not owning a TV makes you isolated. But because identifying those who own one as not being Frum. It is no secret that in his circles - not interacting with non Frum Jews is an ideal they pursue. That’s why they try to isolate themselves from the rest of the world as much as possible. And it is why they reject some children from their schools. Children from homes that have a TV or the internet. They do not want to be ‘tainted’ by the ‘Goyishe’ values children from those homes bring to the school.
Not because not owning a TV makes you isolated. But because identifying those who own one as not being Frum. It is no secret that in his circles - not interacting with non Frum Jews is an ideal they pursue. That’s why they try to isolate themselves from the rest of the world as much as possible. And it is why they reject some children from their schools. Children from homes that have a TV or the internet. They do not want to be ‘tainted’ by the ‘Goyishe’ values children from those homes bring to the school.
This attitude is so arrogant and narrow minded that it
boggles the mind that one can even make a statement like that let alone believe
it… and by mentioning it in passing, he insinuates that we all already know
that… he is just reminding us of it.
This man is a Rebbe (Shoel U'Meishiv) in a Yeshiva. And he is teaching his
students to think of any Jew with a TV as not Frum. And he teaches it in the
most insidious way – in a semi humorous post as a foregone conclusion, without any
qualification.
This is the”my way or the highway” attitude of so many
Charedim. And the Mechanchim they produce make it very dangerous one. He is teaching intolerance
whether he realizes it or not. Owning a TV makes one not Frum and therefore a purposeful
sinner. One must not intermingle with purposeful sinners because they will influence you to sin.
I know he means well. He thinks by insinuating that Frum people don’t
own TVs it will reinforce the idea of just how bad owning a TV is. He believes that owning a TV is so dangerous to your Frumkeit that he subliminally
teaches you to consider TV owners as not observant. After all the definition
of being Frum has historically been whether one keeps Shabbos. According to Rabbi
Daniel Schneierson the new definition of being Frum is not owning a TV. He subconsciously
implants in the mind of those over which he has influence that owning a TV is
like Chilul Shabbos.
The fact that there are entire communities of Jews that own
TVs and that there are not insignificant numbers of moderate Charedim among them - doesn’t phase him. He probably writes them off as not Frum too.
I have no patience for people with small minds, no matter
how “Frum” they are or how noble their intentions are. I am sick of the mentality that sees Frum Jews defined in increasingly
narrow terms. But what makes me even angrier is that he influences so many
young people who come to him with a mind full of mush… to end up thinking just
like him.
He thinks TV is bad… and that a Frum home should not have a
TV? Fine. He is entitled to that opinion. But there are ways to get your message
across without de-legitimizing the majority of observant Jewry. Just because
you want to impress how terrible TVs on the minds of your students - does not
give you the right to look at other observant Jews as not observant.
Rabbi Schneierson could use a heavy dose of Mussar in how to
relate to fellow religious Jews or Jews in general. It is not by calling them not Frum.
