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| Rebbitzen Feige Twerski (Cong Beth Jehuda) |
No, this is not me speaking. It is Rebbetzin Faige Twerski, the wife of Rav Michel Twerski of Milwaukee who was interviewed by Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin in the spring edition of Ignite – NCSY’s teen magazine.
Rebbetzin Twerski is a sought after motivational speaker whose Charedi credentials are impeccable. Although the Twerski family is unique in the Charedi world in the sense that many if its most distinguished rabbis have pursued higher education and achieved great success as professionals, this does not detract form their core values as Chasidim.
However, to simply say
that Rebbetzin Twerski was just following in the Twerski tradition would be a mistake. Rebbetzin Twerski was obviously not born a Twerski. She married one. Her father
was a Vizhnitzer Chasid, a Rav and a Talmid Chacham raised in Romania; eventually ending up in
New York. She attended mainstream Charedi girls schools there. And neither her parents
nor her schools had any problem with her reading the great American classics, which are
now seen as unfit for Charedi eyes.
(As an aside, I found it a wonderful departure from the tradition of the Charedi - especially Chasidic world that her father actually taught his
daughters Gemarah.)
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| Rav Michel Twerski (Cong. Beth Jehuda) |
There is definitely a new world out there that has become so
insular, one wonders how anyone being raised in it will ever be able to function
in the real world.
That said, I realize that there are many Charedim that do
quite well in that world. It is not because they follow the ‘party line’ of
increased isolationism, but in spite of it. Many of those that do well actually
venture forth into that world despite the pressure to increasingly insulate
themselves from it. Those that have, found it not to be as evil as many of their Mechanchim (educators) have led them to believe.
This doesn’t mean
that there is no evil out there. Of course there is. We live in a divided culture
where about half the population subscribes to a philosophy where everything goes as long as you don’t force your views on others – or do anything
that harms others. A world bereft of many of the values religious people cherish.
But that leaves out the other half of the population that does have
those values. I cannot tell you how often I find a Charedi professional
expressing near surprise at how his non Jewish colleagues either share their values. And surprise - mutual respect between the often develops between them.
The reason for that surprise is because of how the ‘world
outside’ was always characterized by their Mechanchim as the antithesis of the
Torah. This if of course only a half truth.
Half truths are really lies if you think about it. Not that I blame
those Mechanchim for imparting such attitudes on to their students. That is similar to the
attitude imparted to them by their own Mechanchim. Which they have taken to a
higher level based on the increased immorality and instant availability of it they see in our day. In some ways I can’t blame
them. But insulation is not the answer. The fallout of that would be disastrous if that insulation weren’t ‘violated’ by the many that have chosen to venture into it - even if only for Parnassa reasons.
Of course Rebbetzin Twerski is ot the only one that has read
the classics. So too did the man that many Charedim believe was the
Gadol HaDor… a man who is considered to have transplanted the European Torah
world that was destroyed in the Holocaust onto our own American shores. An appellation with which I agree. There is not a doubt in my mind that the ‘Lakewood’
culture is what dominates the non Chasidic Charedi world today. That is Rav Aharon
Kotler’s doing - and his great legacy.
Rav Kotler had no issue reading Tolstoy. He still became the
Gadol he was. But when that was revealed by R’ Nosson Kamenetsky in his book
Making of a Gadol, all hell broke loose. As I understand it, his family objected strongly to that revelation saying that it detracted from his
religious purity as a Torah leader. That eventually resulted in the infamous
ban on his book. The message? Non Jewish literature is Treif.
The same thing is true about Rav Ahron Soloviechik’s grandfather, R’
Chaim . He was known to be a vehement opponent of college. So when
his oldest son was ‘set up’ with; eventually got engaged and married to woman
who also read the classics and freely quoted from them, the religious community
wondered how their great leader, R’ Chaim could have allowed it? He explained
that he was not against college because of the courses in great literature. He
was against college because of their anti religious influences. As long as his
future daughter in law was observant, he had no problem at all with her quoting from the great literary works she loved.
This is how things were then among the Gedolim. But today the Charedi world preaches that ‘eveything is assur’.
The only way it survives is by Charedim treading into that world often with a
fair amount of guilt, and then finding
out that things are not exactly as they were described.
The Charedi world will survive this trend and even
thrive. But is hearing the constant refrain from their Mechanchim that the world outside is entirely evil - and then venturing into it and finding out it isn’t - the healthiest way for them to do it? Wouldn’t the common sense approach of Rebbetzin Twerski, be a far better approach?
