 |
| Mike Huckabee and Rav Dov Landau |
The late founder of The Fellowship of Christians and Jews
(IFCJ), Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, was one of the earliest Orthodox rabbis to
do that. When he was discovered engaging in such outreach, he was immediately
ostracized by much of the Charedi world. He was asked not to return to the
daily Daf Yomi shiur at the Chicago Community Kollel (Lakewood), which he had
been attending regularly for quite some time. He tried to find other Daf Yomi
shiurim and was rebuffed there too. Until he found ours, which at the time was
led by Rabbi Yosef Bechoffer. It was with us that he finished Shas for the
first time.
But Daf Yomi shiurim were not the only places from which he was ostracized. He was seen as a pariah by many Charedi Avreichim, and if he showed up at one of their minyanim, quite a few of them walked out. The opinion of most Charedi rabbinic leaders at the time was that he was violating the spirit of Jewish law if not the law itself by honoring Evangelical preachers. And that he was facilitating missionary activity to the Jewish people. He wasn’t.
Instead, he built an organization that raised millions of
Christian dollars for Jewish causes, money willingly donated by Evangelicals—no
strings attached. Out of their sincere Bible-based belief that helping the
Jewish people was a religious requirement for their own benefit.
Charedi religious leaders considered that money ‘tainted’
and told their institutions not to accept any donations from the IFCJ. (Interestingly,
the head of one yeshiva - desperate for funds in order to stay open - approached
Rabbi Eckstein, who agreed to give him the needed funds if he would publicly
acknowledge where they came from. He refused and did not get the money.)
Fast forward to today. A couple of weeks ago, an Evangelical
preacher met with one of the Charedi world’s Gedolei HaDor, who
proceeded to call him one of the ‘righteous gentiles of the nations’ - U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. So,
like I said, it depends on who’s doing the honoring.
I often talk about the commonality of values between
religious Christians and Orthodox Jews. (I think it is fair to say that, with
respect to Protestant America, there are no more truly religious Christians
than Evangelicals. They are the ones totally focused on biblical teachings, and
that is what governs their values and lives.)
Which is why I often say that Orthodox Jews who do the same (focus
on biblical teachings that govern our values and lives) and Evangelical
Christians have shared values. When I say that, I almost immediately get
pushback from some of my co-religionists, who argue that Judaism and
Christianity are two separate religions and should not be lumped together in
any way.
But that is pure nonsense. There is a huge difference
between theology and values. At the theological level they are correct. The two
faith traditions are incompatible with each other. But the values that are
learned from a common Bible are the same. I would argue very strongly that in
the arena of values, religious Christians and Orthodox Jews have more in common
than Orthodox Jews do with heterodox and secular Jews.
A recent article in a Christian publication made this point
very clear. Consider the following comment made by the author, Rick Platerer:
The Christian message… is that the meaning of life is love,
and therefore duty first to God, and then to neighbor. It is first of all the
duty of Christians to fulfill those duties…
The message of Judaism is the same. Duty first to God.
Religious people understand that religion is about obligations, not rights. Rights
- whether your own or your neighbor’s - come second.
This article demonstrates more similarities. In particular
the concern about the damage smartphones are causing to young people and the
fact that the culture in which we live is no longer supportive of religious
values, and in some cases hostile to them. (Where have I heard THAT before?!)
Platerer discusses the views of Clare Morell, a fellow at
the Ethics and Public Policy Center and director of its Technology and Human
Flourishing Project. She believes that smartphones are so damaging that they
need to be removed entirely from use among children and teenagers.
The many ways in which smartphones can damage a child’s mind
and life are discussed in that article and can be read there. Suffice it to say
that her views are identical to those of across the board rabbinic leadership.
One Chasidic group just issued a ban against smartphone use for children, because of the serious damage that includes
messaging on social media platforms that is in direct opposition to religious
values. The influence and addictive power of social media on the young mind
cannot be overstated. Nor can the damage done by it.
If I’m honest, I have to admit that I don’t entirely get it.
I do not particularly care about social media platforms and use some of them (like
WhatsApp) strictly for communications with friends and family. I rarely respond
to a message right away unless it’s of vital importance. In other words, I just
don’t get the addiction. I use a smartphone the way it was intended to be used.
As a tool for an improved quality of life (such as Waze or my banking app).
But I guess the mind of a teenager works differently, and
addiction to social media is both rampant and destructive among the young. I
have to take the word of the experts on this one. So, in theory, I suppose the
optimal solution is to remove smartphones entirely from anyone under 18.
But the genie is out of the bottle. It is a practical
impossibility to do that. We cannot move the clock back. Bans only tend to make
matters worse. Forbidden fruit and all that.
How to solve this increasingly damaging problem is a subject
way beyond my pay grade. But it helps to know that Orthodox rabbinic leaders
are not the only ones who feel this way. It’s good to know that the entire
world of religious people in both Christianity and Judaism, are on the same
page.
Maybe we ought to work together to fix this thing.
