The package consists of four essays by what Mishpacha describes
as its contributors: Rav Aharon Lopiansky, Rabbi Yisroel Sapirstein, Rav
Yisroel Reisman, and Rabbi Avrohom Neuberger. Each article is worth reading for
its unique insights.
First, as true as much of what Rav Lopiansky wrote is, his
essay left me disappointed.
He begins by expressing profound gratitude…
“to the American people for that freedom, which has indeed allowed us to pursue what we believe to be right,” (adding that the) “ideal of liberty is an extraordinary leap forward for humanity, and speaks volumes about those who established this wonderful country.”
He then proceeds to criticize the American ideal of freedom
itself. He describes it as a “negative freedom” because it rejects any
authority over one’s personal choices. His point is that Judaism views freedom
differently. Not as freedom from authority to do whatever we please, but as the
freedom to serve God, what he calls “positive freedom.”
While I understand the distinction he is making, the
negative spin he places on the very freedom for which he expresses such
gratitude makes American liberty sound more like a vice than a virtue. I found
that disappointing.
I had almost the opposite reaction to Rabbi Avrohom
Neuberger’s essay. His perspective is much closer to my own. He views the
American cultural Jew in a positive light. One can be proud to be an American
and use that identity to enhance one’s service of God. His prime example is an
icon of the Caredi world:
“That observation finds its fullest expression in the monumental life of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ztz”l. Rav Nosson Tzvi arrived in Eretz Yisrael at 14—a middle-American kid, through and through. Throughout his years in Eretz Yisrael, including three decades of near-anonymous toil in Yeshivas Mir, he never shed the personality traits of his upbringing. He remained, unapologetically, middle-American.
“And when he assumed the mantle of rosh yeshivah, he remade Yeshivas Mir in his own image: accepting and tolerant, warm and unguarded, emotionally honest and non-elitist.”
Rav Reisman offers his own observations about how Orthodox
Judaism in America evolved from its humble beginnings into what it is today:
American Jewish communities began before the Holocaust…(Early immigrants) came for the modernity and freedoms of America. The new arrivals, to a very large degree, joined the action. Yiddishkeit sank to terrible lows. Culturally, Yiddish was still the spoken language and Jews still wore suits and ties on Shabbos. But the observance was a mile wide and an inch deep…
Eventually, however, halachic observance became much more
serious, evolving into the Orthodox community we know today. Rav Reisman says
he is not entirely sure how that transformation occurred.
I think the answer is fairly obvious…
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