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| Extremist RW supporters of Trump storming the Capitol on Jan 6th (Bloomberg) |
I don’t know. Perhaps they are more alike than they seem. After all, they were both raised by the same parents and went to the same schools. But I can’t help feeling the differences are glaring based on what each of them at least focuses on.
R’ Aharon tends to he a ‘company man’. Meaning his focus is more about ‘Daas Torah’. Which is why it makes sense that he is a member of the Agudah’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. This attitude was illustrated when, after at first giving his approbation of Rabbi Natan Slifkin’s works reconciling science with Torah – he withdrew it after consulting with R’ Elyashiv. His explanation amounted to little more than ‘We have to listen to the Gedolim’. And that his previous views about the legitimacy of R’ Slifkin’s works were an error on his part and - according to R’ Elyashiv no longer considered legitimate. In other words he simply accepted it as Daas Torah.
I don’t know how his brother feels about it. But it wouldn’t surprise me either way. The point is that he does not focus at all on this subject - finding other issues far more compelling.
I mention all this in light of a R’ Emanuel’s recent column in Mishpacha Magazine. With which I heartily agree. I doubt his brother would ever address this issue– as important as it is. In fact he might even disagree with him - believing that ‘Daas Torah’ requires the strongest possible response when attacked by those that disagree.
Here is the pertinent excerpt from R' Emanuel’s column:
Although America’s extreme right and left are obviously poles apart, they share one characteristic: They cannot abide anything that challenges them. Those who disagree with them are subject to vitriol, maledictions, riots in the streets, and worse.
The January 6 Capitol riot because of the “stolen” election was the product of the far right.
The current demonization of the Supreme Court because of its abortion decision is a product of the far left. The Capitol riot that was apparently ready to take over the Congress and that threatened the lives of elected officials; the vicious personal attack on a Supreme Court Justice by the former Democratic presidential candidate in the aftermath of Roe; certain Democrats advocating — with foul-mouthed obscenities — the cancellation of Fourth of July celebrations.
We pray that these signs of disintegration are limited to the fringes, but the prescient lines of the famous Irish poet William Buter Yeats come to mind: “.…things fall apart, the center cannot hold; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity….” Written over a century ago, it is even more relevant today than in 1919. The very fabric holding contemporary society together is fraying — with consequences that raise the question if such a society is sustainable.
Yates words eerily echo those of Chazal (Avos 3:2). More about that later.
Rabbi Emanuel’s point is clear. The extremism of today is based on the ‘my way or the highway’ philosophy of ‘Me-ism’ that dominates the general culture.
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| Death threats against conservative Justice Kavanaugh (Catholic News) |
‘Me-ism’ is also reflective of how certain we are about our views. Whether religious or political. We have lost any semblance of listening to what the other guy says. We are absolutely convinced that what we have concluded is the truth to the exclusion of all else. What the other guy says is the opposite and by default a lie. Which must be countered and destroyed lest it somehow takes over and the resulting harm caused by its evil rules over us. That is why so many people on both the right and the left are becoming bolder and more violent in how they express dissent. Which on January 6th was helped along by a President whose rhetoric encouraged it.
This also helps to explain the sometimes deadly violence by extremists in Israel. Whether at the hands of the extreme right of Religious Zionism or the extreme right of the Charedi world. Their sense of moral outrage at their political or religious opponents has never been stronger, it seems. Which makes me wonder, what’s next? Is the world going to Hell in a handbasket? Is Judaism going to become so polarized that religious Jews with different Hashkafos will no longer be able to look at each other without contempt and even hatred?
Please do not misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with having strong political and religious views that one believes are ultimate truths. I certainly feel that way about many of my own political and religious views. Believing that the other guy is wrong is a corollary of that. (How can it not be?)
But at the same time, we must have enough humility to understand that there are some very smart people that disagree with you. And feel the same way you do about their views versus your own. What’s is missing from our world today is that humility which would make for respectful disagreement and debate. Dissent should never devolve into violence. When that happens civilizations crumble.
That is why January 6th happened. That’s why there were attempts on the life of a Supreme Court justice. That’s why someone from the Jerusalem faction physically attacked R’Aharon Lieb Steinman, ZTL.
Sure, in some cases the attackers are mentally unstable. But what motivates them to act is the ‘my or the highway’ attitude of the community from which they come.
Rabbi Feldman concludes with the following question - as do I.
Will the sensible middle of society summon the passionate intensity to push back the fringes that threaten to engulf us? Ponder Avos 3:2 (which he quotes earlier and says: Pray for stability in the ruling government, for without respect for it, man would swallow his neighbor alive.) - stay tuned. And pray hard.
* I have been informed by a close relative of Rabbi Emanuel Feldman that he showed this post to him. Rabbi Feldman offered that he is very close to his brother and would never publish anything he would not approve of. He in fact often passes his articles along to his brother to read before he publishes them. My apologies for any misunderstanding.
