The Culture War - Whose Morality is Truly Righteous?

Reform Rabbi and MK - Gilad Kariv (Wikipedia)

Once again we have the spectacle of yet another extremist disrupting the public order. This time it was a member of the Israeli K’nesset. No... not a Charedi member. A Reform member by the name of Gilad Kariv. Who is also a Reform rabbi. He used his immunity as an MK to sneak a Sefer Torah into the Kotel Plaza so that the monthly Rosh Chodesh group prayer service conducted by the Women of the Wall (WoW) could read from it – against the rules established by the Kotel rabbinic authority. Which is supported by Israeli law (if I understand correctly).

Does MK Kariv really think that this is what God wants him to do? Does he even care about what God wants? If he does, where does he get his information on that subject from?  A movement that rejects Halahca?!

Just like the head of his Reform movement, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, he was mislead by a faulty Jewish education. So I can’t blame him for his ignorance. But his provocation is his fault.  A provocation based on the erroneous view that egalitarianism is an across the board Jewish value. 

I don’t see much difference between MK Kariv and Charedi extremists who do the same thing – each for their own ideological reasons. In both cases they are provocateurs that want to destroy the status qou balance that has been in place since the earliest days of the state. (Or in the case of the Kotel since its recapture in 1967.)  

I’m sorry. No matter how much I try to see the other side of the issue, I just can’t. I see instead a culture war between the egalitarian spirit of the times and centuries old traditional religious values based on the Torah. No matter how sincere Orthodox Jewish feminists are about the newfound morality of egalitarianism, I just don’t see it as a value replacing the traditional values sacred to centuries of devout Jewry. 

The egalitarian spirit of modern day feminism is a humanistic value they consider more moral than centuries of religious tradition. Religious tradition, on the other hand, is considered just as moral today by the vast majority of observant Jewry as it has been throughout history.

I have in the past expressed my opposition to WoW. Many times. But the truth is that it is a complicated issue since they mix religious fervor with feminist fervor. But that is exactly the problem. You cannot always mix religious ideals with feminist ideals - each of which has different goals. Religious ideals by its very definition are eternal. Untainted by the new morality of the times. 

Egalitarianism instead values that new morality - considering it superior to a morality based on the ancient no longer relevant religious values of the past. They therefore reject any obstacle that gets in the way and does not produce the equal outcome demanded of that new morality. Regardless of whether that ‘obstacle’ is religious in nature or not.

I therefore totally reject the premise that anyone, should be able to pray as they wish- no matter how disruptive it is - as long as it technically does not violate Halacha. Halacha alone is not the only reason not to do it.

By the same token I am also opposed to Jews praying anywhere on the Temple Mount (Har HaBayis) even in those parts of it that are technically not considered holy.  Those who do so may fervently believe they are expressing  their Torah true yearning to pray in the holiest place on earth - which is technically permitted by Halacha even though the vast majority of Poskim that forbid it for other reasons. 

I believe a lot of the fervor in both cases has underlying (perhaps subliminal) motivations that are political in nature. Whether it is Religious Zionism in one case or feminism in the other.  

With respect to  WoW - at the end of he day, this is a culture war between religious tradition and the new morality of egalitarianism. The two are not compatible when taken to their ultimate extremes. 

I realize that my Orthodox Jewish friends on the left see things differently. They see no problem with letting people do whatever they want regardless of how upsetting it is to traditional values. Offering as an example that  not all religious traditional values that were once considered quite moral are accepted today - even by the most devout among us. Like slavery for instance. 

But the modern day feminists of Wow are not slaves yearning to be freed from bondage. They are free to do as they wish same as their male counterparts in all areas that do not touch upon the religious values that counter them.  When they cross that line, they are not unchaining their bonds. They are asserting their modern culturally moral values upon traditionally religious Jews and asking them to accept it as legitimate - despite centuries of rejection of other cultural values for traditional reasons. 

Who will win the cultural war? I hope that those of us who value tradition over those who value fleeting culture of the times - prevail. I believe that ultimately they will as they should.