The World of Torah in Religious Zionism
I wanted to hear from the rabbi what he thinks about the state of the Torah world in religious Zionism?
Personally, I do not believe that true creativity can emerge from the intellectual and social ghetto that exists in the Haredi community – except for individuals who do not subject themselves to frameworks. In practice, despite the enormous number of yeshiva and kollel students, there is no significant original creativity, certainly not compared to the period 60-70 years ago, when Torah students were very few, but many created important and original works – such as the Chazon Ish, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, Rabbi Ovadia, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, and many more.
Despite this, the state of the religious Zionist Torah world is not encouraging. Few continue to study for years, and prolonged study is mostly intended for education, not for ‘research’ – something that affects the identity and abilities of those who remain to study. In addition, many places are geared towards studying Halacha for exams. Most of the older kollels in religious Zionism are Dayanut kollels, not Iyun kollels. In the younger generation – in most yeshivots, the focus is not clearly academic.
More broadly, in my opinion, the motivation for studying in Haredi yeshivot is self-realization – to become a great Torah scholar, whereas in religious Zionism the motivation is righteousness. And this is part of the problem, self-realization is a much stronger force for ordinary people, and much more suited to achieving scholarly achievements.
I would love to hear your opinion.
First, sorry for the late reply. For some reason, the question escaped my attention until now (which my dear editor Oren referred me to).
It seems to me that most of your words seem to be taken directly from things I wrote. Still, a few comments:
- There are many important innovations in the Haredi Torah world. Much more immeasurably and without comparison than 60-70 years ago. There is really no comparison (for the benefit of our time). Of course, the mass is doing its thing, and the number of innovators is very small, and it is still not worth embellishing reality and idealizing the past.
- In religious Zionism, the situation is the opposite. There is a minority of students who study over time, and I argued this in my post (column 34) here:
- https://mikyab.net/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%AA-%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%9A-%D7%91%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%97%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9%D7%94/
- Indeed, one of the most difficult problems is righteousness. This is also true for those who come to study out of righteousness and not to advance (the lack of an evil inclination is a serious and difficult problem. I hope that researchers will find a Viagra to increase the Yitzhar of honor, originality, and innovation).
A. Thank you for pointing that out. Admittedly, I did not find in the above column any reference to the situation in religious Zionism, but only to the excess of remaining in the ultra-Orthodox world, and the poor distribution of resources.
B. Could you introduce me to those many important “innovations”. I would be happy (truly). The relatively high-quality books that I know of from this world are books that have done systematic work on areas such as purity, and yet – I do not see this as a breakthrough, but rather as an additional exploration of familiar tools (not at all similar to Keter’s attempt to develop new tools).
C. In religious Zionism, it seems to me that we should divide them into two schematic groups: 1. In the ultra-Orthodox world, quite high percentages remain for years (up to the age of 30 ++), but the focus is indeed righteousness and therefore – the accumulation of knowledge, and we do not see any unique fruits of thinking. On the contrary, the basis is ultra-Orthodox and righteousness is detracting.
2. In the Hesder yeshivot, few remain for years, but (in some of them) there is a synthesis with other worlds, and a scholarship develops that is more connected to the world of thought, and to a modern way of thinking. In some places the product is very flawed, to say the least, in some it is still raw, and in some it is impressive. In any case, there is potential for significant advancement of the Torah. (Although the problems I mentioned in the question greatly cloud the ability to progress.)
There are many important innovations by the Schreiber brothers (Yosel and Bunim), for example. There are innovations by many young rabbis who deal with the virtues of the sermon and Talmudic methodology. And so on and so forth.
Indeed, there is a limitation in developing tools due to a narrow and limited education, and it is a shame.
[By the way, what groundbreaking innovations did you find in Rabbi Feinstein and Rabbi Auerbach? I really don't see the fundamental innovations created there. There are Torah innovations and there is common sense, which is also the case with many others and today]
I agree with everything else as stated.
Leave a Reply
Please login or Register to submit your answer
